Hi there rv family, I have a question about my truck towing the 39' toy hauler were looking at. My trucks payload is 3537, and me my wife and dog are around 400 lbs. The toy hauler we are looking at is the xlr nitro 37dk5, it has a dry weight of 12,229 lbs, hitch weight is 2465, payload of you hauler is 4,326 lbs. Gvwr of toy hauler is 16,465. Do you think my truck will handle this well? I have a dirtbike and plan to get a side by side in the future. I am 100% that I will not overload the trailer, my weight of toys would be around 1750 tops. The dealer said i would be good and said i could even put an auxiliary tank for more fuel. I'm not sure, what do you think? Zach
The very first thing you need to do is find the payload capacity sticker on the driver side door post...it will tell you the payload capacity of YOUR truck....unless of course you are referring to your payload capacity (3537 lb) from that sticker. You always want to use the GVWR of the trailer to calculate your pin weight, which would be GVWR x 20-25%. So if you do that, 3537 lb x 20% = 3293 or 3300 lbs. Then calculate it at 25% which is 3537 x 25% = 4116 lbs. Let's assume best case scenario of 20%, although Toy Haulers are very often pin heavy when unloaded, and go with the 3300 lbs. A traditional 5ver hitch is going to be in the 175 lb range, so now we are at 3475 lbs. Add in you and your wife and dog (400 lbs), now you are at 3875 lbs....on a payload capacity of 3537. That puts you about 340 lbs over capacity. And keep in mind, that 400 lbs of you, your wife, and dog may suddenly grow with a truck bed tool box, firewood, spare fuel, a guest for the trip, etc, etc. So anything and everything that goes either in the truck or in the bed of the truck, counts against your available payload.
Now let's look at worst case scenario of 25% pin weight....which may never be the case, but certainly worth looking at. GVWR x 25% = 4116 lbs. Add in that 175 lb hitch and you are at 4291...or 4300 lbs. Add in the 400 lbs of you, your wife, and dog..400 lbs and now you're at 4700 lb..on a truck with a payload of 3537 = 1163 lbs or so overloaded.
The bottom line is that you are needing a truck with more payload capacity, or a smaller trailer. Many folks on these type forums have different opinions on this, so I'm sure someone....or many ones....will come along and offer their opinions to. It is never a good idea to over the manufacture's rated capacities.....any or all of them...payload, GVWR, GCVWR, RAWR, FAWR, Tire load capacity, etc. Normally with the kind of potential weight you will be hauling, you are in need of a Dually. If that's not an option, then a smaller trailer would be in your best interest for safety and ability to tow, stop, etc without having issues.
