MACS wrote:Not sure if you understand "payload" Danm... that's how much sh*t you can put in your truck bed and be cool. A camper is not "payload", my friend. It's towing capacity. Maybe I'm a lot drunk, here... but you have 3 numbers to be concerned with.
Towing capacity - The weight your truck can safely PULL.
Payload - the weight your truck can safely HAUL (in your truck bed).
Tongue weight - The weight a fully loaded trailer exerts on your hitch. Should not exceed 10-15% of your tow weight.
Tongue weight or pin weight if talking 5th wheel/gooseneck is part of payload. Payload is occupants + cargo + tongue weight. Quickly overloads half ton ratings, though my old farm trucks were all half tons with gooseneck hitches in the beds and I'd assume grossly overloaded. But they got the job done.
If I've got a car on a trailer, I prefer to have it as far frontwards as possible to reduce sway which increases tongue weight/payload. If running a lighter duty truck I've gotta straddle the trailer axles and find the right balance. 3/4 ton truck don't give a chit, just run it up to the front and won't bottom out. I've accidentally ended up too far back on the trailer with my old suburban and anything over 50mph I'd be swaying all over. Had to pull over and move up a bit more.
If you're running gooseneck/fifth wheel you're gonna see 20% pin weight which is in the middle of the bed, and part of payload cap.
My next camper I want to be a fifth wheel toy hauler. Not because I have a toy to haul, but because the modern floorplans of travel trailers don't have a cavity down the center where we can put our bikes and grils and other stuff, and a toy hauler gives us that plus a separate room for the boy. But they're heavy cause they're made to hold a side by side or other ATV motorcycles etc. So pretty much anything that I want is gonna be 10k lbs plus. Which puts 2k on the pin, in the bed, as payload.