Towing 4.6k w/ Nissan Titan vs Dodge Durango

redex113 wrote:

bikendan wrote:

Bionic Man wrote:
If you are a "by the numbers" guy, you will need to look at the payload capacity of both vehicles.

Personally, I would use the Durango (are RTs still Hemi?). First hand experience, they make a good tow vehicle for the weight class you are discussing.

5 or 6 people in the vehicle, will eat up a lot of the vehicle's payload capacity, leaving very little for the WDH weight and loaded tongue weight.
I would expect the Titan to have a higher payload capacity.
OP, you are making a common newbie mistake by focusing on the towing capacity number, instead of the Payload Capacity number. That's the more important number to work with. You'll find the Payload Capacity number on a driver's door yellow sticker. It'll say something like "Occupants and cargo should not exceed xxxxlbs".

Just checked both vehicles. The durango is 1200 and the titan is 1322. A lot lower than what i thought they might be. However, the titan would likely have less cargo and people at all times so i guess this makes sense... I wonder what is industry standard on 1/2 ton trucks...

Thanks for this advice!

1/2, 3/4 and 1 ton terminology has changed over the years and really don't reflect the reality of the truck lines. 1000lbs payload is now the very low end of 1/2 ton trucks. My F150 has 1828lbs of payload capacity. F150s with the Heavy Duty Payload package have payloads over 2000lbs, which was 1 ton territory back in the day.
Vehicle payload capacity has to account for the weights of all the occupants, vehicle cargo, weight distribution hitch and loaded tongue weight. The total of all that has to be less than the 1200lbs or 1322lbs number.