Greenhorn Jitters

[PippinAin_tEasy]

Gentlemen (and women), fire up your opinions. This brand spankin' newbie just bought the 2014 Ram Big Horn Crew Cab 6'4" bed 5.7 Hemi with 3.92 in the rear end and towing pkg with integrated brake controller. On Monday we're going to pick up (unless logic dictates otherwise) a 2014 Crossroads Zinger travel trailer model ZT32qb. Trailer specs are as follows: 6900# dry weight, 9500# GVWR, 33' 10" overall length. Got it? Good. Now the fun begins.
Yonder website ramtrucks.com says that my truck (after plugging in the VIN in their fancy calculator) is rated for 1600# cargo and 10250# towing. Now I understand that as you add cargo to the vehicle yer towing capabilities have to slide accordingly and that's fine with me. I've got no beef with physics. Here's the brown trout in the beer cooler. Sticker inside the door says do not exceed total 1404# passenger + cargo. Fine.
Enter trailer tongue weight. For those who've never had to deal with this realm of interpretive math I am envious. Tongue weight is variable (unless I'm mistaken) by yer trailer's weight when loaded with all you'll be taking. As long as you know how to load a trailer properly this number is ideally 10-15% of loaded trailer weight. By my estimation my trailer will come in right at 8400# cocked, locked, and ready to rock giving me an (ideal) tongue weight of 840#. But wait, there's more. Add 2 lp tanks @ 70# a pop, a 70# deep cycle battery and now yer up at a grand on yer class IV receiver. What's the weight limit of a class IV receiver? Depends. Some say 1000 tongue/10000 tow, some say 1200 tongue/12000 tow. Hmmm.
Well, now you know what I know. Here's my big question. Understanding that this rig is knocking fervently on the door of max duty ratings how nuts is it to take it on the highways and byways of 'Merica? Would you? I'm sitting on a fairly high sphincter/pucker ratio at the moment and I can't wait to hear what all you seasoned veterans have to say. Before I hit "post" I should include that the only things in the truck proper while towing will be me, the woman, the boy (15 months) and a couple of dogs. Grand total on that is 425#. Ya'll have a good weekend, I'll be here.

---Ray

[1wayhighway]

The published dry weight is not the actual dry weight, check the sticker on the trailer when you go back to buy. Also as mentioned earlier look at the hitch on the truck it will have a sticker on it with the allowable tongue weights with and without a WDH.

The truck will have no problems pulling the trailer but you will more than likely be over your cargo capacity (or at least right at it) depending on what else you put in the back of the truck.

Purchase a good WDH and don't depend on the dealer to set it up properly, you will have to do that yourself. Take a trip to a CAT scale and will be able to get it dialed in.

[samhain7]

I have a trailer 200lbs heavier than your. I towed it with a 2011 ram 1500 Laramie with air bags for a bit. My payload was 1089!!! (Have a family of 4)
I had no issues.
Note that I DID however switch to a 2500 gasser. But that was.because I was given a deal I could not refuse (same monthly commitment) not because of the ride...

[Tequila]

Also I would add a Torklift superhitch and supersprings or air bags. You will wish you had bought a 3/4 or 1 ton truck.

Also get ready for 9-10 MPG. one reason i have a diesel is I get 13.5 and with the miles I travel (Southern Mexico & back once a year) that makes a big difference.

[campigloo]

If you tow much over the next couple of years, save some cash for tow trucks, transmissions and differentials.

[hawkeye-08]

Likely you will not be happy (at least not as happy as you could be) with that combo. Many tow at or above their ratings, but why start out that way...?

Does the truck have "P metric" or LT tires? P metric will give you a nicer ride, but will make towing experience less than desirable at times with the sidewall flex they have.

Does the truck have transmission cooler (more than the in radiator one)? I would assume it does, but is it big enough to keep the transmission operational.

Do you have a scale to check your tongue weight? I have a Sherline that comes in real handy when I am loading (or changing how I load). I like to have an idea of the tongue weight, which can vary several hundred pounds by loading different...

[MitchF150]

Have you ever towed anything before?? That's an awful lot of trailer to break into the trailer towing game! 😉

And doing it with a 1500 Dodge Ram that will be maxed out pretty much towing that thing dry is going to be a definite 'pucker factor' event... 😉

Remember, the "tow ratings" assume an empty truck that weighs in at it's "curb weight" and from what I've been reading lately, the "curb weight" figures are a stripped down version of your truck and even has items REMOVED from the truck to get that low "curb weight" figure...

Anyway, I think you'll have your hands full.. Sure, you'll get down the road.. No problem with power with that rig... Handling?? Well, that's another ball game and one that might not be too much fun...

Good luck!

Mitch

[westend]

What's the weight limit of a class IV receiver? Depends. Some say 1000 tongue/10000 tow, some say 1200 tongue/12000 tow. Hmmm.

The receiver has a weight rating label.

[goducks10]

I wouldn't and I'm far from a registered weight police guy. Heck I tow 200lbs over my GVW right now. My thinking is that I've BTDT. Towed 7300lbs @31' with an F150. with maxtow. Forget about the doggy 5.4 it had, it was the overall handling that I didn't like. 70% of the time it was just okay. The rest while not white knuckle was attention grabbing.

6900lbs will be 7900lbs if you have kids. 12% of 7900lbs is 940lbs. That leaves you with 464lbs for family. I'm guessing that's close to what yours is. Now couple a maxed out truck towing almost 34' @7900-8000lbs and IMO it's white knuckle time. You won't like it unless you're just going 50-60 miles for a weekend trip. Then I guess you'd just get used to it. But like mentioned before if you're planning on seeing a larger area then 5-7 hrs of pulling a 34' 8000lb TT with a maxed out truck and a couple kids wanting to know if they're there yet could be unnerving IMO.

[Desert_Captain]

Assuming for a moment that you do roll out loaded at 8,400# you will have roughly 1,200# of tongue weight (including the WDH). A trailer that long needs to have at least 13% tongue weight. If you roll out with only 840# of TW ( which by the way is just not going to happen), that is a sure fire recipe for sway, especially on a 33'+ trailer pulled by a half ton truck.

IMHO: You are needlessly pushing the envelope but as noted above if you stay in the flat country and don't go to far you "can" do it. Consider too that with 1,200# of your 1,600# of payload gone to TW that only leaves 400# for passengers and "stuff" that you can put into the truck and that 400# will disappear very quickly.

As always.... Opinions and YMMV.

:C

[Francesca_Knowl]

PippinAin'tEasy wrote:

Enter trailer tongue weight.

Good idea.

But y'all better start with the dry tongue as given by the trailer mfr: 991 pounds, according to the brochure at Crossroads' website, and also at this link.

You have a grand on the ball before you've put so much as a pair of yer chaps in the trailer, Podner! And by the way, WDH won't help much, since most of the transferred weight is still carried by the tug and therefore part of its payload.

[Speedogomer]

I have a very similar truck, with an RV that's shorter, and lighter by over 1k lbs.

I have no issues. That said, I wouldn't really want much over that.

10% tongue weight is low. Most want at least 12-15%

You'll be at least 1k lbs on the tongue, and over 400 in the truck. You'll have maxed out your payload.

Some old school guys will say don't worry about it, it's just an arbitrary number. Others will say it's dangerous and how dare you drive on the same road as me.

All I know is, with my truck, I'm happy I don't have a larger TT. I have no issues myself, and don't want the hassle of more weight or length.

[Campfire_Time]

JnJnKatiebug wrote:
Just my opinion-If you are going down the road to camp or over to the next state 200 miles away you will be fine. But, on the other hand, if you plan on heading out across country for 1500 miles I think you will wish you had a bigger truck.

X2. I have twice over the years knowingly towed trailers very close to my rated capacities. It worked fine and I never once felt unsafe, but it was clear from vehicle performance that anything more than short trips on relatively flat roads was going to be too much for the combinations. Much better towing experience and more flexibility in trip planning when you have lots of reserve capacity.

[bid_time]

You'll probably be right at the max when you but the WDH on. Otherwise you'll be over on payload with out the WDH.

[JnJnKatiebug]

Just my opinion-If you are going down the road to camp or over to the next state 200 miles away you will be fine. But, on the other hand, if you plan on heading out across country for 1500 miles I think you will wish you had a bigger truck.