2009 1500 Max Towing Available...

[jssmith76]

I feel I'm being repetitive here, but I haven't found this searching, and I just want to be 100% sure before I do anything.

I have a 2009 Ram 1500, Quad Cab, 6.5' bed. 3.92 gears, 17" rims. According to the door tag, my GVWR is 6700 lbs. Now, the GVWR just includes the load in the truck (people, engine, bed, etc) and the tongue weight, correct? This does not include the GVWR of the trailer itself?

Reason being, I'm looking at a 28'-9" travel trailer with a GVWR of 6900 lbs., and a tongue weight of 610 lbs.

I'm looking at the rambodybuilder website, and it states that my truck has a "Max Trailer H.D. Coolin of 8750". Is this the max weight of a trailer I can tow? Or do I look at the GCWR of 14,000, and then remove the truck GVWR of 6700, for a remainder of 7300 lbs?

I just want to make sure I stay legal and safe towing a trailer, and I'm getting a bit lost with all theses acronyms and numbers.

 

[TRCM]

I feel I'm being repetitive here, but I haven't found this searching, and I just want to be 100% sure before I do anything.

I have a 2009 Ram 1500, Quad Cab, 6.5' bed. 3.92 gears, 17" rims. According to the door tag, my GVWR is 6700 lbs. Now, the GVWR just includes the load in the truck (people, engine, bed, etc) and the tongue weight, correct? This does not include the GVWR of the trailer itself?

Reason being, I'm looking at a 28'-9" travel trailer with a GVWR of 6900 lbs., and a tongue weight of 610 lbs.

I'm looking at the rambodybuilder website, and it states that my truck has a "Max Trailer H.D. Coolin of 8750". Is this the max weight of a trailer I can tow? Or do I look at the GCWR of 14,000, and then remove the truck GVWR of 6700, for a remainder of 7300 lbs?

I just want to make sure I stay legal and safe towing a trailer, and I'm getting a bit lost with all theses acronyms and numbers.

The 6,700 GVWR includes some cargo weight....the GCWR does not.

If you take the 14,000 GCWR and subtract the truck empty weight (5,250), you get the max trailer weight of 8750.

The error in your math is that the GVWR is not the empty weight.

If you have the truck loaded as much as possible @ 6,700, THEN the trailer can only weigh 7,300.

 

[jssmith76]

The 6,700 GVWR includes some cargo weight....the GCWR does not.

If you take the 14,000 GCWR and subtract the truck empty weight (5,250), you get the max trailer weight of 8750.

The error in your math is that the GVWR is not the empty weight.

If you have the truck loaded as much as possible @ 6,700, THEN the trailer can only weigh 7,300.

Ok, so if I don't max out the 6700 GVWR of the truck, I could go higher with the weight of the trailer. But, to be on the safe side, I should not exceed a weight of 7300 GVWR for the trailer. Therefore, I should be all good with a trailer with a GVWR of 6900? Even though that's getting closer to 100% maxed out than I would prefer.

 

[14hemiexpress]

TRCM pretty well nailed it. But just remember hitch weight is going towards your gvwr so if you have 800lbs hitch weight that will leave you with 650 for people and cargo.

 

[GsRAM]

What is the payload limit on the yellow door jamb sticker? From that subtract the weight of all occupants, gear in the truck and bed and weight of the wdh itself which you will need. What's left is what you have available for tongue weight.

That trailer is pushing the limits of half ton towing so do take your time when your out with it. Good luck

 

[billyw]

You've received basically good advice. I'd tow that trailer all day long with my half ton. It's under 30 feet, it's under 7000 lbs. With a good weight distributing/anti-sway hitch, and prudent cargo management, you should be ready to rock. Airing the trailer tires to max is a good idea, and if you're running P rated tires on your truck, they should probably be aired to their max as well.

 

[Totesmygoats]

You MUST stay within the GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating), that's the weight your trucks axles bare by cargo, tongue weight etc. If you go over this you can be ticketed and will be liable in accidents.

You must also stay withing the GA(axle)WR, and not overload any axle, or the same as above applies.

Also, same thing with your hitches rating, probably a class 4, probably a max of 1k tongue weight and #10k

"max trailer weight" and GC(combined)WR (truck +trailer) are both recommendations, you will not be ticketed for exceeding them as quoted by dodge.

Your trailer has a GTWR, if you axceed that, ticket + liable.

When you add your GTWR to you GVWR you get your true GCWR, which you cannot exceed or be ticketed and liable.


So you have
GVWR #6700
GAWR 3900 F+R

(recommendations; )
Max trailer 8750#
GCWR 14000#

GTWR #6900 610# tongue weight

(below is a guess, depends on your model)
Weight 5100#
2900#F 2200#R
Additional payload capacity 1600#

So, you stick 1600# over your rear axle, now you're at 3800# rear axle, just under the limit, and 6700# GVWR at the limit. (ignoring you and other cargo) this is why the GVWR is lower than the GAWRs combined, they assume you're going to load up the rear axle.

Now your trailer; you've added 610 pounds to the hitch, that's 2810 on the rear axle (a little more because of the cantilever, but lets discard that) that's well under the axle rating, and that's 5710 weight, so under the GVWR. The trailer probably only weights 4500# thats 10,210# combined, well under the recommended 14,000GCWR, your actual GCWR is only 13600.

Lets say you get a bigger trailer, a 10k gooseneck. You load it to the max down and have a 1400# pin weight, your GVRW and GAWR are still being followed, but the combined weight is now 15,100, that's both outside dodges max trailer and max combined recommendation. But you are inside the trailers rating and what you can legally haul.

What happens? You don't get a ticket. But, your truck might run hot or overheat depending on where you are pulling, you might not be able to go up steep grades at all or only at a crawl. Your frame is fine, your axle is fine, your tires are fine, all within rating.

 

[TRCM]

All I will say is be careful what you do....I have been told personally by the people who write these tickets when asked, if you exceed ANY of the ratings, you will be ticketed. not just certain ones.

GVWR, GCWR, GAWR, GTWR...go over any of them, and could will get $$.


Again, do what you want, I'm just relaying what johnny law told me when I asked for clarification.

 

[Totesmygoats]

GVWR, GCWR, GAWR, GTWR...go over any of them, and could will get $$.

I didn't say anything to the contrary. You GCWR is your GVWR + GTWR. What dodge releases is a marketing number and nothing more. Neither that, nor the "max trailer" are on the door sticker, because they are not official ratings.

The FMCSA proposes to revise the definition of ``gross combination weight rating'' (or GCWR) to clarify that a GCWR is the greater of: the GCWR specified by the manufacturer of the power unit, if displayed on the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) certification label required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), or the sum of the gross vehicle weight ratings (GVWRs) or gross vehicle weights (GVWs) of the power unit and towed unit(s), or any combination thereof, that produces the highest value.

 

[jssmith76]

Thank for the info guys. It definitely is alot of information, and alot of numbers. That why I wanted to come here and put my truck numbers and the trailer numbers out here. Jut to make sure that I am staying within recommended, legal, and safe limits. I want to make sure that I don't get a ticket for anything. But I really want to make sure that my family is safe, as well as everyone else on the road.

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