A few months ago I had mentioned I was leaning toward a Pull-Rite Superlite hitch because of it’s light weight. I was concerned that the truck could become overloaded if I went with one of the traditional hitches which weigh over 200 pounds. The Superlite hitch tips the scale at around 60 pounds. Well, this is the long, convoluted story of which hitch eventually ended up in my truck.
One of the things I keep reading about and seeing in various RV-related Youtube videos is the concept of truck payload. Most modern trucks can literally pull nearly every RV on the market but the largest difference between the trucks is how much weight they can carry. Each truck has a maximum weight, an empty weight (often called the curb weight), and a payload weight. Payload weight is all that extra “stuff” that can be put in a truck up to the maximum gross weight. That extra “stuff” includes the driver and passengers, the fuel, tools, extra fuel tanks, generators, the hitch, and the extra weight that any trailer that is connected puts on the hitch. (A lot of truck manufactures include a 150 pound driver and all fuel as part of the curb weight.) The maximum weight for a truck is set based on the design specifications for the particular model and drives the strength (and weight) of various components: the frame, the suspension, the engine, the brakes and tires (how much weight – truck and trailer – can the vehicle safely stop), etc.
I’m assuming a rule of thumb that 20% of the max RV weight will be on the hitch; with the RV I’m getting, that will be 3,000 pounds. The RAM 3500 I bought has a single rear wheel (as opposed to a dual rear wheel design) and has a 3900 pound payload. The dually configuration would add close to an additional 1,500 pounds of payload capacity. With a 3900 pound payload and an estimated 3,000 pound hitch weight, that will leave me only 900 pounds to “play” with.
That was one of the reasons I had initially planned on going with the PullRite Ultralite hitch as it only weights about 60 pounds. Let’s add up some of the other weights I plan on including. There’s my wife (150 pounds), an extra fuel tank (400 pounds when full), generator (140 pounds with extra 5 gallon fuel tank), 40 pound propane tank for the Blackstone grill, 100 pounds of tools, and the 60 pound hitch. Adding all of that up, that gives me about 890 pounds which leaves me a cushion of about 10 pounds.
While driving to the dealer to pick up the RV, I kept getting calls from them seemingly in a panic about which hitch I was ordering. They had the one I wanted in stock but they were strongly recommending I get a different one, that it was stronger and better. The Superlite hitch was rated for 20,000 pounds and with an RV weight of 15,000 pounds there was plenty of reserve. The Super 5th hitch they wanted me to get (I heard them say) was only about 70 or so pounds so that was barely within my payload limits and it had a rating of 24,000 pounds. So they put it in the truck when I arrived and check me out on its operation. I stayed around for a couple of days to check out the RV and how to hook up and drive it around and then left. I got home uneventfully and start digging into the manuals and reading all the limitations.
One thing I wasn’t expecting was the increased RV max weight. I had ordered the factory installed suspension and axel upgrade (to include disc brakes) based on so many reports of problems with the other standard equipment. It surprised me when I learned that the gross weight is now 18,000 pounds versus 15,000 pounds I was expecting. Now I understand why the dealer was insisting I upgrade to the stronger hitch. Another surprise: when I start checking the specifications on the hitch itself, I find its weight is 150 pounds, not the 70 or so I was expecting. The dealer was apparently trying to tell me the new hitch weighed 70 pounds MORE, not just 70 pounds. So, assuming the 20% hitch weight (3,600 pounds) and the 150 pounds for the hitch, I’m up to 3,750 pounds for the RV payload weight which gives me 150 pounds for everything else! Obviously this will not (safely) work. I should have purchased a dual rear wheel truck but I really didn’t want one of those. So….
How do I get the payload back? I feel like a pilot again trying to keep the plane under its maximum gross weight and to make sure the loads are properly balanced. The easiest way is to not load the RV so full that the hitch weight gets over 3,000 pounds which means trying to keep the RV weight under 15,000 pounds. Storage locations are limited anyway and we don’t have room to “take everything” so we’ll have to take only what we really need. I’m having a full solar package installed soon which will add some weight and what we have loaded now for our maiden voyage seems to be everything we need for long-term living. The only way to be sure of our weights is to find a CAT scale and get accurate weights once we get all of the solar equipment installed. I should be able to make that trip to the scales around the end of January 2021. At that point we’ll be ready for full-time living in the RV and our trip to Alaska later in 2021.