Tow ratings ? - Montana Owners Club

scductman · 03-04-2008, 02:55 PM

Guys I have never worryed about my truck pulling my RV but I have been thinking lately about tow ratings. So I cked in the door jam for the numbers. I cant tell how much it is suppose to tow so I need help. Here are the numbers Front axel 4400lb rear axel 7500lb gvwr 10,000lb It is a 96 dodge 3500 ctd, club cab, AT ,410Rear, dually. I think I am close on max wt I just pull careful and ride and enjoy everyday. just thinking to much I guess. bobby

bsmeaton · 03-04-2008, 04:47 PM

It would be absolutely impossible to get an answer here to that question that would make any sense to anybody. I would recommend you seek expert advice through Dodge.

hookman · 03-04-2008, 05:31 PM

Checkout the trailer life page the have an email address you can send to for older tow ratings.
http://www.trailerlife.com/output.cfm?id=42175

mtmy2k2 · 03-04-2008, 05:46 PM

I'll take a stab at this.

1st weigh your truck without the trailer but with everything you would normally have with you when traveling, full fuel tank, cup of coffee, Significant Other, etc. Weigh each axle independently and get a total weight.

For arguments sake lets say your front axle was 4000, rear axle 3000 for a total weight of 7000.

Now, hook up the trailer and do it again. Front, rear and total. May as well weigh the trailer too.

So lets say the front axle is 4000 and the rear axle is 5500, for a total of 9500 lbs or just below your GVWR. The differnce between your original rear axle weight and the latest one would put your pin weight around 2500 lbs plus or minus as the weight is distributed between the front and rear axles on the truck. The pin is normally 15-25% of total trailer weight. How you load the tralier and truck will make a huge difference.

Here are the actual weights from my last outing; My spec sheet says front axle is 5200 max, rear axle 6000 max, GVWR 9000.

With out trailer
4650 front
3150 rear
7800 total

With trailer
4550 front
5950 rear
10500 total

the trailer weighed in at 8300 plus 2800 (difference between with/without trailer) = a trailer weight of 11,100 lbs ish.

By the manufacturers label I'm over Gross Vehicle Weight Range by 1500 lbs with the trailer. Does the truck tow it well, yes. Can I stop easily, yes. Have I had any maintenance issues with the truck, no. How is my comfort level, excellent. We've towed with this set-up around 15000 miles with zero issues.

As the previous person reported there is no way you are going to get a right answer for your question but maybe this will help you figure out where you're at.

Good luck!

Waynem · 03-05-2008, 04:15 AM

Hookman,
Thanks for that link. Lots of information there.
That link says I can tow up to 26000#. Although I don't understand why the 6.0L can tow 3000# more than the 6.8L
I have the 2005 F-350 King Ranch, Crew Cab 6.0L, DRW.

According to that link, the most any Dodge of that era (1999) can tow is 13600#. What does that do for combined?

richfaa · 03-05-2008, 04:49 AM

Don't forget pin weight.Most folks overlook that..

Here is another informative link http://www.your-rv-lifestyle.com/vehicle-weight.html

sreigle · 03-05-2008, 07:57 AM

Bobby, the tow rating is really just a convenient number derived by the manufacturer from other numbers. In my opinion it is not as important as the other ratings. I have no idea the exact formula for tow rating. But the numbers I think you might want to look at are as follows. Where I show GCW and GCWR, GCW is the actual scaled weight and GCWR is the rating.

1. GCWR (GCW is total weight of truck and trailer as actually going down the road with all passengers and gear onboard)

2. GVWR (GVW is total weight of the truck with everything loaded as going down the road. This includes the pinweight of the trailer but not the weight on the axles of the trailer. It can be determined by adding the actual weight on all truck axles.)

3. GAWR, both front and rear axles. (GAW is the actual weight on an axle)

4. Tire weight ratings.

If I've missed anything, someone please jump in.

skypilot · 03-05-2008, 09:25 AM

Bobby: From what I can find on the web this afternoon, it looks like you have a Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR) of 23,000 lbs. This is the max you 'should' weigh when you combine your truck (with fuel, passengers, and any of the hundreds of goodies, munchies and extras that they will have with them) and your trailer loaded for traveling (propane, fresh water, food, clothing, waste tanks empty??, etc..). Basically, how much you weigh going down the road - as some will tell you, it is not so much an issue of what your truck can pull and steer but total you have to stop!!

Now, that said, you need to determine your pin weight and everyone up the list have discussed that.

Differences in hitch placement, type of hitch-pins, even the degree of levelness (i.e. is your trailer just a tad nose high or nose low when connected to the truck) will cause differences in all tow vehicle weights - I only bring this up because you might do like I did, compare my weights to anothers and they will not match. Just too many variables.

Hope this helps some.

TLightning · 03-05-2008, 02:10 PM

The technical definition of towing capacity is the GCWR minus the actual weight of the tow vehicle. Which of course is deceiving. My GCWR is 23,500 and GVWR is 11,400. GM says the max tow capacity is 16,400...which is fine, unless I am at GVWR then the tow capacity is 12,100 (23,500 - 11,400).

H. John Kohl · 03-05-2008, 03:07 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by scductman

Guys I have never worryed about my truck pulling my RV but I have been thinking lately about tow ratings. So I cked in the door jam for the numbers. I cant tell how much it is suppose to tow so I need help. Here are the numbers Front axel 4400lb rear axel 7500lb gvwr 10,000lb It is a 96 dodge 3500 ctd, club cab, AT ,410Rear, dually. I think I am close on max wt I just pull careful and ride and enjoy everyday. just thinking to much I guess. bobby

If you use just the numbers then your GVWR is 10,000lb. So hook up your trailer and take it to the scales hooked up. Take your front axle and drive axle weights and add them. If they exceed 10,000lb or your stearing or drive axle weights then by numbers you are over. Since you did not mention CGVW that can not be discussed.
MY 03 Ram has a GVWR of 12000 and when I weighed it it was 12020 so I was 20 over. I was also 1800 lb over CGVW which I accept because I have 3.73 rear end vice the 4.10.
This is a very sensitive topic.
Good luck.
Cheers,

scductman · 03-05-2008, 03:20 PM

Thanks guys I feel good about my setup but I am still going to do some checking around. I have talked to my man at the dodge dealership and they dont know alot about pulling 5th wheels but he is in parts. But it does sound like I am good. I do take trailer life I may try to get a tow rating from them. Still very good info here. bobby

Waynem · 03-05-2008, 03:28 PM

I'm still confused!!

Of course that is not hard to do with me.

hookman · 03-07-2008, 10:09 AM

I talked with the weight scales and the insurance company here and their consensus is that tow weight is. what ever is on the door sticker.
On the Truck you can not exceed the weight per Axel eg. 6000 rear 5000 front but the total weight can not exceed the truck gross weigh 10100 . The trailer can not exceed the gross sticker GVW. These weights are roughly what is on the door of the 2008 1 ton dodge. So hookup the 5Th wheel and go to a scale weigh the Truck front axel then the rear axel total that weight. Then weigh the 2 axels together on the trailer. Add the two weights of the truck and that will give you the total weight of your truck and hopefully they are all under the weights on the sticker.

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