Towing almost 1400 miles

[dhay13]

So left yesterday morning about 7:30 AM EST from western PA headed for Baytown, Texas. We were driving my sons 2018 Ram 2500 6.4 4.10's and towing his 2018 Grand Design Imagine 2670MK. Payload on the truck is about 2973lbs. We didn't weigh his truck separately but it is an identical twin to mine and mine was about 7250lbs with just me in it and 1/2 tank of fuel. His truck was heavier since he was in it (add about 180lbs), we had a full tank of fuel (add about 100lbs), had about 100lbs of stuff in the back seat, and had about 400lbs in the bed. So guesstimating his truck weighed about 8000-8100lbs, give or take. So the CAT scale showed the front axle weighed 4080lbs, the rear axle was 5040lbs and the trailer axle was 7060lbs (total weight was 16180lbs). We also did not weigh with the torsion bars disconnected. If his truck weighed 8050lbs then we had about 1050lbs of tongue weight.

Here are the numbers from the TT (as per the sticker):
CCC = 1391lbs
GVWR = 8495lbs
UVW = 7064lbs

So looks like we were about 8200lbs on the TT if I am calculating this correctly (and correct me if I'm wrong please). The trailer axles weighed 7060lbs and I am figuring about 1050lbs tongue weight which should be added back to the TT to get a total weight? That is about 8100lbs. About 400 below GVWR of the TT.

I only hand calculated mileage a few stops so here are the results.
Stop 1: 8.49 MPG
Stop 2: 8.04 MPG
Stop 3: 8.13 MPG

So the truck was awesome. He has a Husky TS Centerline WDH and it was easily the most comfortable thing I have towed. Except for the occasional semi blowing by us and the higher revs you really could not tell anything was back there. We traveled between about 65-70 MPH the whole trip except in a few congested areas. Engine RPM's were typically around 3000-4000 RPM but my son had a heavy foot when merging and would see 5000 RPM. I drove about 400-500 miles of the 1400 mile trip, he drove the rest. The truck handled noticeably worse (but still not bad) with the rear tires at 80 PSI. We dropped them to about 73 and it rode much better. At 80 the truck had a little sway but not bad.

We had to stop for fuel about every 200 miles so made it to Memphis, TN last night and stopped to get some sleep. Well that didn't work out. Truck stops were packed and even had semi's pulled off the shoulder on all exit ramps. Met up with another guy in a pretty new F250 PowerStroke towing about a 30' TT and he decided to go ahead to Little Rock to try his luck there. By this time it was about 1:00AM local time (2:00AM from our home time so a long day). We decided to try his idea. Stopped at a rest stop and another Loves and fully packed. Ended up taking up 2 spaces and blocking the throughway at a Shell truck stop outside Little Rock. Don't worry, a bunch of folks were parked worse than us...lol. Next morning saw our F250 buddy pulling out right behind us. A few hours later he passed us in Texas...lol.

Will add pics from my phone in the next post

 

[dhay13]

Here are some pics.

forgot to add above. Front axle max on the truck is 5500lbs and rear is 6500lbs

 

[dhay13]

More pics

 

[dhay13]

And more. And yeah, that torsion bar took he thought he lost...it was there. Lol

 

[jvbuttex]

nice you had a comfortable trip

did you track your mileage on the trip?

 

[dhay13]

nice you had a comfortable trip

did you track your mileage on the trip?

Just for those 3 stops. I got a rough calculation for the first stop too and it was about 8.2. Those were the only 4 stops but that is about 750 miles tracked of the 1400

 

[rule18]

@dhay13 , thanks for the writeup. You guys had the WDH dialed in exactly where it needed to be, that combo looks level as F.

 

[dhay13]

For the record I have towed this TT with my old 1500 about 200 miles and would not want to have made this trip with a 1500

 

[68PowerWagon]

Yeah most truck stops are just about full by 6:00pm. Really frustrating for drivers! Most need to be running the road later that 6pm, but one also needs sleep. You are better off looking for a large brick & mortar store to park in their lot. Most stores are ok with it as long as you use common sense how & where you park in their lot. I get the same mileage as you with my 38' 5th wheel. Usually between 8-10mpg. I got 10 once only cause most of the trip I had the wind to my back.

 

[RodeoRam]

For my overnight stops, I map out Pilot/Flying J truck stops if they have RV fuel lanes/parking and Wal-Marts. Love's stations tend to not be set up for easily maneuvering long rigs around the pumps. I only haul my trailer from TN to CO and back once a year. My pretrip planning involves Google Maps to check out my planned fuel and overnight stops to prevent getting myself into a bind that I can't get out of. I have to do the 200-mile limit between fuel stops, too, but there's one stretch of KS going west where I can't even do that. Then the KS wind can throw that into chaos.

 

[dhay13]

Yeah we stopped at about 80 miles to empty so could have probably squeezed 250-275 miles on a tank but would rather play it safe. Plus my 51 year old bladder was ready to stop too...lol.

Maneuvering around pumps wasn't an issue. Just trying to find a place to park that night for some sleep. I can parallel park a trailer no problem but just need a spot to get it into...lol.

But again, the truck (and trailer) were phenomenal. I don't think even an extra 2000lbs would have made a big difference but without actually doing it that would be hard to say. Anyone thinking about a 2500 with under 10,000lb GVWR TT I wouldn't hesitate unless maybe you were in the mountains alot.

FWIW- we got here and my son's co-worker is already here and set up. He has a pretty big Solitude 5th wheel. Son says it has 6 slide outs. He tows it with a ~2018 2500 Cummins. Way over on payload and total weight. He said he went up a big hill at 3 MPH the whole way cause it was too big for the Cummins for such a steep hill. Anyway, he has a brand new F150 Powerstroke that Ford is buying back because of all the issues. /He bought it and it is registered in Illinois so he said under Illinois lemon law the only way he could come out decent was to get another Ford otherwise he was staying away from them after this. But he is getting a brand new F350 SRW Powerstroke Lariat and will tow the 5'er with that but will be keeping the 2500 Ram for his wife. They live in the camper and do not own a house so that is her daily driver. Not sure of the dimensions but he said something about it weighing 20,000lbs. Not sure if he was just throwing out a number or if it really does weigh that much. I'll post a quick pic of it here in a second

 

[dhay13]

Here is the co workers 5er