Towing capacity

[Tukus45]

Buying my first travel trailer and have a question. My truck is rated at 12500 towing capacity and the toy hauler I am looking at is 9900 dry weight. Am I going to heavy?

[valhalla360]

BurbMan wrote:
I love these threads! Two pages of posts over 10 days telling the OP he will overweight and flirting with danger, meanwhile the OP never said what kind of truck he/she owns and nobody has asked!

Ummm....did you bother to read the thread?

Lots of questions asking for the specific truck info.

[Michelle_S]

Doesn't really matter, many are just looking for one poster to say "You'll be fine, I've done it for 20-30 years", doesn't matter that others have laid the numbers out saying they can't or at least shouldn't, as long as they get one "Good to GO" they're gone.

[Grit_dog]

BurbMan wrote:
I love these threads! Two pages of posts over 10 days telling the OP he will overweight and flirting with danger, meanwhile the OP never said what kind of truck he/she owns and nobody has asked!

He/she was asked to provide more info. However it sort of gets lost in the voluminous BS being posted.

[BurbMan]

I love these threads! Two pages of posts over 10 days telling the OP he will overweight and flirting with danger, meanwhile the OP never said what kind of truck he/she owns and nobody has asked!

[BenK]

Add that there will always be the: "sure you can", "I've done that for years and no problems", "I'd do it", "Go for it", etc...

And yup, the OEMs playing marketing "king of the hill' games with marketing brochure numbers that are all over the place that makes easy for 'advisors' to comment the above.

Too many times the OEM brochures are in conflict with their label & manual numbers.

Then old salts can then say that Marty's 90's era 1 ton and it's 6K RGAWR is just GM's rating and that the supplier to GM of that axle assembly (AAM) rates it at 10,000 GAWR and even see them on flatbed slate sided trucks.

On another thread, someone posted about a nifty doodad that calculates the weights without having to go to the scales and have been saying for years and years...the OEMs will soon have them standard and will be warranty basis for denial if it records over weights

[MFL]

Ha FTG, towing section slow, lots of BS needed! For lurkers, looking to learn, one poster lists 1/2 tow capacities of 13-14K, then lists Toyota at a mere 10,200 TC, when we all saw it tow the 165,000 lb space shuttle!

Jerry

[ford_truck_guy]

This is hysterical....


OP asks a question..... 4 pages later all the "folks" here are arguing with each other, debating, chatting,, and NO SIGN of the OP again! ! ! Gotta love it ! :S

[mlh]

With the way people like to posture that they know everything and you don't, as well as the back and forth on this thread, if I were the OP, I wouldn't return here to respond either.

There is a thread on RV.net asking where everyone went, and they noticed that no one posts anymore. Here's why.

[blt2ski]

Even with my SW mid 90's K3500, by the time I loaded spouse, 4 kids, rack, canoe, 2 125-150 lb malamutes with crates in the bed, a bike or five. I had all but 700 lbs typically of it's approx 3000 lbs of payload filled up. So an approx 7000-7500 lb trailer with 700 being HW. Yet most would say I had upwards of 12000 lbs to work with! HAH!!

Marty

[philh]

payload usually will knock a 1/2 T out of the running, no matter what it's tow weight rating

[BenK]

There is also a possible confusion with MTWR with GCWR and tossed that and posted half ton (less than 8K GVWR) that the OP might have.

Really posting for both the OP and lurkers out there that PM me asking because almost everyone uses marketing nomenclature...half ton, 3/4 ton, 1 ton and then the modifiers = HD, Heavy Duty, Super Duty, etc.

Tried to keep it simple for the OP & lurkers, but it got out of hand, so posting latest and greatest model lines and their MTWR's...which fit right into the OP's numbers

Current crop of half ton specs =

Here Are Each Brand's Best Half-Ton Trucks For Towing

motortrend wrote:
The Best Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra Half-Ton For Towing

For the 2021 model year, the highest tow rating for a Chevy Silverado 1500 or GMC Sierra 1500 is found in an extended-cab four-wheel-drive model equipped with the company's 6.2L V-8 engine and its NFT towing package. This gets a maximum rating of 13,300 pounds.

Silverado and Sierra models equipped with the 4.3L V-6 top out at 7,900 pounds, while those with the 2.7L I-4 bump up to 9,600 pounds. Trucks with the 5.3L V-8 can tow up to 11,500 pounds. Surprisingly, the 3.0L Duramax diesel tops out at a maximum towing of 9,500 pounds.


The Best Ford F-150 Half-Ton For Towing

For 2021, Ford reclaimed the best-in-class title for half-ton towing its F-150 pickup. Ford also has the largest number of cab and engine configurations in the class, along with available axle ratios, as well. This makes determining the actual tow rating of any truck a lot more difficult. (GM alleviates this confusion with stickers in the door jamb.) Confusion factor aside, the 3.5L EcoBoost V-6-equipped Ford F-150 can tow a maximum of 14,000 pounds. And this can be achieved with both Super Cab and Super Crew configured trucks in two-wheel drive.

Ford 5.0L V-8-equipped F-150 can tow up to 13,000 pounds in all cab configurations, while the 2.7L EcoBoost V-6 is capable of up to 10,100 pounds for Super Cab and Super Crew four-wheel-drive models. Ford's 3.0L Power Stroke diesel V-6 is available only in four-wheel-drive Super Cab and Super Crew models and is rated at a maximum of 12,100 pounds in both. The company's base 3.3L V-6 is rated at a max of 8,200 pounds in all cab configurations, and the new 3.5L Power Boost hybrid-equipped trucks can drag up to 12,700 pounds.

There are more, but this gets the message across that the OP might have a half ton with 12,500 MTWR

Not to leave out Car & Driver's take on half ton towing =

Best Trucks for Maximum Towing Capacity

car and driver wrote:

snip...to the full sized half tons

Toyota Tundra | 10,200 pounds

Nissan Titan XD | 11,070 pounds

Ram 1500 | 12,750 pounds

GMC Sierra 1500 | 13,200 pounds

Chevrolet Silverado 1500 | 13,300 pounds

Ford F-150 | 14,000 pounds

snip...the +8K GVWR's

[Grit_dog]

BenK wrote:
There are over a dozen DIFFERENT ‘half tons’ and some are right up there or near up there with 3/4 tons and most are down in the same as full sized cars & midsized pickups

Ford’s half ton Unicorn have a 7 lug wheel and GM’s half ton Unicorn have an 8 lug wheel.

At one time these ‘HD’ half ton’s had same or nearly the same RGAWR’s & GVWR’S as 3/4 ton pickups

Just trying to help this OP with metrics for them to figure it out themselves. They did say they already had the TV and looking at a trailer…the why suggesting of scaling the TV axle by axle and then using the trailer brochure numbers to figure an approximate situation for the setup. Edit…as they didn’t say which TV they have…just have a TV with a +12K MTWR

Expected the OPs TV to come out nearly at RGAWR capacity, unless they have that fabled ‘HD’ half ton and even then, might have limiting issues with the RGAWR.

Then with the TV’s actual weights, they can then look at other brochure specifications and still think they will find that those trailers will be way smaller than their original wants.

Assuming the OP is going to stick to staying under or within the OEM’s specifications

Here is a good site to read of those fabled ‘HD’ half ton’s

All you need to know about this heavy half-ton unicorn
https://www.motortrend.com/news/chevy-1500hd-2001-2006-crew-cab-half-ton/


There are articles of the Ford fabled half ton, but this one should do it….

Dodge had a "unicorn" half ton as you call it as well. The 3rd Gen 1500 Mega Cab, which was simply a re-badges 2500 Mega with a gas engine (and an anemic 8klb tow rating). And btw, to old 7 lugger Fords of the late 90s early 2000s were labeled F250s. I had 3 or 4 of them back in the day. Although they may have revived the 7lug in the early 2010s briefly I recall, in the HDPP F150s, but these didn't have full floater rears like the 1500 Mega and 1500HD.
However, your assumption that the OP has a half ton is pretty well unfounded. And if he did have one of those unicorn half tons, it wouldn't have a tow rating of 12,500lbs. None of them did.
So by process of deduction from the very limited info, OP has a newer half ton with a big tow cap or he has some sort of HD or 3/4-1 ton truck.
However this is apparently a much bigger deal to us than him, as he never contributed to this thread, so I guess that makes us the suckers!
Given that the newest "unicorn"

[BenK]

There are over a dozen DIFFERENT ‘half tons’ and some are right up there or near up there with 3/4 tons and most are down in the same as full sized cars & midsized pickups

Ford’s half ton Unicorn have a 7 lug wheel and GM’s half ton Unicorn have an 8 lug wheel.

At one time these ‘HD’ half ton’s had same or nearly the same RGAWR’s & GVWR’S as 3/4 ton pickups

Just trying to help this OP with metrics for them to figure it out themselves. They did say they already had the TV and looking at a trailer…the why suggesting of scaling the TV axle by axle and then using the trailer brochure numbers to figure an approximate situation for the setup. Edit…as they didn’t say which TV they have…just have a TV with a +12K MTWR

Expected the OPs TV to come out nearly at RGAWR capacity, unless they have that fabled ‘HD’ half ton and even then, might have limiting issues with the RGAWR.

Then with the TV’s actual weights, they can then look at other brochure specifications and still think they will find that those trailers will be way smaller than their original wants.

Assuming the OP is going to stick to staying under or within the OEM’s specifications

Here is a good site to read of those fabled ‘HD’ half ton’s

All you need to know about this heavy half-ton unicorn
https://www.motortrend.com/news/chevy-1500hd-2001-2006-crew-cab-half-ton/


There are articles of the Ford fabled half ton, but this one should do it….

[Walaby]

Im sure that's a true statement. But SAE J2807 doesn't calculate payload.

Mike