Need advice on TT to purchase

A lot of people get fooled by the payload rating on the door jamb or in manufacturer's literature. In practice, it's lower and often a lot lower. The best thing you can ever do is take your truck to a scale, weigh it and subtract that from the GVWR. Some will say it's not needed but it's the only way to know for sure. Lot's of things on your truck can take away from the truck's sticker or published payload rating. The actual payload capacity on our 3/4 ton is 1,000 lbs less than what our sticker says and the only thing of any weight we added is a canopy.

Weighing your truck should be your starting point. For the non-believers, go weigh your truck for fun and see what you find.

Warning: don't purchase on the basis of the trailer's factory dry tongue weight. That will go up and sometimes way up. Our factory tongue weight of 518 lbs end up being an actual weight of 960 lbs. That's approaching double the factory listed weight. Depends partly on the various options you add to the trailer since none of them are included in the dry weight. Dealer added items like propane tanks and batteries also drive up the tongue weight. All the stuff you put in the pass-through storage also drives up the tongue weight.

The factory payload capacity for your truck says 1500 lbs. Taking a stab at it, your actual payload capacity might be around 1,000 lbs. And that's before you add DW, the kids, pets, and cargo in the bed. As BarneyS said, the actual tongue weight could be 1200 lbs or more. It looks like you'd be waay over your actual payload capacity TV and TT loaded and ready for camping. Time to rethink your plans. Your horizontal "towing capacity" of 10,200 lbs is plenty though and is not the limiting factor.

You either need to look at a shorter, hence lighter, trailer or a lightweight trailer aka "ultralight", "superlite", etc. A lightweight unit though means lower overall quality, durability and longevity since less substantial materials and construction need to be used to save weight.

Just don't be fooled by published or sticker payload capacities on a TV or dry weights on a trailer. Don't fall for the "1/2 ton towable" label some manufacturers are using. You can get into some major irreversible trouble so easily and quickly. Once the dealer has the RV off their lot, it's all your problem thereafter... No returns for being too heavy.

6000lb dry weight, add 1500lbs for gear (kids take more stuff:)), gives you 7500lbs loaded. Figure 10-15% for tongue weight, 12.5 is the middle. That puts you at 937lbs for TW. Add you, the wife and the kids weight up plus the 937lbs, subtract that from the trucks payload capacity. Now subtract whatever else you planned to put in the truck.

If you can look at the shipping weight sticker that's on the TT. It usually on the door. That will be the dry weight. Generally it's higher that the brochure.

I suspect that the hitch weight of that trailer, when loaded and ready to go camping in, will be North of 1200lbs. Check to see if your truck can handle that kind of hitch weight. I think it is going to be very close to, if not over, the limit for your truck. As already mentioned by others, the downfall of a 1/2 ton truck is its' payload.
Barney

We just bought a 2013 Solaire 269BHDSK in May and love it. We have an F150 with all the towing options that Ford had in 2010. Our gross hitch weight is around 1150lbs and our truck has 1900lbs of payload and because of this we limit the cargo in the back of the truck on long trips to stay close to our limit. As previous posts have mentioned be sure to check with Dodge on the payload capacity for your truck. Our payload sticker is located on the driver's door .

The Solaire is a great trailer whether you are entry level or an experienced trailerist.(this is our fourth purchase since 1978)It's a new product from Palomino built in their Colon Michigan plant. Well designed and built from what we have experienced with our unit. We really like the full queen bed, the room that the opposing slides provides and the outdoor kitchen is very handy to say the least.

We also bought our unit from a reputable and well established dealer that made all the difference in the purchasing process as well as the after sales support and service. Send me a PM and I will send you the name of the dealer and their location if you are in Ontario.

Good Luck with your search!

Lou

Livin lite all aluminum....

Have you considered any of the Ultra Lightweight type trailers? Lance, EvergreenRV, Passports?

WoodGlue

It is a 2013 model trailer. Camping only, not full time.

Thank you

We have a Dodge Ram 2500 HD megacab it helps to know this info before you commit to buy. Go to http://www.dodge.com/towing/D/home.html this is a big help

hello,

I don't know the year of the model you looked at and if this is for camping only or full-timing. I looked at the 2013 model and if this model is for camping, it does indeed have a good floorplan similar to one we looked at *keystone model*.

some considerations:
- power .. It's either 30 amps or 50 amps. If it's 30 amps then as long as you know that you might have to power manage what appliances you run to avoid tripping your power. If it's 50 amps then you are good.

- Bathroom, the toilet area looked cramped as you said your 6'3. did you go in and see if your comfortable? if your ok with it then its good.

- I believe the bedroom area might be tight with the area between the living room wall and bed. since the slide out is not in the bedroom.

- If your camping, the 2 20# lp btls will be ok, if your full-timing i'd rather have 2 30# lp btls.

- a/c Was it running when you looked at it? if not, run it to see if your are comfortable with it. as I believe your model comes with the 13k a/c.

- whether this model or another one, look under, on top, and around, rust, sealants, no visible worn/tear, damage etc. tires are good/current (year if possible). also know your trailer tire ratings D/E etc. like the trucks.

lots of info and I'm sure some other members will input their value into this. good luck and ask again.

bill & jodi full-timing

You will run low on payload. IIRC the 13 Ram 1500 Longhorn has about 1300lbs of available payload. Your tougne weight will be close to a 1000 if not more when the trailer is loaded which means you have about 300lbs or less for all passengers and cargo in the truck. I think the GTW will be fine for the truck. The usual problem with 1/2 ton pickups is they run out of payload before towning capacity.