He's actually right Monty. I've never seen 15% and I may never see it. I did see 13% with my garage completely full once though...

 

Pulled by SRW trucks too and with today's numbers, still within specs(ratings).

 

Completely agree!! Happy camping!

 

I concur as well buddy...

 

It's NOT a generalization at all. We are talking camping trailers in this discussion, NOT Toy Haulers. I am fully aware of the effect of how tongue weight or in the case of 5vers...pin weight changes with a Toy Hauler. My T.H, a tow behind weighs 9K empty with a 1350 lb tongue weight (15 %). When loaded with all the stuff in the back that I needed for a motorcycle track day weekend, that tongue weight went to 10% and I had sway issues. I ended up adding weight to the front of the T.H. and got it back to around 11.5 %

 

Nice deflection to take the focus away from your incorrect blanket statement.

 

Can you believe in the image below my F250 is at 10,200lbs? This is a light trailer compared to a 5er. What is that 10,000 lbs rating for anyway, for registration purposes to save the owner some coin on tonnage? For some odd reason the ladies at the tag agency decided my truck should be registered at 15,000 lbs. Maybe because it's registered as a commercial truck I don't know I didn't argue just paid my $120 and was on my way. I'm not over the registered weight, axles are within GAWR and way under GCVWR. I have to problem stopping, no issues accelerating faster than most small cars and the only thing saying I'm overweight is that little sticker on the door.

I've passed many of F150's/SUV's pulling a trailer similar in length to mine, they were all over the road trying to keep their trailer in their own lane. I wouldn't be concerned until reaching the upper limits on the axle ratings.

 

Exactly right. The 250 is de-rated from Ford to fit a different market segment. The previous generation 250 and SRW 350 could be ordered so that they were 100% physically identical and yet the GVWR and rear GAWR were vastly reduced for the 250. It's a game on paper and not a physical capacity. As Scott and dirthawg pointed out, GAWR and tire ratings are what's important. (And not the BS 250 rear GAWR that are made up to match the de-rated 250 GVWR) The rest are manipulated for marketing and warranty purposes.

 

My Grand Design Momentum's (350m) published pin weight was reasonably accurate. My truck ready to tow had about 3,200 lbs to work with on payload. My published pin was 2,900ish pounds. With all my stuff on board, 1/2 tank fresh, empty garage i squeeze under the rear GAWR by a hundred pounds or so (the tires have an additional 1,000lbs of rated capacity).

 

Chad, mine changed less than 60# from the manufacturer's listed pin weight when I was loaded and ready for travel but with the garage still empty. It does go down as the garage gets loaded though (which isn't every trip). Every hundred pounds in the back drops the pin about ten pounds.

 

I ran my 08 F250 (door cert 10K) for 5 years with a 12K registration since I was sitting at 11,040 on the truck

 

You truly just don't get it do you? It's OK, I understand.

 

This is how I was seeing it. Firstly, you stated that a 15% pin weight will never be seen. That, in itself, is the definition of a blanket statement. Secondly, I have a 5th wheel that has 15% or less pin weight depending on loading. That's where the incorrect part comes into play. I know I'm awfully slow and I'm sure I'm wrong so I'll let you educate me at this point. Thanks so much for your help!

 

I'll relate my analogy in Electrical terms. First, the discussion was campers, not T.H......where tongue or pin weights can change a lot due to the loading in the rear. So in terms of electrical stuff....let's say we are discussing a typical household branch circuit in your HOUSE. 15A is typical for the breaker/circuit capacity. Now lets talk a small MACHINE SHOP circuit...say a 50A circuit. If I were to tell you that the circuit in the house was pulling a full load, you would think...15A on that circuit. If I were to tell you the machine shop circuit that I mentioned above was pulling a full load....you might think....50A. BUT, if I didn't clarify which circuit I was referring to and I said that the circuit was pulling 50 amps....and you were thinking household circuit.....you would be surprised.

So the point I'm making is that in my statement, we were talking camping trailers (HOUSEHOLD circuit), not Toy Haulers (MACHINE SHOP circuit). The qualifier was already there as a Household (Camper)....vs. ....a Machine Shop (Toy Hauler).....and in that scenario of Camper Type Trailers......20% is a pretty common number for pin weight....not 15% or as one guy stated..13%.

 

Wait, are we talking fuses or breakers? I just put a penny between the poles and all seems to work real good...

You said 5th wheel pin weight. I have a 5th wheel and stated my pin weight. I guess you just failed to clarify your statement very well but in the end it really doesn't matter. Read on to see why... Without anything in my garage, my pin weight is still around 15%. So, I guess the whole TH is only lower on the pin because of garage loading doesn't quite fly now does it? Axle placement is the difference, not RV type. Some 5vers have them more forward like mine and therefor have a lower pin weight. Some are more rearward and have a higher weight. Loading my garage to it's max only changes my pin about 250#. On a 21k GVWR RV, that certainly doesn't make the pin change from 20 to 13%. To further expand on TH physics, many manufacturers build them with intentionally heavy pins to compensate for the load that will be added to the garage and yet my brand did not. This is why blanket statements are not useful.

Another blanket statement common in RV threads is that dry published pin weight will change dramatically when loaded for travel. Mine changed exactly 60#. Not quite the drastic change that ALWAYS happens according to the forum "experts." So again, mine is the exception and not the rule. Exceptions are out there though...

When I shopped my RV, I found a couple other brands had an almost identical floorplan to mine. Everything about them was the same... except for axle placement. So, while my pin goes from about 2550 to 2800# based on garage loading, those other brands can push 3500-4k on the pin. I chose mine because I wanted to stay with a SRW truck. Non TH 5th wheels also vary in axle placement and there are some out there with 15% pin weights. 20% is much more common but if you take the time to search, like I did, you will find one that is lighter and stays lighter when loaded and ready for travel. (If staying SRW is important to you...)