Ratman6161
Senior Member
OK, I've posted this before, but here is what I reccomend since you already have a truck.
Even though you don't have the travel trailer yet, load up your truck as if you are going on a trip. Include a full tank of gas, all the people you plan to take, all the stuff you typically have in the truck etc. Go to a CAT scale and get a weight.
Take the weight from the scale and add about 100# for a weight distributing hitch. Add about another 150# fudge factor cause you can't think of everything. This gives you a ready to tow weight estimate for your truck.
Get your GVWR from the door sticker and from that, subtract the weight estimate calculated below. That number is the payload you have available for tongue weight. Assume the trailer will have a tongue weight that is 15% of its GVWR.
Based on the information given , I suspect you available payload will end up around 1400. Give youself another couple of hundred pounds fudge factor and you have 1200. That means a trailer with an absolute max of 8000 when fully loaded.
But remember even if you are not exceeding any of your weights, you can still be in for a bad experience. I started out towing a 26 foot 6000# loaded trailer with a GMC Canyon. I was not exceeding any of its limits but it was white knuckles all the way. 50 mph down the interstate. Feeling like I would be blown off the road with every cross wind or passing semi. Moved up to Sierra 1500 and it was clear sailing. I think my 1500 was well matched to that trailer given it was just my wife and i...similar weight as you and your two small kids. Families with more people and more stuff than us might have hit the 1650 payload of the Sierra...but it worked great for me.
But when we ordered our new trailer that is 7051 as it came from the dealer (on a CAT scale) and about 7600 loaded, and about 30 foot, when I did the math, it looked like the Sierra 1500 would not be overloaded but would be right near its max. I didn't want to be back in that white knuckle driving and worrying about every little thing we wanted to pack. So I bit the bullet and got another new truck, this time a Ram 2500 6.4 gas with 4.10. If inwere not willing or able to get the new truck, I would have stuck with the smaller trailer.
Even though you don't have the travel trailer yet, load up your truck as if you are going on a trip. Include a full tank of gas, all the people you plan to take, all the stuff you typically have in the truck etc. Go to a CAT scale and get a weight.
Take the weight from the scale and add about 100# for a weight distributing hitch. Add about another 150# fudge factor cause you can't think of everything. This gives you a ready to tow weight estimate for your truck.
Get your GVWR from the door sticker and from that, subtract the weight estimate calculated below. That number is the payload you have available for tongue weight. Assume the trailer will have a tongue weight that is 15% of its GVWR.
Based on the information given , I suspect you available payload will end up around 1400. Give youself another couple of hundred pounds fudge factor and you have 1200. That means a trailer with an absolute max of 8000 when fully loaded.
But remember even if you are not exceeding any of your weights, you can still be in for a bad experience. I started out towing a 26 foot 6000# loaded trailer with a GMC Canyon. I was not exceeding any of its limits but it was white knuckles all the way. 50 mph down the interstate. Feeling like I would be blown off the road with every cross wind or passing semi. Moved up to Sierra 1500 and it was clear sailing. I think my 1500 was well matched to that trailer given it was just my wife and i...similar weight as you and your two small kids. Families with more people and more stuff than us might have hit the 1650 payload of the Sierra...but it worked great for me.
But when we ordered our new trailer that is 7051 as it came from the dealer (on a CAT scale) and about 7600 loaded, and about 30 foot, when I did the math, it looked like the Sierra 1500 would not be overloaded but would be right near its max. I didn't want to be back in that white knuckle driving and worrying about every little thing we wanted to pack. So I bit the bullet and got another new truck, this time a Ram 2500 6.4 gas with 4.10. If inwere not willing or able to get the new truck, I would have stuck with the smaller trailer.