valhalla360 wrote:
GVWR =/= GCWR
- Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (Truck by itself or trailer by itself at max loading)
- Gross Combined Weight Rating (Total of both truck and trailer combined at max loading)
Though you will struggle with the GCWR as you found. Keep in mind battery, propane and water count against the trailer payload, so the odds of you staying within the GCWR is basically nil before you add clothes, food, cooking utensils, kids bikes, firewood, etc...
But that still leaves the GVWR as a potential issue....If the 6800 GVWR I found online is correct (check the sticker on the door jam), you have less than 400lb of payload in the truck, once you put the family in it. That's way too light of a hitch weight assuming you put nothing else in the truck.
If I already had the truck and was legitimately within a couple hundred pounds, I might try to make do but you are likely going to be over by 800-1000lb if you are very strict about not taking anything unless it's absolutely needed. If you aren't careful, you could easily be 1500-2000lb over some of the limits. That's not something I would be comfortable with.
That all makes sense. GVWR of trailer wasn't a major consideration for me since I planned to not pack it to the gills. Also not planning on boondocking, so I shouldn't need to haul the weight of water around except maybe at campsite, and I could keep it unpacked while doing so.
GVWR of the truck alone is also concerning as you point out (in addition to the GWCR0. The thing I'm struggling a bit with now is figuring out why my truck weighs in 653lb more than the spec'd base weight. Ram's towing capacity chart specs a base weight of 5407, but my truck weighed in at 6060lbs with the excess pretty evenly split across both axles. I'm about 50lb more than the "driver" used for the spec'd base weight. I do have a few things in the cab, Line-X spray in bedliner, rubber bed mat, bed rails, and ~180lbs of gas. I don't think those should add up to near 653lbs though.
If that's normal, I don't see how a 1500 can really tow much of anything unless the trailer has a hitch that weighs pretty much nothing.
