Vehicle: 2009 Ram 1500 4x4 5.7 Hemi Crew Cab

I'm looking at buying a 3 horse trailer and am trying to work out if I can tow it in our truck. I'm not buying another truck so I'd really like to make it work :-)

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the trailer is around 5000lbs, and the horses are around 800lbs, 800lbs and 1000lbs.

Can I tow that with the ram? I can't find any towing capacities on my exact vehicle as I just moved and only have Internet access on my phone, and the only page I can find that has towing specs won't load on my phone!

But what I do know, is that there's lots of horse folks put there with beat up old 1980's trucks that seem to tow 3 horses without even checking their vehicle specs and handle it just fine, and in Europe people don't have big Dodge Rams, and people are towing big caravans and such with little passenger cars.

Can our 390hp truck with the 3.90 gears handle about 8000lbs? Even if the vehicle isn't rated for it, what happens if I do it anyway? I need to haul 3 horses over the mountains for about 600 miles, and after that we will probably only tow 2 horses at a time 90% of the time.

Thoughts? Thanks! :-)

 

These numbers are for a 2010 Ram 1500 but I heard they just revised the ratings and there are no differences in the actual truck between 2009 and 2010, so they should apply...

For a 1500 4x4 with 5.7 HEMI and 3.92 gears the towing capacity is either 9,850 with Rambox or 9,950 with normal box. At roughly 7,600 lbs for your loaded trailer you should be just fine.

How do you strap down a horse so they stay in one spot and don't mess with your tongue weight distribution while in motion?? If they can move around that could really mess things up if they all move to the rear of the axles. :-)

Rob

 

They are compartmentalized aren't they, I mean they can only move a bit forward and back they can t even turn around but at a red light stop well back of the car in front cuz sometimes they rock back and forth and cause the truck to move a bit even in park LOL. They are strong animals. All the multiple horse trailers I have seen are like that anyway, you don't notice then ever unloading a horse trailer the horses most often have to back out. I used to ride as a kid with my uncle when he towed his horses with a beat up old truck that you would never think could pull a 6 horse trailer but he did or we did.

 

Just make sure it has trailer brakes. My trailer weighs in around 7500 and have no issues. That is with 3.55's and 35's on it.

 

If I was gonna pull this on any type of a regular basis, I'd make sure the trailer had good brakes and invest in a weight distributing hitch and a set of air bags...

 

Keep in mind the trailer tow numbers are assuming the truck is empty of cargo and people except for the driver whom they assume is 200 lbs. That being said, there is always padding for a factor of safety on their part too... You should be fine. Just don't load too much in the truck when you do tow it.

 

You have to keep in mind to add for Tack and Feed also. You have plenty of room for that though in the tow capacity of your truck. Will the trailer have a sleeping birth in the front, or just a tack room?

 

I pull 4 horses and tack with my 1500, I don't know about the ratings and all that but it works for me

trailer brakes of course, and I take it easy around winding roads and watch for swaying but overall driving with care I've had no problems, the Hemi is great for power, I can pass big semis going up the mountains, but of course driving hard up hills you have to get revs up and gas mileage goes way down

also keep your speed reasonable going down grades, especially curves downgrade, it helps to anticipate downgrades and get your speed to a safe range so you don't have to work the brakes so hard, you definitely don't want to ride the brakes and heat them up too much, intermittent braking keeping in your speed range is the best

 

Just what is the redline on these trucks it's not marked on the tach is it/

 

No redline for a Hemi, just endless torque and power.