Quote:
Originally Posted by T and C
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When I carried an overhead camper on my 96 F-150, I always made sure that the combined weight bearing rating of my two rear tires added up to more than the gross rear axle weight rating, and that all 4 tires together totalled up to more weight bearing capacity than the GVWR. That meant that I had to buy pricier tires, but I never had any tire trouble in years of use...and that is worth something.
On the other hand, back in the 1960's I split a rim while carrying an overhead camper on an F-100. The weight? I never gave it a thought.  Obviously not a good idea to just guess and go.
Older and wiser Tom |
Good post Tom.
When I was younger and stupider ... well, maybe not stupider but un-educated, I tended to believe what people told me.
And so the guy I bought my first pick-up from said all I needed to do was a add a leaf to the rear springs so the camper wouldn't cause it to sag so. Two years later, a bearing blew and one of the rear axle+wheels started sliding out of the rear axle housing. Luckily I was travelling slowly and was flagged down before total disaster. Now I realize that the rear axle's GAWR was almost certainly exceeded. Probably the tire's weight rating and the truck's GVWR as well!
So when I bought our Elkmont, I took it to the scales as soon as I could. Only to discover that the tongue weight was 17% of the trailer's GVW! And since my truck's payload was only 1100# (another surprise), I was again over the truck's GVWR.
After a year of fooling around with the WDH and moving stuff in the trailer, and re-weighing, I gave up and bought my current truck with ~2050# payload.
Yes, weigh often. CAT scales are cheap and reliable and all over the place.
cat-scale-locator
And know your TV's and trailer's GAWR, GVWR and tire weight ratings.
And watch out for the snake oil salesman.