My father purchased a 08 2500 Laramie Extended Cab. Now I'm seriously confused trying to figure out what he can actually tow. Mostly because of ratings Ford and GM provide for equivalent vehicles.

They both list seperate conventional and 5th wheel towing ratings. They give GCWR of 23,000lbs and use that for the 5th wheel towing rating while the conventional matches up to a 20,000lbs GCWR (although they don't say this, they just list a lower max trailer weight). Dodge just lists a 20,000lbs GCWR and says nothing about conventional vs 5th wheel.

Is a Dodge 3/4 ton seriously 3000lbs behind a Ford or GM for GCWR, or are Ford and GM saying their trucks can do things they shouldn't.

Bottom line is he's looking at a 32-35' trailer that is winter capable and will be in the 13,500-15,000lbs range when fully loaded. Does he have to try and get the 2500 traded for a 3500 with the 4.1 axle?

 

I'm pretty sure it's rated to tow 15,000 with a 5th wheel. The only diferance between a 3/4 ton and one ton is an additional overload spring in the rear. otherwise they are identical trucks. By the way I tow a 14,000 lbs tag hitch dump trailer with mine and have no issues. And yes I've been through the scale house with it.

 

I noticed the same thing with Ford and Chevy. They have two different towing capacitys for conventional and 5th wheel towing. I could never find any dealer write up's, or anything in the owners manual about being able to tow more weight if using a 5th wheel with my 07 QC 5.9. What ever the manual say's your truck's GCWR is, that's what it is if it's conventional or 5th wheel.

 

Hello, I have a 2006 Everest 5th wheel with 3 slides, I believe the dry vehicle weight is around 11,000 and I am look at a 2008 Dodge Ram 2500 Laramie 4D Crew Cab with Automatic 6 speed 6.7L engine, 6 cylinders, 2wd, 650 torque @ 1500 rpm and 350 horsepower at 3013 RPM, Axle Ratio, 3.73 and the GVWR is 8800-lb. It has the Cummings Turbo Diesel Engine, the dealer showed me that this truck has a 5th wheel capacity of 15,800 pounds and wanted to verify and I cannot believe with the internet today that I cannot find any towing charts broken down, can someone help me and let me know if the info is correct, if it is great, if not what is it and should I be okay with this truck? Thank you, Al

 

From the reading I've done the bottom line is it comes down to GCVR. Which for that truck is 20,000lbs. So your trailer weighs 11,000lbs. Load your truck with the people and stuff you'd expect to be hauling and get it weighed. Take both numbers and subtract them from 20,000lbs. That number is how much you can load into the trailer and your safety margin (which a number of guys on the RV forums like to be at least 1000lbs).

So assuming loaded your truck is 8K (with fuel, people and stuff), trailer dry is 11k, that leaves you only 1000lbs for loading the trailer with propane, water and stuff. So the bottom line is you could as long as you're very careful with what you put in the truck and the trailer and are ok with no safety margin.

Ask your dealer how the truck can tow 15.8k lbs when the truck weighs over 7k lbs with a 150lbs driver and a full tank of diesel, when the GCWR is only 20k lbs.

Here's Dodge's towing guide:

http://www.dodge.com/en/2009/ram_250...owing_payload/

There is a link "Dodge Body Builders Guide" at the bottom of the text on the left to a pdf that lists all configurations and all their ratings. Note that those ratings assume the truck is only carrying one 150lbs passenger and a full tank of fuel.

 

Dustin has it right. Its all about your GCWR. If your truck is only rated at 20k, that is the max (legal) allowable weight of the truck and trailer combined. Within that youre only allowed to have certain weights on each axle of the truck and trailer, thats why you're given load ratings on each axle of the truck.

As an example, when Dodge gives you the max trailer weight of 13,200 for a std cab with a 6.7L all they are doing is subracting the curb weight of the truck from the GCWR + 150lbs. All the mfgs "inflate" their numbers in such a way, not to say they lie, but you'll never be in a situation where you can reach that max towing number and stay under the GCWR, IMHO.

 

I tow a 12000 lb TagAlong and I have to look in my mirrors to see if it is still behind me. The power of these trucks is awsum. Worst case may be airbags to hold up the hitch pin weight.

 

Also, doesnt the braking ability of the truck also determine the max weight it can tow? I thought I read that somewhere a while back... (the biggest trailer I tow is the loaded uhaul each time one of the kids moves out lol).... last one this weekend.

 

The brakes on the camper will stop it's own weight. That is what the controller you must add is for.

 

I'm sure brakes play a part. To be honest, I'm not positive why they do tow raitings the way they do. Beyond what each axles' max rating (including trailer axles) and braking ability, I don't see any real world reason to keep GCWR of any 2500 or 3500 at any other weight than 26000.

It could be that they don't want a bunch of warranty claims from people pulling that much weight and blowing trannies. I'm sure someone with more knowledge of the rating system will chime in.