So the tires on my trailer have always ballooned under my 26 ft travel trailer. It is a 2004 Salem with a power slide. Anyway there is always a GVWR sticker in one of the kitchen cupboards of the older versions (like 2008 and earlier) but now manufactures place it outside on the drivers side of the trailer at the nose but on the side.


Anyway, on mine it states that the dry weight (meaning no water or personals) is 5,400 lbs. Loaded weight (wet) is 7,300 lbs however on mine I have California Axles which are more heavy duty and better built according to California's laws and regulations. Anyway, I have always woundered why the tires always looked low as it had ST205/75/15 tires on it and they were wearing inside and outside (a key to figuring out that they were under inflated) but they were at the max 50 psi.

Well I decided to get some new tires mounted so I took it over to a truck stop here in town (a good one) and weighed it. With about 500-800 MAXIMUM lbs of my personal and no water the thing weighed 8,000 lbs! This means that the trailers GVWR sticker is INCORRECT! Not only that I had been pulling it with my Durango fully loaded (wet) and should have weighed in around 9,000 LBS!!!! The trailer must be 7,300 lbs dry not loaded!

I have always wondered WTF was going on, but I didn't expect that! So now I got the right tires and size on it and went to a new truck to tow it, (not to mention having to sell my Durango because it was having a heard time towing it), but I wanted to get this information out there for people that were looking at buying a trailer and planning on towing it because the season is now upon us.

We called the dealer when we bought it and they ensured the weight, well I'm going to be calling them AGAIN to complain. The moral of the story;

Don't trust just the stickers!

 

wow your lucky that you didnt have an catastrophic problems towing that much weight w/ a D, even your built for towing monster i wouldnt have gone over that much

 

I have a 24' Jayco with 3 slides and had the same run in! The sticker says clear as day the GVWR is 5,000# but checked it on the scales at the truck stop I load up at and it weighed in at just over 7,000#. My D does love pullin it though, I'm looking at outing on 4.10 on my rear end and beefing up the suspension a bit.

Your lucky you didn't lose a hitch because I know Class IV is only rated for 7,500# with 750 tongue allowed. I, however love my Class V "Titan" custom done and welded to the frame.

 

Skip the 4.10:1 gears and go straight for the 4.56:1.

I lost NO mpg in the city (going from 3.55:1 to 4.56:1) and lost only 1 - 2 mpg hwy.

You will never regret it, especially when you are trying to tow something that heavy with it.

 

Yeah I was also thinking 4.56's because going up from 3.92 isn't that much. And all I do with my D is tow heavy things. Double towing cargo trailers, towing a couple cars on a trailer from one shop to the other, and the 24' Jayco. Most towing I do is in the city also, so thanks for the info Scott!

 

If you have 3.92s already, yeah, don't even think about the 4.10s. Not near enough difference. The 4.56s will put a smile on your face:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPt7PQU_XwQ

 

Well now I know why the Durango was having a bit of a hard time. Flat out it would do ok but if it was hot outside the heat just sucked the power out of the D and the D would heat up, not to mention if it was 100 F outside you couldn't run the A/C. My wife and kids were just done with that, not to mention runnin locked out in 3rd at 68 mph at 3000 RPM's. I didn't want to tow all the way to the Redwoods (Northern California) last year (1000 mile one way) in 100 F weather respectfully. I figured it might not be able to take that abuse.

Now I feel much better about the upgrade personally and physiclly with the fam in the truck. The truck handles the weight just fine, in fact it's like a brick on the front of that thing. For instance, going through Sacramento California and we were drivin on the way home, well to the right of me the lane was moving REALLY slow (bumper to bumper), well we were cruising about 45-50 and I had my foot off the gas just in case to slow down a lil because you know that some ******* is going to pull out in front of you, well just as I did and got ready this ******* in a newer 4-runner pulled out! I put my foot in the brakes HARD and locked that truck right up! Well the weight pushed the back end to the drivers slightly and I could feel the jack knife coming and there's no where to go cause traffic is all around, I'm locked in and locked up, who's gunna get hit? My family or him? Well I chose him and pulled my foot up like when your in a slide in the snow just enough to get straight and gain control then push just enough to keep it from locking and hold on for the ride cause I'm bigger than him and I'm holden 16,000 lbs so I'm torpedoing his ***!

Well he must have seen me and flooded it cause I locked eyes with him in the side mirror and his eyes were huge! Well I went right up his tail pipe and how that truck got up to speed just fast enough, how he did it I still don't know! My adrenalin was pumpin so fast all I could think about was killin that SOB! I started chasing him but of course I couldn't drive like a bike in a city so I lost him which was actually good cause I knew his *** was grass! (I think he knew as well!).


Anyway, to make this long story short, if we were in the Durango with that over weight trailer, I couldn't have controlled that kind of weight like I did in the my Ram! I learned something that day (again) if your going to tow it you better be ready for anything and your truck better be ready to handle what it can.

Well the tongue weight was 750 lbs as written on the GVWR sticker, it actually will end up being about 1000 LBS, however I have a 12,000 lbs EQ hitch and bags under the rear springs on the Durango. I think that helped?

My truck is rated at 10,000 and 1000 lbs on the bumper pull so I'm fine now, but it scares me thinkin back when I was towing it with the D. I took that trailer up 9-10% grades mostly in second gear but she took that abuse. But she was built, and I'm proud it took that abuse!

 

As for the gearing, if you have 3.92 already then go straight for the 4.56's. I just went from 3.55's in my Ram to 4.10's and I'm happy, can't weight to hook up for a serious pull.

I couldn't afford 4.56's in my truck with the V10. My mileage dropped dramatically on the highway from about 14 to 10 and city it went up from 4-6 to about 9. All in all I just use mine for towing so it should help me out. At 75 mph I will be just under the sweet spot for peak torque and HP, but I should be able to tow in Over Drive.....

Towing I was only getting 5-7 MPG so I should get back up to 9-11 with the 4.10's, well see.

 

Hell yeah! Thats why I love the Dodge name so much! I also have an EQ/WD hitch on mine thats around those weights it's awesome.

I love my Ram though, I brought my fifth wheel down to Florida and its a 28' 13,000# dry weight and it just flew up those hills and there's one big 10% grade (Monteagle) and I was passing little cars, should have been a commercial I swear.

I love Mopar hands down, and nothing will ever change with that.

 

It was the same way for me when I got the Excursion. The Durango would tow just about anything that I wanted but put that same load behind the Excursion and it's a night and day difference. The Excursion is an 8,000 lbs beast. It's just much more solid than the Durango. (Any 3/4 ton truck is compared to a light half-ton.)

Here's the heaviest thing I've ever towed with the Excursion. It wasn't very fast or very far but she pulled it (and stopped it) fine. Scale said 32,640 lbs!!!!