Tow behind VS Fifth wheelers

Not that it has anything to do with anything, but just FYI...I don't know about all of the years, but in 2001, the 5.7L Hemi (or maybe it was the Magnum?) was an option in the Dakota for the "Quad Cab" models. I had an '01 Dakota Quad Cab and really kicked myself afterwards for not ordering the big engine. Not that the 4.7 wasn't adequate or anything, but that 5.7 would have been a hoot in that little truck!

Jose de Sucre wrote:
Soooooorry, shame on me. My RAM is a Laramie, not a Dakota. And it does have a 5.7 Hemi. With a class IV hitch it can tow up to 10.000 lbs, and same weight for a fifth wheeler/gooseneck.

Thats a combined weight rating from what I see. If you look at the actual tow guides here it shows This as the max with a truck with 2wd short bed.

1500 Reg Cab Shortbed 2WD 5.7L V-8 9,100 (a,h,t) You need 3;92 rear and max cooling package.

Tow guides

Be more specific with what truck you have..

And if you tell us payload from the sticker you may get away with a very light 5th wheel.

Best to weigh the truck at a cat scale and compare it to your axle rates from the door sticker..

But like my 2006 silverado with a 1450 lb payload ( with full 34 gal tank fillers and me 200 lbs in the truck) I wouldnt consider a 5th wheel becuase of the 1000 plus pin weights..

Lightest 5th wheels I know are the two 1/2 ton towable units... LOLOL with a 1200 lbs pin weight.. These are from Grand design

That would leave me 200 lbs of stuff to add to truck or camper..

NO WAY!!!!!!

GD 5th wheel.


Its not what you can pull its what your payload capacity is....

My camper has a 740 lb TW fully loaded and about 5300 lbs. I would not want to tow any heavier....

Jose de Sucre wrote:
The GVWR of my truck, according to the sticker in the door, is 6700 lbs.

Jose, you keep missing the point.

To tow a 5th wheel, you need to know your PAYLOAD CAPACITY because of their heavier pin weights.

Nearly all 1/2 tons lack sufficient payload capacities to handle 5th wheel pin weights.

And payload is also very important for towing TTs, ESPECIALLY Ram 1/2 ton trucks which are infamous for lousy payload capacities.

Jose de Sucre wrote:
The GVWR of my truck, according to the sticker in the door, is 6700 lbs.

Yeah and mine is 6900... And look how low my payload is...

Ooops ! I'm sorry. :-( I don't know where else to look. Will try the tables posted by lawrosa. Thanks to all for your help.

For the moment, ignoring the fifth wheel option, your truck has a gross weight rating of 6700 lbs. That means the weight of the truck + the weight of the passengers + the weight in/on the bed + the weight of the trailer tongue should not exceed 6700 lbs. (If you weighed your truck, you might be shocked to learn you probably only have 400 or 500 lbs left for the tongue weight of the trailer.)

In order for a travel trailer to be towed safely, it's tongue weight needs to 10% - 15% of the total trailer weight. Likely closer to 12% or higher in most cases. So, if you towed a 10,000 lb trailer, your tongue weight would be between 1000 - 1500 lbs. That 1500 lbs would count against your truck's gross vehicle weight rating.

If you exceed that GVWR by a couple hundred pounds, you'll likely be just fine, but you should already see that you are pushing the envelope.

If you chose a fifth wheel, it's pretty typical for about 20% of it's total weight to be resting on the hitch in the bed of your truck. Fifth wheels always weigh more than similar trailers simply because of their beefed up and more complex frames.

Sorry for the bad news, but it's best to find out now before you buy something you can't tow.

Yep, this thread is likely to get ugly. My take on it is this: I have and tow four trailers regularly. Two of them are bumper pulls ( travel trailer and two horse trailer ) and two of them are gooseneck ( four horse with front living, and an equipment trailer ).

They all four pull correctly and safely. They are all set up and loaded correctly. The bumper pulls are hitched using a blue ox swaypro WD hitch.

Whatever you get, match the trailer to appropriate tow vehicle, set it up correctly, and go enjoy your road trips.

TurnThePage wrote:
For the moment, ignoring the fifth wheel option, your truck has a gross weight rating of 6700 lbs. That means the weight of the truck + the weight of the passengers + the weight in/on the bed + the weight of the trailer tongue should not exceed 6700 lbs. (If you weighed your truck, you might be shocked to learn you probably only have 400 or 500 lbs left for the tongue weight of the trailer.)

In order for a travel trailer to be towed safely, it's tongue weight needs to 10% - 15% of the total trailer weight. Likely closer to 12% or higher in most cases. So, if you towed a 10,000 lb trailer, your tongue weight would be between 1000 - 1500 lbs. That 1500 lbs would count against your truck's gross vehicle weight rating.

If you exceed that GVWR by a couple hundred pounds, you'll likely be just fine, but you should already see that you are pushing the envelope.

If you chose a fifth wheel, it's pretty typical for about 20% of it's total weight to be resting on the hitch in the bed of your truck. Fifth wheels always weigh more than similar trailers simply because of their beefed up and more complex frames.

Sorry for the bad news, but it's best to find out now before you buy something you can't tow.

Very useful. Thank you very much. I think I can live with a 5000 lbs trailer, for which I already have the proper hitch. So, 15% would be about 750 lbs. We'll see.

Very useful. Thank you very much. I think I can live with a 5000 lbs trailer, for which I already have the proper hitch. So, 15% would be about 750 lbs. We'll see.

Yes so you know my 2006 1500 silverado weights are verified per cat scale.

I would think your truck may have a similar capacity.

1. You never told us the exact model. ( 2 door, extra cab, 4x4, rear gear ration, rtc..
2. You never told us what the sticker in the door jam says for your payload.

So as I said my truck has an RPO code of 6900 lbs.

Full tank fuel(34 gallons) and me 200 lbs in truck I have a 1440 lb payload remaining.( Door sticker says 1429 lbs. Pretty close eh?)

Trailer I bought was in my sig. 4729 lbs UVW
Hitch advertised weight 541 lbs.

After adding another battery, full propane, and my stuff weight is 5300 lbs. Tongue weight now 740 lbs.

So I added 500 lbs roughly of ****. Chairs, grill, tools, fan, heater, table, pots/pans, games, bins of parts...etc. And 200lbs of that stuff went to the TW, but battery and full propane I think was most of it.

All I need to add for camping is clothes, food, and 15 gallons of water. I say thats about another 300 lbs.

That would put me at 5600 lbs for the camper.

For giggles 1440 payload -740 TW = 700 lbs left payload for truck.

Now add my wife and two kids to the truck ( 400 lbs), a solar panel, generator, 4 crates misc hoses, pads, small compressor, two bikes comes in @ ( 300 lbs )

Theres my 700 lbs

I AM MAXED OUT!!!

My saving grace is the WD hitch. Ive got it where 200 plus lbs get moved to trailer axle and front truck axle. Also I have rear under bunk storage where I put more items to help lighten the TW..

Moral of the story?

When I bought the trailer I knew exactly what a 1/2 ton can do. I bought the lightest bunk house I could find as I knew what stuff weights and what load it would put on the truck.

I pitty the people that go to these dealers with a truck like mine ( Thats rated to tow 7500 per the book) and they put them in a trailer thats say 6200 lbs UVW.. That 1500 lbs more then my trailer!!!! I dont even weight that loaded..

Also I bought this trailer because of the CCC. 2300 lbs. That 6200 lbs trailer the dealer may want to sell you maybe has a 1300 lbs CCC.

If I wanted to go any bigger in a trailer I would need a bigger truck...

Now if you did give us your truck specs, and told us what type of camping you want to do we can help guide you better.

1.Is it just you and the wife? Are you putting more people in the truck
2. How many do you need in the camper? Just you and wife? Kids, grandkids?
3.How far are you traveling? Lots of stuff for say a many states months long vacation? Or staying local..

OK sorry to ramble.. Just trying to help..

Your truck = TT
New 250/350 2500/3500 = 5th wheel or bigger TT

Wow. Thanks a lot lawrosa! My truck is 4 doors, quadcab, 4X2. Don't know the gear ratio. Its only going to be my wife and I, and that's only a pitiful 300 lbs! :-)