Picked up the trailer from the winter storage barn yesterday, first stop was the CAT scale. Numbers weren't as bad as I thought they'd be but weren't great either. Just wanted to share since I have both a truck and a trailer with normally low payload capacities.
The Vehicles
2013 Ram 1500, Crew Cab, Big Horn, 4x4, 3.21 gears
- Payload sticker says 1268 lbs.
- GVWR is 6800 lbs.
- GCWR is 12,100 lbs.
- Front and Rear GAWR is 3900 lbs.
- I had my wife, three kids (in three heavy car seats), and myself in the truck. Otherwise mostly empty with a full tank of gas
2015 Jayco X23B
- Payload sticker says 4205 lbs shipped from factory and 747 lbs cargo carrying capacity.
- Jayco website says GVWR is 4950 lbs.
- Only things missing from the trailer are clothes, food, and toiletries. We remove very little for winter storage.
- No water at all in the trailer (still winterized). We never travel with water in fresh water tank but do keep water heater full normally.
The Weights
Normal travel condition (Equalizer WD hitch fully hooked up):
Steer - 3380
Drive - 3500
Trailer - 4060
Total - 10940
With WD bars unhooked from trailer but still attached to hitch:
Steer - 3180
Drive - 3800
Trailer - 3960
Total - 10940
Truck Only
Steer - 3480
Drive - 2880
Total - 6360
Conclusions
Good -
- Trailer weighs 4580 lbs (10940 total weight - 6360 truck only weight). Less then I thought.
- Tongue weight (6980 truck weight with no WD and trailer attached - 6360 truck only weight) is 620 lbs, 13.5% of trailer weight.
- With no WD hitch trailer removes 300 lbs from steer axle. Equalizer WD hitch is returning 200 lbs to steer axle with the remaining 100 lbs going to the trailer axle. I'd say my hitch is set up correctly, agreed?
- With WD we're 400 lbs under the rear GAWR. During a trip we don't carry much but we will have a few things in the bed - 5 camp chairs (three of which are child sized), fire-grill set-up, and maybe a few pairs of shoes and some other small things. Heaviest thing back there is a medium sized cooler full of beverages and ice. Probably still under our rear GAWR.
Not so good -
- With WD hooked up, we are 80lbs over the trucks GVWR. Not too bad but we're missing a lot of stuff we would normally have for a trip.
- We're 1160 lbs under the GCWR, not so bad but again missing a lot of stuff. Hard to say though if the missing supplies would put us over or not. Either way we're real close.
Notes
- I may stop carrying water in the water heater, it takes an extra minute to fill it but its not bad. Should save about 66 lbs.
- I'd like to take the time during an actual trip to weigh and see where we really are, I'll look online for scale locations on the route of our first trip this year.
- No issues towing really, the Hemi Ram's have more then enough power and with the Equalizer we've never had an issue with sway.
- Tried the CAT scale app for my phone but it didn't work. Was a bit nervous especially when the attendant starting asking a bunch of questions. Once I told her I'd never done this before and wasn't a professional driver she very nicely guided me through the process.
- Before anyone says it a 2500 or 3500 is not in the budget, if it was I'd already have one
Anyone have any thoughts I may have missed?
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