Heavy Trailers

The RV industry isn't completely innocent when it comes to this issue. The term "half ton towable" has become a very effective marketing tool. The term "half ton" is a very broad statement. There's a big difference between a truck with a V-6 with 3.23 gears and a Tundra, for example, with a 5.7 V-8 with 4.30 gears and what they are capable of towing. To the first time or uneducated buyer, when they see "half ton towable", that's all they need to know. Those of us who have been doing this for a long time, we know what our tow vehicles are capable of, and we shop accordingly. My camper is 35 ft and has a dry weight of 7100 lbs. and was advertised as half ton towable. My truck at the time was a Ram 1500 with the Hemi and 3.92 gears and a tow rating of 10,000 lbs. So I was was confident in thinking that I could tow this trailer with no problem. The truck had plenty of power to tow the trailer, but when you start towing trailers that are much heavier than the vehicle you are towing it with, then things like wind, passing large trucks, etc, can severely effect how the tow vehicle handles, which is why I decided to upgrade to a 3/4 ton truck. (I'm pretty sure that my wife will never tell me to go pick out my own Christmas present again). Most of us are guilty of learning things the hard way.