Got a quick question for you guys. How hard is it on my 2007 Ram 1500 5.7L to pull 8000 lbs 12 miles one way twice a week and 12 miles back twice a week for the next few months at somewhere around 3500lbs. The roads I am pulling on have some minor hills but are pretty rough. Its dump trailer with electric brakes that works with my controller. I also have a superchips cortex so I have the option to program towing mode but am running stock right now.


This is all for work so also what would you guys charge per mile for wear/tear ontop of gas

 

shouldnt be too bad. if your company agrees to pay for all your gas used while towing and oil change, tranny fluid, and diff fluid change on a severe schedule (changing out fluids a little earlier than recommended). maybe even get them to pay for plugs and wires and other maintenance costs, id say itd be worth your while.

 

oh yeah, and see if you could get the company to pay for a set of airbags for the rear too. thatd really sweeten the deal in your favor.

 

8,000 lbs is a pretty good amount of weight. Depending on the hills, you'll likely want to be in at least tow-haul and maybe even O/D off.

Get the company to pay for transmission temperature sensor so you can keep an eye on how much work the trans is doing. Heat kills. Even though it's only 12 miles, I'd still look at getting a temperature sensor/gauge if you are going to be doing any kind of regular towing.

"If it were me", I wouldn't put the extra wear-and-tear on truck. If I break something doing something for me, it's my problem. If I break something doing work for somebody else, it's still my problem... If I had to, though, I'd look at what a towing/hauling company would charge for the same type of work. Probably something like $50 per trip on top of gas.

If you make any "work required" mods, you can probably also claim them on your taxes.

 

this shouldnt be attempted unless you have a Weight Distribution Hitch, or airbags in the rear. 8000k lbs is gonna have too much tongue weight on it without either of those.

If you get one of those (i'd say airbags for that short trip), you should still look into a tranny temp gauge (as mentioned earlier), and i'd be chargin quite a bit. You're really not gonna get anything off gas...12 miles is like $4 in gas. Maybe $20/trip?

You probably wont do any damage to your tranny or rear pulling that much weight, but its pushin it. just be careful and be prepared to accept the fact you MIGHT break stuff

 

8000 pounds should, by rights, mean 10% of the weight on the hitch.
800 pounds on the end of the hitch would be ugly, if the load isn't dynamic (always the same each way) I'd definitely put a weight distributing hitch on. The problem is if you are full one-way and dead-heading the other you're going to have the EQ hitch lifting your tail up too much when you are empty - which is just as dangerous, if not more so. I'd run with the eq engaged when full, and flip them back down to disconnect the torque chains when empty.

 

^^ thats why i suggested air bags for this trip. he can adjust the pressure depending on the load. there wont be any high speed or long distances, so he doesnt need to worry too much about sway control, which would be the only the the WDH has that airbags dont. Plus, bags are half the cost of WDH

 

I can't believe I missed the tongue weight.

WDH is going to be required in any case. Without WD, the class-IV is only rated for something like 600lbs of tongue. It goes to 1,000 or so with WDH.

8,000lbs of trailer should be between 800 and 1200lbs of tongue.

I'd think long and hard about putting that kind of load on a 1500. You may also be exceeding your GCVWR.

 

not on a 1500 a 2500 might do it .

 

1500 will do it fine with a WD hitch. Mine does. rated up to 8700 I think with a 3.92 gear.