weight question

Normally I scoff at the advice given on here by the weight police, but in this case the proposed truck/trailer combo isn't even close to being safe. You'll be way overloaded with that truck. The newer Ram's have the lightest tow ratings of any other "half-ton" pickups.

Whoever looked at weight stickers on the Big Three half-ton trucks and couldn't find one over 1600 pounds, go to a Ford dealer or Chevy dealer and look again. My little "half-ton" crew cab 6 cylinder F-150 is rated over 1700 pounds, and it doesn't even have the Max Tow package.

NMace wrote:
Weight Police,

Allthough I think you are right this time, you made a lot of assumption that have not been valid for years. Not only is the 1/2.. 3//4 and 1 ton meaninglless. 150/1500 etc are misleading.

I have a 1500 with a payload rating of 2,090 pounds and over 3,000 pounds of capacity on the OEM tires and axle. I can easilly pull/haul the subject 5er.

We really need details before giving absolute advice.

Maybe but his payload is only 1620# which is clearly a no-go so we are right again.

NMace wrote:
Weight Police,

Allthough I think you are right this time, you made a lot of assumption that have not been valid for years. Not only is the 1/2.. 3//4 and 1 ton meaninglless. 150/1500 etc are misleading.

I have a 1500 with a payload rating of 2,090 pounds and over 3,000 pounds of capacity on the OEM tires and axle. I can easilly pull/haul the subject 5er.

We really need details before giving absolute advice.

Not the weight police, but did do a little home work, Ram 1500 has a max pay load of about 1,600# max trailer of 10,400+/-.

Check here

GVWR is 6,800# with axle ratings of 3,700 front and 3,900 rear that is a max of 7,600# if you could get that perfect balance.

Would not want to near them with that setup. Mine is over GVWR with almost the same 5er, but well within axle and tire ratings.

I stated before mine has an "Stated Dry" weight of 9,820# and a GVWR of 12,360#. Mine is a rear kitchen so the pin is a little lighter, between 2,000# and 2,200#. This is not a 5er that would likely not even fit with in the F150 CC EB, Max/Max ratings.

NMace wrote:
So how is 1500 pounds, in the example above. a 1/2 ton?

All 1500/150 are not the same, check out the F 150 Ecobost.

I said you all are most likely right in the OP's case, but you can't know that without the full specs on his truck and 5er.

That was my only point.

You came in with this after I started this response, I do beg your pardon, as I did get the facts.

#1. Spec sheets for the Ram 1500 CC SB, I did assume 4X2 to cut OP some slack.

#2. I have the same 5er, I know what it weighs, while I don't pack light, I also am not be over packed. My 5er scales at 11,000#.

I checked, you can get a 5.0l F-150 with 3,120 payload. That is some more that a 1/2 ton.


And a Chevy 1500 with a payload of.over 2,000 and towing of 11,400.

Dodge is over 1600 for their so called 1/2 ton.

Now I know these are stripped down standard cabs.. but you just can't generalize.

So how is 1500 pounds, in the example above. a 1/2 ton?

All 1500/150 are not the same, check out the F 150 Ecobost.

I said you all are most likely right in the OP's case, but you can't know that without the full specs on his truck and 5er.

That was my only point.

NMace wrote:
Weight Police,

Allthough I think you are right this time, you made a lot of assumption that have not been valid for years. Not only is the 1/2.. 3//4 and 1 ton meaninglless. 150/1500 etc are misleading.

I have a 1500 with a payload rating of 2,090 pounds and over 3,000 pounds of capacity on the OEM tires and axle. I can easilly pull/haul the subject 5er.

We really need details before giving absolute advice.

You have a 1500HD, which is really a light 3/4 ton, and has not been made in a number of years. I just went 1/2 ton shopping this past Saturday with a friend getting into a travel trailer. We went to a lot of large dealers (Ford, Ram, Toyota). These dealers had over 250 1/2 ton trucks. I challenged them to show me a 150/1500 quad, double or crew cab truck with over 1,600 lbs payload showing on the label inside the drivers door jamb.

All salesmen said no problem, we order ours with good payload capacity. None could do it. We could not find a 1/2 ton with a payload label over 1,600 lbs. Believe it or not, most labels inside the drivers door showed a payload of from 1,100 lbs to 1,400 lbs. I'm not saying you can't special order one, just that they are not the norm and it's really rare to find one on the lots.

I know what I said to the OP is true 99% of the time for Dodge 1500. He could be the 1%, but if he were he would probably know the answer to his question.

Isn't the 1500HD just a 2500 for people who don't want a 2500?? Not much difference between the 2.

Here is the pro 1500/ 5er guy's weights. I like the 5k lb towing rating, but he does have a 3k payload. Remember payload is anything other than a 150 lb driver and half a tank of fuel ( 13 gallons in this case). Add a couple of kids, dog, wife, hitch, and stuff your easily down to 2k lbs of payload for pin weight.
Like I always say, some stay within ratings, some stay within some ratings, then there is the others who just tow whatever they buy to tow.
BTW OP has a Ram which don't have the ratings of your 2002 Chevy HD.

Don't get me wrong but the OP's 5er is a bit much for his truck and yours.
LOL 5K tow rating, his RV is like 12K IIRC.

NMace wrote:
That is the problem with assumptions and rules of thumb., they do not take considertion of advancements in engineering, some manufactures have found ways to balance the load, use air ride, etc so there can be as little as 10 - 12% on the pin and still pull well.

Just as the term 1/2 ton has no meaning, we need to throw out other concepts to accept the new world.

We must deal in facts, not guesses.

Just out of curiosity have you weighed your rig to see where it falls. I would be curious what the actual hitch weight is?

That is the problem with assumptions and rules of thumb., they do not take considertion of advancements in engineering, some manufactures have found ways to balance the load, use air ride, etc so there can be as little as 10 - 12% on the pin and still pull well.

Just as the term 1/2 ton has no meaning, we need to throw out other concepts to accept the new world.

We must deal in facts, not guesses.