Getting Serious About Weight.....

[longislandcampe]

I've got a 2013 Ram 1500 rated for 10,500 towing and a payload of 1,290. For the past 4+ years I've been towing a 2013 Jayco 26RLS with a sticker weight of 6,767 and a dry hitch weight of 820.

The bed of the truck usually has the BBQ, a dog cage and other assorted items with a combined total of less than 100. In the bedroom we usually store the HD satellite dish, 2 zero gravity chairs and a bunch of cut up 4x6 blocks. Maybe a case of water too. We don't keep much weight in the back of the camper besides the plates and stuff like that which sit pretty much right over the axels. We do have a sliding back rack under the rear bumper of the camper that usually has about 8 pieces of firewood that we keep there for reserve. I've never had an issue with towing the rig and everything looked fairly level.

On my most recent trip I ended up coming back with a lot more firewood than I originally brought out. We camped about 20 minutes from home so 1/2 way through the trip I stopped back to load the bed with more firewood which I never ended up burning anyway. On the way home with the rig I stopped at my local RV dealer for something and couldn't help but notice the rear of the truck was sagging a lot more than it ever did before. I'm sure all that additional firewood was the culprit since that was really the only thing that was added.

Anyway, I just ordered a tongue weight scale to get a better idea of how much weight the camper is putting on my truck. The sticker weight on the camper is 6767 and I can only assume the actual weight is 7,500-8,000 since I've never weighed it. I'd love to know the actual tongue weight and I know I could probably do a much better job distributing the weight better in the camper.

[Grit_dog]

Keep from hauling home a load of firewood, or get some air bags.
Don't let these guys scare you into a dually, lol. Unless you want one....

[Desert_Captain]

Terryallan wrote:
Seems to me. You are over the payload of your truck just using the dry weight of the TT. BEFORE you add any weight to the TT.

On this we agree.

:C

[Terryallan]

Seems to me. You are over the payload of your truck just using the dry weight of the TT. BEFORE you add any weight to the TT.

[corvettekent]

For $10 you can get weighed on a CAT scale at a truck stop.

[Desert_Captain]

Sounds like you are lot closer to 8,000# loaded. Always ignore dry weights as they are a joke {and the joke will always be on you}. At 8,000# your tongue weight - 1,040#{ and the weight of the hitch}, will eat up about 90 per cent of your available payload. Get to a scale and weigh the rig loaded for a normal camping run and I'm sure you'll find that you are over your TV's payload.

Tow ratings are almost as big a joke as dry weights. You will always run out of payload and probably rear axel limits long before you get anywhere near your so called "towing capacity". If you load very light you will probably be OK but I think you have been pushing the envelope... the extra firewood sent you a valuable message.

One last thought, are you running "P" tires or LT's? Yep, you need to be running LT's and if you've been running P's you will see serious improvement in the ride and handling when you switch to LT's..

As always.... Opinions and YMMV.

:C