Tow Opinion
I have an opportunity on a great deal on a 2014 Streamlite Ultra Lite 30KBS. However, my main concern is that it is too much trailer for my 1500 Ram. I have my Ram setup for towing, 3.92 gears, ...
Forum Discussion
myredracer wrote:
You obviously won't know how much the tongue weight is until you go through a scale somewhere. Yes, payload absolutely is what matters.
Truck is good for 1380 lbs payload. Is that off the sticker on the door pillar? Have you ever taken it through a scale to see what the actual payload capacity is? Anything you may have added will reduce it and things like a cap/canopy are around 200+ lbs.
TT has a GVWR of 9530 lbs, 3470 lbs CCC & 6060 lbs for dry weight. Ignore the dry weight as they are fantasy numbers. The CCC is on the high side of typical and is good *if* realistic. When we bought our TT new, I did a detailed weighing which included all mods and the usual "stuff" added for camping for two and only came to 555 lb. Some quote numbers like 1500 lbs and even higher sometimes. The as-delivered weight at the dealer was 190 lbs heavier than the dry wt. figure. The total extra wt. for us on top of dry wt. was 670 lbs.
If you traveled with say a full black tank, that'd add 315 lbs. If you used 1500 lbs for cargo in the TT fully loaded for camping, that'd make the TT weigh 7895 lbs. Tongue wt. is 12-13% on average so 7895 lbs would make it 947-1026 lbs. That is what I would say the min. TW would be. But to be conservative and used the CGVWR of 9530 lbs, TW could be 1143-1234 lbs. In some cases, TW can be up to 15% (like our TT) so at the worst case, TW could be as high as 1430 lbs.
How much payload will you add to the truck? DW, kids, pets, groceries, camping stuff, plus misc. stuff? Could be maybe looking at 500+ lbs? Looks like on the min. side, you could be over the truck's payload capacity and on higher side, could be well over it. What is the max. rating on the receiver? You could potentially exceed that also.
IMO, you need a more capable truck with suitable payload capacity. Many say the limit for a 1/2T is 7-7.5K lbs GVWR for a TT. We tow a 29' TT with 6800 lb GVWR with an F250 and would not tow with a 1/2T even if under the numbers. A 3/4T truck is simply stronger all around and a big difference. Curious, what brand of TT?
I agree with all your points. As I expected, the trailer is simply too much. I previously had a Cherokee Grey Wolf 28BH with a GCWR of 7752 lbs. That was a total length of about 31' and aside from not having bags I have no complaints.
The TT is a 2014 Streamlite Ultra Lite 30KBS. The estate that is selling it is trying to unload it for $10,000. It's barely been used...
