First TT - Of course plenty of questions!

roook wrote:
Why not get a 2500HD? I would love to, but with two young boys, dogs and other **** my lifestyle cannot afford to drop to a crew cab.

ALL of which counts against your truck's real world payload capacity, leaving not a whole lot to account for trailer tongue weight transferred to the truck when hitched. To establish what your particular truck's actual payload capacity is as equipped weigh it with a full tank of gas, if you're in it at the time subtract your weight from the scale reading. The result will be it's actual base weight, but not including the weight of any weight distribution system you may eventually use. Subtract this base weight from the truck's GVWR listed on the driver side door jamb and the result will be it's actual payload capacity, that which you will use to account for the weight of everyone and all cargo added to the truck plus any tongue weight transferred to the truck from the trailer. Count on it - you won't come anywhere near the truck's listed GCWR nor even it's so-called trailer tow rating before running out of payload capacity. Exceed that number and you're almost sure to exceed it's GRAWR - Gross Rear Axle Weight Rating. Crunch the numbers and it should be obvious 8000 lbs is 3/4 ton territory and just too much for most 1/2 tons, particularly when we haven't even discussed axle ratio which can dramatically affect how well or poorly any given vehicle may tow a heavy load, especially upgrade and in heavy wind conditions. JMO, but with this vehicle you should be looking at a much lighter trailer.