Max 5th Wheel GVWR for my new 2500

[Endoscott]

No one is talking about tire capacity. That will be another limiting factor. You should have figured out the RV 1st, now you got the tail wagging the dog. For what you will pay for an Airstream you could get a better truck and a very nice 5th wheel. There are no slide-outs on an Airstream, deal breaker for us. Check out Arctic Fox, Northwood. 27-5L is a very livable 5th wheel for 2 people, super well built. 13,000 Gross, 10,000 empty, 30 feet long.. 5th wheels tow WAY better than bumper pulls. B&W Companion hitch only way to go. You shoulda bought a 3500. Not too late. We got SRW which is just adequate for the 27 5L. Would not want much heavier. I like a little safety margin.

 

[392DevilDog]

There is no need to talk about tire capacity. You will reach axle capacity long before your tires reach capacity.

A new truck will have much more capacity than needed.


If he had a used truck, maybe we would need to tell him to check the tires...in case someone fitted the wrong tires. Or if he had lifted the truck.

As long as the tires are what is on the door jamb...plenty of tire capacity.

 

[OC455]

I am now looking at available 5th wheels 33 ft and under. Thank you for your advice!

Look at Grand Design Reflection 150 series. Couple of them that have low pin weights.

Series 150: 240RL & 260RD have low pin weights.

 

[David F]

So, the max towing weight according to Ram of 15,980 lbs doesn't mean that it can pull a 15000 GVWR 5th wheel? Or is that too close the max towing weight for comfort? As far as the suggestion of a max trailer weight of 12k mean a max GVWR of 12k or empty weight of 12k?

Sorry for so many questions but is the suggestion made is correct, then that means that my truck wouldn't be able to pull many of the 35 ft 5th wheels. I don't want a travel trailer and I was led to believe that my truck would be able to pull quite a few 5th wheels. One 5th wheel I am looking at is the Grand Design Solitude 310GK that has a UVW of 12k and GVWR of 15k. This is too heavy for my truck?

i have a similar truck, a 2019 Ram 2500 with the diesel, and i pull a Grand Design Reflection, a much lighter trailer than your suggested Solitude. It has GVWR or just under 10000 lbs, and i am maxed out on the capacity rating of the Ram. The weight you are pullling is not a factor, but the payload is the problem. You will need to go to a 3500 Ram to pull a Solitude.

 

[OC455]

I'm just the opposite with looking at 5'ers. My truck has stupid cargo capacity, but limited with the towing. Any 5'er I would look at, would have to be a lighter camper & would have to have a gross vehicle weight rating less than 12k lbs.

 

[Steven Ray]

One thing to keep in mind when choosing a T/T or 5th is the length. I have a 28' T/T and my wife and I have been doing some traveling to Federal and State parks and what we have come up against is finding a place to park. Some parks limit the length of the trailer and so do R/V parks so finding a place to stay is a problem because I'm too long.

 

[mtwofeathers]

Hi everyone. I'm new here and I am a proud owner of a new Ram 2500 Laramie Diesel. I bought it with plans to purchase a 5th wheel in another year or two and to become a full time RV'er after retirement. I have been researching 5th wheels that I would be interested in purchasing and because I want to be able to go to most federal and state parks, I am looking at a 5th wheel between 35 to 39 feet in length.

My trucks GVWR is 10000 lbs and according to the Ram truck site, it's max payload is 2070 lbs and its max towing is 15,980 lbs. Does the latter value mean that I need to stay under 16000 GVWR for the 5th wheel? I seem to get conflicting information when I try to google what my truck should be able to tow and I've seen answers of over 19,000 lbs with the 6.7L Cummins Diesel.

I would greatly appreciate your input on what GVWR for a 5th wheel I can reasonably tow so that I don't waste my time looking at 5th wheels that my truck won't be able to tow.

I am new to having a truck and I selected the 2500 based on what I felt would be a sufficiently powerful truck to pull a nice 5th wheel. I might have done this backwards and bought the truck before deciding on the 5th wheel . But I am fine in limiting what I can haul if I understand what my truck can pull.

Thanks and I look forward to spending more time on this forum and becoming a more knowledgeable owner.

Dan

Well first off 27ft is the average length allowed in most national forests, I run 22 campgrounds in California during summer. You might find some longer sites in some campgrounds, but 27ft is the design they made years ago.

For instance at Frenchman lake campgrounds I can find some 40ft long, at most counting all the campgrounds at the lake you could find 14 that could accommodate your size. And most of those are ******* on the reservation system as well. The reservation system for the lake is pretty much full by April. Its a popular camping area. It pays to know the campgrounds your going to ahead of time.

 

[NH RAM]

I'm just the opposite with looking at 5'ers. My truck has stupid cargo capacity, but limited with the towing. Any 5'er I would look at, would have to be a lighter camper & would have to have a gross vehicle weight rating less than 12k lbs.

We have enjoyed our Cougar 30RLS so far and I tow it with a 6.4 and 3.73 gears, is about 9400 dry and 11000 gross. I bought it specifically to keep the 6.4 happy and stay under 10k dry. It's "half ton towable"....sure it is.
https://www.keystonervsource.com/sp...-half-ton-fifth-wheel-floorplan-30rls-tr42313

 

[j_t_l]

So I decided to enter my VIN at Ram trucks and this is what it says:

Max Payload: 2170 lbs
Max Towing: 16, 980 LBS

So wouldn't this mean with the 5th wheel/gooseneck towing prep that my truck could pull a 15k GVWR 5th wheel? If not, that is the value of max towing mean? I know, there have been a lot of responses suggesting I look at travel trailers but I'd appreciate an understanding of how someone uses the max towing value to determine what the truck can tow? What value does it provide when someone is deciding to purchase a truck to pull an rv?

Thanks for your input as always.

This has been said in many other ways in the thread, so I thought I'd say it this way:

The "Max Towing" value provided there is under "ideal" conditions (well -- ideal for maxing out that one number and nothing else!).

As DevilDog says, the rating is measured with only a driver & towing equipment, and a trailer with only 10% tongue weight (so 1698 lbs in this case).



Most folks I know don't tow their trailers with a 4-door completely empty cab and nothing in the bed (unless they're towing professionally). Usually folks load up stuff / kids / dogs / firewood -- and all that eats into the payload, which eats into how much is left over for towing.

It's kind of like saying "that athlete can hold 300lbs over his head and run a mile in 6 minutes" -- they might be able to do both of those things, but only one at a time.



Moreover, the 10% tongue weight a bare minimum. It's safer to have a tongue weight around 12%-15% -- especially when you start throwing in "last minute" cargo which moves your tongue weight off of what you'd expect (oh honey, can you pack the extra ice chest full of beer and toss it in the back? ;-) ). A little extra tongue weight really helps settle down sway with the high profile side-walls of a tall RV. Running only 10% tongue weight might be great "most of the time" going down the highway ... until you run into a 50+mph side gust from an unexpected storm.
And when you get into 5th wheels, the pin weight should be around 20% of the trailer weight. So even more payload is needed.



It's really unfortunate that tow ratings are so misunderstood. I suppose it's the fault of the truck advertisements, since manufacturers have very little incentive to tell you about limitations of their trucks.

 

[CodyWyBound]

Thanks to all of you for your input. I am very happy with my truck and have found some good options that I can tow with it, particularly the airstream travel trailers which I am very impressed with and we can definitely live comfortably in a 30 ft. Airstream. I understand that I should have decided on a 5th wheel first and then bought the truck that could pull it but I wanted a 2500 Ram Laramie Cummins and not a larger truck. Not being knowledgeable (though I certainly have learned a lot quickly thanks to a number of your responses), I assumed that I could pull a larger 5th wheel but I didn't know anything about them before I went out and bought my truck. Lessons learned. I will live with my decision and will be just fine.

 

[392DevilDog]

Once again. I am just so glad more people are understanding there actual limits and workimg towards safety and not the "I dont even know it ia back there can pull a house" response.

Makes me feel much safer knowing someone is paying attention to the fact that they have to stop and maneuver the rig also.

This is much more enjoyable helping someone and having them understand and consider safety.

It gets old spending over half the conversation dispelling rumors, half truths, opinions and flat out lies.

Every RAM TRUCK can do a wonderful job. Sometimes you just have to give it the right job to do.

 

[CodyWyBound]

I appreciate that some of you have pointed me in the right direction to understand how to determine what rv I can tow with my truck. I've also been watching youtube videos and they back up what many of you have told me. I am interested in making sure that what we do is safe, not just for us but for others on the road. Now that I have the understanding that I need, I am only looking at RVs that we can safely tow

 

[Firebird]

Once again. I am just so glad more people are understanding there actual limits and workimg towards safety and not the "I dont even know it ia back there can pull a house" response.

Makes me feel much safer knowing someone is paying attention to the fact that they have to stop and maneuver the rig also.

This is much more enjoyable helping someone and having them understand and consider safety.

It gets old spending over half the conversation dispelling rumors, half truths, opinions and flat out lies.

Every RAM TRUCK can do a wonderful job. Sometimes you just have to give it the right job to do.

Agreed, more people learning this information, will hopefully prevent situations like this:

 

[Anthony Kalos]

It seems like anyone who is planning to tow a trailer should be buying a dual wheel 3500 diesel to adequately achieve this ! Better to buy overkill than underkill !

 

[JaCal70]

Dan,

I believe I’ve read all this thread. There is a lot of good data presented. I too appreciate that. Thank you and all who contributed. I have one thing that appears to be overlooked.

I have a 2017 Ram 2500 Mega Cummins 6.7L. I pull a 32’ Wildcat fifthwheel. I started with a Reese 16K fifthwheel hitch (about 100lbs) in my truck and traditional king pin on trailer. But tired of taking hitch out when I needed to use truck bed.

I found a replacement hitch in a Reese GooseBox. This system replaces the king pin on trailer. I installed a removable ball hitch by Curtis slightly ahead of rear axle. GooseBox mounts on the Curtis like a gooseneck would. I don’t now recall weight differences but believe there’s about 50 lbs less weight.

One can pull a gooseneck trailer with this arrangement. There are some disadvantages in that fifthwheel hitches or king pins may have built-in vibration or chucking limiters. I do not miss those and will not give up my GooseBox. In fact I will move it to my next fifthwheel (when I find it).

JaCal

 

[aanorm69]

Check out the info in the charts at this site. They break it down with trim levels, trannie, rearend gearing, etc.

https://fifthwheelst.com/documents/ram/2020_RAM_2500_3500_HD_TowingChart.pdf

 

[392DevilDog]

Check out the info in the charts at this site. They break it down with trim levels, trannie, rearend gearing, etc.

https://fifthwheelst.com/documents/ram/2020_RAM_2500_3500_HD_TowingChart.pdf

Remember. These numbers are for tradesman. And you still need to make them specific to your type of trailer.

These charts give you one thing nothing else does and that is GCWR. GVWR and GAWR are on door jamb. GCWR is nowhere but the charts.

Each and everything will have a different base weight. And this is where the number figuring begins.

 

[392DevilDog]

It seems like anyone who is planning to tow a trailer should be buying a dual wheel 3500 diesel to adequately achieve this ! Better to buy overkill than underkill !

Just to be clear. This is not a bad idea. LOL.

But that is not what we are saying at all. You just need to pay attention to what your truck can do...ir what truck your trailer needs.

Just like a sledge hammer will not pull a nail back out like a carpenter hammer.

A 1500 can tow a large trailer...but with just a driver. A 2500 diesel with all its tow rating can still be hindered by the GVWR of the truck

A 3500 DRW can also be asked to do more than it is supposed to. One thing a lot of people overlook is that the max tow rating...is with a gooseneck. The max tow number can not be achieved with a 5th wheel or bumper pull.

 

[Anthony Kalos]

Just saying that with all the variables in trim configurations, you buy a loaded up 4x4 3/4 ton diesel truck and you barely get more capacity than a 1/2 ton gasser

 

[14hemiexpress]

Just saying that with all the variables in trim configurations, you buy a loaded up 4x4 3/4 ton diesel truck and you barely get more capacity than a 1/2 ton gasser

Yup one of the reasons I went gas. My mega cab big horn has 2800lbs payload. With my full family, dogs, camping supplies in the bed and my hitch weight my truck runs between 8600-9000lbs if I was a diesel I would be right at my legal limit.