Towing? How much weight can I tow?

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Hogfish823

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Ok - rookie question but I would rather not be that guy on the evening news with his trailer and load laying across the highway. So, here it goes.

How much weight trailer and load can I tow safely? I have put a pallet of sod in the bed and it almost bottoms out with the front wheels "tippy toeing" with the nose in the air and butt on the ground and the rear wheel wells about an inch from the wheels. So, after seeing that I am concerned about pulling a trailer with a boat on it.

How much can I tow?
How do I improve the towing weight ability of this truck?
Below is the info from my vin sticker:

2009 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie
DATE OF MFR: 11-08
Here is the info on the VIN sticker:
GAWR FRONT: 1679 KG 3700 LB
20X9.0
GAWR REAR: 1770 KG 3900 LB
20X9.0

GVWR: 3085 KG 6800 LB


Thanks guys. Really need some solid advise and not "Go buy a 2500"
 

cableguy_hd

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How big is the boat? Air bags will definitely help with the squat. They run about 100$
 
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Hogfish823

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Thanks -- 27ft Boat fully rigged with fuel will be about 8500 lbs. including trailer.

Also, I heard of adding the bags to help with squat but I was concerned about what the engine / transmission of the trucks abilities. If I just change out the shocks and add bags I might be able to tow 10K lbs but what will that do to the mechanics of truck itself?
 
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Hogfish823

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So I did some more research and found this about my truck:
5speed Auto 545 RFE Trans
Class IV Receiver
3.92 Axle Ratio

So, I am back to wanting to find out. How much can I tow without spilling my boat all over the road? Boat weight with trailer 8500 lbs.
 

LarryA

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No expert my self, but I think the limiting factor will be the tongue weight of your trailer. Assuming typical 10-15% you are at 800-1,200 pounds on the tongue. That likely will take you near or over your payload limits, especially when you add your weight as the driver as well as anything else in your truck.
 
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Hogfish823

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Thanks all. I just finished a Chat session with Dodge directly. The guy there "RANDY" did a wonderful job explaining payload capacity, Trailer towing capacity etc etc etc. Basically I am at 13000 lbs TOTAL Truck and Trailer combined. And just the trailer with any cargo on trailer is 7450 lbs.
SOOOO, I guess its time for a new truck!!!!! Yeah me!!!!!!!
 

crash68

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No expert my self, but I think the limiting factor will be the tongue weight of your trailer. Assuming typical 10-15% you are at 800-1,200 pounds on the tongue.
Boat trailer tongue weights usually run in the morning 8-10% range, lighter than a typical TT


Ok - rookie question but I would rather not be that guy on the evening news with his trailer and load laying across the highway.
That fact you asking is a good sign your thinking ahead. Pulling that boat will be pushing the upper limits of your truck provided the trailer isn't set up tongue heavy. Take the trailer to a set of semi scales to see where your actually at, but a fully loaded 27' is going to be heavy. Just for reference, I pulled a 24' Thompson that was pushing the 7K lbs mark on the trailer fully loaded.
Even a smaller/lighter trailer will "lay you out across the freeway" if there is a loose nut holding on to the steering wheel. Even with a 2500/3500 that 27' can own you.
 

CPTII

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So, your engine transmission and rear end can handle the boat weight. But you absolutely need to bag the rear shocks to stiffen it up. I have towed a 9k lbs travel trailer with my 2015 and it didn’t hurt it at all
 

wgreggking

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Beside the actual numbers, which you need to know, there are many variable's, Your experience with towing, condition of both truck and boat/trailer, tires, brakes, Weight dist., How far are you towing,around the corner or cross the state, and the unkown jackasses, that will cut you off.
78242.jpg
 

VernDiesel

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I transport TTs & boats commercially with my 2014 3.92 Ecodiesel with 8 speed. 540,000 miles mostly Ohio to West coast & back. Have posted pics on here towing a 9k boat 15,000 CVW. The 4th gen has a max CVWR (combined vehicle weight rating of 15950.) With 3.92 Hemi you will be fine to 8,500 on a boat despite only having the 5 speed.

You need to add air bags. In my experience with both spend $350 on quality axle to frame heavy rubber convoluted bag set with quality lines & fitting instead of $100 on cheap in coil bags with cheap plastic fittings & lines that eventually leaks and must be aired up before loading. https://timbergroveenterprises.com/old-home

Like Crash said take the boat to the scales. CAT has a free app for your smartphone that has locator & gps directions. CAT has 3 scales that weigh your steer, drive, & trailer axles separately but at the same time. Load what you can over the boat axles or in the front of the cab with as little weight as you have to in the back of the bed. By loading this way you should be able to get your axle weights or weight distribution right and tongue weight to the ideal 10 percent or 850 pounds in this ex ample towards your GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) of 6,800.

If your empty truck starts out around 5,500 this should leave you with enough room to work with. Worse case if you were say only 2 or 3 percent over gvwr/payload you wouldn’t even be able to tell from driving it. The most important part for handling stability & braking is proper TW (tongue weight) and maintaining proper steer axle weight.

Get two weight slips one with just the unloaded truck for your ideal steer axle weight and total weight. Then another weight slip with the boat hooked up. Subtract unloaded combined truck axle weight from loaded with boat combined axle weight for your TW. (tongue weight) You are going to adjust your loading perhaps requiring a 3rd or even 4th weight slip until have replaced as much of that unloaded steer axle weight as possible and gotten your TW down to 10 percent. Now you have a safe stable load and that will stop instead of locking the front brakes. In fact set up like this your 1/2 ton may handle & stop that boat better than the bub who blindly drops the ball on his 3/4 ton and does no set up. Cost is typically only about $10 plus $2 per additional weigh.

If you have too much weight on your drive axle IE well over your 3,900 and too little on your steer say less than 3,100 you can use a 1 pound tail gate net instead of a 60 pound tail gate and or you could relocate your spare to say the front of the bed as both now are behind the steer axle and completely carried on your steer axle. So the good news is you do not need to buy a bigger truck for an occasional tow of that boat.

PS the picture above shows what can happen when you don’t properly strap the boat to the trailer.
 
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