Toyota tundra?

elkhornsun wrote:
To be completely safe the OP could buy a Freightliner M2. A nice used one can be had for around $125,000.

I would trust a Toytota 1/2 ton truck over any American 1/2 ton truck to hold up when towing its rated capacity and to have adequate brakes and engine and transmission cooling systems. Simple enough to take the truck to a CAT scale and pay $10 to get its weight. Then add in the weight of passengers and pets and whatever is going to be carried in the bed of the truck when towing and the weight of a weight distribution hitch. Subract that from the manufacturer's GCWR which is the maximum total load the engine and drivetrain and frame are engineered to handle.

The remainder is the maximum total weight of the camper with whatever will be placed inside including fresh water in the holding tank. The GCWR for a Toyota Tundra with the tow option is 15,900 to 16,000 lbs. and the truck weight without passengers is about 5300 lbs. which leaves the 10,000+ tow rating for the trailer.

If you have a total passenger and truck bed gear load of 800 lbs. and add 1000 lbs. of food, water, gear, etc. to the trailer that 1800 lbs. would be subtracted from the 10,000 lbs. leaving a maximum "dry" trailer weight of 8200 lbs.

The 8200 lbs. is a maximum so while the truck can handle the total load it is not going to be stellar in terms of acceleration onto a freeway or going up a long steep mountain grade. In truth a gas engine powered 3/4 ton pickup is not going to do any better as along with little or no more horsepower you have an extra 1900 lbs. of truck weight for the engine to haul.

Where a 3/4 or 1-ton can help is in having the option of a diesel engine which is great when the trailer weight is over 10,000 lbs. and the Combined Gross Weight of truck, passengers, trailer, and gear, is over 20,000 lbs. in total.

For some reason people will read about the 28,000 lb. towing capacity of a new Ram 1-ton and buy into it completely but cannot accept a 1/2 ton with a 10,000 lb. tow rating. Go figure.

Your post makes a lot of sense. But the anti-half ton rhetoric has been going on with this board as long as I can remember. Some of us use our half ton as daily drivers and in no way want the "truck ride" that goes along with the heavier trucks. The same thing that makes a heavier truck be able to haul more or tow more is the same thing that makes it ride nothing like a half ton.