Funny you mention the traverse and Jayco TT.
Our plans to retire accelerated when our last kid left home. At the time we had a 2012 traverse with tow package. We bound and determined to head out so I started looking for a lightweight TT. The older jayco hawk series seemed light yet we wanted the bedroom to be separate so I found a 24 hawk fb. I think the unloaded weighut was about 3,500. I hauled it home about 150 miles and it actually did pretty good. It wasn't white knuckle but I certainly knew it was there. Of course it was empty and I was the only passenger.
So the next thing to happen was the plans changed further and we were going all over the county. So back to the Chevy dealer. Yes, you can get out of a lease, you just have to throw fists full of money at them. So I drove away with newbee mistake number 2, a 2013 Silverado 1500, 5.3 ext cab 1,650 payload. It pulled the Jayco just fine with a scale weight of 5,000 for the TT and 1,800 on/in the truck bed.
I wouldn't want to pull much more with the 1500's 9700 towing rating but it would get up and go.
So we got through the first year just fine but our toes were sore from stepping on each others feet because of no slide. So with the love of rving and the ability to go see all 3 kids we decided we needed a bigger rig and big slide.
So while cruising through Tallahassee we stopped at the dodge dealer and bought a 2014 3500 cc are CTD. I was well enough informed from reading the wise people on here comments about 3/4 tons running out of pin capacity.
So the dodge has a payload of 3840 and around 3000 to 3200 of pin and cargo weight and pulling 12,000. It works good.
So there are various issues that are different for each of us such as is it very local use only, is it limited cargo and passengers etc.
So to me, from my experience with TT and if I ever did it again with a 1500 or 2500 I would basically think that I would stay at about 1/2 of the tow rating for comfortable driving. Not for everyone but thats my rough estimate.
I also had a 2009 traverse along with an old 11 foot Jayco project TT that I rebuilt that weighed 2800 lb. That traverse didn't have a tow package and was rated at 2200 lb tow. I only pulled the little TT a few times with one trip being about 200 miles. It squatted the rear end bad and sucked gas like crazy.
The difference in the two vehicles was huge. Bolting on a hitch does not make a tow package. I can't remember if there were big engine differences between 09 and 12.
Classic beginner mistakes.
