Finding out how much we can tow
We have a Dutchman Kodiak bunkhouse travel trailer. It's poorly made and crumbling before our eyes, but that's another issue for another post. We are looking to get a different RV and my hubby woul...
Forum Discussion
Reality is, the max you can tow will vary based on how you load it. PAYLOAD is the key here, not tow rating!
I take the max the truck can weigh, then take the base wt if I know that amount, add in people and other items to the base. This gives me a loaded without trailer number. I then subtract this number from the max the rig can weigh. This gives me a remaining payload, that I can use as hitch wt. From this number, I can divide by .10 up to .25, ie 10-25% of the trailer wt as hitch wt. This then gives me a real world max trailer I can tow.
My old rig as an example, weighed 6600 lbs. By the time I added a pipe/lumber rack, cross bed tool box, family of 6 as teens in the 1200-1300 lbs range, along with a canoe and assoc paddles etc. my truck weighed 8500-9000 lbs sitting there. WIth a gvwr from the manufacture of 9200 lbs. I had 200-700 lbs for hitch wt! or a 2000-7000 lb trailer if I used 10% for hitch wt. If I used 25%, then a whopping 800-2800 lbs of trailer!
I personally do not care about the gvwr that GM gave me, I was more worried about the axel wts, and my PAID for license which was 10K lbs. With my 6500-7000 lbs trailer hooked up with typically 700-750 lbs of hitch wt. I was under the paid for license, so legal. And I was under the Rear axel wt rating of 6100 lbs in the typically 5000-5500 lb range. I was also typically 200-300 lbs under the FA rating. And the axel rating on the trailer was under by 500-1000 lbs typically. Total for the truck was 9000-9500, generally speaking.
My actual total gcw was 14000-15000 lbs. I had no white knuckle issues etc, even tho my GM rated GCWR was 12500. One of the best tow rigs I have had frankly, still wish I had that truck! I had no issues towing up to 20K gcwr, and a 12K equipment trailer!
In the end, tow ratings and what you can tow, will probably never make sense, as the factors you have to add together, will make most folks go crazy. There is no one way to figure out what you can tow. You need to factor in many many numbers.
Marty
I take the max the truck can weigh, then take the base wt if I know that amount, add in people and other items to the base. This gives me a loaded without trailer number. I then subtract this number from the max the rig can weigh. This gives me a remaining payload, that I can use as hitch wt. From this number, I can divide by .10 up to .25, ie 10-25% of the trailer wt as hitch wt. This then gives me a real world max trailer I can tow.
My old rig as an example, weighed 6600 lbs. By the time I added a pipe/lumber rack, cross bed tool box, family of 6 as teens in the 1200-1300 lbs range, along with a canoe and assoc paddles etc. my truck weighed 8500-9000 lbs sitting there. WIth a gvwr from the manufacture of 9200 lbs. I had 200-700 lbs for hitch wt! or a 2000-7000 lb trailer if I used 10% for hitch wt. If I used 25%, then a whopping 800-2800 lbs of trailer!
I personally do not care about the gvwr that GM gave me, I was more worried about the axel wts, and my PAID for license which was 10K lbs. With my 6500-7000 lbs trailer hooked up with typically 700-750 lbs of hitch wt. I was under the paid for license, so legal. And I was under the Rear axel wt rating of 6100 lbs in the typically 5000-5500 lb range. I was also typically 200-300 lbs under the FA rating. And the axel rating on the trailer was under by 500-1000 lbs typically. Total for the truck was 9000-9500, generally speaking.
My actual total gcw was 14000-15000 lbs. I had no white knuckle issues etc, even tho my GM rated GCWR was 12500. One of the best tow rigs I have had frankly, still wish I had that truck! I had no issues towing up to 20K gcwr, and a 12K equipment trailer!
In the end, tow ratings and what you can tow, will probably never make sense, as the factors you have to add together, will make most folks go crazy. There is no one way to figure out what you can tow. You need to factor in many many numbers.
Marty
