Travel trailer

I have a 1500 4x4 3:21 gear 5.7 looking to get a trailer for camping any suggestions on towing weight don’t want to go to heavy and looking to see what wights and trailer lengths you guys are towing

7500 wet, 32 feet. Im over on payload with two kids, and a woman in the truck. 4x4, 3.21.

Trust me.. Let your SO pick it out. That way she can't blame you when **** happens. And it will happen.

Sent from my LG-K540 using Tapatalk

BlkZrx said:

Trust me.. Let your SO pick it out. That way she can't blame you when **** happens. And it will happen.

Sent from my LG-K540 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

That's a very non manly thing to suggest.

yillbs said:

That's a very non manly thing to suggest.

Click to expand...

Wisdom comes with experience..

Sent from my LG-K540 using Tapatalk

Here's what we have. 23' (19' closed) pop up, 3600lbs wet, (4300 with the quad on front), and it tows like a dream. Electric lift, so no manual cranking it open, it sleeps 6 comfortably, and has a 4' deck I can throw my quad up on front. The only draw back is you can't pre load it with your gear, ya have to haul coolers, etc, in the back of the truck. It's never really be a problem for us though. We bought this to see how much we'd go camping in reality, which turns out to be a lot less than what we imagined we would be doing. When life slows down a little, and we get to use it more than 4 or 5 times a year, we'll look at getting something grown up. lol.

Wisdom come from experience. And experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted in the first place.

Check the weight limits on the truck - the real ones, not the salesman ones.

Remember how many people and how much stuff will be in the truck - overestimate by 10%

Then select a TT by the max weight the trailer can carry, and keep it a minimum of 10 to 15% below your max towing. Everything I've read says you WILL NOT be happy towing at your max capacity.

I would not go over 7k gross. I tow a 27', 7k rv with no problems. 2015 QC 1500, 4wd, 3.21 rear. Use a good WD system. Recommend Reese dual cam.

The 3.21 gears really limit you. Good advice so far. Just remember there are 2 numbers to keep in mind - how much can your truck carry? This is usually payload. How much can it pull? This is usually the max tow rating.

Salesman and manufacturers love to ignore one or both of these numbers and sell you something you shouldn't be carrying/towing. You'll need to have a rough idea of how much you plan to carry in the truck (people, gear in the bed, etc.) before you can make an accurate determination.

mtofell said:

The 3.21 gears really limit you. Good advice so far. Just remember there are 2 numbers to keep in mind - how much can your truck carry? This is usually payload. How much can it pull? This is usually the max tow rating.

Salesman and manufacturers love to ignore one or both of these numbers and sell you something you shouldn't be carrying/towing. You'll need to have a rough idea of how much you plan to carry in the truck (people, gear in the bed, etc.) before you can make an accurate determination.

Click to expand...

Hogwash.... Payload is nothing more than a marketing tactic.

Curbweight minus the GVWR to get the payload capacity. That's it. Your GVWR and your GCVWR are what matter. Your 3.21 gears will limit you TOW rating, but not your weight rating.

yillbs said:

Hogwash.... Payload is nothing more than a marketing tactic.

Curbweight minus the GVWR to get the payload capacity. That's it. Your GVWR and your GCVWR are what matter. Your 3.21 gears will limit you TOW rating, but not your weight rating.

Click to expand...

You serious Clark?

Personally I'd stay under 7500 gvwr and under 30 feet overall length. (Ball to bumper)

A unscientific method I've used for years is stay under or as close to 80% of your tow rating with the trailers weight for a good tow. I've exceeded that in the past but with a good wdh and set up properly and been ok. In my experience, once you exceed 90% of your tow rating it's not as enjoyable of an experience, unless your someone like verndiesel who scales stuff and really knows what their doing, then you can push your limits. For the average person I don't recommend doing that. I like having a lot of margin, that's why I traded a 1500 Silverado for my 2500 ram and I love it. HD trucks are not for everyone though. Pros and cons like everything. It depends on your needs and what you put priorities on.


Again, my opinion but when you go camping you go to enjoy the outdoors and not hang out in the camper.
unless your fulltimimg you don't need a huge camper to enjoy camping because you should be outside taking hikes and enjoying nature. On the rainy days it's not as nice but sure is better than a tent! Lol...

Disclamer: these are the opinions of a country hick! Lol. YMMV.

Towing a 220RBI Bullet travel trailer that loads in at 6400lbs wet and is 25' 7" nose to tail. We run a Blue OX WD hitch. We predominantly dry camp so the truck's loaded with firewood, genset, cooler, sometimes extra water and fuel for the genset. Before you look at a camper you need to determine what kind of camping you want to do. We prefer USFS and dispersed camping, and as such you can't get a big camper in most of those places. If you plan on doing full hookups and can carry less with you then you may be able to push the camper size. Given weights I wouldn't want to tow much more than we do with a 1500. This is the 5th camper we've owned and we spaced' the truck and the camper closely. We've towed up to a 32' TT with 2 slides (with a F250 Powerstroke SD).

When looking at campers throw the empty weight out the door and don't believe a thing an RV salesman tells you about your truck being able to tow it. Throw RAM's tow rating out the door also. With 3.21's that's probably saying about a 8k trailer weight. Do your own research. yillbs is generally correct. GVWR is the weight of the truck with all the occupants and gear. Add *actual* weight of the truck + 15% of the loaded weight of the trailer to the truck weight for tongue weight and + 100lbs for a WD hitch. Then add the max loaded weight of the trailer to be sure that the two #'s together don't exceed the GCVWR. I prefer to stay 10%-15% under that GCVWR.

And use tow-haul when you pull.

Then put it all on a CAT scale when loaded and done. And enjoy camping!!

mtofell said:

You serious Clark?

Click to expand...

No... I said it backwards, my apologies. It limits your weight not.your tow....it was really late I get a Mulligan

BlkZrx said:

Trust me.. Let your SO pick it out. That way she can't blame you when **** happens. And it will happen.

Sent from my LG-K540 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I would say you must speak from experience, except you threw in that last line. No matter who picks it out the man is still getting the blame when something happens...

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

loveracing1988 said:

I would say you must speak from experience, except you threw in that last line. No matter who picks it out the man is still getting the blame when something happens...

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Amen to that! "Why didn't you fix it before it broke?"

2017 3.21 Gears, 5.7L QC
Pup is 2200lbs dry, 2900 loaded.

33' 6800 lbs dry . little bit of bounce but i am still working my hitch out with the new timber grove bags. i feel like the truck could have more power but she gets it done.

I have a 2018 Express, V6, 4x4, 8 speed trans, 3.55 gears.

I have found that Ram says 7200 lbs about for towing capacity.

What are the real world numbers and how much should I be looking at a travel trailer weighing when I buy one? I plan on getting a WDH when I do get a travel trailer.

2015 Keystone Hideout 260LHS. 29'11" rear to hitch. 7600lbs GVWR. Dry weight: 5158lbs, 26ft for the shell.

2018 Big Horn 5.7 Hemi, 8spd, 3.21 gears.

Does fine with the Curt TruTrack WHD.

First outing with it, the trailer was weighing in at about 5520lbs.