Towing Capacity for New Travel Trailer

[kenm500]

I am currently looking to purchase a new Travel Trailer. My current trailer, a Keystone Bullet 246RBS, has a dry wt of 4800lbs. I tow it with a 2013 Ram 1500, which is rated between 8400lbs and 9700lbs depending on the chart you use. Seems as even the dealers have a hard time answering the actual towing capacity question. The truck has no problems towing the current trailer, but I'm looking at a new trailer which is 5 ft longer and has a dry weight of 6100lbs. Should I be concerned that the weight with gear and such is getting to close to the capacity of the truck? Obviously I would prefer not to upgrade to a 2500.

[hohenwald48]

PAThwacker wrote:
I have a 6.0 3/4 ton sub and would not wrangle a 6100lb trailer. Same guts as any 3/4 ton truck and built to tow.

I'm not sure what this means? Are you saying a 3/4 ton truck can not tow a 6100 lb trailer? That doesn't sound right to me.

[PAThwacker]

I have a 6.0 3/4 ton sub and would not wrangle a 6100lb trailer. Same guts as any 3/4 ton truck and built to tow.

[bobndot]

kenm500 wrote:
I am currently looking to purchase a new Travel Trailer. My current trailer, a Keystone Bullet 246RBS, has a dry wt of 4800lbs. I tow it with a 2013 Ram 1500, which is rated between 8400lbs and 9700lbs depending on the chart you use. Seems as even the dealers have a hard time answering the actual towing capacity question. The truck has no problems towing the current trailer, but I'm looking at a new trailer which is 5 ft longer and has a dry weight of 6100lbs. Should I be concerned that the weight with gear and such is getting to close to the capacity of the truck? Obviously I would prefer not to upgrade to a 2500.

Research the proper method , 'how to weigh a travel trailer and truck'. You will then know the exact weights and how the rig feels to you.
I would think your current TT weighs about 6k rolling down the road.

Personally, i dont like towing more than 6500-6800# using a 150/1500
when i towed my 8000# TT, i moved up to a 250 diesel.

Some people add aftermarket stuff to their trucks, especially 1500 trucks where they are used as dual purpose vehicles.
Pay attention to wheels and tires. I see grossly overloaded landscaper trucks/trailers come into the shop all day long and the biggest overloading problem that i have seen is when they swap out ( OEM ) HUB centric wheels to aftermarket LUG centric wheels. They snap the studs off and crack the wheels.

[SoundGuy]

donn0128 wrote:
I guess soundguy and terryallen did not bother to read my post. I emphitally said " If your truck can safely tow the trailers GVWR, then it should work OK. You may never see the trailers gross weight, but anything lower will be your safety margin."
How much simpler can I say it?

Well I have no idea what "emphitally" means :R but the point is that any 1/2 ton truck save perhaps an F150 ECO equipped with a HD maximum tow package will have anywhere near enough payload capacity to accommodate any trailer with a so-called "dry weight" of 6100 lbs, regardless of what the OP may mean by "dry weight" (he didn't say ) - brochure listed which almost no trailer ever weighs OR this particular trailer's stickered dry weight to which must be added the weight of a battery or batteries, propane in the tanks, and even the weight of a minimal amount of water so the trailer's water system is at least operational. That's ALL before the OP begins to add ANY personal cargo at all. Fact is, it's FAR better to use ANY trailer's "dry weight" to estimate what it will eventually weigh loaded and ready to camp than simply assuming it's GVW loaded and ready to camp will be close to it's GVWR, which in many cases would result in gross trailer tongue weight most 1/2 ton trucks would have no hope of safely handling without exceeding it's GRAWR. :R

I'll repeat - if a trailer's rated CCC means it's GVW loaded and ready to camp will be close to it's GVWR then sure, using GVWR as a guide may be one way of doing it. However, many trailers have such an excessive CCC that there's NO way any reasonable person could load that trailer with so much "stuff" that it's GVW will come anywhere near close to it's GVWR. :E In either case though, starting with the trailer's actual stickered dry weight and then calculating from there will always result in a reasonably accurate estimate of how much that trailer will actually weigh loaded and ready to camp. :B

[donn0128]

I guess soundguy and terryallen did not bother to read my post. I emphitally said " If your truck can safely tow the trailers GVWR, then it should work OK. You may never see the trailers gross weight, but anything lower will be your safety margin."
How much simpler can I say it?

[Terryallan]

SoundGuy wrote:

donn0128 wrote:
Please stop concerning yourself with the dry weight. You will never ever tow a dry trailer. Instead look at the trailers GVWR. If your truck can safely tow the trailers GVWR, then it should work OK. You may never see the trailers gross weight, but anything lower will be your safety margin.

Sure, for trailers with perhaps 1000 - 1500 lbs of CCC as that means once loaded it's GVW will end up not all that far off it's GVWR. However, many trailers offer much more CCC (heck, even my own 19' Coachmen is well over a ton!) so using GVWR as a guide just makes no sense at all as there's no way one can (or should) load so much into the trailer that GVW will ever come anywhere near close to it's GVWR. Unfortunately the OP hasn't indicated what this intended trailer's CCC may be so there's really no way one could rationally suggest using GVWR as a guide. If there's any Achilles' Heel to the 1/2 ton truck it's the rather modest payload capacity, especially if that truck has to also carry the weight of a family & some additional gear in the cargo compartment as well as accommodating any trailer tongue weight transferred to the truck. Reality is, with his 1/2 ton truck the OP will run out of payload capacity long before he comes anywhere near to meeting the truck's GCWR. In addition, the OP hasn't said anything about his particular truck's axle ratio which will have a HUGE impact on just how well it may tow a trailer this heavy. 😞 JMO, but having been towing for 10+ yrs with 1/2 tons I'd not tow a trailer anywhere near this heavy, about 6000 lbs fully loaded I'd consider about max as that will easily result in an average gross tongue weight of ~ 750 to 800 lbs, about the most I'd want to be dropping on the rear on most 1/2 tons with limited payload capacity.

Agree. For me the GVWR of the TT is a useless number. It will NEVER even get close. No way I can load 2500lb of junk into the TT. Not enough room, and I am not married to Lucy collecting big rocks.

My 4800lb dry TT comes in loaded ready to camp around 6000lb give or take a hundred, depending on where it is going. And it is pretty well full. no room for much of anything else.

I also feel that a dry weight of 6100lb is a pretty high starting point for a 1500 series. Time it is loaded. It's gonna be closer to 7000. AND then you got to think about what is in the truck. Like fire wood, bikes, grills, whatever.

[camp-n-family]

Forget about the "tow capacity" and be more concerned with payload capacity as you will run out of that well before nearing the tow rating. For example, a 9700lbs tow rating is completely useless when the truck only has 1200lbs of payload. A 9k tt will have in excess of 1k tongue weight. Add in a 200lbs driver and you're already overweight.

Rams have the lowest payloads of all the 1/2 ton trucks. Some loaded crew cabs are under 1000lbs. Depending on your payload and what you carry in the truck people and gear wise, you may be overloaded with your current setup.

[SoundGuy]

donn0128 wrote:
Please stop concerning yourself with the dry weight. You will never ever tow a dry trailer. Instead look at the trailers GVWR. If your truck can safely tow the trailers GVWR, then it should work OK. You may never see the trailers gross weight, but anything lower will be your safety margin.

Sure, for trailers with perhaps 1000 - 1500 lbs of CCC as that means once loaded it's GVW will end up not all that far off it's GVWR. However, many trailers offer much more CCC (heck, even my own 19' Coachmen is well over a ton!) so using GVWR as a guide just makes no sense at all as there's no way one can (or should) load so much into the trailer that GVW will ever come anywhere near close to it's GVWR. Unfortunately the OP hasn't indicated what this intended trailer's CCC may be so there's really no way one could rationally suggest using GVWR as a guide. If there's any Achilles' Heel to the 1/2 ton truck it's the rather modest payload capacity, especially if that truck has to also carry the weight of a family & some additional gear in the cargo compartment as well as accommodating any trailer tongue weight transferred to the truck. Reality is, with his 1/2 ton truck the OP will run out of payload capacity long before he comes anywhere near to meeting the truck's GCWR. In addition, the OP hasn't said anything about his particular truck's axle ratio which will have a HUGE impact on just how well it may tow a trailer this heavy. 😞 JMO, but having been towing for 10+ yrs with 1/2 tons I'd not tow a trailer anywhere near this heavy, about 6000 lbs fully loaded I'd consider about max as that will easily result in an average gross tongue weight of ~ 750 to 800 lbs, about the most I'd want to be dropping on the rear on most 1/2 tons with limited payload capacity.

[downtheroad]

Welcome to the Forum.
and, be MUCH more concerned with the Payload capacity of your truck and not so much with the towing capacity.

Good luck with your search and you are being very wise doing this kind of thinking BEFORE you buy.

[Jackfate]

kenm500 wrote:
I am currently looking to purchase a new Travel Trailer. My current trailer, a Keystone Bullet 246RBS, has a dry wt of 4800lbs. I tow it with a 2013 Ram 1500, which is rated between 8400lbs and 9700lbs depending on the chart you use. Seems as even the dealers have a hard time answering the actual towing capacity question. The truck has no problems towing the current trailer, but I'm looking at a new trailer which is 5 ft longer and has a dry weight of 6100lbs. Should I be concerned that the weight with gear and such is getting to close to the capacity of the truck? Obviously I would prefer not to upgrade to a 2500.

In 2016 we purchased 2 new trucks .First was 1500 cc sb 4x4 ram rated to tow 10,200# purchased OR 274 RLS 6710# Dry wt. Towed-with this for 1500 mi.not pleasant.6 mo later traded for 3500 ram 6.7 cc lb 4x4 . Now we can tow and not worry & what a difference. I decided to skip the 2500 to future proof any later tt up grades. Every dealer both tt sales and truck dealer & OR manufacturer all stated the 1500 would be fine match for the 274RLS. Not True
Your not gonna band aid the 1500 up to tow ( air bags , expensive wd hitches) as I have tried. I am pretty sure there's people out there that won't agree with my opinion. Your spending a lot of money you need to be happy. I hope you are

Good luck

[MFL]

You should have an idea from current trailer towing. If it tows that weight easily, adding 5' and 1,500 lbs should be doable, if adding the same gear/weight from old trailer to new.

Payload of truck, can be an issue with heavier tongue wt. Passengers, things in truck bed, plus added hitch wt, can make a soft suspended 1500 not handle very well.

Look at all truck numbers, GVWR, RAWR, payload sticker. The tow weight rating is more about engine/driveline.

Jerry

[sch911]

It's really easy to figure out the actual towing capacity of your Dodge...

What it can tow = the GVWR Rating - It's actual weight (loaded for travel).

So, get it weighed and find out for yourself.

[donn0128]

Please stop concerning yourself with the dry weight. You will never ever tow a dry trailer. Instead look at the trailers GVWR. If your truck can safely tow the trailers GVWR, then it should work OK. You may never see the trailers gross weight, but anything lower will be your safety margin.