Towing a TT

After all this has been said, the actual TOW CAPACITY of your truck will not be the maximum "tow rating" shown on the television commercials, or even what's in the owner's manual for your particular truck.

TOW CAPACITY depends on how much payload you have left after you've loaded yourself, your wife, your kids, your dog, firewood, bicycles, fishing poles, canoes, kayaks, toys, drinks and snacks for the road trip into the truck.

The remaining payload capacity is used to carry the weight of the trailer tongue. If you have none left, you have no towing capacity. If you only have 600lbs left, you cannot tow the "10,900lbs" that they tell you in the commercial.

In reality your truck's towing capacity is about 7 times its remaining payload capacity. This is because trailers typically have 13-14% tongue weight and 13.5% is about 1/7 of 100%.

No one turns the key thinking they are gonna get in a wreck.

What If the unforeseen happens and I crush a car full of idiot's that pulled out from a side road? In the worst case what if it goes to a civil trial? And I am over GVWR?

I don't want to take the chance that I could lose everything because I didn't have enough truck.

I would look at all the ratings, not just tow rating. Axle, payload, and receiver ratings are often exceeded well below tow ratings on modern vehicles.

Near 50% and 75% at most? That's seems a little extreme, I guess we should all just start buying semi trucks to pull our rv's.

X-2
I towed with a Tundra that I had the Gross Vehicle TV & TT loaded at the maximum suggested weight. Towing on the flat, no problem vehicle would hold fifth gear and cycle to fourth as needed. When I hit the hills I was in fourth and cycling between fourth and third for the most part.
The worst thing was the mileage --low sevens--. I traded and went to the vehicle in my sig and averaged 12.3 on a tow from Harlingen, TX to WV. The Diesel shifted in to fourth on a hill one time. I usually tow at 55 to 65 MPH dependent on traffic conditions.

IMHO more truck is the best choice. Stay near the 50% area if possible and no higher than 75%.

I ran at just over 87% with my combo with no real issues on my recent trip around North America. I scaled close to 14000 pounds on a 16000 pound GCVWR. Saw everything from bald ass prairie to high mountain passes in the Rockies. Could have used a few more horsepower at 8,000 feet, but no problem at all. I was close to my max on the rear end--cant remember the numbers.

As others have said, you will likely run out of payload before running out of towing capacity. Concentrate on not overloading the chassis of your truck. Mine runs at 94% of GVWR, 94% of GAWR and 82% of GCWR and tows with no problems so far.

The manuf has already figured in a percentage when they designed the truck. No reason to decrease it more from what the manuf already has.

Lwiddis wrote:
"The engineers really did do their job. And you have to know. The tow capacities are pretty conservative"

Show me something from GM, Ford etc. that says their tow capacities are "conservative" and by inference that you can safely exceed their tow capacities.

Engineering 101, Google "Factor of Safety".

Depends on where you are and where you plan to go. Down here in the southeast where Monteagle is the only pass we rarely see, I've gone well over our tow ratings while staying within GVWR and axle ratings. If we lived in a very hilly area or in mountains, I would definitely want to stay under that proverbial 80% of GCWR or less.