whats a 1500 truly capable of?

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Bigtman07

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The 1500 will pull your camper fine....the jeep...without deeper gears, some tranny mods and airbags...not so hot.
You can see from the pics how poorly the rear suspension of 1500 hates large weights.

The first tow was a 70 Mustang on a U-haul across Phoenix in Saturday afternoon traffic. OD off, running 55-60 mph. No acceleration without downshifting. Got about 8 mpg.

Then I pulled a 6x12 Uhaul from Phoenix to OKlahoma with a bed full of tools and cab full of misc crap and it cost me 1800oo for a new tranny which I changed the fluid in yearly and had a shift kit installed. It never overheated...just burned the clutch facing out of the convertor, then OD.
It's not a matter of if but when, and never when you'd expect it

After the rebuild I pulled two cords of wood on a U-haul about 55 miles and twice had to pull uphill from a dead stop. I don't know who was sweating more, me or the tranny.
3:55s and 33 inch tires do not make a good tow rig for heavy loads.


This is all very true. I was lucky with mine. I have factory trans and 3.92 gears. Trans cooler factory option. My trans is serviced every year and I run on 31's 285/75/16 Just depends on how you treat your truck how it will perform.
 

Hotroder383

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Hey JB just drop that chevy truck your hauling off at my garage would ya? =)~
Bigtman how did you like them shocks? With load, with out load? I have the old factory "air load level" i.e. air shocks and I cant stand them was looking at them coil over's to take thier place but was unsure if the stiffened the ride up too much unloaded?
 

Bigtman07

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As far as unloaded I don't see that much of a difference. Yes you can tell they are quite a bit stiffer and the rear end doesn't float like normal. But they do still have some give before the springs tension. Under load they are awesome! The truck drops about 2 inches then stops till 1200lbs is reached then they drop the rest of the way like a normal shock under load. Rebound is really nice under load. Stiff but not too stiff that the truck springs up and down over bumps. Stays poised and doesn't really bounce. Fair warning though they are about a 1/4 3/8 of an inch longer than stock. So they take some finess to get in.
 

Howells

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Here is my 1500 pulling out 25ft camper. 5000lbs. It tows nice but up big hills have to turn off o/d or it struggles. Need to regear. Still has 355s in it.
 

Hotroder383

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Nice lookin camper, wouldn't mind finding one of them for me one day =)
 

RobS

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my 97 will dam near haul anything, i have ride rite air bags on it, pull a 19 ft 7500 lb trailer with 4 dirtbikes in the bed and it doesnt squat....3.92 gear ratio 4x4....5.9....only thing that really suffers is my wallet....gas mileage pulling all that stuff is about 6....empty i average 11.5....you may want to lean toward a 2500 diesel....
 

DryBnz

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Here is my 1500 pulling out 25ft camper. 5000lbs. It tows nice but up big hills have to turn off o/d or it struggles. Need to regear. Still has 355s in it.

Looking at a similar sized camper as well for the 2011 1500 crew with 3.55's, full tow package and the Hemi. Are you lifted with bigger tires? Which engine?


Sent from my iPhone4
 

streak379

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The first picture is a 16 Foot landscape trailer, The tractor bone stock weighs about 4600 pounds, then both front and rear tires are loaded and wheel weights added so im figuring that to ad an additional 2500 pounds.... 7100 pounds not including the trailer. the 5.2 was screaming. It did pretty good, I had no problem maintaining 45-50 mph on non highways. 5th gear was out of the question.

The second pic is hard to see but its a 9 foot trailer with 2 quads on it and 1 in the bed ....couldn't even feel it behind me
 

wermbang

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I pull my 7K dry weight camper Getting up to speed is the only part it struggles, after 30mph its good. I have a rebuilt tranny with towing upgrades, and an aftermarket tranny cooler. I also run a Superchips on the towing. My last big trip I got 9.5mpgs. I have 4:10 gears factory. 295/60/20 tires too

I use load levelers and sway control (no way I would tow without them) also I never tow anything with od on, really bad for transmission

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Wish I still had my old phone with the pics but last spring I took in 14k of scrap from our old farm in W.V. with my '96 1500. I will definitely take pics of my next big load. Going to try to haul my '70 Chrysler 300 and my '73 Dart 800 miles in the spring/summer this year just so I can stick them in my garage. Should be around 10k or so maybe if i feel up to towing that much for that long of a distance.
 

smiley

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I would suggest getting a weight distribution hitch and you can pretty much dominate most loads even over weight. The issue I run into is having too much weight on tongue which could be easily relieved with weight distribution hitch.
Yes I am 4th gen but I have plenty of power just need stiffer springs and the hitch.

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chris15005

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My camper weight roughly 3502 empty add roughly 1500 LBS of stuff we take to the NASCAR races generator,firewood,clothes,food,beer,propane etc. i'm at about 5000 LBS and the truck handles it without any problems we go to Charlotte motor speedway and Myrtle Beach twice a year from Pittsburgh. I do have a weight distributing hitch and anti-sway.

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TexasCornBread

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I haul a 32' camper weight is 8-10k ImageUploadedByTapatalk1359953947.947157.jpg

Only have 3/4 ton coil over shocks And 3/4 ton leaf helpers


TexasCornBread - If you can't Dodge it RAM it !
 

TexasCornBread

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Also have a 5.9liter with 200k on her pull the camper 2-4 hrs at a time


TexasCornBread - If you can't Dodge it RAM it !
 

dapepper9

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I have a 2001 5.9 4x4 and it has hauled everything we've given it no problem. I've had around 2000lbs of wood in the bed. Its even hauled our retro camper with no squat, about 8000lbs total i think. Only has 117k miles and only had to replace front shocks but thats because of having too much fun! Almost forgot its pulled our oldsmobile alero on a trailer no prob. Does just fine up hills, has plenty of power, stock except for front shocks.
 
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