RobWNY We won't discuss the downhill or helper forklift used in that commercial that were conveniently edited out, or the fact that the space shuttle unloaded is a lot lighter than one would think. I saw the numbers for lifting it in the museum.

I agree, axle loads are important. Weight the truck and start there. Try to have the truck setup as close to tow as possible as that will be a good baseline. I know my setup is off a little as I recently discovered the hitch is slightly rear of axle centerline which pulls weight off the steer axle like a bumper pull. I can correct this as the 5er hitch has settings. Even with the slight setup mishap (previous dealer tech could not read i guess) I am still under axle all the way around.

I agree..

There's a lot of numbers related to having a "safe" tow vehicle / trailer combination. Hitch ratings, tire ratings, axle ratings...it's like taking a college class when you start from complete ignorance (like I did).

This conversation leads me to ask interested members to critique--and even author, additional "chapters" in the Ratings series (posted in the Reference Material channel).

The idea of the series was to provide a forum member with concise, short documents that summarize threads like this one so we don't have to repeat (over and over and over again) the same information. In other words, when a newb comes here and asks, "Can I tow x with y?" the first place we point them is the series and they should be able to tell us the answer. Teach a man to fish...

There are many on this forum who are passionate about this topic. Feel free to PM me if you're interested in helping with editing the existing Rating series or if there's a topic not discussed (like 5vr hitches as I'm not very knowledgeable) that you'd be willing to tackle. Please know that any document posted in the Rating series will not go against the letter or intent of GD's guidance for this channel. (See channel header for that guidance.)

Another option is members can send me links to videos or text that already exists that covers a topic of interest. I know there's a lot on the internet already...but if not short and concise at the "newbie" level we might need to edit or simplify the information.

Bottom line--let me know if interested (by PM).

Howard

Tried my best to keep this from happening. Thread is closed and posts were deleted.

Howard (in moderator mode)