Towing Capacity Question

[Dave1974]

Hello All,
New to the forum. Just traded my 2018 Ram 1500 Lone Star for a 2021 2500 Laramie with the 6.7L Cummins, 6'4" bed with Rambox. Looking to get into the RV world and have seen conflicting towing capacities listed for my truck. I've seen towing capacity listed at 17,300 - 20,000. Chances are the RV I chose will not come close to this, but I wanted to know for myself. Appreciate any feedback anyone may have. Thanks!

Dave

 

[BlkZrx]

Ignore "towing" capacity rating. What you need to pay attention to is the trucks payload capacity. How much can you put in the truck, including cargo, passengers, hitch and tongue weight..

Sent from my SM-A516U using Tapatalk

 

[runamuck]

you can enter your vin# on the Ram website and find out exactly what the capacity is then subtract any after market stuff and gear you toss in there. https://www.ramtrucks.com/towing/towing-guide.html

my son bought a new laramie 2500 dsl last month and it has 2100# payload. he has added some air bags since then. pulls a 34" 5th wheel with his. 8500-9000# trailer but was cutting it close on cargo capacity with pin wt. and gear.

 

[392DevilDog]

Hello All,
New to the forum. Just traded my 2018 Ram 1500 Lone Star for a 2021 2500 Laramie with the 6.7L Cummins, 6'4" bed with Rambox. Looking to get into the RV world and have seen conflicting towing capacities listed for my truck. I've seen towing capacity listed at 17,300 - 20,000. Chances are the RV I chose will not come close to this, but I wanted to know for myself. Appreciate any feedback anyone may have. Thanks!

Dave

Go out to your door jamb.

It will have a silver sticker that has GVWR and front and rear GAWR

GVWR Gross Vehicle Weight Rating
GAWR Gross Axle Weight Rating

Then on the tire and loading sticker it will give your payload.

Them take GVWR minus Payload to get base weight

Base weight is your empty truck with full fluids.

Now. I will give you your GCWR. Gross Combined Weight Rating. You have to go to the charts to get it.

For your truck it is 27000.

To make this even easier on you i will give you your other numbers that do not change
GVWR 10000
FGAWR 5750
RGAWR 6000

So now all you need is your payload.

For this explanation we will assume your payload is 2100lbs

10000 minus 2100 equals 7900

27000 minus 7900 equals 19100

This 19100 is total added weight to truck.

So you now need to know your passenger cargo and hitch weights.

When you catch up to here...we will talk again.


I wish people would stop with the max tow number.

It is bogus unless you have a driverless truck and no hitch for 1500s and there is only a 470 pound allowance with the HD.

Wish this was a requirement of being a member. Lol. You have to know the charts and configurators are for a basic truck and yours will be different. And the max tow number is all added weight...not a trailer weight.

When the 1500 guys see 11400...they need to realize you are gonna lose a lot when you have passengers and cargo and a hitch.

Sorry for the rant.

Come back with your payload number and a guestimate of passengers and whether you want a 5th wheel or bumper pull

 

[dhay13]

Most trucks will never be able to legally get close to max tow capacity because of payload. A typical 2500 Cummins will have about 2000-2200lbs of payload. A typical 5th wheel will have about 2000lbs of pin weight so even with an empty trailer and nobody in the truck you are maxed out. A 2500 Cummins really isn't built to tow a 5th wheel. Will it do it? Sure. People do it all the time. Will it be legal? Not likely.

Just pulled up a 34' 5th wheel and advertised pin weight it 2190lbs. Add the 5th wheel hitch and you are already overloaded and that is with nobody in the truck.

Go to a CAT scale and get axle weights for your truck loaded as it would be when towing. Subtract that from 10,000lbs and then subtract the weight of the hitch. That will give you how much your tongue weight or pin weight can be on a loaded trailer. And don't go by advertised weight. I have no experience with 5th wheel but a bumper pull is usually a couple hundred pounds heavier than the advertised weight. So advertised tongue weight of 850lbs will be closer to 1100lbs. With the trailer hooked up your front and rear axles must not exceed 10,000lbs.

I recently towed my step-sons 2021 Grand Design Imagine 3250BH. Dry weight listed at 8600ish and GVWR was listed as 10,200lbs on the trailer. The trailer was brand new and empty except the 52 gallon fresh water tank was left full by the dealer and we did not know this until we got back. My empty weight on my truck was 8000lbs with 3 of us and a full tank of gas. The trailer was 9300lbs. Here is my CAT slip. As you can see by adding my steer and drive axles my truck was at 9100lbs. If I had a Cummins I would have been right at max weight since the Cummins weighs about 800lbs more than the 6.4. My payload is 2973lbs. Based on this a 9300lb bumper pull trailer would be about max that a 2500 Cummins could legally tow with about 700lbs of passengers (the 3 of us combined weighed about 700lbs)

 

[Neil E]

Like others have said, payload is going to be the issue. That's why I chose the 6.4, 4.1 with my 2500

 

[Firebird]

Like others have said, payload is going to be the issue. That's why I chose the 6.4, 4.1 with my 2500

Same here, and I have never regretted that decision

 

[JayLeonard]

I was originally looking for a 2500 2 wd 6.4 but couldn't find one locally. Everything was 4x4 diesel and most had the holes in the bed for the 5th wheel hitch which I did not want.
So I ended up getting a 4x4 diesel LOL.
But it has more than enough payload for my travel trailer and I have no plans on getting a 5th wheel, so I'm good with the 2244 lb payload.