I am close to purchasing a 2003 Ram 1500 2WD Laramie and I am not sure if it will pull our 20 Foot trailer with no trouble. Here are the specs.

5.7l Hemi
3.55 axle ratio
GVWR 6,650 lbs

Trailer specs:

GVWR (lbs.) 6000
Gross Dry Weight (lbs.) 3862

Hitch Dry Weight (lbs.) 456

I would appreciate any help I can get.

Thanks

Mike

 

This may help you http://www.trailerlife.com/images/do...owingguide.pdf

Dave

 

Should be good to go, I have personally pulled a 20fter with 890lbs of scrap on it no prob.

 

as far as power, you'll be alright. the 3.55 gears wont make it easy, but you'll be fine (assuming the trailer is fully loaded).

Two things:

1. make SURE you have a brake controller for the truck. Tekonsha Prodigy is probably your best bang for the buck on the market. Never heard a bad thing about it (use it myself -- works awesome)

2. You should also strongly consider getting a weigh distribution hitch or helper bags to prevent sagging. With that much weight, your nose will be pointed up in the air and it can and will affect steering/stability.

 

I pull my old 31' Fifth wheel with mine. Trailer dry weight is 9500lbs, and the tongue is overweight by a few hundred pounds, but with boosters it's ok. 3.92 gears and the 5.7 gets me up to speed as quick as my old Shadow pulled a small homemade trailer about 500lbs.
About 65mph in 1/4 mile roughly.

 

@socket462: That's a good article, but is there a misprint in the article for the Hemi? I think they printed 4.7L twice for the RAM 1500 instead of the 4.7L and the 5.7L.

I agree with AF_Hemi, you need a brake controller and a WD hitch. I can recommend the Tekonsha, mine works great.

 

All good advice, but I think if I were getting the truck to pull with ANY regularity, I'd hold out and look for factory 3.92 gears or buy this one with the thought of re-gearing to 4.10s...

 

Thank you for all the replies it helped me make my decision. I am just hoping the price of $13000 for it is a good deal.

 

I would recommend you check KBB on that price. $13k is pretty steep for any kind of 03.

 

13K is very steep for an '03.

Here is a quote from Edmunds.com
private party
$6,945
trade-in
$8,320
dealer retail
$9,694

I didn't know the miles so I put in 110000. Any more than that and a deduction for miles starts to kick in.
I also put it that it was "clean" not "outstanding" so there was no deduction or adder for the condition of the truck.

Here is a link, you can add in the specifics for the truck you are looking at:
http://www.edmunds.com/dodge/rampick...003/index.html