Load Range C tires on 11,140lb GVWR trailer??

[puckdad]

Hi folks,

Very happy with our purchase of an '11 Salem 26TBUD.
We haven't picked it up yet as I'm recovering from knee surgery, but I was looking over the spec's and noticed that it has 205/75D14 tires with Load Range C rating.
I believe it has TowMaster tires, and after looking at their site it looks like the MAX weight rating per tire is 1760lbs. Considering the unit has a dry weight of 6410lbs, am I thinking correctly that these tires will only allow me about 600lbs of payload before I'm over their max ratings? Not to mention that they come nowhere close to be able to handle the trailer's GVWR of 11,140lbs.

Any advice is appreciated,

Mike

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by puckdad

Considering the unit has a dry weight of 6410lbs, am I thinking correctly that these tires will only allow me about 600lbs of payload before I'm over their max ratings? Not to mention that they come nowhere close to be able to handle the trailer's GVWR of 11,140lbs.

Mike, I know it sounds counter intuitive, but there is plenty of capacity in those tires. Remember that not all the weight is carried by the tires alone.

In a 5th wheel 20-25% of the GVWR is carried by the King Pin and the rest divided by the 4 tires.
In a TT, the tongue weight is supposed to be 10-20% of the camper's GVWR for sway control and stability. The balance is carried by the tires.

New Travel Trailer for sale | 2012 Forest River Salem LE 26TBUD Bunk House | Beilstein Camper Sales | RV Sales Missouri - RVUSA.com

It looks like your numbers might be off if this is your camper.
dry weight 5075 and GVWR is 5880 with a payload of 805 pounds.

If you loaded the 805 pounds in your TT, the minimum tongue weight carried by the truck would be 588 pounds and the maximum safe would be 1176 pounds. Optimum (15%) would be 882 pounds.

5880 minus the 882 = to be 4998 carried by the 4 tires.

4998 divided by 4 = 1249.5 pounds per tire; well under the 1760 rating.

Even at the minimum 10% loading you would have 1343 pounds on each tire.

Additionally, Towmaster does not make a 205/75D14 tire, I think you meant 205/75R14. TowMaster Radial Trailer Tire 14 and 15 inch

I could not find the inflation sheet for Towmaster, but here is the inflation sheet for Maxxis Tires:
At 50 PSI a Load Range C Maxxis tire will support 1760 pounds like your Towmaster.

Was that helpful?

[puckdad]

Hi Herk,

Good point on the tongue weight - forgot about that.

When we looked at the trailer there was a 'weigh-in' sticker on the inside of the door that declared that the weight of the unit with options is 6410lbs. As per the brochure the GVWR of the unit is 11,140lbs.

It's funny that in the brochure specs every other trailer with a GVWR over 10Klbs gets 225/75/R15's except for this unit...kinda' weird. Then again, the brochure I have is for '10, but their website still only shows the '10's as well.

Thanks again for the info.

Mike

[fonzie]

http://www.forestriverinc.com/nd/def...ries=TTrailers

http://www.forestriverinc.com/nd/def...series=SalemTT

Depending where you live, there is two rating for the 26TBUD......

[Herk7769]

OK, I am confused.

Why would there be such radically different GVWR ratings on a camper with the same Dry weight and yet 3335 pounds different on the max gross weight?

I figured out the one I had as I spotted the LE which I think means an "Ultra-Lite" version, but the other two have me stumped.

If you have the "Northwest" Version, I would love to know the Unladen Weight off the yellow sticker and the GVWR listed there. From the flyer fonzie posted, that seems like a heck of a lot of cargo.
A tad over 5,000 pounds! I CAN take the table saw!

My money is on a misprint typo in the Northwest brochure, UNLESS your yellow sticker says different.

[Herk7769]

OK, I am going to re-spin these numbers with the "Northwest" version and see how it comes out.

If you loaded the TT 11140 pounds, the minimum tongue weight carried by the truck would be 1114 pounds and the maximum safe would be 2228 pounds. Optimum (15%) would be 1671 pounds.

11140 minus the 1671 = to be 9469 carried by the 4 tires.

9469 divided by 4 = 2367 pounds per tire; well OVER the 1760 rating of the tires.

Even at the MAXIMUM 20% loading you would have 2228 pounds on each tire. Again, way over.

Unless there are 6 C rated tires under that "Northwest" version you would need four E rated 15 inch tires and 5,000 pound axles to hold them.

[puckdad]

OK, I'm glad my confusion isn't exclusive.

It is a Northwest version that we bought.
The yellow sticker read 6410lbs - the weight of the unit "as built" I'm guessing.
Inside the kitchen cabinet there was the standard decal listing the appliances etc and that's where I saw the GVWR rating of 11,140lbs.
When I saw that I thought, "Wow, that's quite the payload." Where I'd put 5000lbs of stuff I couldn't figure out.

When looking at the floorplans ours looks exactly like the non-Northwest version as the other has the extra outside storage compartments.

I'm almost guessing that the wrong decal regarding GVWR was put in our unit as I'm sure that FR wouldn't send out such a mis-match.

[Herk7769]

Easy to check. Do you have E rated tires on it or C?

I can not see any way that sticker is right with 4 C rated tires.

Someone else chime in here. What am I missing?

[tentcamper1]

I looked at the brochure and it stats 205/75D14"C" tires. I think puckdad should call the factory to get a clarification. all the models on the brochure that have a gvwr over 10,000 have these tires listed 225/75R15"D". it might be a problem that Forest River has overlooked. those tires have to be the wrong size/spec for all the listed weight ratings.

[Goomph]

My guess is, just the information in the brochure is wrong ....Is there any way to find a close by dealer and to go check the tires easily ?

Think of all the liability issues they would have if they produced a unit with tires which does not have the capability to carry the unit. Just wrong information in the documentation I am sure .... Nevertheless I would MAKE sure before taking delivery that it has the right tires, and I would definitely REFUSE to take delivery if the tires are the wrong type.

My Canadian 0.02 cents worth information which is now worth 0.021 US cents

[Herk7769]

FYI to add info here.

15 inch ST 205 D rated tires go to 2150 max at 65 PSI
15 inch ST 225 D rated tires go to 2540 max at 65 PSI

The 15 inch 205's D rated are still too small.

They would HAVE to be 15 inch 225 D rated to carry that load.

There is no way a 14 inch 205 C rated tire at 1760 pounds would work.

[08flagvlite]

I thought F.R. quit putting those S.T.205C 75 R14's on their campers after '09 model year. I know my V lite has them in the Carlisle brand; and many folks have had a lot of trouble with them; I personally haven't YET.......Randy

[puckdad]

Does anyone know if FR has an email contact?
I've been looking through their site and can't seem to find one.

Mike

[rthrbelsewhere]

I have this page bookmarked for the phone number, but there's a form you can fill out for email contact:

Forest River Accessories - Contacting Us

[crocus]

There is simply no way that your camper has a GVWR of 11,140lbs, so I wouldn`t worry about the tires.

[lbrjet]

Originally Posted by crocus

There is simply no way that your camper has a GVWR of 11,140lbs, so I wouldn`t worry about the tires.

You have no way of knowing that. We looked at two identical wildcat trailers last summer, side by side, the GVWR of one of them was 3,500 lbs more than the other. One had 4K axles and 'C' tires and the other had 6K axles and 'D' tires. We said to ourselves they must throw on there whatever they have around when building these things.

The whole line of trailers the OP spoke of are all over 10K GVWR. They all had much larger water tanks than the same line with the lower GVWR. They made be made for boondocking or something like that.

Never say never when it comes to building travel trailers.

[wayne anthony]

Wrong yellow sticker would be a very minor error for Forest River. No matter how stupid I am, so far my Flagstaff has had 4 minor and one major item that I'll blame on them. Has been alot on this forum in the last few days about axle problems. Will have to go out to storage and see how my axles compare.
Alot of trailer companies figure on the tongue weight putting the tires in limits, but if your trailer isn't exactly lever when towing, the two front or rear tires may be carrying more of a load than the other two.

[08flagvlite]

Sounds like "FUZZY MATH" to me- an almost obvious mistake that a camper weighing in at 6,000 lbs (est.) dry weight as shipped could even possibly have that high of a GVWR, almost 5000 lbs of added STUFF- which as I understand it is the total fully loaded safe carrying maximum loaded weight limit. I agree with Herk. It's gotta be a misprint. Randy

[puckdad]

Just went and visited the trailer at the dealer's today and found some interesting info.

Yellow sticker on door: Dry weight: 6159lbs. Max payload: 1603lbs
Large sticker inside kitchen cabinet: GVWR: 11,005lbs. Max payload: 4045lbs
Also on the larger sticker: "Minimum Required Tires": 225/75R15 Load D

Tires installed: 205/75R15 Load C

Pointed it out to the salesman and said that one of these decals is not right.
He eventually agreed and was going to call the FR Rep and sort it out.
I think I'll be calling FR as well.

I told him that if indeed the GVWR is 7800lbs (roughly) then the tires on it are OK. If however the inside decal is correct then I'd expect the proper tires to be installed. He agreed.

Will see what happens.

Mike

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by puckdad

Yellow sticker on door: Dry weight: 6159lbs. Max payload: 1603lbs
Large sticker inside kitchen cabinet: GVWR: 11,005lbs. Max payload: 4045lbs
Also on the larger sticker: "Minimum Required Tires": 225/75R15 Load D

Tires installed: 205/75R15 Load C

Mike,
Keep us advised on what you find.