Complete Newbie Needs Straight Talk
Wife and I are longtime tent-campers trying to upgrade to a travel trailer. We're looking at something in the 15-17' range (such as Starcraft AR-One, R-Pod, etc.) weighing under 3,000. Since my cur...
Forum Discussion
ricks99 wrote:
Lots (and lots) of info to go thru here, thanks.
Assuming the following TV:
2007 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab ST, 4.7LV8, 2WD, 5spd Automatic
- GVWR = 6700
- GCWR = 11500
- Curb = 5024
Dodge says I can safely tow 6350.
Assuming the following TT:
Starcraft AR One 17RD
- Dry weight = 2865
- GVWR = 3500
This means I can load 635 of gear, propane, etc, in the TT, right?
As long as I don't have more than ~3000 in gear in the TV, I'm good, right?
Not quite. There are many ways to "go over" with respect to towing a trailer.
First, imho, loading a TT to its max isn't a good idea. so, maybe try and stay at least a few hundred pounds under there.
Second, you need to figure out how much that truck is going to weigh with you and your gear and passengers. Let's just say 5,700lbs.
So now let's say you want to bring 650lbs of gear..
Putting it all in the trailer puts the trailer "over".
You have 1,000 lbs of carrying capacity still in the truck...........nope.........gotta add the hitch weight of your trailer to your truck weight.
Solution.
Split that 650lbs in half between the trailer and the truck.
It will look something like this:
Truck - 5,700, plus hitch weight 350 approx, plus gear 325 = 6375........ Your heavy, but OK.
Trailer - 3200 approx......your safely under 3500
At 9000 approx, you're well under your GCWR, which is a good thing.
