My brother and I are going to start making some money using my Duramax hauling cars. We will be using a 3 car trailer that weighs 5800-lbs and is rated for 14,000-lbs. I am concerned about the stress that I will be putting on the suspension and just the entire backend of my truck. I drive a 2006 GMC Sierra 2500HD 6.6L Duramax. If anyone had any comments, questions, or concerns, plz give me your input because I definitely need it.
3-Car Trailer
LBZ:
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I suspect your truck has a tow rating around 12k on the bumper and 13-14k on a gooseneck. It may move it down the road, but you can do the math. 
Whatever you do, please run it across the scales to make sure you are within the limits of your front and rear axles and tires (same for the trailer axles/tires). The manufacturer limit may come up if you are in an accident, but as long as you are within the axle/tire weight limits, it should be fairly safe to operate.
Whatever you do, please run it across the scales to make sure you are within the limits of your front and rear axles and tires (same for the trailer axles/tires). The manufacturer limit may come up if you are in an accident, but as long as you are within the axle/tire weight limits, it should be fairly safe to operate.
And I agree but unfortunately I do not have a dually only the srw.
If my gooseneck rating is 14,000-lbs and the weight of my trailer is 5800-lbs then does that mean I should really only load the trailer with the difference of weight. So 8200-lbs?I suspect your truck has a tow rating around 12k on the bumper and 13-14k on a gooseneck. It may move it down the road, but you can do the math.![]()
Whatever you do, please run it across the scales to make sure you are within the limits of your front and rear axles and tires (same for the trailer axles/tires). The manufacturer limit may come up if you are in an accident, but as long as you are within the axle/tire weight limits, it should be fairly safe to operate.
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Yes, if the trailer has a 14,000lbs GVWR and it weighs 5800lbs, then the carrying capacity is about 8,200lbs. It should actually have the carrying capacity specified on the same trailer tag as the GVWR.
I thought you meant it had a 14k carrying capacity because I'm not sure how you could get three cars on a trailer that can only hold 8,200lbs of cargo unless they are just tubbed out race cars. A typical car weighs in at around 3300lbs give or take, so you can probably only get 2 on there at a time.
Are you getting the 14k number from the trailer tag? Or does it have two 7k axles? A gooseneck with two 7k axles would usually be rated at around 16,800lbs GWVR (accounting for a 20% pin weight) which would give you about 11,000lbs of carrying capacity, which would probably allow for 3 cars. Again though, this would be a bit overweight for a 2500 to pull.
If it has two 6k axles, then yes, 14,000lbs total is about right and it'll probably pull just fine behind the 2500 (with two cars on board).
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We did it for years.
I mean I was concerned about weight for two reasons. Firstly, I don’t want to ruin my truck pulling too much weight and it would be a gooseneck trailer. Secondly, I don’t want to be over 26,000 lbs cuz I will have to be a CDL Class A driver and stop at weigh stations. I am currently 2 weeks away from my CDL Class A but I have been told it’s much easier to do it without it. Honestly I don’t know too much about all this car hailing stuff tho.
Good money?? I would just be using the dispatch websites to get loads at least at first.
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No bad. Back then you couldn't sleep in your trucks and the price of diesel was through the roof. We still made a good living.
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The class of license you have has nothing to do with whether or not you have to stop at a weigh station. The fact is, if you are hauling for commerce you will have to stop at every open weigh station, and if you don’t they will chase you down and ask you many questions such as why did you not stop, where is your health card, where is your log book, where is your latest DOT vehicle inspection sticker, why do you not have a DOT number clearly posted along with your business name on the side of the truck, and lastly please come back to the weigh station so we can see how much overweight you are on those back two tires.
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A typical in 1965 may have averaged around 3300 pounds, but nowadays cars are much heavier, a Chevy impala weighs 3,900 pounds. But more importantly, nobody buys cars, people are buying these stupid SUVs that are even heavier, a Chevy traverse is 4,600 pounds.
A 2500 has a GVWR OF 9,200 pounds and weighs about 7,000 pounds empty. Throw 600 pounds of two guys and gear and a good tool kit and other necessities in the truck and along with the the 2,800 pounds of tongue weigh that you are suggesting and the weight of that truck will be at least 10,400 pounds. But the fact is, with three cars on a wedge trailer his tongue weight will be over 4,000 pounds, far too much for a SRW 2500.
Having a light duty truck with a diesel doesn’t make it an ultimate towing machine any more than a hammer automatically makes its owner a professional carpenter.
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So which part of my response was incorrect? Sure, some cars do weigh a bit more than 3,300lbs (hence the "give or take") and some weigh less (my car is about 2,900lbs). And notice I also told him that it would be overweight for his 2500 to pull. :confuzeld
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