Calling all knowledgeable in weight specs! Confused as heck

[Tom]

And to follow up on Gary’s comment, that is why we always suggest using a value calculated from GVWR.

And recommend that the rig be weighed 'fully loaded' on a scale to determine actual weights.

 

[joester]

From everything I'm seeing, the new truck I'm looking at with the HDPP will give me plenty of payload.
Empty trailer weight 5600#, tongue 580#.
Thank you.

 

[JayArr]

I can't believe no one has posted the video. A dozen people told me about the tongue weight ratio but until I saw this video it never really sunk in how incredibly important it is to get that 12-13% ratio correct!

Take a look at this:

 

[Rob&Deryl]

From everything I'm seeing, the new truck I'm looking at with the HDPP will give me plenty of payload.
Empty trailer weight 5600#, tongue 580#.
Thank you.

Empty weight is not useful. It will get you in trouble. Your tongue weight must be at least 10% of LOADED weight which for most of us is a lot closer to GVWR than empty.

 

[Larry N.]

Empty trailer weight 5600#, tongue 580#.

As Rob says, that's based on a (probably inaccurate) empty weight, so that 580# tongue weight is fictitious. It's 10% of max allowable (GVWR) as a MINIMUM for the tongue weight - personally, I prefer 12% to 13%, since this is a MAJOR factor in keeping that trailer stable behind you.

As to the video Jay linked above, while they do a nice job of showing the dangerous conditions, what happens with too little tongue weight, I don't know where they come up with 5% -- that's misleading, and is actually danger with a capital DANGER, for anything much under 10%, for some rig combinations 10% might be a little too light.

Another nice thing about that video is, if you look carefully, you can see they are moving the load in each trailer fore and aft to create and lose the stability, showing that it's not just weight, but weight AND balance (how much weight forward).

 

[joester]

As Rob says, that's based on a (probably inaccurate) empty weight, so that 580# tongue weight is fictitious. It's 10% of max allowable (GVWR) as a MINIMUM for the tongue weight - personally, I prefer 12% to 13%, since this is a MAJOR factor in keeping that trailer stable behind you.

As to the video Jay linked above, while they do a nice job of showing the dangerous conditions, what happens with too little tongue weight, I don't know where they come up with 5% -- that's misleading, and is actually danger with a capital DANGER, for anything much under 10%, for some rig combinations 10% might be a little too light.

Another nice thing about that video is, if you look carefully, you can see they are moving the load in each trailer fore and aft to create and lose the stability, showing that it's not just weight, but weight AND balance (how much weight forward).

all good info to know - after 24 years of owning a class C RV, different info to learn about travel trailers.
thank you.

 

[Ex-Calif]

As to the video Jay linked above, while they do a nice job of showing the dangerous conditions, what happens with too little tongue weight, I don't know where they come up with 5% -- that's misleading, and is actually danger with a capital DANGER, for anything much under 10%, for some rig combinations 10% might be a little too light.

I think it's interpretation. The 5-10% demo label is clearly in red font indicating it's not a good situation.

All the 10-15% demo's are in green font.

I see how it can be interpreted that 5-10% is OK but that's not how I view the video.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Some types of trailers may be OK at 5-10% tongue weight, e.g. low utility trailers, short tongue models like a tow dolly, etc. Speed and aerodynamics are a factor too. RV travel trailers, however, are almost always downright dangerous much under 10% and behave much better at 12% or more. Much of the stability & handling advantage of 5W or gooseneck trailers comes from the ability to use much higher pin weights.