Mega sh 2500 hemi how much can I tow comfortably

[Butch9101]

I have a 2011 mega cab 2500 5.7 hemi. I have a 2025 coachmen Catalina fb223. Dry weight of 4,400 lbs I pull it easily. I want to buy a bigger TT WITH A SLIDE. THE ONE IM LOOKING ST IS A DRY WEIGHT 6,400 lbs. I live in the mountains of Pa. I tow to Florida once a year and to ocean city md maybe 2 times a year. How much harder with the bigger camper be? Should I look for one a little lighter? I have a dual cam wdh so it's top of the line there but worried about the truck. Don't wanna over work it.

[Butch9101]

Is 4.30 available for my truck?

[dodge_guy]

Butch9101 wrote:
I talked to my buddy who owns a garage today to see what he he thought about the gear change and he said going from 3.73 to 4.10 isn't gonna make much diff. I would have to go 4.56 to notice it. And that would suck for daily driving. So I think I'm gonna keep my gearing and have to make a choice on the camper size I want

Daily driving will really wake the truck up! Your mileage will actually increase around town. Hwy Mileage will go down a bit, maybe 1 mpg, but your towing mileage will go up! Well worth it. Although I would also wait till you tow with it to decide if you want to change the gearing. And yes you need to go to a minimum of 4.30, I think 4.56 is only available for the AAM axle!

[Butch9101]

Thanks again for all of the input

[Butch9101]

I talked to my buddy who owns a garage today to see what he he thought about the gear change and he said going from 3.73 to 4.10 isn't gonna make much diff. I would have to go 4.56 to notice it. And that would suck for daily driving. So I think I'm gonna keep my gearing and have to make a choice on the camper size I want

[camp-n-family]

As I said earlier you *MIGHT* not like the performance, but you will never know unless you try.

No, but you can get a pretty good idea based on others' experiences, which is the whole idea of this post. A lot of people could've avoided very expensive mistakes if they had an idea in advance.

Not having the power to roar up mountain passes at 70MPH left you in "a dangerous situation," really? How was it dangerous? For one thing you could have feathered the gas pedal and not held it to redline if that's what you thought was dangerous. Was the line of cars behind you the concern? That's their problem not yours. About the only "danger" was if someone road-raged on you and had a gun or something. You can't live your life worrying about stuff like that.

Easy to be a backseat driver. What exactly is your experience with this combo?? Nobody said anything about needing to roar up a mountain at 70mph. Pretty sure I said I didn't need to be a speed demon. I could care less about the traffic behind me. I also said I have no problem winding it out at redline if that's what it takes, nothing dangerous there. Since you can't even read that part, I'm not going to bother getting into details of the dangerous situations it led to.

The OP wanted opinions on a specific setup, nearly identical to mine. I offered my actual experience and opinion. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it isn't true.

[Butch9101]

I am so glad so many people responded. Love all of the input. Also glad to hear from people who are towing with similar rigs as I'm using.

[mkirsch]

I'm with lbrjet. There's no reason to jump the gun and start throwing money if you don't have to.

Get the trailer you want. See how it tows. It's not going to be so bad as to leave you stranded in the middle of a hill unable to go up or down unless you have some REALLY steep hills. Make adjustments *IF* necessary.

As I said earlier you *MIGHT* not like the performance, but you will never know unless you try.

Not having the power to roar up mountain passes at 70MPH left you in "a dangerous situation," really? How was it dangerous? For one thing you could have feathered the gas pedal and not held it to redline if that's what you thought was dangerous. Was the line of cars behind you the concern? That's their problem not yours. About the only "danger" was if someone road-raged on you and had a gun or something. You can't live your life worrying about stuff like that.

[camp-n-family]

So you are suggesting a lighter camper or upgrading my gearing to 4.10?

Not suggesting anything, just relating my experience. Personally, I'm not very happy with the experience in the hills. Luckily where I live there aren't a lot of them.

The truck will pull an 8k tt but will struggle on steep grades if you're not already up to speed. Second gear is too tall and the 1-2 shift drops below the power band. It pulls hard in first above 3k rpm, where the power is, right up to redline but the shift to 2nd drops the rpm to around 2k where there is no power to pull. It bogs down and loses speed causing a shift right back to 1st @ redline which then causes an immediate drop to 2nd and the cycle starts over. Only way around it is to manually hold it in first and crawl up the hill.

I don't need to be a speed demon up hills, but twice this left me in dangerous situations.

Everybody thinks "it's a 3/4 ton, it can pull that no problem". Heck, I did too when I bought the truck, but not many are speaking from actual experience with the engine, gearing and trans combo. Lots of power, lots of payload, just poorly geared.

See if you can borrow or test tow an 8k tt and go pull some hills. It's the only way to know if you'll be comfortable. If you're not in the hills you'll be fine. If you pull a lot of grades, especially from a standstill, not so much.

[lbrjet]

I wouldn't spend a dime on new gearing. You are WAY over thinking this. Your truck will handle either trailer just fine as it is. I have 21,000 towing miles on my 5.4L/3.73 truck hauling 9,000 lbs without a hiccup. Have crossed over a dozen 9,000 - 11,000 ft plus passes in the west. Have been in 2nd gear many times at 45 MPH up steep grades, but who cares, I'm not racing anyone. The only time in first gear was because I got stuck behind a truck going 15 MPH this past summer with no passing zones.

[rhagfo]

Butch9101 wrote:
If I would change my gearing. Would I have to do both front and back like older trucks. Or just back?

If it is a 4X4 YES!

[Butch9101]

If I would change my gearing. Would I have to do both front and back like older trucks. Or just back?

[mkirsch]

Butch9101 wrote:
So you are suggesting a lighter camper or upgrading my gearing to 4.10?

Lighter enough to make a difference puts you right back in your old trailer. If you want to upgrade, upgrade. You've got enough truck to handle and stop it.

[dodge_guy]

camp-n-family wrote:
I have a '14 Ram 2500 with the 5.7 Hemi, 6 speed, 3.73 gear and is rated to tow 13k. We tow our bullet 31BHPR with it which weighs 6400lbs dry and scales at 7600lbs loaded.

It tows ok in the flats and small hills but it really struggles in the mountains. I'm not afraid to wind it out either. The killer is the 3.73 gear. We've encountered several hills where we were unable to get out of first gear when accelerating from a stop. Lots of power up to redline in first but when it would shift to second it bogged down and couldn't hold speed. Forget about accelerating. We were stuck manually shifting to hold it in first, at redline and 35mph, to the top of the hills while holding up traffic. For comparison, my old Tundra towed the same TT over the same hills effortlessly and could acclerate. Same power but 4.30 gears.

Needless to say we were a little surprised since we were barely 1/2 the tow rating. I looked at trading the truck in but would lose my shirt. Right now I'm considering a gear swap to 4.10s before next towing season.

I would also swap to the lower gear. It`s the best thing that you could do when towing heavy! I went from 3.73 to 4.30 in my Excursion and it was one of the best things I could`ve done for it!

[NC_Hauler]

Butch9101 wrote:
I towed my Catalina fb223 dry weight 4,400 lbs. fully loaded I'm guessing 6,400 lbs plus 3 people in truck 3 dogs 3 kayaks and a generator in the bed with kayaks. I towed it with ease to Florida down through Tennessee. Destin Florida was the destination. Average 10 mpg. The 2 trailers in looking at are coachmen 5,500 dry weight and a Salem 6,400 dry. The more I've been hearing the more I'm thinking about the lighter trailer.

It's really hard to "guess" what you're going to load a trailer to, AGAIN...forget dry weight....it's a deceiving weight..NO ONE tows their RV EMPTY...Please use trailers GVW, it would behoove you to use actual weight you might load to...with 3 people, 3 dogs, 3 kayaks and a gen set...that weight is also going somewhere, not even considering what you load into the camper to accommodate people and pets for a camping trip.

Use dry weight if not taking propane, water, dishes, pots pans, towels,food, no clothing, no outdoor chairs, etc....dry weight is not a good number to use on a TT, 5er etc when trying to figure out what the vehicle can tow. ...and '''guessing how much you're going to load unit to, isn't a good way of figuring weights..