My towing test. (10,000 Lbs - 1008 Miles with a 1500)

[MiRamDriver]

My towing test. (12,000 Lbs - 1008 Miles with a 1500)

Hello all,
Several have expressed interest in hearing how my trip goes. I am leaving active duty and will be moving home to Michigan. I've purchased a 8.5 x 24 (Plus 2' V) trailer that weighs in at 3600 lbs. I've attempted to load my trailer as evenly as possible and am estimating that I'll be around 10,000 lbs - I'll be getting weight slips, so we'll know for certain.

The truck is a 2014 Ram 1500, Hemi/ 8 Speed / 3.92. See my gallery for the mod list.

I've added Airlift 1000 bags and 3" spacers on top to assist with tongue weight. The truck will have my BBQ grill in the bed, my dog, myself and two flat screens inside. Tires have also been inflated to 65 PSI.

Some pics unloaded without airbags.

 

[toofart]

Good luck. I have the same Diamond Cargo but 8.5x20. I hope you have good radials on it, mine came with bias ply that lasted 2500 miles.

 

[05christj]

Damn son 10,000lbs? I have done 2 dity moved and with a 3 bedroom house have never been over 5,000lbs. Are you moving another vehicle or atv's inside the trailor?

 

[smurfs_of_war]

Sub'd. I want to see how this plays out

 

[Noved]

Subbed.

 

[SyN]

I hope everything Goes Well! Good Luck! That will be an awesome test for the 1500!

 

[MiRamDriver]

Damn son 10,000lbs? I have done 2 dity moved and with a 3 bedroom house have never been over 5,000lbs. Are you moving another vehicle or atv's inside the trailor?

Well the trailer is 3,600. My gun safe alone is 1k.

 

[BoldAdventure]

Looking forward to this one.

 

[MiRamDriver]

So I took the trailer on a test ride today and had MAJOR SWAY. Like scary. So I figured there was too much weight in the rear and did some re-organizing and put more weight in the front. Here was the result. I figure I'll catch some flack but I'm an honest dude and this thread is for learning. If I was keeping the trailer, there is no question I would've bought a weight distribution/sway control hitch.

The truck is about an inch from being on the bump stops, I wouldn't tow any more than this. It tows as smooth as glass at 60.

 

[cableguy_hd]

what size tires do you have and what suspension work have you done?

 

[smurfs_of_war]

So I took the trailer on a test ride today and had MAJOR SWAY. Like scary. So I figured there was too much weight in the rear and did some re-organizing and put more weight in the front. Here was the result. I figure I'll catch some flack but I'm an honest dude and this thread is for learning. If I was keeping the trailer, there is no question I would've bought a weight distribution/sway control hitch.

The truck is about an inch from being on the bump stops, I wouldn't tow any more than this. It tows as smooth as glass at 60.

So with the weight forward she pulls smooth?

 

[tjfdesmo]

Yowza! That's a schwingin' load fer ya.

 

[cableguy_hd]

found your lifted thread. this is the first truck with any height that I've seen on here tow any thing like this. Gives me some idea of the squat you have with these pics. I've got bilsteins waiting to go on I just haven't pulled the trigger. Only going 2.1 with them and then some BFG AT. I think a WD hitch would definitely help you out

 

[MiRamDriver]

what size tires do you have and what suspension work have you done?

See my gallery for a mod list. 4" Zone Lift with 3" rear coils, plus Bilsteins at 0.7" in the front, Zone Nitro rear shocks and Airbag 1000's. The airbags aren't helping much because they are for the factory coils and aren't expanded the way they should.

So with the weight forward she pulls smooth?

Well with this amount of weight, you should be looking for 12-15% GTW as the Tongue weight. I didn't have enough tongue weight.

found your lifted thread. this is the first truck with any height that I've seen on here tow any thing like this. Gives me some idea of the squat you have with these pics. I've got bilsteins waiting to go on I just haven't pulled the trigger. Only going 2.1 with them and then some BFG AT. I think a WD hitch would definitely help you out

WD would help HUGE. So would Airbags if I had factory rear coils.

 

[14hemiexpress]

So with the weight forward she pulls smooth?

Yes if you get to much weight behind the axles and not enough on the tongue it'll cause really bad sway. Just imagine a wheel barrow if you get a bunch of weight on the handles it's hard to lift but easy to steer now you put the weight at the front of the wheel barrow it's easy to lift but hard to control.

 

[Mega-Hemi]

1k miles is gonna be a ride with the truck sitting like that. For a few hundred bucks it would be well worth picking up a WD hitch and dumping it on craigslist when you get home.

Damn son 10,000lbs? I have done 2 dity moved and with a 3 bedroom house have never been over 5,000lbs. Are you moving another vehicle or atv's inside the trailor?

When the AF paid to move me and my wife to NJ we weighed in at right about 5k lbs. 4 yrs later when they paid us to move back we were just over 10k in 4 different vehicles. (we also had a 2yr old)

 

[BoldAdventure]

Wow! I wonder what the hitch weight is on that thing now.

 

[smurfs_of_war]

Yes if you get to much weight behind the axles and not enough on the tongue it'll cause really bad sway. Just imagine a wheel barrow if you get a bunch of weight on the handles it's hard to lift but easy to steer now you put the weight at the front of the wheel barrow it's easy to lift but hard to control.

Yeah, for sure- I get that part, I just didn't think there was going to be ANY way to make that pull smoothly

 

[14hemiexpress]

Yeah, for sure- I get that part, I just didn't think there was going to be ANY way to make that pull smoothly

Gotcha it probably pulls smooth for what it is.

 

[Caldwell]

holy load batman

I cant wait to hear how this experience went.