First big tow and numbers with the 6.4l.

[14hemiexpress]

Hey guys figured I would share. My wife and I took our kids on a 4 day camping trip this is our first in a travel trailer. I barrowed my dads trailer it's a 2018 kz sportster 300thr, His has a on board generator. Empty it is 7200 and about 1300 hitch weight. He tows with a 2017 2500 mega cab 6.4l with no problems. Anyways I set my rig up , its a 2019 2500 mega cab 6.4l 3.73. The hitch is a blue ox with 1500lbs bars. My dad run it at the 9th link, also he has air lift 5000 bags. My truck needed a little more help I ran on the 10th link. This is were my inexperience shows I got the trailer home pulled fine at 65 and started measuring trailer was nose down about a 1/2 in and my nose was still high by 3/4 inch. Moved up to the 11th link truck sat perfectly nose was with in 1/8 of unloaded height sat level with the rear and the trailer was within a 1/4 of level. Anyways we head out the the bars are making awful noises I hit a bump at about 5 mph and boom snapped a bar. Some how by the grace of good my local rv had a set I was about 5 miles away. I unhooked the non broken bar and limped it over there and that wasn't any fun anyways got the new bars set them on the 9th link I didnt want that to happen again and then we headed out headed out on our 250 mile trip each way. On the way up pulled good at 60-65 seemed to move around at 70 was in no hurry kept it at 60 got 10.5 mpg for the first 100 miles or so then we hit rain and dropped to 9.3. On the way home we were hitting a small amount of head wind and I was all over the place most of the time I was still 1 handing it but when the wind would pick up I would drop to 55 and 2 hand it just to be sure. Finally I pulled into a scale and weighed my set up. I was 16700 combined weight, the truck with my family and small stuff in the bed was 8020 truck with trailer was 9620 leaving me a 1600 lb hitch weight and a total trailer weight if 8700lbs. I figured out real fast what was up at that point. It took 400lbs off the front of my truck also. The 1500lb bars on the blue ox didnt stand a chance. So reguardless that's why its important to weight your setup in the first place lesson learned the semi hard way and stuff and family's add up fast my trucks payload per the door sticker is 2850 give or take 20lbs. Leaving me with a unloaded weight of 7200lbs witch means I had 800lbs in my truck. Finaly mpg was 8m3 per the display the 6.4 pulled strong it laughed at the weight I climbed hills gaining speed if I wanted, at 4k rpm it was ready to go trans never got higher than 176 coolant didnt get higher than 225 and thr oil peaked around 230 if I remember correctly plenty of engine and rear gear for the weight. Anyway that's long enough of a story here the pics you really came for.

Edit: I'm not new to towing trailer I have pulled tons of utility trailers and even a 39ft gooseneck race car trailer but this is my first experience hauling a travel trailer and using a WDH and it really is a whole different world.

 

[392DevilDog]

Thanks for the information.
Looks like a good time was had camping.
It is amazing how everything adds up.

This is why it is so hard to understand how these guys enjoy towing these big trailers with a 1500.

Your setup looks great compared to some. Yet you were honest in saying it was a bit of a handful.

You are under GAWR which is great. Dang though the trailer put 2k to the rear. If you could get that 400 back to the front, I bet that would help...but we see what happened to your bar.

Thanks for sharing

 

[dhay13]

Yeah my 2018 weighed 7300 with me in it and 1/2 tank of fuel but I have the CC so your weight seems to be about right. I weigh 270 so my truck with 1/2 tank of fuel would be about 7000lbs

 

[14hemiexpress]

Thanks for the information.
Looks like a good time was had camping.
It is amazing how everything adds up.

This is why it is so hard to understand how these guys enjoy towing these big trailers with a 1500.

Your setup looks great compared to some. Yet you were honest in saying it was a bit of a handful.

You are under GAWR which is great. Dang though the trailer moved 2k to the rear. If you could get that 400 back to the front, I bet that would help...but we see what happened to your bar.

Thanks for sharing

I really needed the 2k bars and I feel like it probably would of been fine or atleast helped. It never "wagged" on me it bounced more than anything and the wind or semis would push me I just slowed down and took it easy.

 

[392DevilDog]

Just for comparison. Here is my camping combo.

It is always interesting comparing numbers.

 

[smurfs_of_war]

Did that bar snap at low speeds? I had one snap on a cheaper WDH I had years ago at highway speeds. It was a hair raising experience to say the least.

 

[14hemiexpress]

Did that bar snap at low speeds? I had one snap on a cheaper WDH I had years ago at highway speeds. It was a hair raising experience to say the least.

I bet that would he hair raising. It snapped at about 5 mph over a big dip in the road. I told my wife I couldn't imagine if that had happened going down the highway.

 

[NH RAM]

....11th link....wow! I had my trailer on 9 links and that was about as tight as I felt I should have it to keep the bars parallel to the tongue. I didn't sit level because I have a front 2" lift. Do you have the standard drop or the extended drop on the Blue Ox? Your tongue weight dry is under 1200# so I would have thought the truck was able to handle the weight without the wdh bars cranked that hard. Granted, when they get loaded up, it's a fair bit of extra weight.
That's a nice setup, I like the rear decks on the toyhaulers. I just got rid of my TT and swapped to a 5W because despite the 2500 doing better than the 1500 did, it's still no fun to tow a TT and we like to go a few hundred miles to a few thousand miles when we go "camping".

 

[14hemiexpress]

....11th link....wow! I had my trailer on 9 links and that was about as tight as I felt I should have it to keep the bars parallel to the tongue. I didn't sit level because I have a front 2" lift. Do you have the standard drop or the extended drop on the Blue Ox? Your tongue weight dry is under 1200# so I would have thought the truck was able to handle the weight without the wdh bars cranked that hard. Granted, when they get loaded up, it's a fair bit of extra weight.
That's a nice setup, I like the rear decks on the toyhaulers. I just got rid of my TT and swapped to a 5W because despite the 2500 doing better than the 1500 did, it's still no fun to tow a TT and we like to go a few hundred miles to a few thousand miles when we go "camping".

Yeah dry its suppose to be closer to 1400 because it has the generator option, after weighing it it was 1600 on the dot witch equals 18% tounge weight. I looked at some fifth wheels just not alot in the range of bunks. I ended up with a east to west 28krd dry 780 on the hitch and 6800 dry gvw 9960. It's a nice trailer and the farthest I plan to go right now is about 4-5 hours most trips being 30min-1hour away. And I did use the blue ox 9hole 2.5in drop hitch.