towing with family

our excursion only has a tow rating or 10,000 and our trailer is about 8000 when ready to go. The only thing to watch is the tongue weight plus all the people and stuff. The weight you can carry will go over way before the weight you can pull.

Take two vehicles. Pileing everyone into ove vehicle would possibly overload any of the vehicles you hitched up to.

It'll work fine, but watch the payload. Daughter, kids, and their stuff along with the tongue weight might push you over the payload.

It may be "crazy" to take 2 vehicles, but I think this idea is crazier. Personally I wouldn't want the hassles of setting the WD hitch up for a different vehicle for one trip. Not to mention putting in a brake controller if it doesn't have one built in, which I don't think the Armada has. And if your RAM has a built in controller, that means you'd have to buy one for the Armada.

TAKE TWO VEHICLES. TAKE TWO VEHICLES. TAKE TWO VEHICLES. Just in case I wasn't clear, take two vehicles. That Nissan is a marginal two vehicle for your trailer, and probably has "P" rated tires which will increase sway dramatically. It will probably be overloaded with everyone and everything stuffed inside. You will have to equip the Nissan for towing, too.

This guy was pulling a 35' TT with his Armada until he traded for a F-350 diesel.
BUT his trailer was a lot longer and heavier (8500# dry), and he says the Armada did a respectable job towing it, but he traded because he was down to his last ounce of ratings. So with your size/weight TT you might be OK with the Armada.

Of course that means installing a brake controller in the Armada, getting proper mirrors, etc....

If this is the first time taking DD and the kids, maybe worth going somewhere close to home where they can follow easily in the Armada and see how the family camping thing works out with the TT before investing in tow gear for the Armada.

My Suburban(+family +fuel) and similar 6500# trailer top over 12000# combined weight.

The only way to know for sure is to take it all to the scales and see, but probably simplest just to take two cars.

If you try it, be careful not to put too much weight in back of the trailer. My experience with long TTs is that tongue weight that is too light can cause dangerous handling issues.

Test drive the setup. See how it works. If you're doing any mountain or hill driving test how it behaves while braking on a downhill curve.

DownTheAvenue wrote:
and probably has "P" rated tires which will increase sway dramatically.

Nope not true. The "P" rated tires on today's SUVs and trucks are not the same ones on your family sedan like they would have been 20 years ago. The SUV/truck "P" tires have stiffer sidewalls and can take a greater PSI. Mine can go up to 51 psi and it tows beautifully. I run my backs at 45 when towing.

Check that 11,000 tow rating. My wife has a 2006 Armada with the tow package and the max trailer weight is 9100 if I remember correctly. 11,000 doesn't sound correct. I towed our 7700 lb unloaded travel trailer home from the lot with it. The engine did okay but the tongue weight was too much and caused the rear end to be spongy. I don't recommend loading the armada down and pulling a trailer in the 7000 lb range. I've personally been there and didn't feel comfortable.

Here's my TT with wife's Armada...


As previously mentioned, after towing TT home from the lot with the Armada I bought the Dodge 2500 in the below image...


I pulled our TT with only me in the Armada and the TT was completely empty (not even sewer hoses, bed linens, etc.) I felt that the unloaded tongue weight was too much even with the Armada's air bags. The Armada looked perfectly level due to the air bags, but driving it told another story. It had "P" rated tires so I'm sure I could have helped it with "E" tires, but I felt the dodge was the safer bet. Now I just leave the dodge hooked to the camper 100% of the time. It's always loaded and ready to roll.