new to RV's need some assistance please

rofl, that had me think of my brother in law, he got "Great Deal" a cpl years ago on a 198? winnabago, 25 ft ish, gm 454, only 40 miles from his house. a buddy gave him a ride, he started it and bought it, made it 10 miles and paid 900.00 for a tow on the other 30 miles. it get cussed alot

With a motorhome, the only way to go is diesel - unless it is a baby motorhome and not pulling another vehicle.

5.7 eTorque, 3.92, 4X4, Crew Cab, 6’4” cab, Smartcap, 11,600 lb. tow capacity, Blue Ox SwayPro WDH, 21ft. Escape 21C with 5,000 gross weight.

8,500 miles and 55 camping nights over the last few months. No complaints.

troykeithjones said:

i attempted to check on ram max, my vin comes back with no data availble, verifyed the vin 3 times, and choose by vehicle is showing 2021 and 2022, not seeing where i can change to 2012. i thought the GCVWR would be on one of the stickers but im not seeing it, that why i thought id ask here

thanks
troy

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Same thing happened to me. Use all CAPS when inputting your VIN. Thats what I did and was able to retrieve my build sheet

Scottly said:

Two maintanence schedules instead of one. Two insurance policies instead of a trailer add-on. Two registrations instead of one extra trailer tag. The list goes on...There are upsides and downsides to everything.

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same for the trailer tags, ins.,maintenance. been both routes and for me the motorhome works best. still have the trailer but never use it.

troykeithjones said:

rofl, that had me think of my brother in law, he got "Great Deal" a cpl years ago on a 198? winnabago, 25 ft ish, gm 454, only 40 miles from his house. a buddy gave him a ride, he started it and bought it, made it 10 miles and paid 900.00 for a tow on the other 30 miles. it get cussed alot

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The trouble with a motorhome, is, what do you run errands with when you get to your destination? You basically have to pull a road, and you can't back up easily depending on how the road is connected to the motorhome.

I dont know how much towing you plan on doing, but if infrequent, your ram may be ok. For quick checks when I'm looking at TTs, I figure no more than 80% of my trucks tow rating with trailer gvwr, not dry weight. That should give you some margin. Only weighing the combo on a cat scale can give you real accurate numbers

With your truck, I'd suggest trailers under 25' overall (ball to bumper) and 6k gvwr (not dry regardless of what a salesman may tell you) and under.

I do love my 2500, but I towed heavy with half tons for many years. Yes I'm in the "stay under GRAWR and your good" camp, but with your 10yr old 180k mile truck I would not do that. Just my .02. Good luck.

Just now catching this in my feed but I can offer I was in about the same boat until a month and a half ago. Could have stated "ship" but I was Air Force for 22 yrs.
Had a 2012 1500 Bighorn with the 5.7 and 3:55 gears. Our TT is a 26dbh listed as 5900# dry and 725# tongue weight. We've only had this one a year and a few months. Before that we'd been renting through outdoor rec on the base to get a feel for what we wanted. The truck did okay with the towing duties but it's sad when the wife's minivan has a higher rated payload than your pickup. People don't think about it but accessories like side steps and a bedbug liner cut into that. By the time you add up two adults, two kids, an inverter generator, some other gear, and oh yes, the weight of the wdh, I know we were over the limit. Yes, it towed well, but I never got crazy with it. But I'm sure the truck wasn't happy on the long uphill grades in Missouri. Mpg towing was about 8.5. On June 1st with 156k on the clock I made the decision to trade and move up to a three year old 2500 with the 6.4. Diesel might have been nice but I couldn't justify the upfront and at the pump cost. Have only towed the TT once from our storage to house and back. Pulls it better for sure but looking forward to our regularly scheduled camping trips. My issue now is I need a new WDH with a deeper drop or a new receiver shank with the needed drop. TT sits about three inches above level with the WDH at the lowest mount. I made the jump to 2500 because I never wanted to be on the edge with capability.