How long a camper can I (should I) tow?
I have a new 2014 Ram 1500 5.7 Hemi (8 speed) with approximately 9000lbs tow capacity. Looking to buy a travel trailer and trying to understand what is a safe camper length for this vehicle. I would...
Forum Discussion
A number of years ago, some RV consumer group came out with a WB/trailer length ratio recommendation. I seem to get it wrong everytime I try to post it, but none the less......went something like this
110' for the first 20', then 1' more trailer for every 4" of wb. so with this in mind. 140 less 110 = 30/4 = 7.5 plus 20 = 27.5'
They also did not recommend towing with a rig under 110", which I find totally ludecrist, for me I would suggest lowing the length a foot for every 4" less!
So with this in mind, another figure I did one time for some trailers I towed. My TT was 15K total, 90sqft of frontal area, this was about 135HP needed at 60 mph. My equipment trailer when at 15K and 70sqft was 105hp. So a big hp difference with just frontal area being different. My ET with bobcat was 18K total, and about 115HP. If you have a 25K rig at 70sq ft, you need the same HP as the 15k/90 rig at 135HP. Difference would be on a grade. The 15K rig needs about 40HP to hold ea additional % of grade, the 25K rig in the low 50HP range.
At the end of the day, to say that a single rating, number etc is the MOST important. That is hogwash, one needs to look at MANY of the numbers and figures to see if a given trailer or combo will work for you.
By the way, for my 6500 lb loaded TT with 750 lbs of hw, I needed a typical 8 lug DOT class 2 rig with a 9200-9900 gvwr and 2400 lbs minimum payload to tote it around. As my family weighed 1200-1300 lbs when my 4 kids were teenagers. So the rig the OP has, would be at gvwr with my family loaded in it, leaving me with ZERO, NADA, NO trailer wt options assuming I had the typical 10-15% HW to tow said 6500 lbs trailer. For me that was around 700-750 lbs depending upon how the trailer was loaded.
Marty
110' for the first 20', then 1' more trailer for every 4" of wb. so with this in mind. 140 less 110 = 30/4 = 7.5 plus 20 = 27.5'
They also did not recommend towing with a rig under 110", which I find totally ludecrist, for me I would suggest lowing the length a foot for every 4" less!
So with this in mind, another figure I did one time for some trailers I towed. My TT was 15K total, 90sqft of frontal area, this was about 135HP needed at 60 mph. My equipment trailer when at 15K and 70sqft was 105hp. So a big hp difference with just frontal area being different. My ET with bobcat was 18K total, and about 115HP. If you have a 25K rig at 70sq ft, you need the same HP as the 15k/90 rig at 135HP. Difference would be on a grade. The 15K rig needs about 40HP to hold ea additional % of grade, the 25K rig in the low 50HP range.
At the end of the day, to say that a single rating, number etc is the MOST important. That is hogwash, one needs to look at MANY of the numbers and figures to see if a given trailer or combo will work for you.
By the way, for my 6500 lb loaded TT with 750 lbs of hw, I needed a typical 8 lug DOT class 2 rig with a 9200-9900 gvwr and 2400 lbs minimum payload to tote it around. As my family weighed 1200-1300 lbs when my 4 kids were teenagers. So the rig the OP has, would be at gvwr with my family loaded in it, leaving me with ZERO, NADA, NO trailer wt options assuming I had the typical 10-15% HW to tow said 6500 lbs trailer. For me that was around 700-750 lbs depending upon how the trailer was loaded.
Marty
