Camper size?

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Dman7633

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I have a 2020 ram 1500 the gvwr says 7100 lbs. I want to purchase a camper. I want some advice on what camper size/weight I should get. What is the heaviest dry weight I should get? What is the closest I should get to the 7100lbs? If I got a camper that has a dry weight of say 6000 lbs would I be good?
 

Neil E

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You don't want to look at the dry weight, you want to look at the loaded weight and then give yourself some leeway. Also, look at the payload of your truck and the hitch weight. I would find a floor plan you are interested in and go from there. They make lightweight trailers, but some say that the materials are not as good. Also, new trailers are poorly built right now because of Covid and most being short handed. I would make sure to get a 3rd party inspection for used or new. You probably want to stay under 30 feet. Good luck and have fun!
 

crash68

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I have a 2020 ram 1500 the gvwr says 7100 lbs. I want to purchase a camper. I want some advice on what camper size/weight I should get. What is the heaviest dry weight I should get? What is the closest I should get to the 7100lbs? If I got a camper that has a dry weight of say 6000 lbs would I be good?
The GVWR that on the tag in the door jam is that of the truck, not how heavy of a trailer the truck can pull.
Does your Hemi have 3.21 or 3.92 gearing, that changes the trailer towing capability by about 2K lbs, it's about 8K for the 3.21 and 9K for the 3.92. Since your a newb at towing, probably best to stick to a trailer that has a GVWR of about 7K or less. You can find a trailer GVWR on a tag near the front on the driver's side. Don't overload the trailer.
Any trailer above 5K lbs actual weight you need a WDH and learn how to adjust it. Don't think the RV place will adjust it correctly. It's best done on a CAT scale with the truck/trailer fully loaded for camping.
 
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Dman7633

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You don't want to look at the dry weight, you want to look at the loaded weight and then give yourself some leeway. Also, look at the payload of your truck and the hitch weight. I would find a floor plan you are interested in and go from there. They make lightweight trailers, but some say that the materials are not as good. Also, new trailers are poorly built right now because of Covid and most being short handed. I would make sure to get a 3rd party inspection for used or new. You probably want to stay under 30 feet. Good luck and have fun!
Vehicle Capability
Maximum Payload 1,457 lbs *
Maximum Towing 11,357 lbs *
GVWR 7,100lbs
Maximum allowable weight that the vehicle can carry: the vehicle’s curb weight and the total payload (driver and passengers, cargo, options and tongue weight.)
GCWR 17,000lbs
Maximum allowable combined weight of a fully loaded vehicle and the trailer and its cargo.
This is the info for my truck/vin
 

Irishthreeper

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Your max towing makes sense for 3.21 gears but your payload seems low. Maybe you have a Laramie loaded out? Folks here have already addressed important issues but also look hard at your rear axle weight. I want to say the 1500 only has a 4100 lb rating. I’m guessing your safe trailer would be no more than 7,500 loaded and hitch weight around 800.
 

runamuck

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you wont know the loaded weight of any potential trailer till you load it for a trip and go to a scale. I have a similar truck and our 28' 6000# travel trailer tows fine behind it. most folks on the several truck/trailer site I follow suggest 30' as a max. length for a ccsb 1500 and having towed our 28' er quite a bit I would the sweet spot may be 28-29'. when shopping you might use 5000# empty wt. as the cutoff as that would be a 6000-6500# trailer when ready for camping and loaded with gear. as all have said, use a wt. distribution hitch and have the rv dealer set it up for your truck before you leave. IMHO
 

2019RamInSC

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We have a similar 2019 Ram hemi 4x4 3.92. Equal-Izer 1k/10k WDH. We tow a 31 foot Surveyor travel trailer that has been weighed at a Cat scale numerous times. The trailer comes in at maximum 7000 lbs loaded. I forget the actual tongue weight at the moment. But within specs for hitch and truck.
The problem is that the trucks payload is very close to maxing out. I store stuff like tools and such in the trailer while traveling.

Having said that. It tows great. No sway with 18 wheelers going by in either direction. No problem climbing hills east of the Mississippi. The only problem is with porpoising going over some bridges and over passes. I have got that pretty well taken care of with new rear shocks. Will also be adding shocks to the trailer.

If I had it to do over. I would consider a 3/4. Especially if we were taking long trips out west.


Good luck.
 

2019RamInSC

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Forgot to mention. The dry weight of our trailer is 6100 lbs. We travel relatively light. Just 2 people and a dog. If you have kids and lots of stuff. Be careful. Wives are known to over stock a trailer. haha
 

Willie Mosher

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3.21 I say you don’t go over 5000 lbs full load. Mostly looking at 16 to 21 feet ( reel tape measure 18~23ft)
Little trailer can be more fun
EZ to drive-park. set up.
An if fun an EZ your more likely to used it lot more.
I have 18 feet (23.5 ft ) full load about 4500~4800 lbs wet.
We put about 6k~8k miles it a year,
We live on the inland west coast lot mountains an see 10,000 ft regularly so we used 3/4 ton w 6.4 gaser .
 

tron67j

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Load everyone and everything in your truck, including the hitch, sway bar and WD bars and go to a scale and weigh the vehicle with all in the truck. Then subtract that from your gvwr. This gives you your maximum allowable tongue weight (your leftover payload capacity). Ignore dry weight of trailer and take 15% of the wet/fully loaded weight of the trailer and if you are at or under your remaining payload capacity, you should be good with that trailer. There is nothing you can do to increase payload capacity of your truck. Good luck.
 

Regcabguy

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Look for an ATC or a FWC or get a 3/4+ truck.
 

Elkman

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What I care about is the truck's ability to safely tow a trailer and that includes sway control and emergency braking distance. Twice I have had stupid LEO's pull out in front of me without warning and I was towing a trailer and came within a few feet of a collision.

Don't overlook how the truck with a trailer now needs twice as much room to merge with traffic on the highway and may take twice as long to get up to 60 mph. I went with a diesel pickup to have the faster acceleration for merging with traffic and to allow safe passing of tractor trailers going 10 mph up steep grades.

Newer trailers are much lighter for their size and more have aluminum instead of steel or particle board which makes them more expensive. My last trailer purchase cost 25% more thanks to the Trump tax on aluminum coming in from Canada so an older trailer is going to provide more bang for the buck.

Important to check the RV owner forums for particular make, model, and year of manufacturer for trailers. A number of trailers have been produced in the past with serious safety defects, like spring mounts breaking loose from the frame, and best to avoid these altogether.
 
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Camper (rests in the bed of the truck) or camping trailer? If it's the former, I believe Ram highly recommends NOT putting a camper on the truck because of the low payload rating. If you're looking to find out how much weight you can safely tow, I highly recommend using a towing calculator like the one on this site, which lets you plug in all of the info: http://towcalculator.com/ If you're looking for a quick and easy chart with all of the Ram specification for a quick copy and paste into the calculator, this page at fithwheels.com is great: https://fifthwheelst.com/documents/ram/2020_RAM_1500_TowingChart.pdf I cheated and downloaded the chart for my 2017 into my Kindle library for even quicker access.
 

Jim welsh

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I have a 21 ram 1500 3.21 gears with the 3.6 tow a 21ft 4500 lb trailer with a wdh tows well did add a springs that will hold 350 lbs each
 

BlkZrx

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Newer trailers have both a gvwr and the advertised dry/empty weight. Your actual trailer weight will be closer to the gvwr after you load it up for use. To be safe, figure a 15% tongue weight of that gvwr. My 7500 lb empty trailer weighs 8600 without water, but ready to go.
 

Yarek

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I like to go camping in the mountains and the last few miles are on a dirt road with decent size boulders on it. I borrow my friend's trailer (~4500lb loaded) that he normally pulls behind his 1500. I use my 2500 and it feels just right. I don't like being slowed down much by the trailer and on the long mountain passes at 10000' the extra weight on a naturally aspirated engine shows quickly.
Owing to the heavy truck and a light trailer, I never have issues with wobble or anything like that and I don't need to worry about using a special hitch. In fact, I have to lift the hitch for the off-road part.
 

jmc921

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Thanks to everyone that chimed in on this. Very informative. I have been thinking about a trailer/camper and this confirms what I have found. Up to maybe 5k, the 1500 is OK, any heavier, a 2500 makes more sense for extended use. Thanks again.
 

CaptOchs

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I have a '13 Big Horn with 5.7 and 3.92 gears. Camper is a Keystone Springdale 270LE (7000 lbs/33ft.) It does really good towing around NY. I have been through the Adirondacks and 1000 islands. I live in Rochester on the other side of the state. Especially once I dialed in the sway control. I keep tow/haul on and run some 93 octane. If it's not hilly, I run with cruise control on. My tow capacity is 10,050 which is LESS than yours.

Given that:
1) Spend money on good sway control. Do some test runs with it to make sure you don't have a lot of sway.
2) Adirondacks are foothills compared to out west, If you tow a lot out there I would get a 3/4 ton.
3) Your speed is reasonable. I generally tow at 62-66mph. I avoid going 70.
4) You don't plan on taking many out of state trips. If I was going from NY to Florida, I'd have picked up a 3/4.

My old Expedition was running 86% of tow capacity to this trailer. The RAM is closer to 70%. It's much more comfortable.
 
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