Scratching my head on this one

when looking to replace our TT I was told by a salesman I could tow a 15,000 lb. fifth wheel with my 3/4 ton gas pickup - if I got air bags installed and he could do that too. I was polite with my response and he just glowed red, we laughed and walked out.

I agree......??

beamer said it all.

Thanks everyone for your comments. It's the very reason I come on this site and others. I don't feel the need to reinvent the wheel, just to do research and learn from others so that our experience with rv-ing is safe and fun. We are looking forward to traveling a lot and meeting great people with similar ambitions. ??
Thanks again for your responses,
Steve

We went in having researched first (brand literature and reading here), and while our dealer seemed to know all the specs I did, I'm sure he would have sold us even if we were WAY over on our vehicle limits. I bet this is the case anywhere, they are all salesmen first, even if they do know their product.

It's a safe assumption on TTs though that tongue weight will be 10-13% of trailer weight. Ours is in the ballpark of 3000# trailer (loaded) and 300# tongue, plus another 80# or so for our WD hitch, so tongue is about 380# for us, our little Jeep has a carrying capacity of 1050#, so with Myself, Wife, Dog, and tongue, we have only about 50lb to work with in the Jeep, but that's fine for us, any gear we need is in the trailer. We do plan on a better tow vehicle few years down the road, but we are within safe limits and happy with it for now.

When we were looking at ours, the young salesman asked me what we were towing with. I told him a Nissan Pathfinder, as a joke, thinking he would get the joke!!
Nope, he told me we'd be fine pulling with that. I didn't give him a hard time, he looked around 20 years old. Pretty sure that's the same response he gives everyone.

It's funny to me, but that's what gets people in over their heads weight wise.

The real sad thing is that he has told that to countless others and will tell it to countless more that have not done enough research to be skeptical. At least you knew that it didn't sound right and moved on. Many will just take the salesman's advice and then maybe be here after the fact when its too late to do much about it... short of buying a different TV.
If there is one thing I've learned here its that tongue weight often matters much more than overall dry weight or even loaded weight to some extent because of the impact it has on overall payload and the payload limitations on many popular tow vehicles like 1/2 ton pickups.
As much heat as folks get on this and some other sites for being the "weight police", I am glad they at least provide cautionary information to get people thinking.

Dean

The salesperson is not your friend, adviser, or helper. You are on your own and it is an adversarial relationship.

The salesperson has one goal and only one goal. That goal is to take money from your pocket and put it in their pocket.

Steve 911 wrote:
...I'm scratching my head as we leave that dealership.....I think we will find another dealer.
All this guy wanted to do was sell this TT no matter what....scary.
Steve

You'll likely find the same situation at the next dealership, and the next dealership, and the next dealership.....

Steve 911,
I have yet to meet a RV salesman in 25 yrs. that actually has any real towing experience:):)