Weighed and Found...real heavy !

[bobnlee2007]

Well, I took my1991 GMC Suburban R2500 and the 1977 Sea Ray 240 Weekender
to Oconee Lake, GA last week. Took all the galley stuff off as well as the head.
Not allowed on Oconee. No sleep overs , I guess.

Along the way I stopped at a TA TruckStop in Madison, GA and weighed the whole rig....

GMC Suburban : 6400 lbs.
Boat & Trailer : 6020 lbs.

Total: 12,420lbs.

Scale cost: $8.50

The Suburban is a 2 wheel drive and had about 20 gallons of gas (160lbs approx),
me (205lbs approx), 150lbs of misc stuff. About 515lbs of cargo.

The Trailer is a dual axle MTI unit rated for 6600lbs.
The Sea Ray says the 1977 240 WE weighs 4500lbs. With engine?
This rig has the OMC 351 (235 electric stringer).
The boat had about 50 gals of fuel (400lbs aprox).
I kept the junk off the boat for this trip.
Doing away with the cargo on the boat and truck makes them about equal in weight.
Glad the surge brakes worked. 6000lbs times 88ftps = 528000 Ft/lbs/s of force can
make a dent in someone's day !

My 454ci Suburban gets about 14 mpg hwy. Towing the boat I brought this down to
11.5mpg.
My speed for the 75 mile trip was 60 MPH. I had 11 actual traffic stops.
There were really 20. I didn't have red lights at all of them.

I thought the rig handled okay on I-20 if I kept the speed at or below 60.
I did some 65mph tests and got some side to side from big rigs as they passed.
At 60 or below, the rig handled with no problems.

 

[Go Aweigh2452]

Your GVW trailer weight includes the weight of the trailer so your 6600# is really about 5000# for the boat and everything stuffed in it including gas, etc (assuming your trailer weighs 1600#).

 

[bobnlee2007]

I'm planning on stopping at the weigh station again with just the trailer
to get the "empty" weight back there.

I figured I was totin' about 5k of boat back there. Now I got a better Idea
of how to handle the loads. First off, I'm not going to load anymore gas
before these long trips. Not worth the headaches or possible hazards.
Maybe 10 gals, just enough to get over to the marinafillup/emptyourbankaccount.
$5.29 a GAL !!!

The R2500 Suburban has a GWVR 8650 rating. Keeps me from paying the
emissions inspection fees. every bit helps.

 

[bobnlee2007]

Here is a Picture I took last year at Lake Lanier:

 

[Sundancer]

I weighed my truck and trailer since we were replacing the axles, hubs, rims, tires and brakes and I wanted to know exactly what I was dealing with. The gross was 19,660 with 12,100 of it being the boat and trailer. I have 900 lbs on the hitch and the truck weighed 7,560. The boat was empty except for approximately 40 gallons of fuel. I figured when we fill it up with fuel (700 additional lbs) and water (300 lbs), add food and "stuff" we're closer to 13,500. Add dogs and the family to the truck and we're still well under our 16,500 GCWR.

I'll bet most people have never weighed their trailer and really don't know how much they are towing. In my case I was lighter than I thought I'd be.

Oh yeah and the scale cost was FREE!

 

[bobnlee2007]

That picure was taken last year on the way to the soon to be mud pit, Lake Lanier.
You are right about the weight distribution then. The boat was too far back and I experienced the "hobby horse" effect a couple of times on the trip to the lake.
REALLLL SCARYYYY.

I made sure the boat was a lot further forward on the trailer when I pulled it home the next day.
I checked the tongue weight when I got home. Still real light, about 180Lbs.
So, I moved the winch post forward another 16". And I manuvered the boat forward
by jacking it up and pushing the trailer backwards.
This time the weight went up to 360lbs.
Still too light. But it worked better than the last trip. No hobby horse effect.
I should have 8-10% of the boat weight on the tongue minimum. About 500-650lbs.

I can see that this trailer is really stretching it carrying this size boat. I have very little
distance between the back of the suburban and the bow of the boat now. Makes those
tight turns a little harder. I guess I need a 7500lb GWVR trailer.

 

[DCarl320]

Bobnlee,

I read the title and thought that was real cute, you must be a Daniel fan. :grin::grin:

 

[bobnlee2007]

I went and had the rig weighed again with no boat.
Here is the scale results for the Suburban and the trailer :

No Boat ******************* With Boat ****** Difference
====== ****************** ======= ****** ========
Truck 6220Lbs ************** 6400 Lbs *******-180 lbs
Trailer 1020 *****************6020 Lbs *******-5000 Lbs
*
Totals 7240 Lbs *************12420 Lbs *******-5180 Lbs <--weight of boat?

I have about 45 gals of boat gas at 6.19Lbs per gal = 278 Lbs of fuel

And the MTI trailer plate says the specs are: GVWR: 6000Lbs.

Oh, oh Looks like I'm about 200 Lbs of boat over that including the trailer weight itself.
Lose the fuel and stay on the hairy edge of trailer capacity for awhile. [8^\

 

[bobnlee2007]

Okay, I just confirmed with MTI that the maxium load for that trailer Model 220 SSI is
a 5000Lb load. Overall gross is 6000Lbs. So, I am over that by almost 200Lbs
when carrying fuel. Gotta get a bigger trailer, 7000lb gross or bigger, or keep the boat in the lake.
But, I think the trailer will work for very short runs of 5 miles or less.