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jesseannie's avatar
jesseannie
Explorer
Jun 22, 2016

I should'a got a bigger trailer

We have been on the road for a couple of months now mostly on the Oregon coast. I have been checking out what others are towing with their half ton rigs.
We have a 26' no slide trailer that is right at 6000# loaded ready to roll. This much less than what my owners manual for my half ton pick-up says is my max. I am very comfortable with it. Frankly I would not want to go much more but that is just me I guess.
We have seen trailers up to 30' with multiple slides behind half tons.
There was a 28' two slide next to me yesterday being towed by a Chevy Tahoe. Across from me right now is a 26' Arctic Fox with a slide behind a half ton.
Just because it says "half ton Towable" doesn't mean you should.
Do your own research buy right and be safe out there.

jesseannie
  • My ½ ton is,"rated" to tow 8500. I'm guessing it would be good to 6500. I tow 5000 and couldn't ask for better performance.
  • Agreed about judging; yes, it's more comfortable towing below the tow rating, but not "wrong" to do it at or near the tow rating. :) We were one of those towing the "big rig", in our case a 34' TT with slide, with our 1/2 ton, and we had far more problems with the camper itself than with the truck. (No problems with the truck, in fact.) We downsized in order to fit into more public campgrounds, which we prefer to private ones much of the time. I'm enjoying the towing experience more, I'll admit, but I don't think our choice of the larger trailer was wrong at the time we bought it.

    Also agreed on posting the name of the dealer with the honest salesman. They are a rare breed! :)
  • Those are the same guys I passed going up and over Siskiyou Summit, that passed me going down the other side.
  • Did you get the specs and the loaded weights of each of those vehicles and trailers? How can you condem something you don't know about. You said yourself "we have a 26ft no slide trailer that is right at 6000# loaded ready to roll. this is much less than what my owners manual for my half ton pick-up says is my max!" So you are under your rating quite a bit, but anyone else that uses the entire rating is wrong?!

    I used to tow a 28ft 6500lb loaded trailer with a 1/2 ton conv van with no issues. I was under or right at my ratings and enjoyed every minute of our Chicago to Glacier NP. 3500 comfortable miles.
  • I see a lot of this.... big and heavy trailers pulled by too small tow vehicles...

    I just don't concern myself with it. It's not my business and not something I should concern myself with or worry about.

    They all seem to be having a good time and enjoying themselves...just like the rest of the folks in the campground.
  • DanNJanice wrote:
    TooManyTents wrote:
    When I bought our most recent trailer, the salemans's first question was "what are you going to tow it with?". I found the one I liked and wanted to see the next size bigger just for grins. Salesman said "I'll show it to you, but I won't sell it to you because you can't tow it with your truck". Fair enough & there's the kind of salesman I want to do business with.

    Feel free to post the name of the dealership. Honest dealers/salesmen deserve to be rewarded with our business.


    Agreed
  • TooManyTents wrote:
    When I bought our most recent trailer, the salemans's first question was "what are you going to tow it with?". I found the one I liked and wanted to see the next size bigger just for grins. Salesman said "I'll show it to you, but I won't sell it to you because you can't tow it with your truck". Fair enough & there's the kind of salesman I want to do business with.

    Feel free to post the name of the dealership. Honest dealers/salesmen deserve to be rewarded with our business.
  • some of this comes from the ludicrous tow ratings companies are putting on these half ton trucks! There is a big difference towing a 10K weight behind a low slung trailer and towing a 10K giant sail! There has to ba stability taken into account.

    My current trailer is 1/2 ton towable. No way I would want to tow a 35 foot 5er with less than a 3/4 ton truck!!

    Chris
  • When I bought our most recent trailer, the salemans's first question was "what are you going to tow it with?". I found the one I liked and wanted to see the next size bigger just for grins. Salesman said "I'll show it to you, but I won't sell it to you because you can't tow it with your truck". Fair enough & there's the kind of salesman I want to do business with.