Hello everyone. Thank you in advance for your feedback. My wife and I have been RV'ing in our Heartland North Country 291RKS for the past few years and have considered switching to a fifth wheel. However, when I do the math based on my current tow vehicle, I am not certain that we will be able to find many.I currently own and tow with a 2015 Ram 2500, 4x4, 6.7L Cummins with the A6 tranny. The truck has a GVWR of 10,000 pounds. Weighing the truck at two local scales with only myself in it yields a weight of 8100 pounds. Add in 300? pounds for a 5th wheel hitch, 115 pounds for my wife, and then another 200 pounds for dogs, firewood, etc. leaves me with about 1285 pounds. So am I correct that I will need to search for a fifth wheel with a pin weight well under 1300 pounds?

The main reason your truck is listed at 10,000 lbs, is some states require class A license for anthing over 10,000 lbs! I would be more concerned with rear axle, & wheel tire limitations than GVWR! Your truck's engine, transmission, Rear axle, and brakes are identical to a 3500.

You have a 6500 RGAWR. What you need to know is how much the rear axle weighs ready to tow. Understand you will be over your trucks GVWR, and that you may need air bags to level the truck when put the pin weight on it. It should handle 2500+ pin weight under those conditions.Ram made a larger separation between the 2500 and the 3500 single rear wheel when they went with rear coils on the 2500 for a softer ride. Chris

Coach-man wrote:The main reason your truck is listed at 10,000 lbs, is some states require class A license for anthing over 10,000 lbs! I would be more concerned with rear axle, & wheel tire limitations than GVWR! Your truck's engine, transmission, Rear axle, and brakes are identical to a 3500.This gets debated a lot on this site but I am in agreement with this statement. The 10k GVWR limit is a class restriction that has nothing to do with the truck itself. If you compare your axle ratings to a 3500 you've got the same front rating and your rear rating is only 500 lbs lower (assuming you don't have the base 17" tires, which are rare). The rear coils are the reason for the lower rear axle rating, but the axle itself plus the tires, brakes, wheels and truck in general are the same.

Coach-man wrote:The main reason your truck is listed at 10,000 lbs, is some states require class A license for anthing over 10,000 lbs! I would be more concerned with rear axle, & wheel tire limitations than GVWR! Your truck's engine, transmission, Rear axle, and brakes are identical to a 3500.The reason it is limited to 10k (class 2 truck) is that 10,001-14,000 it becomes a class 3 truck (350/3500). Chrishttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_classification

Do you have a tire loadng sticker on driver's side door post that says something like "do not load in excess of xxxx lbs"?

Is my math correct??? | Good Sam Community

13 Replies

IdaD
Explorer
May 31, 2016
Coach-man wrote:
The main reason your truck is listed at 10,000 lbs, is some states require class A license for anthing over 10,000 lbs! I would be more concerned with rear axle, & wheel tire limitations than GVWR! Your truck's engine, transmission, Rear axle, and brakes are identical to a 3500.

This gets debated a lot on this site but I am in agreement with this statement. The 10k GVWR limit is a class restriction that has nothing to do with the truck itself. If you compare your axle ratings to a 3500 you've got the same front rating and your rear rating is only 500 lbs lower (assuming you don't have the base 17" tires, which are rare). The rear coils are the reason for the lower rear axle rating, but the axle itself plus the tires, brakes, wheels and truck in general are the same.
Me_Again
Explorer III
May 31, 2016
You have a 6500 RGAWR. What you need to know is how much the rear axle weighs ready to tow. Understand you will be over your trucks GVWR, and that you may need air bags to level the truck when put the pin weight on it. It should handle 2500+ pin weight under those conditions.

Ram made a larger separation between the 2500 and the 3500 single rear wheel when they went with rear coils on the 2500 for a softer ride.

Chris
Coach-man
Explorer
May 31, 2016
The main reason your truck is listed at 10,000 lbs, is some states require class A license for anthing over 10,000 lbs! I would be more concerned with rear axle, & wheel tire limitations than GVWR! Your truck's engine, transmission, Rear axle, and brakes are identical to a 3500.

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Is my math correct???

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