Is there a towing rule of thumb?

[s1214]

A friend has a Tundra that she uses to tow her horse trailer. She's been sleeping in the cab of the truck but has been talking about a TC. Is there a rule of thumb about how much you can tow while loaded with a camper? Logic tells me that the two would be inversely impacted but I have no idea how much.

[s1214]

AidenJ wrote:
Gee Scott I would have thought a good ole Vt. boy could figure this out. 1st remove the engine from the truck and use that compartment for feed and water for the horse. 2nd Sell the trailer and buy a decent slide in. 3rd Move the horse to the front of the rig and hook it up, Amish do it all the time.
Been a while,hope you are doing well.
Dick

While I am a good ole VT boy, I don't tow. I know there is a towing capacity and a cargo capacity and they should impact each other, but the way manufacturers label things you never know how if they're quoted dependent on each other or not.

Thanks for all the comments. I'm guessing a good rule of thumb might be to add the additional tongue weight to the weight of the camper 'loaded' and leave a healthy margin of error from the cargo weight.

Sound good?

[AidenJ]

Gee Scott I would have thought a good ole Vt. boy could figure this out. 1st remove the engine from the truck and use that compartment for feed and water for the horse. 2nd Sell the trailer and buy a decent slide in. 3rd Move the horse to the front of the rig and hook it up, Amish do it all the time.
Been a while,hope you are doing well.
Dick

[Redsky]

She can get a popup that weighs less than 1000 lbs. and this will not affect her towing at all. Only restriction is the total weight on the rear axle with the tongue weight of the trailer added to the weight of the camper.

[805gregg]

Wrong truck, tell her as a horse person, she needs a real 8' bed truck, then she can have her pick of TC's, and get better mileage

[camp-n-family]

Not saying it can't be done but let's do a little reverse math. Part of the problem is we don't know the trucks cab configuration and payload so let's use worse case scenario.

-A Crewmax Tundra has a payload around 1300lbs (yes, low, I know)

-A 2 horse trailer will weigh 5000lbs+ with horses in it. Those trailers are fairly balanced but you're probably looking at minimum 10% on the tongue (500lbs)

- A lady that rides horses is probably fairly light 😉 so call it 120lbs

That leaves us with 680lbs of payload left for a loaded TC. And that's assuming they travel alone.
1300-500-120

Even 1 person will pack at least 200lbs of stuff for a weekend including clothes, food, dishes and utensils, cutlery, beer....

Now down to 480lbs of payload left for a TC. I have never seen one that light. That'd be a tent on a sheet of ply in the bed.

The more popular double cab Tundra buys you another ~200lbs of payload. Still doesn't leave much for a TC. A rare regular cab 2X4 work truck gets up to 2000lbs of payload but I'd be surprised if that's what she has.

[fla-gypsy]

There are several all of which will squash that idea totally.

[camp-n-family]

Yes, it will be hard to meet (stay under the weight limits) with a horse trailer loaded with horse(s), and a camper, on a Toyota.

I agree with this, but it's got nothing to do with it being a Toyota, this goes for just about every 1/2 ton truck. Not many TCs under 1k loaded weight. That doesn't leave much payload for passengers or trailer tongue weight.

[kaydeejay]

2oldman wrote:
GCWR. It's called the 'rule of the door jamb.'

Better go take another look at your door jamb. I suspect you will find GVWR and axle ratings there, but the GCWR is more than likely in your owner's manual.;)

[MitchF150]

Just a simple canopy and an air mattress, sleeping bag, etc would be better than the cab..

Some of those pop up slide in's would work too, but could still weigh more than the trucks payload will allow along with the horse trailer..

Once you use up the payload on the truck, there is no more 'tow rating' left.

Mitch

[Bionic_Man]

She would probably be best off getting a smaller slide in. With a larger camper it is likely that she would have to use a hitch extension. Most hitch extensions reduce the tongue weight capacity of the hitch on the truck.

[deltabravo]

sch911 wrote:
There are two rules: The GVWR, and the GCWR. Going to be hard for her to meet both of those...

Yes, it will be hard to meet (stay under the weight limits) with a horse trailer loaded with horse(s), and a camper, on a Toyota.

[2oldman]

GCWR. It's called the 'rule of the door jamb.'

[sch911]

There are two rules: The GVWR, and the GCWR. Going to be hard for her to meet both of those...

[rvten]

She could get a horse trailer that is also a RV. See a lot of them on the road.