How much 5th Wheel can I tow with my truck

RobWNY wrote:

laknox wrote:

RobWNY wrote:
Currently I have a Forest River Hemisphere GLX that weighs in the neighborhood of 8500LB dry and about 9500LB loaded. I do not travel with water other than a couple of gallons in the black tank to slosh around. It tows fine and my truck handles it with ease but I'm not very happy with it (poorly and cheaply built). I'm beginning to look at new 5th Wheels but I have no idea what my truck can handle and we all know how a dealer will tell you anything to make a sale. I'm not in a position to change trucks for another three years so I have to stick with the truck I have. I understand that a Dually Diesel is a preferable tow vehicle but not in the cards for me right now. As for the math, everything gets so confusing to me that I need some help. Can someone please give me an idea of the dry weight and max weight of a 5th wheel I should be looking at? Also, what else should I be paying attention to on the sticker of a new 5th wheel? I know I need to look at Pin weight but what else? I'll be adding the same amount of stuff I carry in the rig I have now so please keep that in mind too. We're going to the Tampa RV Supershow on January 16th to browse. Below are the specs of my truck. Thank you for any help you can give me.

From the manual
2017 Ram Crew Cab with 6'6" box. 6.4 Hemi with 3.73 rear end GVWR 10,800 Max Payload 4010LB GCWR 19,900 Max Trailer Weight 12,640

From the Stickers on my truck
GAWR Front 5500LB GAWR Rear 7000LB Max Payload 3900LB

My weight additions
Me 225LB Wife 130LB Spray in Bed Liner 50LB Folding Tonneau Cover 60LB 31 Gallon tank = 186LB when full. B&W Patriot 16K hitch with rails weighs about 175LB total. Then figure I'm going to be adding "Stuff", about 1000LB.

If I forgot anything let me know please and Thank you!

Does that 1,000 lbs of "stuff" go in the truck or in the trailer or split between? Seems a lot to carry in the truck alone...

Lyle

The 1000LB of stuff is mostly in the trailer. Maybe 100LB extra pounds in the truck so 900LB in the trailer

OK, so the FW will carry the majority of that weight, so figure 350 lbs of the 1,000 lbs (100 lbs + 250 lbs {25% pin}) that might go on the truck. I agree that a 12k max GVW rig would really be all you'd want to look for. Not knowing how you camp, or how frequently, I'd look at something like the KZ Durango 1500 (if used) or Durango Half-Ton. The current Half-Ton line has one model at 11,750 GVW and another at 11,995 GVW. 2 are 9k GVW and the other 4 in the line are 10.5k GVW. My '17 1500 model is one of the 10.5k GVW rigs and my '02 Duramax 2500HD handles it just fine.

Lyle