Hey folks,

I am a new member to in here and am posting as I have a bit of a trailer predicament . Now, I just invested in a 1969 Miley 4 horse straight load gooseneck trailer with a 5th wheel hitch. My problem is that I cannot for the life of me figger out what the hitch weight is or if my truck will even haul it. My truck is a 1990 Ford F250 3/4 ton, with a 460 motor. Rear GAWR is 6084 lbs or 2759 kg, and the GVWR is 8600 lbs or 3900 kg. The only stats on the trailer that I know of is that the GVW is 4500 kg. So will my truck haul this trailer comfortably? if not, then should I be buying a 1 ton? or is there a miley site I can look up all info needed that hasn't been provided? I am in British Columbia if that helps for any info, lots of hills and mountains and such around. Thanks

Please don't take the numbers I give you as fact, these are just guesses, and you NEED to weigh your trailer and truck to be sure, but here are some figures that will give you an idea:

You didn't say if your truck was crew cab, and if it was 4x4. Assuming it was (worst case), your truck should weigh roughly 6,000lbs.

Since your truck's GVWR is 8,600lbs, that leaves roughly 2,600lbs for people and gear, and most importantly the weight on the hitch from the trailer.

Most 4H trailers I have seen (listed on the web mind you) are in the 5,000-6,000 pound range. Since your trailer is rated at a total loaded weight of 9,900 lbs (4500kg), an empty weight of 6,000lbs would make sense, because 4 horses should weigh roughly 4,000lbs.

The weight that a GN trailer puts on the truck is usually 15-25% of the total trailer weight. If you assume worst case, that your trailer is 6,000lbs and puts 25% on the truck, that would mean when empty its putting 1,500lbs on your truck. Assuming you don't have a lot of heavy stuff in the truck, this leaves some room for margin (when the trailer is empty) even if some of my guesses are off.

So, based on the info you supplied, it would seem to me that you are most likely ok to tow the EMPTY trailer to the scales and get the real numbers. That is only the opinion of one "internet expert"!

If you run the numbers when you add 4 horses, you will see that you could indeed exceed your GVWR with only one person in the truck, so be careful. Also, the other number you need to worry about (at least you do here in the States) is the Gross Combined Weight Rating, which is the total weight of the truck and trailer. I'm not exactly sure where to get this, since many trucks don't list this on the data plate where they list GVWR. I'm almost certain the empty trailer and your truck would not exceed the GCWR, because even most half tons are rated to tow 6,000lbs, but it is something to be aware of.

 I hope that helps at least a little.