Towing heavier weight

[Both2Retired]

My 04 Dodge Hemi is rated to pull a maximum trailer weight of 8600 lbs. I visited a nearby RV dealership and was looking a some trailers with slides, many with a GVWR of 10,000 lbs. The person showing me the tralers said that I could easily pull tailers weighing 10,000 lbs. Is that 10,000 of bull?

 

[Sunline Fan]

I personally wouldn't do that. I think my 8600# GVWR coach is pushing the limits of my 3/4 ton (w/ a 9600# TR).

Depending on the dry weight, you could probably pull it around empty and from the dealer, but I wouldn't put anything inside that would add weight.

The only way I'd say maybe you could do it is if for some reason the GVWR was a lot more than the dry weight, like say it weighed 5500 #'s, then you could probably get away with it, but I don't know many that are built like that.

Jon

 

[doug.fedeli]

What's the GCWR of the truck? Wow much does the truck weigh? Knowing those will get you close to what you can tow. The truck may have enough power to move the weight of the trailer. A 1/2 ton truck may not be able to handle the weight of the trailer. The axles, frame and brakes will be overloaded if you go over the GCWR.

Find the weight sticker in the TT. It's usually in one of the kitchen cupboards. That will give you how much it weighed when it left the factory.

 

[SteveC7010]

My 04 Dodge Hemi is rated to pull a maximum trailer weight of 8600 lbs. I visited a nearby RV dealership and was looking a some trailers with slides, many with a GVWR of 10,000 lbs. The person showing me the tralers said that I could easily pull tailers weighing 10,000 lbs. Is that 10,000 of bull?

IMHO, yeah, it's sales bs. It's my experience that some sales folks will tell you anything to make a sale, especially with TT's.

Personal experience: I was at an RV show in February, and one of the salesmen wanted to sell me a fiver that was 10,600# dry weight. GVWR was somewhere north of 13,000#. He told me that my dually which is rated to tow up to 12,400# would do the trick no problem. I pointed out that the GVWR of the trailer was way beyond my max. and that I felt it would be dangerous, he just said that no one ever loads a TT to the max. GVWR. I told him he didn't have a clue about safe towing. He got rather upset because there were other potential customers in the trailer listening to our conversation. Several of them left at the same time I did so maybe they figured out that the guy was making a dangerous recommendation in order to close a sale.

This may be overly cautious, but I have always felt that there should be some kind of safety margin between the GVWR of the trailer and the max. towing capacity of the TV. Some folks will insist that this must be at least 25% or larger. I don't take a hard line on the issue, but certainly feel that 15% is a fair number. Any higher is just gravy. Since my truck is rated to tow 12,400#, I feel that I should not look at anything with a GVWR bigger than 10,540#. I gotta keep some reserve for stuff in the truck including us and the dawg.

 

[315RLTS in PA]

We had one of those salesmen too. When we went to look at our 264SR, we drove my wife's 2 door explorer sport with a V6. Since it has a factory tow package, the salesman said it would tow that trailer with no problem

 

[ROC-REQS]

Is that 10,000 of bull?

Hey John

IMO, it definitely is

A quick check that I use to see if the TV & Trailer may be in the ball park is if the trailer’s GVWR is equal to or close to the TV's tow rating.
The tow rating of your TV isn't close to the GVWR of the trailer, so right there it raises a red flag that the TV may not be able to handle the trailer, at least how you would want it to.

Remember that your 8,600 lb tow rating of your TV needs to be reduced by the weight of the passengers and cargo in the TV. So you could be looking at a tow rating of 8,300 lbs or less.

Not knowing what type of trailer it is, I would guess its dry weight to be between 7,000 - 7,500 lbs. Add a 1,000 lbs of cargo, etc. you could be looking at a loaded trailer weight of 8,000 - 8,500 lbs.

To maintain decent power for pulling up hills (or higher altitudes), you want to have your loaded trailer weight between 10% to 20% below your tow rating. So if your loaded trailer weight is 8,000 - 8,500 lbs, your looking at a TV rated tow of ~10,000 lbs.

Then you also have to take into consideration the GVWR, GCWR, and GRAWR of the TV to make sure your under those limits.

Hope the helps.
Hutch

 

[JohnGB]

John

I take it you already gathered that salesmen is totally out to lunch and extreme caution on doing anything with that dealership, especially hitch work.

This is so sad to hear, time and time again. What they told you is down right dangerous. Pulling is a big part of towing a camper but proper truck suspension, drive train and tires are essential to safe towing. I’m sure they never mentioned you have a real likelihood of totally overloading the rear axle in your truck and toasting a transmission on a properly balanced and loaded TT of that size.

If you need help on truck/camper sizing, ask away here on SOC anytime. They are many glad to help you in any way.

John

 

[MACK C-85]

Our 276 SR @ 8600 GVW pushed the limits of our 2001 1500, hence the '04 2500 listed below. There's no way a 10,000 lb. unit would be safe. Throw the BS card big time!!!!

 

[pwb01]

The same salesman sold me my current trailer where I had a Tow Vehicle which gave me a 90% ratio. I was towing 90% it's capacity. In theory, it wasn't going to hurt the truck but I could never keep up with highway traffic, I couldn't get up to speed in any good time and the vehicle spent most of it's time in a lower gear at 4500 RPM pulling the milage way down. I would pull up long hills at 25mpg, high rev wondering it if would make it. Now I tow about 5200# with an 8600# capacity and am very comfortable. I could probably go to 6500# and be comfortable.