About the pin weight issue,
Honestly I don't know where I was in terms of that. I know what both the Suburban and the trailer weight was....closely estimated as mentioned earlier. When I loaded it (Suburban) I had plenty of room to shift the weight on the trailer back and forth. B&W had the hitch placed forwards of the axle about 4"-5"? Anyways long story short, I was very happy with the "overall feel" of the initial towing experience. The F-350 would have just jerked the living sh*t out of me, and the Silverado rode like a caddy. I know its not apples to apples, but I'm happy!
Also, the transmission on the Suburban is good!
Mega Me,
What I do with all my trucks is weigh them with a full tank fuel and whatever else is typically found in the truck. That's your vehicle weight. Then I back the rear axle only over the scale and get a rear axle weight. Then I add the capacity of the rear tires. From these 3 numbers, you take the one that has the lesser amount of weight left to get your max pin weight.
For example, my GMC 3500 has a GVWR of 9,900#. My truck weighs 8,400# with a tank of fuel and me in it and all the tools in the utility body. So I have a PIN weight cushion of 1,500#.
Next, I back my rear axle over the scale. The scale gave me a reading of 4,000#. My rear axle is rated at 6,500#. That means I have 2,500# of capacity left on my rear axle.
Next, my rear tires together have a capacity of 6,900 lbs, so I have plenty of capacity there.
So before my rear axle or tires runs out of capacity, my truck will run out of GVWR (9,900-8,400 = 1,500). I'm effectively topped out at a PIN weight of 1,500# because my utility body "steals" so much weight off my trucks' GVWR.
Figuring a 10% trailer pin weight, I can tow at most a 15,000lb trailer off my bumper. However, since a trailer hitch is at the rear of the truck on a bumper pull set-up, it will be somewhat lower than that.
Next limiting factor is GMC limits my truck to a 12,000# bumper pull trailer anyway. My trucks' GCWR is 22,000#. So a 12K trailer is about all my truck will ever pull off the bumper safely.
I could take all the tools out of my utility body and gain another 500# if I wanted to.
I'm sure I can go higher, but the state of PA wants to see proof from your owners manual of your trucks' GCWR. They will not allow you to "buy" any weight over what you can show in your trucks' owner's manual.
How these "cowboys" get these ridiculous registered GCWR stickers for 30-35,000 lbs is because their state will actually sell them whatever they want because they want the revenue from a higher weight registration. When they come into PA from out of state, the state police literally live off them and the fines they write to them.
It is unsafe to exceed the manufacurer's GCWR and from what I hear from my MVCE buddy, more states are cracking down on these dopes and making them prove their trucks' GCWR so they can't "buy" excessive weight capacity.