never towed question's

gochiefs58 wrote:

cdevidal wrote:
Gocheifs58 a lot of members, whom I am sure are more experienced than me, think your truck is capable of a lot of trailer. I'm just starting out myself, and one thing I wanted to be certain of from the beginning is that I am towing within the ratings and specs. As I get more comfortable towing I might push the envelope, but as of today I am keeping it conservative.

A big surprise was that with a 20% safety buffer, the weight from the tongue, weight of passengers and stuff inside (floor mats, lunch, etc) we are close to the GVWR. In fact if we had another passenger on our April trip like I thought we would, I'd run it on only 1/2 a tank of gas to save weight. Thankfully we're not going to that extreme. One fewer passenger means we have more buffer.

So I encourage you to double-check the weights. Here is a good read, taken from the FAQs in the Beginner forum:
http://www.rv.net/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/14369340.cfm

this is something i am taking seriously. my truck as it is is rated at 9400 pounds, im thinking i want to keep my trailer GVWR at around 7500 or 8500.....is this a good idea? or should i go lower. i have to be aware also of GVCW right?

i could change out my gears in the rear end (im at 3.73) if i change it out it'll go up to around 10k or so....i doubt i would ever tow near that ever!!

To give you an idea, because we have so much passenger weight, my vehicle, which is rated at 8,900lbs, should really only tow no more than 6,500lbs, else I will run over the vehicle's GVWR. And I was looking at less than 5,000lb (less than 4,000 ideal) when shopping.

It may surprise you when you find that you shouldn't pull as much as the manufacturer boasts you can. That rating is with a single 150lb driver, no one else, no other options like DVD players, floor mats, etc.