337RLS & 1-Ton Truck - Still Not Enough Truck??

[yellow_boss]

The Truck - 09 Ram 3500 QC SRW 4x4 3.73 Rearend



The RV - '14 337RLS - GVWR 13,995 lbs



CAT Scale - Truck Loaded less RV & Truck Loaded with RV Hooked Up



We bought the RV at end of season last Fall and it went straight into storage. We just had our first trip with it and the first thing we did was head to the CAT Scales to weigh the loaded truck by itself and again with the RV hooked to truck both loaded for the trip.

It's all a little confusing but I think I am very close to max limit for my rear axle (only 20lbs below) and tires (only 210 lbs below), maybe over on max trailer weight for truck (stated trailer limit for truck is 13,800 lbs, RV GVWR is 13,995 lbs but the scale weighed it at its axles at 9,700 lbs), and possibly over on max payload (the attached table says 3,040 lbs , the door stick says 2,967 lbs). If the base weight in the table for the truck is 7,062 lbs and the truck weighed 8,140 lbs loaded by itstelf, and then another 2,780 lbs pin weight when the loaded RV was hooked up.

I know there's plenty of you with more 5er pulling experience than I have. I'm just looking for confirmation I'm calculating all these numbers correctly? Have I added 3,858 lbs of payload as I think I have? Is it possible a 1-ton SRW truck is still not enough? I've already installed a rear add-a-leaf kit but I don't believe that adds payload capacity but it does help with the rear spring sag when hooked up.

Thanks

Steve

[huntindog]

The Truck - 09 Ram 3500 QC SRW 4x4 3.73 Rearend



The RV - '14 337RLS - GVWR 13,995 lbs



CAT Scale - Truck Loaded less RV & Truck Loaded with RV Hooked Up



We bought the RV at end of season last Fall and it went straight into storage. We just had our first trip with it and the first thing we did was head to the CAT Scales to weigh the loaded truck by itself and again with the RV hooked to truck both loaded for the trip.

It's all a little confusing but I think I am very close to max limit for my rear axle (only 20lbs below) and tires (only 210 lbs below), maybe over on max trailer weight for truck (stated trailer limit for truck is 13,800 lbs, RV GVWR is 13,995 lbs but the scale weighed it at its axles at 9,700 lbs), and possibly over on max payload (the attached table says 3,040 lbs , the door stick says 2,967 lbs). If the base weight in the table for the truck is 7,062 lbs and the truck weighed 8,140 lbs loaded by itstelf, and then another 2,780 lbs pin weight when the loaded RV was hooked up.

I know there's plenty of you with more 5er pulling experience than I have. I'm just looking for confirmation I'm calculating all these numbers correctly? Have I added 3,858 lbs of payload as I think I have? Is it possible a 1-ton SRW truck is still not enough? I've already installed a rear add-a-leaf kit but I don't believe that adds payload capacity but it does help with the rear spring sag when hooked up.

Thanks

Steve

Yes there are limits to what any truck can do. You are closer to the rear tire ratings than I would be comfortable with. If you keep this truck, watch your loading/weight like a hawk.

[Txfivver]

Your pin weight then is 2840 only leaving 127 pounds of available payload on the truck. Plus you are right at max rating for the rear axle. I agree with watching your loading very carefully, you may not necessarily need a dually but a newer model SRW truck should have quite a bit more available payload. Some of the new 1 ton SRW trucks are seeing close to or over 4000 pound payload ratings.

[xrated]

I agree, you are very, very close on your weight numbers. And please, do NOT take this as a disrespectful comment, it is only being said to educate/inform you of your setup. All the rating number that are in play here are for when the truck is brand new. Yours is 11 years old or thereabouts, and over the course of years and miles on a vehicle, component parts, such as axles, springs, wheel bearing, brakes, driveline and associated components do wear and most likely do not have the same capacity or rating as they did when brand new. I have no idea how you maintain your vehicles, and you may actually be one of those guys that are meticulous with maint.....I simply do not know, but in my opinion, that is also something to consider with the setup you have. Even tires degrade over the years and lose some percentage of their load capacity....so I just wanted to mention it to you as a point of thought and knowledge.

[yellow_boss]

Thanks for the replies so far, I appreciate it.

I am one of those meticulous maintenance guys, in fact the tires were brand new before we left 2 weeks ago. However, there’s only so much maintenance you can do to an axle. You definitely cannot increase it’s capacity.

For the moment, I’ll be careful loading and consider my options. It’d be tough to give up the truck since I’ve had so long and it’s still like new but not the end of the world. Safety is more important when your cargo in the cab is so precious!

[xrated]

Thanks for the replies so far, I appreciate it.

I am one of those meticulous maintenance guys, in fact the tires were brand new before we left 2 weeks ago. However, there’s only so much maintenance you can do to an axle. You definitely cannot increase it’s capacity.

For the moment, I’ll be careful loading and consider my options. It’d be tough to give up the truck since I’ve had so long and it’s still like new but not the end of the world. Safety is more important when your cargo in the cab is so precious!

Good on you for being the good version of "one of those guys". As others have stated, watch your loading and it already sounds like you are doing or plan on doing that. It's really a shame that there are so many people out there towing that either don't care, or just don't know.....and sometimes both. Hang in there, it sounds like you are ready for a lot of adventures and fun. Congrats.

[openrangeowners]

Lighten your pinweight - don't carry a full load of fresh water in the tank, move some heavier things out of the basement, get rid of things you don't really need/use but carry. I used to carry a bottle jack but NEVER used it .... that thing weighs 30 lbs. I had 4 20lb LP tanks. Only needed 2. I had 2 75lb 6V AGM batteries. Given what is available today I would get a single Battle-Born that weighs 27lbs. I just eliminated 195 lbs of weight that was directly transferred as pin-weight. This was my previous Open Range 399BHS 5th wheel (40', 5 slides, bunkhouse) towed by my previous truck (2005 Chevy 3500 CCLB Duramax). It towed great, but I needed to keep the camper on a diet to stay within my 9900 lb GVWR of the truck. Payload was around 2700 lbs. The Open Range had a GVWR of 13995 lbs with 6K lb axles.

Loved that combination of truck/trailer. Towed cross-country many times - over a 9 year period - never once a problem related to payload. Plenty of power, decent milage and good braking/handling. My wife and I took turns driving while our daughters sat in the back seat watching DVDs or looking out the window at the scenery.

[yellow_boss]

Lighten your pinweight - don't carry a full load of fresh water in the tank, move some heavier things out of the basement, get rid of things you don't really need/use but carry. I used to carry a bottle jack but NEVER used it .... that thing weighs 30 lbs. I had 4 20lb LP tanks. Only needed 2. I had 2 75lb 6V AGM batteries. Given what is available today I would get a single Battle-Born that weighs 27lbs. I just eliminated 195 lbs of weight that was directly transferred as pin-weight. This was my previous Open Range 399BHS 5th wheel (40', 5 slides, bunkhouse) towed by my previous truck (2005 Chevy 3500 CCLB Duramax). It towed great, but I needed to keep the camper on a diet to stay within my 9900 lb GVWR of the truck. Payload was around 2700 lbs. The Open Range had a GVWR of 13995 lbs with 6K lb axles.

Loved that combination of truck/trailer. Towed cross-country many times - over a 9 year period - never once a problem related to payload. Plenty of power, decent milage and good braking/handling. My wife and I took turns driving while our daughters sat in the back seat watching DVDs or looking out the window at the scenery.

Great advice, thank-you. We'll shave some pounds for our trip next week and hit the scales again on the way out. There are probably several items in the basement we can do without and I could pull the tailgate off of the truck and take a couple Class IV Ball Mounts and hitch balls off/out of my truck along with a few other items I routinely carry. My wife says she can lighten the load in the kitchen as well. My math showed I was about 800 lbs above my GVWR and Payload. Lightening the load and maybe repositioning a few items may help. As mentioned, I'll need watch this closely as I consider whether a more capable truck or lighter 5er is in my future.

This all still surprises me honestly. Way back when I bought this 1-ton truck, which was more than I needed at the time, I thought I'd be good to go to pull or haul pretty much anything. Not so obviously. It'll be a sad day for me if "big red", as I call her, has to go!

Thanks again.

[xrated]

Great advice, thank-you. We'll shave some pounds for our trip next week and hit the scales again on the way out. There are probably several items in the basement we can do without and I could pull the tailgate off of the truck and take a couple Class IV Ball Mounts and hitch balls off/out of my truck along with a few other items I routinely carry. My wife says she can lighten the load in the kitchen as well. My math showed I was about 800 lbs above my GVWR and Payload. Lightening the load and maybe repositioning a few items may help. As mentioned, I'll need watch this closely as I consider whether a more capable truck or lighter 5er is in my future.

This all still surprises me honestly. Way back when I bought this 1-ton truck, which was more than I needed at the time, I thought I'd be good to go to pull or haul pretty much anything. Not so obviously. It'll be a sad day for me if "big red", as I call her, has to go!

Thanks again.

Please don't feel like you are alone. I had pulled trailers almost my entire teenage/adult life (never anything as big as a camping trailer though) and in 2010, I bought one of the new 2011 F250 CrewCab, 4x4, Diesel trucks (6.7L and brand new that year). I figured that with a 3/4T truck, a diesel, and 4x4, I could buy and pull almost anything I wanted to get in the way of a camping trailer. I really didn't know the first thing about hauling "heavy", but at the time, my though was....yep, this will do it. My plan was to get the truck, then several years later get the camper that I wanted. I used the truck in the mean time to tow a 16' V nose tandem axle enclosed trailer, and it performed well. So fast forward to 2016 and I started looking for my first camper....a 38 - 40' 5th Wheel Toy Hauler. Long story short, I quickly discovered that even the EMPTY pin weight on most or all of them exceeded my payload capacity of the truck....BTW, that truck's payload, a whopping 2148 lbs! I thought to myself, I must be making a mistake in my calculations somewhere along the line, so I checked over, and over, and over! Finally, the reality of my stupidity became crystal clear....I had bought the wrong truck because I didn't have a clue 5 years previous. So my search went from a fairly large 5ver toy hauler to a tow behind and smaller toy hauler. I found one that worked with my truck for a while, but then when I decided that I wanted an aux. diesel tank in the truck bed...plus the almost 1300 lb of tongue weight from the trailer, I was right at or slightly overloaded on the F250. And all along, I had really wanted a big Toy Hauler..as in a big 5ver Toy Hauler. So I decided to go ahead and get a F350 Dually because I knew that when the time came to get the large Toy Hauler, I would be ready and not have to truck shop again. March 1st, 2019....I got the big guy...a 2018 Momentum 394M with a GVWR of 20,000 lbs.....and I didn't have to go truck shopping again. I will say that in the interim time between all of this happening, I spent countless hours reading, learning and asking a lot of questions about towing dynamics and what it takes to combine a truck and trailer and stay within all the weight capacity ratings of both vehicles. For me, it was time well spent and I certainly learned a lot and also enjoy helping others to understand the process.

[BeenGone]

Maybe a dumb suggestion, but besides moving weight from the front to the back to the trailer to lighten the weight on the hitch, you could consider getting a different hitch. For instance goosebox plus ball weighs less than the traditional set up with a fat fifth wheel. It may save you some 100lbs.