Hello All,

My parents and my children left this morning to Yellowstone with their Ford F150 pulling a travel trailer with a loaded weight of 7000lbs. My wife and I are hours away from leaving work for the trip in our 2012 Dodge Durango RT. While enroute to our first stop my parents Ford appears to be breaking down. They are currently at Ford looking to find out what the problem is. That said, if it is not fixed would my RT(with Tow package) with a 7200lbs towing capacity be able to pick up the weight and allow us to keep going while the truck stays at Ford to be fixed during the week. I would need to install a trailer brake for the Durango which is not a problem but I'm interested if this weight is too close to the maximum and would the Durango be able to safely pull the trailer with 4 adults and two children in the vehicle. The trip is approximately 900km to Yellowstone from where my parents broke down. Any help is appreciated.

 

Absolutely, the R/T can pull anything the F150 can.

Do it and report back..... But be sure you get a brake controller, pulling with power is no problem, just be set up to stop

 

Install and test the brake controller Your close but it can do it. Your dad have a weight distributing mount? just make sure the ball height is close.

 

Yours is still 1,000lbs heavier but my 2013 Hemi RT pulls my boat and trailer (6,100lbs) like a champ. We pull over a very steep pass to our favorite boating destination. i just don't "drive it like I stole it" when on the steep up or down but it still pulls and handles just as good or better than our previous '05 D Hemi. Both have factory tow option.

 

You're really close to the max there. Keep in mind that the gross trailer weight also has to include what's in the trailer and mounted to it. So if you have 200 lbs of stuff loaded in it, you've hit the max. Aside from that, you also have two other weights to be aware of: Tongue weight and the gross combined weight rating of 13,100 lbs. The combined weight rating is tongue weight + gross trailer weight with everything loaded + weight of vehicle and all the contents (including passengers, excluding 150 lbs for the driver).

Based on what you've said about how many passengers you have, I'm going to say that you're likely over the 13,100. The 2012 Durango rt's curb weight alone is 5,133 lbs. Taking that plus the 7,000 lb trailer, adding the tongue weight of 700 lbs (usually 10% -15% of trailer weight), you're at 12,833 lbs before passengers and cargo. That leaves only 287 lbs of passengers and cargo to work with.

I'm going to assume that your passengers aren't tiny. As a result, you're almost certainly over the max. Especially considering that curb weight is the dry curb weight. Add gas and that number is even higher.

Reference: Owner's manual page 488

 

I have never towed with the 2013 RT but pulled the wakeboard boat out the other day with my pickup truck. It will look much better getting pulled down the road with the D though. So what do I need to do or can I pull it like it is? I have not really looked at the manual at all. The trailer has the brake assist in the tongue also if that makes any difference. Please advise and whats the brake controller option we are talking about here? I just have never had a problem towing anything in my pickup with factory tow option.

 

If a trailer is equipped with electric brakes you need to add a controller , the factory Durango tow harness is all prewired and has a pigtail near the emergency brake to add the optional controller

 

an electric brake controller is just that. It controls the electric brakes on your trailer. it's a little box unit that looks almost like a radar detector that is usually placed underneath the dash board with a plus or minus to help control and calibrate the brake pressure applied when you apply your breaks in your vehicle. when the brakes on your vehicle are applied it sends a simultaneous signal to the electronic brakes on the vehicle trailer so that they are applied at the same time

from the sounds of it, your boat trailer already has what are called surge brakes. these kinds of brakes are not electric and therefore do not require an electronic brake controller. surge brakes are activated when your vehicle breaks and the trailer tongue presses against the ball on your hitch. The more forward pressure applied to your hitch ball, the more the trailer brakes.

 

Mcfarl, you are correct that is the way the trailer works. So curb weight of boat and trailer is around 4500 lbs so we should be good to go? Other then its a 5 pin trailer plug and I still have not looked at what the D has for connecting to it.

 

Should be good.