Quote:
Originally Posted by DMW
How close are you to your max drive axle weight with your trailer hooked OlympicFox? I'm sneaking up on mine a bit closer than I'd like on my Silverado 3500. If I scaled 24% of trailer weight rating, I'd be overweight on my drive axle. I was only 21% of scaled gross trailer weight as loaded on my heaviest weigh so far.
Dave
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Dave (DMW), excellent question. The short answer is that we hover right around the Ram's SRW axle rating; slightly over or under the rear axle rating depending on details of how we're loaded and what might be in the truck's cross-bed tool box.
The first time we weighed this trailer was shortly after we bought it in October 2022 in Arizona. We only had a few hours to transfer everything from our previous rig to the "new" trailer before the store closed and they locked the gate, so the priority was getting everything stuffed into the 3 basement compartments first, then into the cabin of the trailer. Yes, the Cameo has 3 basement compartments; the usual one, the forward one with the genset and a third under the rear living room.
We had a chance to weigh the rig a few days later in Oregon. The truck weighed 5,600/7,450/13,050# (Front/Rear/Total). The trailer's pin weight was 3,330 (25%). Even so, the Ram's air suspension kept the truck level. Obviously, we were a bit overweight, so we worked on that after we got home.
Part of the weight distribution issue is that our Cameo is a bit nose heavy with the 2nd AC, W/D & genset, 5th Airborne pin box and a heavy 14" full residential mattress. Exacerbating the balance is the lack of living room and dining furniture when we bought it. Lots of work to do.
New solid cherry wood furniture, sofa, recliners, etc. arrived in the Spring, and we rearranged things, rebuilt the trailer suspension, upgraded the tires from cheap Chinese ST235/80-16 to LT265/75R16 commercial truck tires rated for 112 MPH vs 75 MPH. At one point, we had the pin weight down to 2,800# which got the Ram's rear axle GVW down to 6,880#, but that was without my wife's clothes and shoes.
Once it was fully loaded for last year's trip, our pin weight was down to 23.1% from 25%, and we were only 180# over sticker on the rear axle with full fuel tanks.
We've researched the details on our 2019 Ram 3500 SRW; with our HO Cummins, Aisin transmission and air suspension, we have the same axle size as the DRW 3500, which has a 9,000# manufacturer rating. The weak link in our GAWR was a pair of OEM tires rated for 3,748# (7,496# total on the rear axle) vs. 4 @ 3,085# (12,340#) and a different spring pack of the DRW. Since the OEM air suspension was keeping the truck level, we weren't concerned about the truck itself, just the marginal OEM tires. So, we upgraded to LT295/70R18 129R tires, giving us 4,079# (8,158# total) capacity; a comfortable margin over OEM. Besides the additional capacity, the rugged all-terrain BF Goodrich T/A KO2 tires are noticeably stiffer construction which has improved the handling, albeit with a stiffer ride. FWIW, the larger tires look really good without looking like we altered the truck.
We will move a couple of other items from the genset compartment to the rear basement which should improve the situation even more. So, while we may occasionally be just slightly over our rear GAWR, the amount is is minimal now, and no longer an issue we are concerned about.
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