Need help with towing capacity

[Harry]

Brand new at RVing and am stumped at computing my towing capacity. I have looked at past posts on this subject only to get more confused. Our dream is to purchase the BH3585RL but I'm not sure if my current truck will handle it safely and within regs. I know it will pull it but my concern is pin weight and want to be safe. My truck is a 2012 Ford King Ranch F250 6.7 diesel S/B 4WD with trailer tow pkg. & 20" tires. (side note to jimtoo Yes it's a Ford. I work for & will retire from a Ford dealer so choice was obvious, but I loved the barfin' cat anyway.)

Truck specs. Ford towing Capacity
GVWR 10,000 lbs 16100 lbs.
Front GAWR 5940 lbs Payload weight 3290 lbs
Rear GAWR 6100 lbs

BH3585RL specs.
Dry 12480 lbs
Gvwr 15000 lbs
Hitch 2350 Lbs
Had truck weighed with just the hitch in bed & full tank of fuel.
Total weight 7920
Front axle 4800
Rear axle 3120
I wont be hualing any toys other than the wifes sewing machines and fabric. I know I will have to upgrade my 15K Reese hitch to an 18K and maybe install air shocks but am considering a Titan fuel tank that would add 200 lbs to the truck weight. Will you guys look at this and give me your opinion?

.

 

[TravelTiger]

Harry, have you looked at this site? It helped me understand better. http://fifthwheelst.com/

For comparison, our ElkRidge weighs 12640 loaded (GVWR for trailer 14,348). 2800 is pin weight added to rear truck axle, 9840 is trailer axle weight. If I plug these numbers into the calculator with your truck, it will be overloaded.

 

[ncc1701e]

Brand new at RVing and am stumped at computing my towing capacity. I have looked at past posts on this subject only to get more confused. Our dream is to purchase the BH3585RL but I'm not sure if my current truck will handle it safely and within regs. I know it will pull it but my concern is pin weight and want to be safe. My truck is a 2012 Ford King Ranch F250 6.7 diesel S/B 4WD with trailer tow pkg. & 20" tires. (side note to jimtoo Yes it's a Ford. I work for & will retire from a Ford dealer so choice was obvious, but I loved the barfin' cat anyway.)

Truck specs. Ford towing Capacity
GVWR 10,000 lbs 16100 lbs.
Front GAWR 5940 lbs Payload weight 3290 lbs
Rear GAWR 6100 lbs

BH3585RL specs.
Dry 12480 lbs
Gvwr 15000 lbs
Hitch 2350 Lbs
Had truck weighed with just the hitch in bed & full tank of fuel.
Total weight 7920
Front axle 4800
Rear axle 3120
I wont be hualing any toys other than the wifes sewing machines and fabric. I know I will have to upgrade my 15K Reese hitch to an 18K and maybe install air shocks but am considering a Titan fuel tank that would add 200 lbs to the truck weight. Will you guys look at this and give me your opinion?

.

Harry, I'm attaching a simple spreadsheet. Just plug-in the numbers you have and the sheet will do some calculations for you. I'm driving exactly the same truck you are. My signature still shows my other truck. New one is a F250 Ranch King 4x4 SRW Crew Cab. I think yo will find that with your numbers you are going to be somewhere between 91% and 96% of the truck's capacity.

Tom

 

[aatauses]

It looks like you will be close---another thing to check is your total combined weight to see where that ccomes out.
al

 

[Speedy]

Take it to the scales and get real numbers with all that you would be taking with you. I compared my CAT scale numbers with the ones from the spread sheet and it had me overloaded by 1860 lbs versus scale number of 140 over. From there you can use the published gross numbers for the Landmark and see where you sit.

 

[mmomega]

Truck specs. Ford towing Capacity
GVWR 10,000 lbs 16100 lbs.
Front GAWR 5940 lbs Payload weight 3290 lbs
Rear GAWR 6100 lbs

BH3585RL specs.
Dry 12480 lbs
Gvwr 15000 lbs
Hitch 2350 Lbs
Had truck weighed with just the hitch in bed & full tank of fuel.
Total weight 7920
Front axle 4800
Rear axle 3120
I wont be hualing any toys other than the wifes sewing machines and fabric. I know I will have to upgrade my 15K Reese hitch to an 18K and maybe install air shocks but am considering a Titan fuel tank that would add 200 lbs to the truck weight. Will you guys look at this and give me your opinion?

.

Legally... you'll be pushing it. 630 lbs is not a whole lot of leeway.
Technically... you'll be fine if you are worried about breaking something. The "actual" GAWR of your axle is 9,750 lbs as per the company that makes it. I believe Ford underrates them because they know people are going to push those limits as close as possible.

You still have to worry about close to overloaded brakes and being very close to the number on the door, your GVWR. That's the thing you don't want to get caught on.
Your new hitch will be a few lbs more, not much. + the weight of anything you put in the storage basement.....chairs, a grill, folding table, hoses, etc, etc. All of that adds to your pin weight so keep it in mind. You could add another 150-200lbs here.
Also... if you look inside the door frame of the BigHorn there should be a yellow sticker with the actual weight of the trailer after it was completed with all it's options. My trailer was about 450 lbs more different from the spec weight and the actual weight.

 

[Birchwood]

The specs you provided put your truck at overload.Hitch (2350lbs) + Truck(7920lbs)= 10270 lbs .If you use the GVWR stamped on
the door of your truck and don't exceed that value your truck won't break and if you are involved in an accident you won't be
accused of being overloaded.

 

[danemayer]

FYI, our Rushmore pin weight spec is 2620 but actual has been measured at 3500. The difference is because we're loaded with gear and have a lot of optional equipment (including generator and washer/dryer in the front of the rig).

 

[Harry]

Thank you all for taking the time to help me with this. It has been a real eye opener. We now plan on looking for a lighter Heartland unit. And Tom, thank you for the spreadsheet. That's classy. I will use that as we look at more 5th wheels.