The tongue weight (pin weight for 5th wheel) that your truck can handle depends primarily on the amount of payload your specific truck has.
Look on the driver’s side door pillar for the yellow/black/white tire and loading sticker. You will see a line on it that states ‘the combined weight of occupants and cargo should not exceed…..’ This figure is your specific vehicle’s payload.Your payload is used up by the following:
You, any passengers in the truck, any cargo in the cab of the truck, any cargo in the bed of the truck, the hitch.
Whatever is left over is what you have to accommodate the pin weight of the 5th wheel (or tongue weight of the travel trailer).
For example: If your sticker’s payload is 2500 lbs we will deduct you (200 lbs), the wife (125 lbs), the dog (50 lbs), tools and other misc. (100 lbs), the hitch (125 lbs.). This totals up to 600 lbs.
2500 (original payload) – 600 = 1900 lbs.
This is what you have left over to carry the pin weight of the 5th wheel. To determine a particular 5th wheel’s typical pin weight, use 20% of that trailer’s GVWR. Do not go by a published brochure or website pin weight as this will be based on a totally empty trailer.
So, if the 5th wheel you are looking at has a GVWR of 13000 pounds, that equates to a likely pin weight 2600 lbs – putting you over your payload capacity in this example by 700 lbs.
Do the math above substituting your data and see where you stand
