Quote:
Originally Posted by Shinny
Smokey,
Your post about GVWR/GCWR above is the easiest I've ever seen or heard it explained.
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Thanx for the flowers, Shinny. It's really quite simple.
1. Weigh the wet and loaded tow vehicle.
2. Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded tow vehicle from the GCWR of the tow vehicle to get the max trailer weight you can tow without being overloaded over the GCWR of the tow vehicle.
3. Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded tow vehicle from the GVWR of the tow vehicle to get the max hitch weight you can have without being overloaded over the GVWR of the tow vehicle.
4. Ford says you should never exceed either the GCWR or the GVWR of the tow vehicle. If you get on a CAT scale with the wet and loaded rig and the scale shows you have exceeded either the GVWR or the GCWR, then you're overloaded.
The GVWR is usually the limiter on an SRW pickup. IOW, you will usually bump up against the GVWR before you get close to the GCWR with a fifth wheel or gooseneck trailer.
Trying to guess the trailer weight usually results in underestimating the weight of the trailer. Best is to use the GVWR of the trailer as the wet and loaded weight. Then use 18 percent of the GVWR of the gooseneck or 5er trailer to determine approximate hitch weight. But realize that using a percent is still a WAG. Actual percentage varies from about 16 percent to over 20 percent. And some gooseneck trailers have a hitch weight of around 24 percent. So the only sure way to tell your wet and loaded weight is to get on the CAT scale and find our for sure.
Example: My '99.5 F-250 PSD has a GVWR of 8,800 pounds and a GCWR of 20,000 pounds. Without the trailer tied on, my wet and loaded tow vehicle weighs around 8,000 pounds. My wet and loaded 5er weighs almost 8,000 pounds (Trailer GVWR is 7,980). So my gross combined weight of an 8,000 pound truck towing an 8,000 pound trailer is 15,960 pounds per the CAT scale. I don't have anywhere near the 20,000 pounds gross combined weight I'm allowed, so I'm nowhere near overloaded, right?
Wrong. The CAT scale shows I'm grossing a bit less than 16,000 pounds, but I have 9,620 pounds on the 4 truck tires plus another 6,340 pounds on the trailer tires. Oops! Overloaded over the GVWR of the tow vehicle, even though I'm grossing only 15,960 pounds.
So for towing a fifth wheel trailer, my limit is the GVWR of the tow vehicle. The GCWR is meaningless because I can't get there with a 5er without exceeding the GVWR of the tow vehicle.
