Adding extra weight to the truck - need some advice

[FirstTimeRamDriver]

So I have 19' Laramie and planning on building it to a off-rad rig. In hind sight, should have gotten a Rebel. Anywho, that's 18 months too late. Considering various off-road stuff including a Roof Top Tent and a front bumper with Winch mount and other stuff. The more I research into this, I find that all these are going to add crap ton of weight to the vehicle and it is recommended to get a better lift kit / suspension etc. I am considering BDS 4" kit, but not right now. I can either get a lift kit or the RTT if I have to park in the garage.

so the question is, how do i find out what my current vehicle weight (all stock) is? how do I figure out how much extra eight the stock suspension would handle before sagging? any pointers is highly appreciated.

To give some examples of weight :
Front bumper - 175 lbs + winch
Rear bumper - 85 lbs
Bed Rack - 70 lbs
RTT - 160 lbs
Hitch mount spare carrier - 130 lbs
spare full 35" - 110 lbs
Rock sliders - 300 lbs

above adds to about 1035 lbs of extra weight that i dont have now.
+
4 35 inch tires with rims is probably another 100 lbs each (substract the stock tires and rims, not sure how much they are)
+
plus add whatever gear, people and extra fuel I will be carrying.

 

[Fatherof3]

Whenever I want to weigh my truck I take it on a dump run . They weigh it before and after so they know what to charge .

 

[J-Cooz]

So I have 19' Laramie and planning on building it to a off-rad rig. In hind sight, should have gotten a Rebel. Anywho, that's 18 months too late. Considering various off-road stuff including a Roof Top Tent and a front bumper with Winch mount and other stuff. The more I research into this, I find that all these are going to add crap ton of weight to the vehicle and it is recommended to get a better lift kit / suspension etc. I am considering BDS 4" kit, but not right now. I can either get a lift kit or the RTT if I have to park in the garage.

so the question is, how do i find out what my current vehicle weight (all stock) is? how do I figure out how much extra eight the stock suspension would handle before sagging? any pointers is highly appreciated.

To give some examples of weight :
Front bumper - 175 lbs + winch
Rear bumper - 85 lbs
Bed Rack - 70 lbs
RTT - 160 lbs
Hitch mount spare carrier - 130 lbs
spare full 35" - 110 lbs
Rock sliders - 300 lbs

above adds to about 1035 lbs of extra weight that i dont have now.
+
4 35 inch tires with rims is probably another 100 lbs each (substract the stock tires and rims, not sure how much they are)
+
plus add whatever gear, people and extra fuel I will be carrying.

Adding 1000lbs to your truck is going to leave you with very little payload. What is your payload sticker on the door jamb?

 

[FirstTimeRamDriver]

Adding 1000lbs to your truck is going to leave you with very little payload. What is your payload sticker on the door jamb?

1493 lbs.

 

[J-Cooz]

1493 lbs.

Then you're going to have about 400lbs of payload. Lol!

 

[FirstTimeRamDriver]

Then you're going to have about 400lbs of payload. Lol!

Lol, that’s what I am afraid of. From what I read, the cub weight is stamped somewhere under the hood, but for the life of me I can’t find a meaningful sticker anywhere there. Might be stamped on the engine itself, need to remove the cover to see closely.

I see some of the rigs with similar or much more rigged up than I described, They must be running their rig pretty close to the gross weight then.

Sigh

 

[Techguy2000]

For what it's worth you will save the stock spare weight so it wont be the full 110lb inctease for your spare 35. Same with front and rear bumper unless those are already the net increases?

A 12k winch is approaching 80lbs so you can add that to your list.

I'm going through a similar project with 1250lb of payload available and decided that a fiberglass topper would be more functional for me every day over a rack and RTT, and in the end the two weigh a similar amount.

You can make it work, you may just have to make a sacrifice or two,.

 

[FirstTimeRamDriver]

Good point @Techguy2000 . i did not substract the stock spare tire nor the stock bumpers. added the winch already and the difference between 4 stock vs KO2. rock sliders are definitely out . they are like 300 lbs and I was planning to get the Decked system, but might have to forgo that as well. the irony is, even with those out, i have to play within 400 lbs. thats not even enough for 2 + camping supplies , recovery gear, extra fuel etc.

I think this is the first time i am happy with the Prius size tank lol

 

[CaptainCJ35]

I also don't think you need a hitch mount spare tire carrier... you should be able to squeeze in a 35 where your current spare is.

 

[Techguy2000]

Depending on your goals and terrain, if you want an added skid plate where ram didnt place one.. this one is super beefy, just got mine today, think it weighs about 45lbs.

Ram 1500 Engine-Transmission Armor Package | Dethloff Mfg

This Skid Plate Package offers severe service protection to the Engine-Transmission area of the Ram 1500 Trucks.

dethloffmfg.com

 

[FirstTimeRamDriver]

I also don't think you need a hitch mount spare tire carrier... you should be able to squeeze in a 35 where your current spare is.

I was told by a shop that the spare would not fit under there, but airing it down low might be an option. In any case, I would like the spare where I can easily access it, not under the body. Useless location in a off-road situation IMO

 

[FirstTimeRamDriver]

Depending on your goals and terrain, if you want an added skid plate where ram didnt place one.. this one is super beefy, just got mine today, think it weighs about 45lbs.

Ram 1500 Engine-Transmission Armor Package | Dethloff Mfg

This Skid Plate Package offers severe service protection to the Engine-Transmission area of the Ram 1500 Trucks.

dethloffmfg.com

Thanks, I was just crawling under the truck last night and found out that the protection package is half baked

 

[CaptainCJ35]

I was told by a shop that the spare would not fit under there, but airing it down low might be an option. In any case, I would like the spare where I can easily access it, not under the body. Useless location in a off-road situation IMO

I think there are small heat shields that are removed to allow the 35 to fit... I read it on this site somewhere. Just and idea to save weight. Good luck.

 

[devildodge]

@FirstTimeRamDriver I am assuming you are the guy I was talking with on overlandbound..

As I said there. Your curb weight isnt anywhere on the truck...but the information to find it is.

7100 minus 1493 is 5607.

Get the CAT scale app. It will tell you were the nearest one is located and for 12 bucks you can know exactly what your truck weighs total and each axle.

As I said over there the truck has about a 60/40 weight balance front to rear when empty.

1493 is an above avg payload for a RAM 1500...especially a Laramie

 

[FirstTimeRamDriver]

@FirstTimeRamDriver I am assuming you are the guy I was talking with on overlandbound..

As I said there. Your curb weight isnt anywhere on the truck...but the information to find it is.

7100 minus 1493 is 5607.

Get the CAT scale app. It will tell you were the nearest one is located and for 12 bucks you can know exactly what your truck weighs total and each axle.

As I said over there the truck has about a 60/40 weight balance front to rear when empty.

1493 is an above avg payload for a RAM 1500...especially a Laramie

Yea sir, same person!! I will get the truck weighed.

 

[2019ramrebel12]

I added a bedrack, rock sliders, vice design winch mount and winch, and a transmission skid plate and even before loading my RTT found that I'm about 300 pounds shy of my GVWR. All that extra metal added up quickly. I'm a bit disappointed to say the least.

 

[FirstTimeRamDriver]

I added a bedrack, rock sliders, vice design winch mount and winch, and a transmission skid plate and even before loading my RTT found that I'm about 300 pounds shy of my GVWR. All that extra metal added up quickly. I'm a bit disappointed to say the least.

I made an excel file with needs and wants with weights to ensure I have at least some spare weight to carry myself lol. So far the Decked system that I was planning on is out, so are the rock sliders, but I would get the rock sliders back on at some point, so still working on alternatives. It’s gonna be a while before I get to RTT, but I want to make sure everything is planned out to not have unexpected surprises and run the rig over max gross. Probably little over gross but under the acceleration weight is fine, I would still like to avoid that if I can.

 

[2020GraniteBH]

Crazy how fast the weight adds up and we have a V8 yet the Tacoma guys add a sh*t ton of gear with that baby V6 and have no issues. Wtf! lol

 

[Techguy2000]

There are plenty of payload and GVWR posts on expedition portal, overlandbound etc forums with guys in new vehicles doing the math and coming to the same conclusion as this thread. In the end there are many rigs that are over gvwr, taco's, 4runners, jeeps, all of them.. Do they have issues? I have no idea... Would we have issues going 2 or 300lbs over? Hard to believe...

To me it's the assumed safety limits of the vehicle that has kept me under weight.

 

[outdoorco75]

Crazy how fast the weight adds up and we have a V8 yet the Tacoma guys add a sh*t ton of gear with that baby V6 and have no issues. Wtf! lol

Just because they do it, it doesn’t mean they aren’t overweight. My buddy’s Taco TRD Off-road has a payload of 930 lbs, he would go over even easier if he built it out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk