Tow rating.

Sam4msu wrote:
What percentage of your tow vehicles tow rating are you comfortable towing? Mine has a 6600lb rating. I know to consider the tongue weight but am just asking about the total weight. I will be using a weight distribution hitch.

tow rating is somewhat meaningless because you will usually exceed your payload long before you reach your towing max.

dfletch wrote:
I know full well that they are conservative in their ratings to avoid lawsuits.

Sounds reasonable, BUT .... you really have no idea and I don't either. However, I'm not so sure that's true since they want to beat the competition in the numbers game and I've never heard of any lawsuit against a manufacturer over too high of a wt. rating.

Design margins used to be somewhat standard years ago, but with the technology and testing we have today I think the gap is much smaller than most realize.

Larry

Sam4msu wrote:
What percentage of your tow vehicles tow rating are you comfortable towing? Mine has a 6600lb rating. I know to consider the tongue weight but am just asking about the total weight. I will be using a weight distribution hitch.

I don't consider "tow rating". I look at GCWR. "Tow Rating" assumes only 150 lbs. of occupants and no cargo in the truck. The last four times I weighed my rig, it was at 82% - 88% of GCWR. The last time at 88%, I towed it up the 4% Monteagle grade on I-24 at the 55 mph speed limit without any apparent engine stress.

By the way, the "tow rating" on my truck is 9,800 lbs. The last weighing was with the trailer at 7,240. So the trailer was at 74% of the "tow rating", but the Gross Combined Weight was 13,400, 88% of the GCWR of 15,300. The truck had 587 lbs. of occupants and cargo plus an 80 lb. hitch, not 150 lbs.

LVJJJ wrote:
I like it when my TV weighs more than my TT.

So if you want a 15,000lb 5er, what do you propose towing it with?

Are you going to move up to a dually from a 1/2 ton to tow a 6500lb trailer so that the truck can weigh more than the trailer?

You can tow up to the limit, but you may not want to. Like others have said, payload is many times the limiting factor.

Just because you can pull a load may not mean you want to. I don't like working a machine at it's max, I like to have a little cushion. Also like others mentioned, the terrain plays a big part of it. I'm towing at 80-85% of my max, and the truck does fine going to the beach, but this past weekend going up a really steep hill, I got down to 24mph, and that was all she would do in 1st gear.

If you plan on towing any in mountains I would stay under around 80%

I like it when my TV weighs more than my TT.

You can tow right up to whatever limits are dictated by the manufacturer, as stated above payload is usually exceeded well before others are reached. I've seen many construction crews (some that have done work for us) exceed their tow vehicles ratings, but they are not hauling 12' high, 30'+ square payloads at interstate speeds.

Just a plain fact that the closer you are to your max capacities the lesser your safety margins are, no doubt towing comfort is much more pleasurable when you are below stated capacities. Our rig can vary as much as 2500# depending on what toys or how much water we are carrying, the difference in towing comfort is night and day.

My tow rating is 22,500. TH maxes at 19,000. I'd get another truck if I went to a heavier trailer like a Mobile Suits TH.

I think a lot of people tow at the ratings, and you can certainly do that, but there are a few things to consider...

First, make sure you are accounting for the full frontal area of the trailer. Many tow ratings specifically note that they do not account for that kind of surface area - which will impact towing.

Second, consider WHERE you will be towing. Being near limits in flat-lands at sea level is one thing. If it's a gas engine, however, you will lose power as you increase altitude. If you are headed into the mountains, you are going to want some extra power.

A lot of it boils down to your own comfort level. Our set up is less than 75%, so I never even give it a second thought. I could easily go higher, but doubt I would personally want to be more than 90% or so.

PS - just to make sure it is said somewhere in here, make sure you account for your vehicle load, as that comes off of your tow rating as well (with the exception of a possible accounting for a driver depending on the truck). Thus, if your rating is 6,600 pounds and you load 800 pounds of gear and people in your truck (over and above the allotted driver weight), your trailer now has a max of 5,800 to stay in the ratings.

If you couldn't tow 100% of the limits, they would have made the limits lower.

Where people get in trouble, is they look at one part of the limits and don't realize other aspects are over 100%. It's pretty common for 1/2 trucks to have tow ratings of 10,000lbs but the truck can't handle the tongue weight of a 10,000lb trailer.