Maximum length for 1500

[Wolverinesfan15]

I don't want to beat a dead horse and I have looked through the forums and found some information. I have a Silverado 1500 2WD crew cab with 3:42 gear ratio. The TT we like is 33 feet long and 6150 dry weight. This falls under the towing capacity of the truck but is it still to big to tow. We live not far from Yosemite and would be traveling up the mountain to camp often. First question is this TT realistically doable for this truck. Also, anyone with a similar set up, how does it do pulling up the hills? Appreciate all you experts out there. I have had a TT in Michigan but was about 27 feet and not hilly like it is out here.

[Wolverinesfan15]

Grit dog wrote:

HuckleberryHunter wrote:
Doable? Yes. Comfortable to drive, probably not.
I wouldn’t do it, but everyone has their own set of standards.

^This. I'll add, OP, that if you are asking the question, then you are inexperienced at towing and would be better served starting out smaller and working your way up.

I used to tow a 28 foot camper but it was majority flatland. I'm comfortable towing it, I was more thinking of the capability and wear on my truck

[Grit_dog]

HuckleberryHunter wrote:
Doable? Yes. Comfortable to drive, probably not.
I wouldn’t do it, but everyone has their own set of standards.

^This. I'll add, OP, that if you are asking the question, then you are inexperienced at towing and would be better served starting out smaller and working your way up.

[owenssailor]

Your 2017 should tow that trailer fine. Ours does. As for braking - remember that the trailer has brakes. Look at a transport. The tractor does not have the braking power to stop the whole load.

Going up long steep grades your engine will rev. That is no problem. It won't hurt anything. Those small blocks are used in lots of power boats where working rpm is 4000 plus.

If you have P-metric tires on the truck air them to max PSI from the sidewall.

Be sure to get a good hitch with built in sway control and set it up correctly/

Have fun

[owenssailor]

Your 2017 should tow that trailer fine. Ours does. As for braking - remember that the trailer has brakes. Look at a transport. The tractor does not have the braking power to stop the whole load.

Going up long steep grades your engine will rev. That is no problem. It won't hurt anything. Those small blocks are used in lots of power boats where working rpm is 4000 plus.

If you have P-metric tires on the truck air them to max PSI from the sidewall.

Be sure to get a good hitch with built in sway control and set it up correctly/

Have fun

[Wolverinesfan15]

trailer_newbe wrote:
Our trailer is a 28’ with an overall length of 33.5’. GVW of the trailer was about 8,500 lbs and tung weight was about 700-750 lbs. Towed it with our Tundra CrewMax, which had a max CCC of 1,387 lbs and a GVW of 10,400 lbs. We were always over on the cargo by a few hundred but fine on the GVW. Towed it about 5 times, including several 4-5 hour trips and it went ok, but never any real challenging terrain. Cross winds was the biggest issue.

I knew we had a trip coming up through Salt River Canyon (Az) and I defiantly was not looking forward to it. Ended up trading up to a RAM 3/4 ton with the Cummins Diesel (2018). Salt River Canyon was a piece of cake, never looking back.

Yeah I'm going with the trailer we want which is the one this post is on. I'm going to see how towing goes, and looking to trade in truck for a used 2500 diesel. See how it goes. Worst case gives me an excuse to give the wife on why I need to trade in the truck.

[trailer_newbe]

Our trailer is a 28’ with an overall length of 33.5’. GVW of the trailer was about 8,500 lbs and tung weight was about 700-750 lbs. Towed it with our Tundra CrewMax, which had a max CCC of 1,387 lbs and a GVW of 10,400 lbs. We were always over on the cargo by a few hundred but fine on the GVW. Towed it about 5 times, including several 4-5 hour trips and it went ok, but never any real challenging terrain. Cross winds was the biggest issue.

I knew we had a trip coming up through Salt River Canyon (Az) and I defiantly was not looking forward to it. Ended up trading up to a RAM 3/4 ton with the Cummins Diesel (2018). Salt River Canyon was a piece of cake, never looking back.

[owenssailor]

We have towed our trailer across the lower US across the mountains to San Diego several times both with the 2012 6 spd and the 2017 8 spd. Both trucks had no problem going up the long climbs but the 8 spd is definitely nicer. Our trailer is around 6800 lb loaded for winter travels. The cabin is 28 ft. We don't have any issues with sway or push from transports or wind gusts. I like the Equal-i-zer hitch for this combination.
We travel around 8 000 miles per winter

[bartlettj]

I see people towing similar rigs all the time, but if you are going to do it, I would at least put LT tires on it an invest in a good anti away setup. The biggest danger on the mountains is having to stop hard on a curvy downhill grade, and good sway control and stiff sidewall tires can be the difference between safety stopping and being pushed into incoming traffic. I think you can make that rig fairly safe with the right setup, but you will have a much more comfortable experience with a 2500.

[dodge_guy]

Length doesn’t make any difference provided you have the proper tongue weight. Stay under you ratings and properly load the trailer and you will be good to go!

[TurnThePage]

To me, the reason a longer trailer can be a challenge to half ton trucks is the sail area, the infamous tail wagging the dog. The weights discussed here are not a big deal for typical newer half tons, aside from the potential lever effect.

What is that scenario that occasionally comes through here? The one where there's a pretty good crosswind, that is suddenly hitting that sail area after clearing some driving obstacle like a semi truck and trailer, next thing you know the rig is all over the road... Most of that could be mitigated with properly inflated LT tires, proper weight distribution, and a good hitch among other things. I regularly push the "half ton" envelope, but choose to stay under 30 feet. JMHO

[Wolverinesfan15]

Jebby14 wrote:
^side tip when figuring out what your family weighs, take 40 lbs off the wife and tack it on yourself. this will make for a better trip. trust me.

Haha! Great idea

[Wolverinesfan15]

Jebby14 wrote:
could likely be done, I wouldn't. not going to be a fun tow. whats the payload of the chevy?

payload minus weight of everything and everyone in the truck and truck bed minus 100 lbs for the wd hitch is whats left for tongue weight.

take that number (the remaining payload) and multiply by divide by 0.15 and that's the heaviest I would tow.

dry weight means nothing. use the gvwr.

example for my f150

1850
-400 (family and this will get bigger my kids are little)
-250 (stuff in truck)
-100 (hitch)
-100 (fluff since I like to have room)
=1000 available tongue weight

1000/0.15=6667 lbs
my camper comes in fully loaded rate around 4500(shes only 23 feet and the and tows wonderfully gvwr 4677)

go

The payload is 2180. So based on those calculations I'd have about 1180 available time tongue weight and 7800 for camper weight. So by the time the camper is loaded with stuff I'm sure it will be closer to 6700-7000lbs. So would be close. Like you said then. Could probably be done but wouldn't be great towing.

[JRscooby]

Jebby14 wrote:
^side tip when figuring out what your family weighs, take 40 lbs off the wife and tack it on yourself. this will make for a better trip. trust me.

And if you are silly enough to buy clothes for her make sure the top is too big, and the pants to small

[bid_time]

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