Need help choosing fulltime toy hauler

I am 66 years old and have been towing since I was 12 in a Bobtail in Oklahoma,working the wheat fields behind a combine.....my advice is you never have enough truck....someone stops in a hurry in front of you,you blow a trailer tire and it's swinging like an SOB, cross wind at 40 MPH,2 lane road and black ice, lots of things to go wrong.Figure out what is legal and go one up,your life,your wife's life,and MY life are not a dollar figure...Heck it's not worth a legal battle to tow over weight...I never have,and I'm still liv'n the dream...

otrfun wrote:

aza2010 wrote:
ok gents so I went ahead and used a calculator online to find out my max hitch weight rating for a fifth wheel hitch for my truck. Not sure if its correct so maybe someone can throw in their experience.

The answer I got was 3,825 or 3,060 with a 20 percent safety margin.

Here are the stats of the truck. I know the Gross weight may not be Actual weight.
Max trailer weight rating- 17,210
GCWR 25,300
GVWR- 10,000
Rear GAWR 6,500

Am I in the ball park here or is that calculator not right?

There is no easy way to answer your question. There is a significant amount of controversy in terms of what is safe, what is legal, in terms of payload capability and ratings for the Ram 2500 (or any of the Big 3 3/4-ton trucks). You're going to hear every imaginable suggestion: buy a bigger truck, buy a smaller toy hauler, put airbags on your Ram 2500 and call it a day, or not-to-worry, you'll be just fine as-is.

It's not an easy task, but somehow, you're going to have to establish your own comfort level in the midst of all this controversy.

I'll start this off by saying your truck's payload is your biggest hurdle or handicap. Your truck's payload is documented on the sticker located inside your truck's door jam. If I had to guess your truck's payload, based on the limited information you've provided, it's roughly 2,200 lbs. for a 4x4, higher for a 4x2. Once you establish your payload, then you'll need to decide whether you're going to work with this "artificially" low payload number (based on your truck's 10k GVWR) or a higher payload capability based on your truck's 6,500 lb. RAWR (assuming 18-20 in. OEM wheels).

I know, you're probably thinking, 'what is he talking about?!' Yup, the controversy starts rights here. You can write a small book on this stuff. For now, I'll step back and let others chime in with their thoughts and views. All you can do is take it one step at a time, consider the pros and cons, then make your decision.

Good luck!

I agree 100%. Your truck is capable beyond its payload and GVWR but at the end of the day the GVWR is the legal number.

aza2010 wrote:
ok gents so I went ahead and used a calculator online to find out my max hitch weight rating for a fifth wheel hitch for my truck. Not sure if its correct so maybe someone can throw in their experience.

The answer I got was 3,825 or 3,060 with a 20 percent safety margin.

Here are the stats of the truck. I know the Gross weight may not be Actual weight.
Max trailer weight rating- 17,210
GCWR 25,300
GVWR- 10,000
Rear GAWR 6,500

Am I in the ball park here or is that calculator not right?

There is no easy way to answer your question. There is a significant amount of controversy in terms of what is safe, what is legal, in terms of payload capability and ratings for the Ram 2500 (or any of the Big 3 3/4-ton trucks). You're going to hear every imaginable suggestion: buy a bigger truck, buy a smaller toy hauler, put airbags on your Ram 2500 and call it a day, or not-to-worry, you'll be just fine as-is.

It's not an easy task, but somehow, you're going to have to establish your own comfort level in the midst of all this controversy.

I'll start this off by saying your truck's payload is your biggest hurdle or handicap. Your truck's payload is documented on the sticker located inside your truck's door jam. If I had to guess your truck's payload, based on the limited information you've provided, it's roughly 2,200 lbs. for a 4x4, higher for a 4x2. Once you establish your payload, then you'll need to decide whether you're going to work with this "artificially" low payload number (based on your truck's 10k GVWR) or a higher payload capability based on your truck's 6,500 lb. RAWR (assuming 18-20 in. OEM wheels).

I know, you're probably thinking, 'what is he talking about?!' Yup, the controversy starts rights here. You can write a small book on this stuff. For now, I'll step back and let others chime in with their thoughts and views. All you can do is take it one step at a time, consider the pros and cons, then make your decision.

Good luck!

aza2010 wrote:
ok gents so I went ahead and used a calculator online to find out my max hitch weight rating for a fifth wheel hitch for my truck. Not sure if its correct so maybe someone can throw in their experience.

The answer I got was 3,825 or 3,060 with a 20 percent safety margin.

Here are the stats of the truck. I know the Gross weight may not be Actual weight.
Max trailer weight rating- 17,210
GCWR 25,300
GVWR- 10,000
Rear GAWR 6,500

Am I in the ball park here or is that calculator not right?

You're a little off. Your hitch weight capacity can be calculated by taking the trucks GVWR (10,000lbs) and subtracting the weight of the truck ready to camp, fuel, people, hitch, firewood, dogs etc. (Diesel Rams usually sit around 7800lbs empty).

That gives you 2200lbs of payload before you add the above things. I would say 8500lbs ready to camp is a safe bet. That gives you 1500 lbs left for pin weight.

The same truck in the 3500 SRW version would have about 3800lbs left.

Sure, you can enhance the suspension to carry more weight (lots of people do). But by the law you are overloaded. If you were in an at-fault accident your insurance could refuse to pay due to negligence and you could face legal trouble. It is not hard for a money hungry attorney to look up the published pin weight of a toyhauler and the rated payload of your truck and due the quick math.

That being said I am not the weight police. I have overloaded many trucks in my day to "get the job done" and lived to tell about it. However, hauling something across town overweight one time vs. being overweight everyday is different. Can your Ram 2500 haul more than it is rated for? Sure. But trucks have ratings for a reason and the risk and liability is not worth the $500 savings.

Just curious, why did you buy a 2500 vs a 3500 SRW knowing you would be buying a fifth wheel for full timing?

ok gents so I went ahead and used a calculator online to find out my max hitch weight rating for a fifth wheel hitch for my truck. Not sure if its correct so maybe someone can throw in their experience.

The answer I got was 3,825 or 3,060 with a 20 percent safety margin.

Here are the stats of the truck. I know the Gross weight may not be Actual weight.
Max trailer weight rating- 17,210
GCWR 25,300
GVWR- 10,000
Rear GAWR 6,500

Am I in the ball park here or is that calculator not right?

My previous F250 was bagged, but ...and please don't take this as me being the weight police, It wont change the door tag numbers if you ever get stopped.

Thanks otrfun.

I know that the payload for the 3500 is almost 2k more than my 2500.

now with the only difference I have been able to find from research is that the suspension is heavier and may have beefed up brakes.

So if I were to put upgraded heavy duty airbag suspension in my rig (I planned on it anyways) I should be able to increase that payload thus obtaining a heaver pin weight rating correct?

Has anyone ran into anyone who has done this? and would it be worth it?

aza2010 wrote:
Thank you all for the input. I also have come to realize that with the 2500 Ram the weights between GVWR and CGVWR are way close in any double axle model toy hauler. (and I see 3/4 ton trucks towing triple axles down the road!). . . . .

I would not base a purchase decision on GVWR alone. For instance, our toy hauler has a GVWR of 16,800 lbs. However, our toy hauler has almost 6,000 lbs. of cargo capacity, or an empty weight of less than 11,000 lbs. Short of loading gold bullion into the garage area, we will never, ever load 6,000 lbs. of cargo in our toy hauler. Maybe 3,500 lbs. with full water tanks, gear, and toys. So, in our case, if we had based our purchase decision on GVWR alone we would have passed up a perfectly good toy hauler that our 3500 SRW could have safely and easily towed.

EVERY weight rating IS important; however, it's important to know how to put each rating into perspective for any given purchase or tow situation. Before you commit to a purchase I'd suggest you fully understand your truck's RAWR (empty & loaded), truck's FAWR (empty & loaded), GVWR (truck and trailer), truck's GCWR, cargo/payload capacity (truck and trailer, empty & loaded), trailer axle weight (empty & loaded), and trailer pin/hitch weight (empty and loaded), and . . . how each of these ratings relate to each other. Lastly, learn how to calculate every single one of these ratings during a visit to a CAT scale. Do this and you'll be able to make your next trailer purchase a safe one.

My buddy has a fusion travel trailer, has a garage big enough to fit 2 full size touring bikes and still tows it with a 3/4 ton.

As has been stated your current truck will be lacking on payload with most 5th wheel toy haulers, I was there myself once.

I don't think you have enough truck. The Voltage 3200 is a dual axle model and it grosses out at 16,300 pounds. I used to have a Duramax 2500 Chevy and there was no way I had the payload capacity to handle the 3200. My trailer at the time had a GVWR of 14,000 and that was maxing my 2500. When you figure the hitch of that trailer, I really doubt your truck can handle it, payload speaking.