Right at my Towing Weight

So after looking at my Spec sheet on my 2016 RAM 1500 ST QUAD CAB 4X4 with 3.6L V6 24V VVT Engine and 3.21 gear ratio I'm right at my towing weight. I have to tow 2 quads 1,000 miles to Montana from California, I towed 1 quad on the trailer from yuma az. with no problems but now I have added another 800 lbs. on the trailer putting me right at 4200 lbs. Trailer is duel axel with trailer brakes. Truck has 19k miles. What's your thoughts.

You SHOULD be okay, so long as you set your load so the trailer is taking most of the weight and you've got everything tied down securely. Even so, I'd take it easy, run slower than the speed limit, and leave yourself plenty of room.

The point is to get there safe, not first.

Braking and handling shouldn't be the limiting factor as long as it is loaded close to correctly since it is the same platform as the 5.7 with a much higher tow capacity. The engine/transmission would be your limiting factor. I'm not familiar with the 3.6 or it's abilities so can't help with that end of it.

Your biggest limitation will be lack of torque in that scenario. Speaking from experience with my own 2015 3.6L with 3.21 rear gears at max load over 3300 miles twice from CA to TX. The first trip was at about 12k miles on the ODO.

The truck handled fine, braked fine, felt reasonably stable. My issue was the hills (even minor ones) had the truck down shifting to keep the RPM's rather high where the torque reaches its peak. I just slowed down, moved over and took a deep breath......going rather slow.

After the first trip, I added AirLift 1000HD springs, which helped it feel better while towing without much impact on daily driving. It also kept the rig nice and level. If I did not tow much, I would not even bother.

As long as you slow down a bit, it sounds like you will be fine. Personally, I prefer to slow down rather than push the engine at high RPM for extended periods.

Thanks for all the info, looks like it will be slow for me .....

Not to get the tow police all riled up... but... in my youth, we towed 2 Banshees & 2 125 dirt bikes behind my 3 cylinder Dodge colt... 4 riders, coolers, extra gas...

I think you will be just fine!!

Jughed said:

Not to get the tow police all riled up... but...

I think you will be just fine!!

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This post is not about the mythical 'tow police' - but rather how well this truck will handle the described load in a practical, comfortable, and safe manner. It is not about the stupid things we did as kids and were lucky enough to survive.

When we talk about payload and towing it isn't about chastising people but rather educating them. I have been towing trailers since I was 11 and on the road since I was 16 (I'm 52 now). Up until about 5 years ago I was one of these guys on here that knew nothing about payload. If Ram advertised that my truck could tow 10,000 then I would tow 10,000 and ignore everything else. Back then I rarely towed that heavy so probably was never overweight. The heaviest I probably towed was a 1979 Chevy Blazer I towed on my 18' car trailer. Total weight was probably 7000lbs and I towed it with my 1991 Blazer. Since joining here and hearing about these other weights I educated myself and now pay attention to these numbers. On top of that I'm now towing much heavier and was pushing and recently exceeding the capacities of a 1500. Manufacturers wouldn't put them there if they didn't mean anything.

I have towed overweight before too but people need to realize the liability they are putting themselves in. Being 100lbs over payload probably won't make a difference from a safety standpoint but if someone pulls out in front of you and you don't get stopped in time and there is a serious injury your insurance company can use that information to get out of paying your claim. Not saying it is highly likely to happen but if it does and there is a serious injury or death and you are being sued for a huge amount I'm pretty sure your insurance company would love to separate themselves from you and if they do an investigation and determine you were overloaded then that could be their out. And even if you do win the case you will probably be out 10's of thousands of dollars on legal fees. To me it just isn't worth it. Yeah I did dumb stuff when I was younger too but now I have too much to lose and have been around long enough to know that it CAN happen to me so I will do what I need to do to be sure I have crossed my t's and dotted my i's.

engineering said:

This post is not about the mythical 'tow police' - but rather how well this truck will handle the described load in a practical, comfortable, and safe manner. It is not about the stupid things we did as kids and were lucky enough to survive.

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100% spot on. Thank you.

Phaeton16 said:

So after looking at my Spec sheet on my 2016 RAM 1500 ST QUAD CAB 4X4 with 3.6L V6 24V VVT Engine and 3.21 gear ratio I'm right at my towing weight. I have to tow 2 quads 1,000 miles to Montana from California, I towed 1 quad on the trailer from yuma az. with no problems but now I have added another 800 lbs. on the trailer putting me right at 4200 lbs. Trailer is duel axel with trailer brakes.

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What kind of trailer, flat bed or enclosed?
It's not the weight that adds the load to the truck but wind resistant of the trailer. You would definitely notice the trailer fighting you more being enclosed with adding more weight.
Weight wise your fine, just remember to give yourself more distance to stop as the weight is added but as mentioned you have plenty of brakes as they're the same across all the engine platforms. Don't ride the brakes down the mountains, force the transmission to downshift using to use engine braking as much as possible.

You should be ok as long as you don't push your truck too hard. No need to be flooring it up hills trying to maintain highway speeds. Keep an eye on all your temps. & make sure all of your fluids are topped off. It will help a lot if the trailer is a flatbed. Then you will be just dealing with the weight & not the wind drag. I have towed those kind of weights with a 4 cyl & a 6cyl Dakota before in a 6X10 utility trailer. I am not going to lie & say they pulled it no problem. They did ok but struggled going up hills & mountains. As most of the advice you are getting I took my time & made it with no issues. Both trucks ended up having over 100k on them before I traded them. Definitely not something you want to do on a regular basis though.

engineering said:

This post is not about the mythical 'tow police' - but rather how well this truck will handle the described load in a practical, comfortable, and safe manner. It is not about the stupid things we did as kids and were lucky enough to survive.

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I guess you missed the humor/levity in my post. I thought it was pretty obvious... need a humor font or something.!! and that was humor as well...

Never the less - his 300 HP truck with have zero issues pulling his 4 wheelers.

drive to nearest dealer and upgrade quick..

GeometryFletch said:

drive to nearest dealer and upgrade quick..

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so wut are you trying to say???

Flat bed car trailer.

Jughed said:

I guess you missed the humor/levity in my post. I thought it was pretty obvious... need a humor font or something.!! and that was humor as well...

Never the less - his 300 HP truck with have zero issues pulling his 4 wheelers.

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I caught the humor. I also knew somebody wouldn't. It is what it is with text. No inflection. Can't see the sly grin on the typist. Personally, I gave the OP enough credit that he too would realize that was in jest. If he didn't, well, that helps the gene pool. (I'm smiling now).

My personal best was transporting a CJ7 loaded onto a 2k lb dual axle trailer with no trailer brakes, no WDH, and oh, the Jeep and trailer and truck were crammed full with every damn thing an 18 yr old would need in college. And yes, both my sons along for this joy ride in my 3.4L V6 Toyota T100! North Jersey to N. Carolina. A 9 hr ride that took us 13 hrs. Rt 81 S is a rollercoaster, up 'n down, repeat. I was down into 1st gear hoping I could make the top as big rigs passed me. Going down was all the engine braking I could muster. Don't think I ever hit 45 mph the whole time. Too dam scared to go faster. I had a trailer pass me once and once is enough.
I knew I was wrong, just didn't know HOW wrong until I got here and heard wiser men than me explain it.
Bonus: I used that experience as leverage with wifey and showed her I needed a BIG truck! Got my new '09 Ram that way. Now I'm in a 2500 6.4 4.10 4x4 and don't currently have anything to tow.

We're all here to get or receive help. I learn something new every day here and I'm 62. Been wrenching all my family's stuff for 45 yrs now. Where would we be without some humor to break up the nonsense, LOL!

Phaeton16 said:

So after looking at my Spec sheet on my 2016 RAM 1500 ST QUAD CAB 4X4 with 3.6L V6 24V VVT Engine and 3.21 gear ratio I'm right at my towing weight. I have to tow 2 quads 1,000 miles to Montana from California, I towed 1 quad on the trailer from yuma az. with no problems but now I have added another 800 lbs. on the trailer putting me right at 4200 lbs. Trailer is duel axel with trailer brakes. Truck has 19k miles. What's your thoughts.

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I think you should have got the 5.7. I had two of the 3.6 V-6 engines and I will found that engines low torque of 269 lbs as greatly under powered. Climbing up hills required changing the gears to 6th or even 4th . Frankly a RAM truck with the 3.6 is a light duty truck, so don't expect great towing.

dhay13 said it perfectly so I will second it! Art

One thing to watch is the transmission temp. With a smaller motor your trans takes more of the work. Take a short run with the load. If the temp is up get a secondary cooler to help. I've always been a fan of a cool tranny. Even have on a little Mitsubishi with 230K on the original trans.

I used to drive semi trucks in the 90's: 200HP truck with 20+ tons of cargo, so about 30-32T of total weight. You couldn't see the hill yet, but the truck needed downshifting. Boy, do I miss the double-clutching...

There is something to be said about liability when driving with extra weight: leave yourself some space.

There is something to be said about wearing out the transmission and axles when driving with extra load for extended periods of time. It does put extra stress on the engine if you floor it for hours on end to keep up with the traffic. Will one trip trash your truck? no! would I drive it somewhat overweight myself? I sure would. However, if this was my regular gig (e.g. doing this monthly, on a similarly long distance) I would upgrade to something bigger. I tow an RV trailer (~4000lb) a few times a year and I'm glad I got the 2500 with a V10. Hardly ever do I need to floor it on up-hills. Would I still tow it if I had a smaller truck? you bet. I would just take it easier.

If you have the option to do it: try driving at night as much as you can. The air is cooler and that helps to keep everything cool (engine, transmission, axles), it does help with engine power, especially at high elevation, as well as the gas economy. You're unlikely to run AC at night, too. And you'll have less traffic to worry about. At night it's mostly truckers on the road (I wonder why???).