individual wheel wieght

can anyone give me some individual wheel weights for a 5th wheel. loaded or unloaded. lm,bighorn,big country. will be a great help thanks

It will be highly dependent on the model, how much stuff is loaded into it and how that stuff is organized within the rig. However, a general rule of thumb is that a 16,000 GVWR rig (a larger Bighorn or Big Country, or smaller Landmark) will probably have in the low 3,000 lb. range on each of the four wheels when fully loaded. Let's say between about 3,000 to 3,300.

Not sure if that's what you are looking for, but it's a generally good place to start. Larger Landmarks (i.e. most of them) will probably be closer to the 3,500 lb. per wheel range when fully loaded.

On my 3650RL Big Country the fully loaded weight (food, clothes, etc. plus 1/3 tank fresh water, and full propane tanks) per tire varied between 2400lbs and 3200lbs. The kitchen slide (off door) side wheel weights were greater than the door side.

2017 bighorn fb. full timing, trying figure out about how much wt on each tire for air press and if I need to upgrade to 17.5 tires. already have upgraded 8000 axles and brakes

You probably have Sailun S637 tires from the factory. They are rated at 3750 pounds at 110 PSI. Rather than worrying about what each tire position weighs, most folks just run all the tires at 110 PSI and call it a day.

We had a front bath Big Country with a 16000 GVWR and ran right at that max. The front bath models have much more trailer in front of the axles than behind which translates to a higher pin weight. You'll probably be pushing 4,000 on the pin, leaving around 12k on the four tires.

You could certainly upgrade to 17.5's for piece of mind, but it wouldn't be totally necessary. Might get on the road for a while then have the rig weighed to get a better idea of where to go.

Kathi-27 said:

2017 bighorn fb. full timing, trying figure out about how much wt on each tire for air press and if I need to upgrade to 17.5 tires. already have upgraded 8000 axles and brakes

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Hi Kathi,

Until you have an opportunity to get actual individual wheel weights, all you can do is estimate and leave yourself a safety margin. On most rigs, if you assume 20% of the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) rests on the hitch, the remaining 80% sits on the wheels.

So if you have a coach with GVWR of 16,000, that would be about 3,200 lbs on the hitch and about 12,800 lbs on the wheels. That's about 3,200 lbs on each wheel, if you assume the weight is evenly distributed.

Let's stay with that assumption for a moment. 16" Load Range G tires like the Goodyear G614 and Sailun S637 have a load rating of 3,750 lbs when inflated to 110 psi. So that would give you a 550 lbs safety margin. That's about a 17% safety margin (550/3,200).

That's a number of assumptions. 1) You're not overloaded, weighing more than GVWR. 2) 20% of the GVWR is on the hitch. 3) The remaining weight is evenly distributed on the 4 wheels.

The big problem is even distribution. It never is even. The first time I had individual wheel weights done, one wheel weighed 2,500. Another weighed 3,450. The heavy wheel had a 6% safety margin which could easily be consumed by losing a little air pressure.

To provide a 20% safety margin on the one wheel weighing in at 3,450, I would need a tire with load capacity of 4,130 lbs.

Since then I've rebalanced loads inside the coach and at a weigh-in 2 years later, all wheels were running between 3,000 and 3,200. With those weights, I could have stayed with 16" Goodyear G614 tires and had about 17% safety margin, as long as I continued to manage weight distribution.

Instead, at 4 years/40,000 miles I replaced the wheels and tires with 17.5" Goodyear G114 tires. At 105 psi, I now have a load capacity of 4,180 lbs on each wheel, which gives me more than a 25% safety margin.

Hope this helps.

Btw,

I felt it was time to replace my Goodyear G614 tires at 4 years/40,000 miles. They still had a fair amount of tread, but we tow through snow in the mountains and I didn't want the tread to get too shallow.

I was agonizing over whether to upgrade to 17.5" G114s because of the extra cost. I decided to upgrade and planned to order them as soon as we got back to Tyler, TX. Didn't quite make it to Tyler. One of the tires threw off its tread about 300 miles short of Tyler. As the tread unzipped, it took out the fender and j-wrap on that side. $550 later we had a replacement tire and after returning to Tyler, we had over $2,000 of body and paint work done to repair the damage. Fortunately, Goodyear paid the entire bill.

But for what it's worth, I stopped agonizing over the decision to upgrade. I never want to have another tire failure and I feel that the upgrade will help me avoid another failure.

My 3450 TS Big Country has one around 3200, others run in the high 2000 pounds.

My 3010RE has 3000 lbs on the rear set and 2900 on the front set of tires. This is fully loaded without fresh water. All four were individually weighed at the Goshen and Los Vegas national rallies. They were surprised how well balanced my fifth wheel is. Within 50 lbs side to side. We wish we could carry fresh water at times though. Adding seven or eight thousand pound axles does not allow you to carry additional weight do to the frame not being rated for more weight.

thanks for all the response's. they did help me get some idea where I should be. the ones that had there's weighed what was the difference left to right. I figure the off door side will weigh more with the frig and pantry full of food. was really concerned about this with full timing and having more food and stuff on board on the left side. hard to move stuff to the right.

My heaviest was the left front. (see my previous post)

thanks for the info. that's what I thought it would be. will probably try to sell my wheels and tires and upgrade to 17.5. with full timing have more stuff and will be close to max gvw for 16 inch tires. only been out 2 times on short trips. no problems but going to colo. in the late summer. going for a short trip in july. will stop and weigh at truck stop scales. already upgraded to 8000 axles.

Kathi-27 said:

. . . going to colo. in the late summer.

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We have a very active Heartland Owner's Club (HOC) here in Colorado and an HOC Rally in September.

Let us know when you will be in the state . . . you might just run in to one (or more) of us during your visit!

thanks john d for the invite. will be there the 1st week of sept only