Mega sh 2500 hemi how much can I tow comfortably

The tow rating is 8,200 lbs I think. It's a 4x4 SLT. 78,000 miles. So I guess the 6400 lb trailer loaded will be close to 7,500 lbs. thanks for the responses. I'm not worried about backing the trailer up. I was raised on a farm. Backing in hay wagons. Lol. But more just worried about over working the truck.

I had friends who used to full time with a E-350 van that was new in 1979 and towed their 30' Airstream. Later they upgraded to a 34' Airstream, and I towed that to a storage facility when they sold the Airstream. It towed really nice, and had plenty of power. The 460" engine was only rated at perhaps 200 HP back in 1979.

You will have plenty of power. If you really feel like it, and floor it, you can make it up the mountain grades at 60, but why waste the gas? 55 or 45 is plenty of speed for going up the 6% mountain grades. Doing 70 down them is kinda crazy, so why waste more fuel to go 70 up them?

If you find that you need to frequently hit the brakes going down a hill, make sure that you lock out overdrive to assist in slowing the truck/trailer combo.

AS for capacity, any travel trailer with up to about 1,400 pounds of hitch weight is easy enough for any 3/4 ton truck to tow. That limits you to about 12,000 GVWR on the trailer. Yet if you start looking at fifth wheels, they put about 20% of the GVWR on the pin, so only about 8,000 pound fifth wheel will normally have a 1,500 - 1,600 pin weight, more than your truck can 'comfortably' handle without exceeding your GVWR of the truck.

My friend's 34' Airstream was about 10,000 - 11,000 pounds ready to live in travel, and probably had about 1,200 - 1,400 pounds of hitch weight. It was 3 axles, and towed by a now vintage van. They did not have fuel injection, only had a 3 speed automatic transmission. Your set up is much more powerful than theirs, and their gross combined weight would be around 18,000 pounds! Your truck is probably around 7,500 pounds and trailer 7,500, so you will be close to 15,000 Max gross combined weight. You will be fine.

As for backing up a larger and longer RV, that is another problem, but should be easy enough once you get used to it.

Pulling into a gas station is easy too. I used to pull my 30' motorhome into small gas stations and fuel up, pulling my 15' long car. I look for open areas around the pumps, and plan on pulling through, not needing to back out ever.

Good luck,

Fred.

Take a look, you should have enough.

Depends on your box/4x2/4x4/style

2011 Ram 2500 Towing

I would only tell OP to PLEASE use the TT's GVW, and NOT the dry weight. No one tows their unit, dry or empty...so be a little more realistic and see if your truck can handle the GVW of the TT you're asking about...it's a more realistic way to figure the numbers...Not saying truck can't tow it...just saying you'll get a better idea of how much you could possibly be towing....Takes some of the "guess work" out of your question, and speculation by me and others as to how much heavier unit may weigh... Get units GVW that you are interested in and go from there.


Jim

It has been my experience, that a longer, 30% heavier trailer, does not tow much harder than the one being towed now. If the frontal area is the same, not much difference. The longer/heavier TT may have larger tires/wheels, that make for an easier tow.

My FW is heavier than the previous one. The front is more aerodynamic, and it pulls about the same, and truck mileage, did not change either.

Jerry

You've got the payload capacity for it. Only concern is the horsepower, and that's only a personal preference.

Some people have a conniption fit if their engine turns more than 2000RPM, and go ballistic if it shifts out of overdrive.

With a 6400lb (really 7500lb+ loaded), your 5.7 is going to be spending a lot of time in 3rd (direct) turning close to 3000RPMs on the hills.

It will get the job done, just maybe not as fast as a diesel.

You have enough truck. Go for the bigger trailer

Well the 6400 lb TT will end up weighing around 7600lbs loaded. shouldn`t be an issue for the Hemi. what is the max tow rating of your Mega Cab?

Forgot to mention truck is 3.73 gearing also. I am also looking at a camper with dry weight 5,500 lbs but my wife loves the 6,400 lb camper more. I just don't want a camper too big that it's a struggle to tow