Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post

Wrenchtraveller · 07-26-2006, 03:04 AM

David and Jo-Anna, First of all I think the 3400 has enough load capacity for most people.
I still believe that a lot of weight specifications are market driven. Your most common combined weight rating is now 23000 pounds for diesel powered pickups. These pickups are all heavy vehicles
and it is pretty common for a heavy duty pickup with hitch, cab occupents, auxilary tanks or tool boxes to weigh in at 8000 pounds. Add the 14000 pound GVWR of a 3400 and you come come up to that figure of 23000 pounds.
If an RV maker comes out with a Fifth wheel with let's say a 16000 pound GVWR , then he is getting up into a weight rating that 1 tons can not handle.
Ford has the F450 and the F550 and GMC has a beautiful medium duty truck.
Freightliner and others are making some beautiful medium duty trucks (MDT)
These vehicles are built to pull large Fifth wheels with a full payload.

Montana is still selling some 3400s to people with 3/4 tons so they have to make it appear lighter and I believe that is the reason they stick with a GVWR under 14000 pounds.

Also in some of your posts you mention a pin weight that could damage the frame. Remember the pin weight you read in the specs is the empty pin weight and it is completely acceptable to put as much as 25% of the trailer's weight on that pin, that means before you would be overloading
the pin weight of a 3400 you would have to be over 3500 pounds.

We load up our Montana using the available front storage and we ended up with a pin weight that is 21% of my trailers weight. Loaded up, my trailer is 12300 pounds and my pin weight is 2600 pounds.

The only heavy things we have right up front are the 160 pound Splendide Washer /Dryer in the front closet and I have a Kipor 2000 generator in the front storage. Ford 4x4 SRW F350s have 4" spacer blocks on the rear springs and normally ride with the rear end of the truck high.
The 2600 pound pin weight just levels my truck and makes it ride more like a Chev (nice)
Click on the pic and you can see how level my truck is. It handles my Fiver very well and I need
no air bags , helper springs , or other after market stuff. I have used all these things in the past. This time I got a truck that was built for the job.
Take care and good luck shopping for a new RV. If Montana did put a heavier axle, and higher rated tires on the 3400 , increased the GVWR to 16000 pounds, there would be very few one ton trucks on the road that could take advantage of that extra payload without going well over the combined rating.

07-26-2006, 03:04 AM	#17
Wrenchtraveller Montana Master Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Posts: 1,568 M.O.C. #4890	David and Jo-Anna, First of all I think the 3400 has enough load capacity for most people. I still believe that a lot of weight specifications are market driven. Your most common combined weight rating is now 23000 pounds for diesel powered pickups. These pickups are all heavy vehicles and it is pretty common for a heavy duty pickup with hitch, cab occupents, auxilary tanks or tool boxes to weigh in at 8000 pounds. Add the 14000 pound GVWR of a 3400 and you come come up to that figure of 23000 pounds. If an RV maker comes out with a Fifth wheel with let's say a 16000 pound GVWR , then he is getting up into a weight rating that 1 tons can not handle. Ford has the F450 and the F550 and GMC has a beautiful medium duty truck. Freightliner and others are making some beautiful medium duty trucks (MDT) These vehicles are built to pull large Fifth wheels with a full payload. Montana is still selling some 3400s to people with 3/4 tons so they have to make it appear lighter and I believe that is the reason they stick with a GVWR under 14000 pounds. Also in some of your posts you mention a pin weight that could damage the frame. Remember the pin weight you read in the specs is the empty pin weight and it is completely acceptable to put as much as 25% of the trailer's weight on that pin, that means before you would be overloading the pin weight of a 3400 you would have to be over 3500 pounds. We load up our Montana using the available front storage and we ended up with a pin weight that is 21% of my trailers weight. Loaded up, my trailer is 12300 pounds and my pin weight is 2600 pounds. The only heavy things we have right up front are the 160 pound Splendide Washer /Dryer in the front closet and I have a Kipor 2000 generator in the front storage. Ford 4x4 SRW F350s have 4" spacer blocks on the rear springs and normally ride with the rear end of the truck high. The 2600 pound pin weight just levels my truck and makes it ride more like a Chev (nice) Click on the pic and you can see how level my truck is. It handles my Fiver very well and I need no air bags , helper springs , or other after market stuff. I have used all these things in the past. This time I got a truck that was built for the job. Take care and good luck shopping for a new RV. If Montana did put a heavier axle, and higher rated tires on the 3400 , increased the GVWR to 16000 pounds, there would be very few one ton trucks on the road that could take advantage of that extra payload without going well over the combined rating.