plazaman

I have a 12' tandem axle trailer that has a gvwr of 7000

I Have a :

Trailer Weighs 1587 Empty
2600 LBS diesel compressor
25 gallons of fuel at 7.2 lbs per gallon around 180 lbs of diesel
420 lbs blast pot
70 lbs of aftercooler and separators
going to be adding a 450 lbs dessicant dryer
misc hoses, tools, 200 lbs


Which totals around 5500, am i safe here? what does the GVWR mean?7000 lbs is the breaking point for the axles? Or can i carry loads up to 7000 lbs Continuously?

Thanks
Rich

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mdshunk

The axle does have a rating, but so do your tires. They are most often the limiting factor. You'll never be able to load your axle to its max rating until you get tires with an E, F, or ST sidewall load rating.

GVWR is gross vehicle weight rating. That's the max that you can safely load it to.

plazaman

correction on the trailer weight, its 1200 not 1587 so minus 387 lbs.

Am I safe? I have 15" tires. I have to check the side wall ratings.

Im guessing im ok since i didnt touch 7 yet.

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mdshunk

Not really. If you have D rated tires, you're only about 4300 lbs and if you have E rated tires, you're at about 5000 lbs for a rating. The tires essentially "derate" the axel rating. To be safe at your proposed weight, you'd need at least an F load rating. An F load rating is what they used to call "12 ply".

mdshunk

Crap, I just noticed you said tandem axle. You can use C or D rated tires then. Sorry for the alarm.

plazaman

im no where near the trailer now, but i''ll check tomorrow.

Do you think they sent me with the correct tires?

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Dustball

GVW is the total combined weight of the trailer and it's contents. You're fine with your 5500 total weight but there's a caveat. The closer you are to your GVW rating, the faster you'll wear out the components of the trailer such as springs, bearings, brakes, tires, etc. A trailer with a GVW rating of 10,000 lbs will be much happer with a constant 5500 lb weight than a 7,000 lb GVW trailer.

mdshunk

There's no such thing as "correct". It is quite common, even normal, for a trailer to have a weight rating much higher than the tires that it came with can handle.

plazaman

i check the tires, its a 4 ply class c tire rated at 1850 @ 50 psi cold

what do you think?>

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mdshunk

I think that is 7400 pounds. The tire manufacturer will have a chart that shows the other weight ratings at other pressures.

plazaman

is class C 4 ply ok?

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Dustball

Personally I'd prefer a load range D or E tire. First thing I did when I got my 7,000 lb GVW trailer was replace the tires with load range D tires. Your tires will be fine but when one blows out, that would be the time to replace them all with better tires.

plazaman

any pics of your tires? How much do these tires run? will i have to change the rims?

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Dustball

Nah, no pics. The difference between C,D and E tires is the load capacity. They won't require different wheels. One suggestion though- when it comes time for you to get new tires for your trailer, go with tires made for trailers. Don't use P-metric passenger car tires. Sometimes you'll find trailer dealers will toss on whatever cheap tires they have laying around.

Trailer tire FAQ-
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/inf...rTireFacts.dos

First result on Google for trailer tires-
http://shop.easternmarine.com/index....categoryID=163

My suggestion- run what you've got and always carry a spare tire.

72chevy4x4

now...are your tires inflated to 50psi?

plazaman

i'll try to take some pics of my current tires with manufactuter info

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Morning Wood

Your trailer is fine. The GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) is what you want the trailer and what it is carrying to weight combined max. Your tires are fine. Just keep them inflated to the max psi. Trailer tires need to be inflated max all the time. You can take your loaded trailer to a local truck scale (cat scale) and weigh truck and trailer and then disconnect the trailer and go back and weigh the truck. Your tongue weight should be 10%-12% of the total trailer weight. make sure your brakes are working correctly too.

dlcj

When i bought my 16' tandem it came with very small used car tires. Sense i dont use it that much i cant see putting $500 in tires that will just dry rott. Over the years have replaced the tires with more used tires a few times but bigger light truck tires. When i got my 03 2500 crewcab 4x4 d-max(about 8000#) i hauled it home on the trailer with s10 firehawks on it. Hey they looked great! Truck hung of both ends. Was nervous the whole 100 miles! Wont do that again! To the op, if this is a regulary used work trailer then certainly put some high quality heavy duty trailer tires on there.

Blackhammer

Don't waste the money on new tires till one blows out. I hve gone through several sets of tires having 3 trailers. Makes sure when you get new tires to get radials and not bias ply. They will wear better and last longer.

With a GVWR of 7000 that is the max the trailer can weigh. All tools, gear and the weight of the trailer. You stated the trailer finished weight is 5500. This meand that with a 10% tongue weight the trailer only weighs 4950 because the other 550 is on the truck and it's axels. If all the weights of the tool you gave are correct you will be fine for a while. Just remember it is not very difficult to get a trailer over weight. I know. I just keep adding stuff till it is too late.

k9cop

I was in a similar situation with a 12000gvw trailer hauling around 12000lbs.
I blew a radial tire at about 70 miles per hour loaded. yikes! I checked with all the locals and I was told that bias plied tires were better for towing. I went with new bias tires and realized they handled the weight much better than the radials. There cheaper too.