Bedlam wrote:
If you are trying to stay within manufacturer warranty ratings, your current truck does not have the capacity. If you are trying to stay within legal ratings, it may be possible based on the weight declared on your vehicle registration. Let us know which way you want to go with this so we can help.
I am trying to cover the case that an insurance company would use against me. It has been my experience that they will always try and find something to avoid covering costs and they may be right - if you are towing in an unsafe manner, exceeding manufacturer limits, maybe they shouldn't pay.
So far, I calculated that I have about 2080 lbs free to carry. If I consider worst case scenario of 25% tongue weight - I get to carry "only" 8300 lbs of a loaded trailer including its own weight. Which leads me to the question of how is anyone within manufacturer limits on the road? I see a lot of crew cab, diesel 4x4s hauling huge rigs that in my humble estimate sometimes weigh at least 15,000 lbs. From what I understand there is not much difference even with a 3500 SRW (full ton) in carrying capacity in the same configuration as my truck.
