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Location: Oak Ridge, NC | I was doing some research today on what my truck could tow and found out 11400lbs. I want a full living quarters trailer. What do I need to be focusing on to stay under that weight? All aluminum? Should I go from a 3 horse to a 2 horse? Guidance please trailer gurus? |
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Location: Idaho | Small living quarters haul with no water and keep everything as light as possible. What kind of truck do you have? |
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Location: Oak Ridge, NC | I have a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel short bed. I have been looking at full living quarters trailers with a 10 ft short wall with a slide. I am guessing I need to start looking at all aluminum 2 horse with a 10 foot short wall. I still want a 8 ft wide trailer. |
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New User
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Location: Okmulgee, OK | Rojo: I'm afraid you will have to do the math on this one. Just add the dry weight of the trailer + horses + water + all your "stuff" and stay conservatively below this maximum. You do not want to work at or near this maximum for extended periods of time. |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Missouri | In my opinion, I don't think you have enough truck for that. I had a 3 horse 10' LQ 4 Star trailer, it weighted 9600 empty. Once loaded for camping I was within 1500 lbs GVW of my 2000 F350 dually. |
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Regular
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Location: suffolk | I just bought a Kiefer all Aluminum 3H slant with 8ft SW LQ, and the weight was around 8000LBS. I'm pulling this with my F250 TD.
Edited by Color01 2014-03-09 6:08 AM
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Expert
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Location: Vermont | Originally written by Color01 on 2014-03-09 6:06 AM
I just bought a Kiefer all Aluminum 3H slant with 8ft SW LQ, and the weight was around 8000LBS. I'm pulling this with my F250 TD. Around?...load it up and weight it...
Edited by PaulChristenson 2014-03-09 12:32 PM
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| Yes, but what if you can't "load it up and weight it" because you don't have the trailer yet?!? this is the situation I'm in. I want to order a trailer, but have to just trust that the manufacturer is truthful on weight since on one in a 8 hour radius has anything even close to what I want. How truthful are they?!? That is the question.... |
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Location: Oak Ridge, NC | That is what I am looking for. Who has what out there that weighs 10000 pounds or less with a full living quarters? I don't want to waste my time driving and looking for things that I know starting out I can't pull. Will I be able to find a 3 horse full living quarters trailer that is all alum? |
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Regular
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| My 3 horse Sundowner 8' wide with 6' SW. LQ weighed about 7800 pounds empty. We used to have a Tracer 3 horse 7.5 wide with a 12' LQ and mid tack (28' on the floor) that weighed about 10,000 pounds empty. My Cimarron 3 horse 8' wide with a 14' SW is about 11,000 with water but no horses. |
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Location: Oak Ridge, NC | My ideal would be a 3 horse with a 10 ft short wall 8 ft wide. If I look for one that is all alum. will I be safe and still be under 10000lbs? Or should I look for a 2 horse? |
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Regular
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Location: The Land of Ahs | DO NOT TRUST DEALERS!! I am in the middle of a horrible situation because I trusted what a dealer assured me was the weight of a trailer. I bought and took delivery on the trailer, and found out it weighs way more than he said, weight would leave me only 1500 lbs for 2 horses, people,, water, hay, gear for a long weekend. No way. So, I have a trailer I can't use and need to sell,, and NO trailer to get to my competitions which start in a month. I am leery of any trailer I can not look at myself now and weigh for myself, which greatly limits the selection. Can hardly believe this has happened but it did. |
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Location: Okmulgee, OK | |
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New User
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Location: Okmulgee, OK | If you find a trailer you like and the weight is not stamped on the trailer, contact the manufacturer and the interior shop. They will know the exact weight of the rig in question. If this is still in question take it to the local truck scales. Don't just assume you will find an 8 wide 10 ft 2 horse that your rig can safely handle. Do the math. |
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Location: Northern Utah | I agree, You will need to weigh the trailer. And to some extent, you will have to trust the Manufactures to give some guide lines of what their trailers weigh.Looking at aluminum only doesn't solve the problem. Some aluminum trails weigh as much as steel because the beef up the aluminum for strength.Options like slides add weight. Onboard Generator, mangers, hay racks, awning, all add weight. Start talking to some manufactures about their dry weights, especially if they have in house LQ builds. If they don't take their empty dry weight and then call the LQ company that you would prefer and ask what their weights add. You can start to get close.Remember. Its not just that your trailer is rated to pull 11,400, But you also need to consider how much weight your truck is capable of carrying on the hitch. Basically the weight you put on the Gooseneck Hitch. A 3/4 ton truck like a Dodge 2500, will pull way more than it's bed can carry. LQ are heavy on the pin weight since all the LQ weight is in front of the trailer axles. So they have a higher pin weight than a Non-LQ trailer. But if you get a 11,400 trailer and it's pin weight is 25%, thats 2850lbs. Which is probably more than your 3/4 ton truck is rated for. |
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Location: suffolk | the manufacturer shows the weight before the LQ conversion....and by our 3H 8ft SW LQ, the additional weight was another 2000lbs. |
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Location: Vermont | Originally written by Color01 on 2014-03-10 3:46 AM
the manufacturer shows the weight before the LQ conversion....and by our 3H 8ft SW LQ, the additional weight was another 2000lbs. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Trailer manufacturers do NOT include after the fact LQ conversions...
Edited by PaulChristenson 2014-03-13 1:00 AM
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Regular
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Location: Central WI | How many horses will you be hauling? If you can figure how much weight you're going to be putting "in" the trailer you can work backwards from 11400 but remember a large percentage 15-20% transfers to the rear axle of the truck. Only you know how much stuff you'd normally want to take with. Trust me it adds up fast. I would probably be looking at 8' SW LQ trailers if I was in your position. Call a few dealers with trailers you like listed here and ask them for the weight. Try Denny's in Wykof, MN. They have been helpful with any questions I've had in the past. We pull a 3H 11' SW with an F350. Fully loaded w/2 horses at CAT scale: steer axle 4720, drive axle: 6040, trailer axle: 9460. |
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 Elite Veteran
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Location: Western WA | Trailer weights are not stamped on the side. There is no tag with the trailer weight. Any tags on a trailer will show ratings not actual weight.Dealers rarely know the actual weight of the trailers they sell. Calling the manufacturer or LQ installed won't necessarily get you the weight info either. They don't weight the components before installing.Just plan on having weighed before you sign the papers. |
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Member
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Location: Idaho | Isn't that fraud??? |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Los Angeles, Ca. | For what it is worth, my 3 horse, slant load, 4 star g.n. aluminum with 8' short wall full living quarters and 8' wide has a sticker from conversion co. of approximately 7400 lbs. The mfg. tag is at 5600 lbs which agrees with earlier post that the living quarters adds about 2000 lbs. So add weight of saddles, food, tools, etc easily gets you to around 8000 lbs....add weight of horses and that gets you to total weight....or just go and weigh the trailer as earlier posts recommend. |
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Regular
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Location: The Land of Ahs | well, Mike, it surely seems like fraud to me and my lawyer agrees. We are in process of action against dealer. Not sure what will happen but I'm hoping for full refund and some consequences to him for his deceptive methods. I'll let you all know the outcome. Be careful out there, not all horse folks are honest. |
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New User
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Location: Sodus NY | This one interested me because I just went thru this in the process of buying a new LQ trailer. In 1990 I got some of the best advice I ever got, from a computer guru, however it applies to a lot of things and was derieved from the addage, dont put the cart before the horse. His advice was, go buy the software you need, and then buy a computer that will run it. Much easier than the other way around. Same thing here. Buy the trailer you want with whatever parameters you set, then buy a truck to haul it. Trying to channel what you want, into something you already have may result in a conflict. There are lightweight trailers that can easily be pulled by 1/2-3/4 ton trucks available today. You just have to accept what is available with "most" of your Paramters. That might be a slightly smaller LQ- but its your truck. You could get one as big as you want, just like you want it, and you accept you need a bigger truck. I pulled a 32 foot camper thru the adirondacks witha 1/2 ton Silverado, 350 engine, no issues. Woundnt do it weekly. But once or twice a year, for sure. So endeth todays lesson in "horse sense" ps I bought a 3horse, 8.5 SW Shadow. Pulls great with a 3/4 ton Dodge diesel. Pulls great with a 1/2 ton Silverado. |
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Location: Sodus NY | I posted a commom sense approach to this a few minutes ago and then went back and read your previous post's. Overlooked the obvious. You mention you had a 3/4 dodge diesel-shortbed. Not only does the shortbed lend its own set of issues to hauling a gooseneck, you are looking at making an investment (could be a lot) tied to a 14-15 year old truck, which is ill equipped to do what you want. If this is a major for you, slow down and think it thru. Maybe even find a dealer that sells horsetrailers and tow vehicles. Could be you would wind up with what you want, and fewer issues that way. Dont take that the wrong way. I have a dodge diesel, love it, pull my trailers with it. I also have a 98 silverado I love and pull trailers hundreds, thousands of miles with it (350 gas). It has been one of my favorite trucks. But I wouldnt invest in a trailer based on what it could do. No ryhme or reason to it. You are doing the right thing, research before you by, instead of suing because you didnt. |
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Regular
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Location: MD | I don't think you'll have much available payload if that 2500 has a GVWR around 8800lbs (seems to be the online consensus)and seems low. Check your sticker inside the door panel. You need to take the GVWR - curb weight = available payload. Then you need to consider people/gear in the vehicle and subtract that off. You'd need around 3000lbs of payload for a 3H GN with living quarters (avg 12,000lbs).
Edited by RidnClyde 2014-03-24 5:56 PM
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Towing and trailer weight
