Denny, thanks for the advice. After reading some of the other articles/ posts including yours here, I plan on doing all of that. Next weekend I will be around a CAT scale so I'm going to get my truck weighed and next is a Hellwig sway bar and then Air ride air bags. Thanks to everyone for the advice.

 

After you get weighed and look for a hitch make sure that it will place the pin weight over or ahead of the axle, I've read where the Anderson hitch may have a problem with that. I would also spend the money and get a on board compressor for your bags, it's nice to be able to regulate the air when on roads with a lot of dips.

Lets move on to the trailers you have looked at, I'm sure all the eye candy has impressed you and your wife but you have to look past that and get down to the meat of the trailer. Look closely at the frame and the way it's made especially the welding. Next look at what they are offering for brakes and suspension. I will guaranty that anything on the lot will have any upgrades on brakes or suspension. Look at the options available for the trailer and if they don't offer a way to upgrade it have the figures in hand to do it your self and use it as a bargaining point. If it has standard spring suspension which is fine have the price for Mor-Ryde SRE 4000 with the cross arms. Also have a price for disk brakes or HD drum brakes (I recommend disk). It will probably come with junk tires so bump them on that to. Remember you are buying new so you are in the driver's seat not the dealer or sales person. When we ordered our trailer we figured out what we wanted and sent a email to all the dealers in a 5 state area, we ordered one from a dealer 250 miles away, 14 years later we still have the same trailer and have no plans to get a new one and we live in it 7 to 8 months a year and put a lot of miles on it, it's way over 100K so far (I stopped taking miles a long time ago).

Do your homework before you buy and you will be a lot happier in the long run.

Denny

 

Actually, it's not misleading at all, when you think about it. When the trailer is built at the manufacturer's production line and the empty weight of a particular trailer is given, they also specify what the cargo capacity is...OR...tell you what the GVWR is, in which case you can calculate the difference between empty and Gross weight and come up with a Cargo Carrying Capacity. They have no way of predicting how an individual will load the purchased trailer or how much of the CCC will be used of the available capacity. All they have to go by is what the trailer weighs when empty and how much pin weight it has when empty. That is why the GVWR numbers should ALWAYS be used when calculating pin weight of a prospective trailer for purchase. And even then, you still don't know whether you are going to encounter 20% of the GVWR or maybe as high as 25% of the GVWR....so you should ALWAYS calculate for worst case scenario.....unless you maybe know someone with the exact same trailer and they have run it across a Certified scale. So what I'm trying to say here is that the trailer manufacturers are only capable of giving you certain numbers because there are way too many variables to give real world numbers.

And BTW, I can feel your pain on this as I had to get rid of my F250 Diesel earlier this year to get something that would tow my Toy Hauler safely and legally. I went overboard and bought a Dually, when a SRW 1Ton would have worked, but I wanted the additional stability (I tow a 34 1/2' tow behind, not a 5ver and it has a 13K GVWR), and the additional payload capacity in case I decide to move up to a large 5ver some day.

 

RV Puller- Thank you sir. More great ideas and bargaining points. I live in central Texas and was thinking about getting quotes from the closest 5 dealers but I have no problem driving out of state to pick one up if the deal is right. I had not previously thought about upgrades to the trailer itself. I will definitely look into that as well.

xrated- you as well make some good points. I was just basing everything off of 15% of the trailers GVWR. I didn't realize it was closer to 20 and sometimes as high as 25%. I will keep this truck for a few years but will definitely be going 1 ton down the road and possibly do as you get a dually. My wife is against that but once I tell her with that I can get a bigger trailer she might come around.

 

Lot's of good info in this thread. While I had no intentions of ever having a 5'er I now find myself (wife actually) considering one. I come from a slide-in camper background so I understand how dry weights work, etc but know nothing about how 5'ers work until recently. Since I have a 350 I've got enough of payload for a 30ish ft 5'er on a SRW so I'm looking at the smallest ones out there which has been an interesting adventure so far. My only regret is I didn't order the GN or 5'er prep package.

 

I've had 4 5th wheels and they all were at 20% or under on the pin. Our present trailer has 3200 on the pin and that's where it stays unless I have water in the holding tanks but my truck had a 13900 gvw so it's never overloaded

Denny

 

With this being my first trailer I'm sure that I will be skeptical about everything that goes into it and since we'll probably not ever be boondocking at least not for a while I dont see any reason to have the tanks full. Looking forward to actually getting the trailer and getting out in nature.

 

The first time we went out in our first slide in camper in 78 we stayed in a state park and emptied the fresh water tank in one day now we boondock for 2 weeks on our 100 gallon tank. Stay close to home the first time just in case

Denny

 

Oh I'm sure my first time out will be very interesting. However, I'm looking forward to it.

 

GoldenDomer wrote:
Yea, the 15% number is mostly associated with the max tongue weight for a tow behind. The numbers I see tossed around is a minimum of 10% and up to about 15%.

5ver numbers that I see frequently are between 20 and 25%. I'm sure there are some out there that might be under the 20% and I know for fact that there are some out there in the 23-24% of GVWR of the trailer.

My tow behind Toy Hauler gave me fits because when I got all of the "stuff" loaded in the garage, along with 30 gallons of fuel in the tank...which is behind the rear axles, I was right on the ragged edge of just barely 10% on the tongue weight...and was having issues with pretty bad trailer sway. I knew I needed to add weight to the front, but it's not like you can put the motorcycles in the front bedroom or the roll around tool box up there. I had to get pretty creative to keep adding weight to the front and by the time I got done, my F250 payload capacity was overloaded. I also have a 42 gallon diesel transfer pump in the bed of the truck and a cross rail tool box. It was very enlightening for me because when I bought the T.H. and towed it home, it towed like a dream, but of course...it was empty. Anyway, I wish you well on your search for the right trailer for your needs and wants and hopefully you've got enough good info to make the right decision and enjoy your new camping lifestyle. I'm new to the camping thing also....my T.H. is the first camping type trailer I've ever owned and we are getting ready to retire and use it as much as we can.

 

Thank you sir for the well wishes. Me and the wife is really looking forward to getting our first and hitting the road. Hopefully in February at the Austin RV expo I will be able to make a deal on one.

 

I had the same problem. I ended up backing my side-by-side ATV into the trailer. That put the ATV's engine closer to the trailer's axles and put more weight on the tongue. If I fill the fresh water tank I may have to put the ATV in the other way. We'll see. Having a tongue scale sure it nice. No guessing!

With the trailer completely empty my tongue weight is a bit over 1,400 lbs.

 

Jim....keeping the fresh water tank full is one of the things I did to add some weight to the front also....106 gallons. I also have a 35 lb dumbbell plate under my baggage slide, 2 60 lb sand tubes, and went with two 6 volt batteries instead of the one 12v battery. Now I've got a whopping 11.5% on the tongue. My empty tongue weight when I brought it home was advertised at 1340 lb.....on an empty trailer that weighs 9K.....so yeah, it towed home great.