I appreciate all the feedback from the responses on this thread. Even though there isn't perfect consensus and some differing opinions on importance of the various considerations, I really appreciate everyone taking some of their time to share their knowledge with me.
Clarifying which truck I have exactly:
2013 RAM 1500 6'4" Crew Cab BigHorn 5.7L
There is an entry in the 2013 Ram towing capacity chart for each piece of that line. So the numbers I've copied from there are pretty specific to my truck options and trim package.
As mention earlier though, my actual measured base weight is unfortunately much higher than the spec sheet says. :S Repasting the limits from OP with some additions:
Towing capacity: 6500lb
Payload: 1650lb
GAWR (rear): 3900lb
GAWR (front): 3900lb
GVWR: 6800lb
Measured weight (rear): 2580lb
Measured weight (front): 3480lb
I estimate the actual payload I'll have available after SO and kids are in truck, and there is a full propane tank and a battery on the TT tongue is going to be closer to 300lb taking into account the extra mystery weight my truck has over the spec sheet.
If I wanted to be 100% sure to stay under GCWR, this means loaded hitch weight would have to be less than 300lbs. There are very few small trailers that sleep 5 that meet that.
I'm leaning towards not trying to stay completely with GVWR but trying to keep reasonably close to it as I definitely don't want to severely overload my truck and risk a lot of damage to it, or worse, causing it to be uncontrollable and leading to accident.
I didn't mention before that I rented a Wolf Pup 16BHS last year, and it seemed like it towed very well. I didn't feel like my truck was handling badly or lacked power or torque. That's part of why I started looking at "bigger" trailers. I wasn't going up and down mountains though, just some smaller hills in SD.
Going through this exercise, I realize I was almost certainly over GVWR some last year as well.
So...looking through a new set of TTs, I'm now thinking about going with the Wolf Pup 17JG (or 17JGBL).
UVW: 3879lb
Hitch weight: 430lb
This would leave about 1664lb before meeting the GCWR of 12100 for my truck. I don't see us packing more than 1000lb .
I know I'll be over GVWR by a couple hundred pounds, but I should still be within GCWR by several hundred.
Is this still too stupid to be considering?
Should I only be considering something smaller like the Wolf Pup 16BHS that will exceed GVWR less?
UVW: 3097lb
Hitch weight: 377lb
Estimate GCW left with this: 2446lb
I feel like the 16BHS was fine last year and pulled much easier than I thought it would. My basis for reference is probably not great though. I grew up on a farm and I'm pretty sure far exceeded GVWR/GAWR many times hauling cattle around. Those were much shorter trips though, and I have to consider possibly stranding myself and my kids hundreds of miles from home now.
Is the hitch weight difference of 53lb between the 17JG and 16BHS going to really matter that much? I'm guessing the UWV difference of 782lb is going to make a bigger difference.
Appreciate all the feedback. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
