Does anyone know the individual component weight ratings for the SD? The door sticker gives only gross GVWR and front and rear GAWR. What I'm looking for is more detail. Front axle, front spring, rear axle, rear spring, etc. And what is the GCWR for this F350? I've searched and cannot get a straight answer.

I just went across the CAT scales and learned that my drive axle is over-loaded by 360 lbs. I expected that because I know these toy haulers are designed to load a lot of weight in the back and therefore relieve pressure on the pin. Also, my trailer weight is 13,740 with half fluids which I think will put me a little over GCWR when loaded.

I know I have a trailer that would be easily accommodated by a dually but I want to figure out how to load this thing and be under the max for the SRW.

 

Here ya go, I attached a spec sheet.

Can be found here:

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas.../techspec.html

 

According to the book I got from the dealer, your truck should be perfectly fine up to 14000lbs hanging off the bumper, 15800 on a 5th wheel or goose... Front axle rating 6000lbs, rear axle rating 7280lbs... GCWR is 23500lbs... Hope this helps.

 

Epic,

Unfortunately, I think you will find that once you load the toys and gear in the trailer and load the truck with all passengers, that you will be overloaded. The toys in the back will not relieve much weight from the pin at all. Remember, that the rated max 5th wheel capacity is 15,800lbs with a GCWR of 23,500lbs. That only leaves you with about 2k lbs for toys and gear.... sounds like a alot, but it disappears fast (for me 2 motorcycles without any other gear are 1700lbs).

Best bet is to load up completely with everything and hit the scales again and then you can evaluate the situation a little better in terms of weight distribution, etc.

My $0.02

 

The charts listed on the above website do not appear to be current.
In mid August the DRW was changed to a 22,500 pound 5th wheel capacity along with an increase to 13,300 GVRW and I believe a 17K hitch rating.

Epic - what you are expierencing is exactly why I now have a DRW.

FYI - when you go back to the CAT scale with your trailer you will be able to weigh the two truck axles and the trailer axles for 3 weights. Go to the back of the yard, drop the trailer and get a "re-weigh" of just teh truck. Cost is 0 to a couple of bucks.

This will give you your pin weight. Or you could buy a pin weight scale for about $100 (75 for mine on evilbay).

 

Epic....

Your results from your trip to the CATS scale are about what I expected after we talked the other day. My Big Horn fiver weighs 13050 pounds ready to camp and it is 4 feet shorter. I am 1400 pounds under the 23500 GCVWR. My pin weight is just over 2400 pounds. It appears your pin weight is about 700 pounds more than mine. You are going to be at the edge of the ratings envelope no matter what you do here. Was your truck full of fuel when you weighed the rig. If you load heavy in the back garage to cantilever some pin weight off the truck, the increase in overall weight pushes you towards GCVWR. It looks like you only have 700 pounds left there now. I am skeptical you will get enough weight cantilevered off the pin with only 700 pounds to get down to rated weight. With all that said, with careful loading, you will get close to being within all specs other than GVWR. You will not be anywhere near alone out there towing overweight like this. I see 250/2500 series trucks towing these big toy haulers every weekend. They get down the road just fine. They may be overloaded but they still go down the road. Only you know the risk you are willing to take. Be safe my friend

Merry Christmas

 

What is the point of the GVWR when the GAWR combined equal greater than that of the GVWR I.E. if you have a front axle rating of 6000 and rear of 7000..that gives you 13k..not the 11500 that the trucks GVWR says. Why would the GVWR not be 13k?

 

Trying to nail down exactly how much weight you can tow, what the truck is officially rated for and why is tough to answer, mostly the why part.

Folks always used to say, the max combined weight is dictated by tires and brakes on an SD or HD truck.

If I were you (Epic) I would just throw on some airbags, confirm tire and wheel ratings, and hit the road. (controversial advice)

There is a gentleman that goes by "StanleyZ" in the 6.4 forum that used to tow his 5er with a beefed up F250/7.3. He generally has a lot of good advice on how to beef up your existing platform, and gives good solid info on many things as well. I would ask him a few questions if I were you.

 

Very good advice. Usually if the truck isn't sagging and looking overloaded, the DOT or whatever you have down there will leave you alone. In the same breath, drive with caution and use extreme common sense, as I'm sure Epic do anyway...........

 

Epic, is yours a 250 or 350?

 

The wheel/tire capacity also effects the GVWR as on my F-350 XLT 4X2, SB, CC,SRW I had to upgrade from 17" wheel/tires to 18" to get the GVWR increased from 10,800 to 11,200 Lbs.

 

The combined axle ratings of any vehicle should exceed the GVWR. There are several reasons for that. Loads can not always be evenly distributed thus requiring heavier axle capacities than you would think the GVWR would dictate. They also have to allow for the possibility of mounted equipment like snow plows.

Epic, as to your potential overloading issue, I would say you have you have 2 options. I don't see any reason why you have any problems with just adding airbags and trying to move some weight around on the trailer to help with that pin weight issue. The other option if you could really call it an option would be to upgrade to a DRW truck.

 

After towing a toy hauler for a year and a half I have found that you don't really move stuff around to adjust the weight. Once you pack the garage the garage is packed.
My garage is only 10' though.

My pin weight varies on average from 2300 to 3000 pounds. I adjusted the airbags to compensate (on my GMC 2500).

 

I re-read my first post . I was certainly not trying to rain on Epic's parade. I pulled the Big Horn at 12000 pounds for many miles with the 04 F250. I was very comfortable pulling it. I was a tad more over than what Epic... is posting. I would put air bags on it to control the small amount of sag and be careful how I loaded it. Drive on...

Merry Christmas

 

Hey everyone, thanks for your comments. It's great to have so many skilled drivers to help. For some back ground, I have towed recreational and travel trailers for 20 years but always as a bumper pull. Most of the time I have been under limits but sometimes I have not been. I'm not saying I'm proud of overloading, just that occasionally it happens and I do everything to compensate on the weak points.

I'm going to bear my towing soul here and confess being overweight again. There is no way I can pull this trailer without being over somewhere if I want to load it up completely. I can stay within the trailer's capacities easily, but I'm going to have to do some serious balancing to get some weight off the truck. Here's my weights (with approximately half fluids) so far:



You can see with the trailer mostly empty, I'm already over on the drive axle and gvwr. Fortunately, proper back-loading of the trailer will create a fulcrum over the trailer axles and reduce the weight over the truck axles, pin weight and hopefully gvwr. I'm hoping that when the ATV's are loaded, the truck ratings will be in check.

Bottom line, the GCWR will be over by about 1,200 lbs. Then when I add another 800 lbs of fluids, well, it's a ton over. I'm not too worried about the overall weight, mostly about the rear axle and rear tires. That's where the vulnerability will be. You can see the mitigation strategy for each situation. As some have said, with a combination of load balancing, delaying filling fluids, monitoring tire pressures and temps closely, at least I'll know if things are getting out of control or not.

Notice by the way, how my truck now weighs 8660 by itself. That includes 50 gallons of ULSD, the B&W hitch and me. And, the 60 miles I have towed like this is really amazing. So stable and confident. One-handed and effortless.

I won't know the loaded weights until I take that first trip. I plan to load up, run over the scales and update this spreadsheet to see where the numbers are. I'll do this with enough time to make adjustments before I commit the family to the road.