Do you count the weight of the hitch as part of the pin weight? It's installed in the truck, but you can't tow without it, and 200 lbs isn't irrelevant.
Do you count the weight of the hitch as part of the pin weight?
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No, because the trailer's pin wt plus axle wt =trailer weight. The hitch is not part of the trailer.
The hitch wt in the box does add to the truck GVW and is also part of the GCW.
Klenger ( NOT BFL13!), Hitch is not part of the pin weight but you should add it to the pin when figuring the load you're putting in the truck.
And to the OP (Sue.T) I'm sorry, but some of your responses come across as a little bit "touchy".
Going back to your original post, what are you really trying to say? You have said 20% is not a "rule" so what is there to prove?
As I said in my original response, it is a starting point for folks to take a stab at what load they will put on their truck. I also said there is no substitute for real weights.
We've now seen numbers from 15.2% to 27%. Seems to me that 20% really is a good place to start.
So what are we really arguing about? I guess I missed the point
* This post was
edited 03/09/08 07:32pm by kaydeejay *
Keith J, Retired from GM Engineering
2005 GMC Sierra 2500HD SLE 2WD/CC/SB/DA.
1999 Sunnybrook 27RKFS Fiver
Bilsteins, Line-X, Westin steps, Prodigy, Retrax, 16K Superglide, 5th-Airborne pin-box, Multi-vex mirrors.
BFL13, Hitch is not part of the pin weight but you should add it to the pin when figuring the load you're putting in the truck.
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I did mention the hitch adds to the truck GVW and the GCW.
BFL13 wrote: BFL13, Hitch is not part of the pin weight but you should add it to the pin when figuring the load you're putting in the truck.
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I did mention the hitch adds to the truck GVW and the GCW.
OOOPs, my apologies, yes, you covered it. I meant to respond to Klenger!
I'll edit my post!
Sue, the more weight you can put on your pin the more stable becomes the trailer. There is no hard rule to this, you have to experiment with your rig to see what seems to work for your setup. You have to realize there are strength limitations on your fiver’s frame so you just cannot load everything up front. I am just guessing, but I think you are looking for a new fifth that will work with your current truck. So the pin weight becomes a deciding factor. I just went through the same process and ended up with something a little smaller in length than I would have liked but it fits my truck and as I have not yet been over a scale with it I cannot tell you what the weight ratios are. My old trailer ran between 12 to 15 percent on the pin, bumpy ride at 12%, nice ride at 15% and keep the speed down. If I had to tow in a high wind I filled the fresh water tank and much of that weight was on the pin but I never went over a scale with a full tank of water. I guess it pushed my forward weight up to 18 to 20 percent, and would tow this way in bad winds.
No, we're not debating what will fit our truck. We know what will work with our truck. BUT when people do post here asking "can I tow this", or "how much can I tow", etc, the responses often refer to calculating pin weight based on 20 or 25 percent of GVWR or loaded weight, and some even use dry weight. Then I saw the post that referred to the 20% rule ... so being someone that lives their life around statistics and spreadsheets, I thought it might be interesting to gather some real world stats rather than pie-in-the-sky guesstimates.
That's all. Don't read more into it than that. Just curiousity. And, so far, it appears the 20% is a really good "average" and would be reasonable to use.
And, if people see what loaded weights are on units, they can compare to advertised weights and perhaps realize that they can't just add 500 lbs and that's enough ... with real info people might realize that it's easy to add more than a thousand pounds to a unit's dry weight.
Since you are all into statistics if you look at the average of the responses you will still find that 20% of a fiver's GVWR is a real good point to use for all base line calculations. There is no substitute for actual weights, but barring that 20% is pretty darn close to know within a reasonable doubt your truck can or cannot handle the fifth wheel in question.
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