Am I thinking about this to hard, I'm starting to get confused.....

Definition: Gross Vehicle Weight Rating It’s how much weight a vehicle is designed to carry. The GVWR includes the net weight of the vehicle, plus the weight of passengers, fuel, cargo and any additional accessories. The GVWR is a safety standard used to prevent overloading.


Based on this chart:
http://www.dodge.com/bodybuilder/200...r/mlup1500.pdf


GVWR for the 2009 1500 with 3.92's is 6800lbs.


Does this figure actually include the weight of the TRUCK itself? I realize it means passengers, fuel, etc that you would stick in the truck while towing, but actually the wight of the truck too?


This would mean that you'd subtract the 2000+- pounds the truck weighs leaving you to pull a trailer of around 4000lbs?


I'm confused...

 

Yep. It includes the weight of the truck.

Nope, you are not left with 4,000 pounds for trailer... Look at the definitions at the bottom of the sheet you reference.

Let's use my truck as an example -

09 CC Laramie, 20", 3.55's

GVWR = 6800
Base weight = 5368
Payload IN THE TRUCK = 1432

Now to figure a trailer you have to look at GCWR - gross COMBINED weight rating -

GCWR = 12,000

You can use up to 6800 of that on the truck and payload IN THE TRUCK leaving you 5200 pounds for the trailer.

You can also hold some of the payload out of the truck and push the trailer weight all the way up to 6450. If you do that, the max payload in the truck is limited to 182 pounds. How you ask? GCWR - Max trailer - Base weight. 12000 - 6450 - 5368 = 182

Or you can look at the same chart for the 2010 model and tow even more!

 

Excellent, thanks for the explanation!