Totesmygoats
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2016
- Posts
- 153
- Reaction score
- 28
- Ram Year
- 2013
- Engine
- 5.7
Tow capacity is determined by a lot of thing. In the case of a difference in capacity from a difference in final drive gearing, a couple things happen to "increase" the capacity. First, it takes load of the transmission, most people don't understand this, but the easiest way to understand it is to imagine the final drive is doing more of the "work". The result is less load and in some cases lower transmission temps at any given load.
The second is, obviously, higher maximum force to the pavement, so starting off with the maximum load is easier. There is a point that, especially on a grade, you just can't get moving and would only roll back. They take this into consideration when setting the GCWR and trailer weight, obviously there is a margin between "can't start" and what they actually set.
Maximum trailer weights in general are fairly subjective things. It's not like the axle rating which is objectively set by what the axle is engineered to and can take over time + a safety margin. They factor in braking, engine and transmission cooling, handling, and of course the engineering capacity of the hitch/frame.
If you are towing on a long straight flat road in florida, your max trailer weight is going to be higher then if you are towing in the rocky mountains. The max trailer weight is actually set in pretty tough conditions, so it's fairly disregard-able. That's not to say that max tongue weight or payload is however, and the two are somewhat correlated. (10k# = 1k pound tongue weight which is the max tongue weight)
The second is, obviously, higher maximum force to the pavement, so starting off with the maximum load is easier. There is a point that, especially on a grade, you just can't get moving and would only roll back. They take this into consideration when setting the GCWR and trailer weight, obviously there is a margin between "can't start" and what they actually set.
Maximum trailer weights in general are fairly subjective things. It's not like the axle rating which is objectively set by what the axle is engineered to and can take over time + a safety margin. They factor in braking, engine and transmission cooling, handling, and of course the engineering capacity of the hitch/frame.
If you are towing on a long straight flat road in florida, your max trailer weight is going to be higher then if you are towing in the rocky mountains. The max trailer weight is actually set in pretty tough conditions, so it's fairly disregard-able. That's not to say that max tongue weight or payload is however, and the two are somewhat correlated. (10k# = 1k pound tongue weight which is the max tongue weight)
