So you want to tow a camper! Discussion thread.

[Willwork4truck]

Where did you get those numbers? Look up the 2021 towing guide and click on your trim, box length, engine, gearing, drive, door/cab style then it gives you suggested max numbers.

Ram Towing | Find the Best Truck for Your Towing Needs

Find everything you need to know about Ram towing capacity, payload & more here. Discover the best Ram truck or van that fits your towing needs today.

www.ramtrucks.com

I see on a Laramie that I configured with the 3.0 gen 3 ecodiesel, 4x4, 5'7, crew cab and 3.92:

LARAMIE
3.0L V6 Turbo Diesel Gen 3
CREW5'7"AUTO4X4Premium

1,770 LBS payload
9,480LBS towing

 

[traveller09]

Where did you get those numbers? Look up the 2021 towing guide and click on your trim, box length, engine, gearing, drive, door/cab style then it gives you suggested max numbers.

Ram Towing | Find the Best Truck for Your Towing Needs

Find everything you need to know about Ram towing capacity, payload & more here. Discover the best Ram truck or van that fits your towing needs today.

www.ramtrucks.com

I see on a Laramie that I configured with the 3.0 gen 3 ecodiesel, 4x4, 5'7, crew cab and 3.92:

LARAMIE
3.0L V6 Turbo Diesel Gen 3
CREW5'7"AUTO4X4Premium

1,770 LBS payload
9,480LBS towing

Well you are my new best friend. I dont remember where I got the numbers but clearly I was on drugs. I love this forum. I search that damn RAM website and I can never find this information and I come on here and people post these great links that have all the details I need. Thanks man!

 

[Portercycling250]

Well you are my new best friend. I dont remember where I got the numbers but clearly I was on drugs. I love this forum. I search that damn RAM website and I can never find this information and I come on here and people post these great links that have all the details I need. Thanks man!

Be extra careful on using the guide as it is a guide and I speak more about the payload figures. Depending on what options you get the payload number goes down dramatically. Know your hitch weight of trailer and passengers typically travelling with you plus gear. All trucks will have a yellow sticker on the door jamb detailing how much payload it allows.

 

[Willwork4truck]

This ^ as far as payload goes.

 

[Rebelguy2020]

A surprisingly new feature that I just found on my truck, I recently bought a new 2020 tiny travel trailer, it has backup lights in the center of the taillights, my truck has the brake controller and the seven pin towing plug with the backup lights already wired, so the tiny trailer’s rear backup lights go on in reverse.
I had bought a Yada brand backup camera for my 4th generation Ram, one camera is completely wireless it holds a charge for 3 hours and is has a magnetic back, I usually stick it to the tailgate when towing, the other camera needs to be connected to power, the image is sent wirelessly, so I will be able to place it on the licence plate bracket of my travel trailer and connect the wire to the reverse lights for power.

 

[NCOBXRam1500]

Great thread! Look forward to many questions and answers.
My first question is about weight distribution hitches. Any comments about the ones you like and those that are questionable?
I am thinking of getting a camper later in about 5 months. This will be in the 20-22' range with a weight of about 3500 lbs.
I have a 2020 Bighorn 1500, 4x4, Quad cab, 3.21 axle
I would not use the camper but about 5-6 times a year and no more than a 300 mile range from home.

Before my RAM1500 (max towing 12k lbs) I pulled my 23' Rockwood 2104S (5000 lbs dry weight) with a 3.5L V6 Tacoma for one season. I used a Equal-I-Zer WDH with 4-point Sway Control that was excellent for eliminating any sway as this was the first time i pulled a trailer ever. I'd recommend it for consideration.

 

[silver billet]

Where did you get those numbers? Look up the 2021 towing guide and click on your trim, box length, engine, gearing, drive, door/cab style then it gives you suggested max numbers.

Ram Towing | Find the Best Truck for Your Towing Needs

Find everything you need to know about Ram towing capacity, payload & more here. Discover the best Ram truck or van that fits your towing needs today.

www.ramtrucks.com

I see on a Laramie that I configured with the 3.0 gen 3 ecodiesel, 4x4, 5'7, crew cab and 3.92:

LARAMIE
3.0L V6 Turbo Diesel Gen 3
CREW5'7"AUTO4X4Premium

1,770 LBS payload
9,480LBS towing

I guarantee that payload number is off. There is no way a laramie with a diesel has more payload than my bighorn with the hemi.

Laramies and Limiteds tend to hover around 1300 to 1500 pounds of payload.

 

[devildodge]

Wow. Come on guys. Really. We have been over this a million times.

Towing guide. If you pick a configuration and trim...still goes off the towing charts. Which is a tradesman trim.

Towing charts. It is a configuration. In tradesman trim.

Using the look up my vehicle tab and entering a VIN is 99.999999% accurate.

And then your door jamb info. Which will be the same as the VIN lookup. Rounded up or down to the nearest pound

The towing guide is bogus. The towing chart is misleading

Enter a VIN. Payload is correct. Max towing is not max trailer it is just the difference between GCWR AND BASE WEIGHT.

 

[devildodge]

For other reference. A Hemi with 3.92 has a higher GCWR than The diesel.

Hemi 3.92 is 17000
Eco 3.92 15600

With 3.21 they are both 13900.

 

[Willwork4truck]

Wow. Come on guys. Really. We have been over this a million times.

Towing guide. If you pick a configuration and trim...still goes off the towing charts. Which is a tradesman trim.

Towing charts. It is a configuration. In tradesman trim.

Using the look up my vehicle tab and entering a VIN is 99.999999% accurate.

And then your door jamb info. Which will be the same as the VIN lookup. Rounded up or down to the nearest pound

The towing guide is bogus. The towing chart is misleading

Enter a VIN. Payload is correct. Max towing is not max trailer it is just the difference between GCWR AND BASE WEIGHT.

Sticky sticky sticky

 

[devildodge]

Sticky sticky sticky

So you want to tow a camper!

The first thing you need to do is decide which camp you fall in. The best camp to be in is to own neither the truck or the camper. This allows you to research and keep feelings out of your decision. This allows you to easily sit back and learn the process. The next camp is owning the truck or...

5thgenrams.com

There is a sticky. The one for this discussion thread.

Charts. Use them to get GVWR GAWR GCWR
They are for configuration. Unless you have a no option tradesman...the other information will be less for any other truck

Towing guide. By configuration and trim. Useless. Once again it is by configuration and is actually based of that trim with no options...but...not accurate to an actual truck

Towing guide using the look up my VIN tab. Accurate for payload and will give you GCWR if you do the math. The towing number is bogus. It is all the weight that can be applied to a base weight until gross combined is hit. So need a driver and a hitch at minimum and then tongue weight not exceeding payload to find the actual trailer weight.

If you own your truck...go to the door jamb. Thai gives you everything but GCWR. Go to the chart and look for engine and rear gear. There it is.

 

[Willwork4truck]

So you want to tow a camper!

The first thing you need to do is decide which camp you fall in. The best camp to be in is to own neither the truck or the camper. This allows you to research and keep feelings out of your decision. This allows you to easily sit back and learn the process. The next camp is owning the truck or...

5thgenrams.com

There is a sticky. The one for this discussion thread.

Charts. Use them to get GVWR GAWR GCWR
They are for configuration. Unless you have a no option tradesman...the other information will be less for any other truck

Towing guide. By configuration and trim. Useless. Once again it is by configuration and is actually based of that trim with no options...but...not accurate to an actual truck

Towing guide using the look up my VIN tab. Accurate for payload and will give you GCWR if you do the math. The towing number is bogus. It is all the weight that can be applied to a base weight until gross combined is hit. So need a driver and a hitch at minimum and then tongue weight not exceeding payload to find the actual trailer weight.

If you own your truck...go to the door jamb. Thai gives you everything but GCWR. Go to the chart and look for engine and rear gear. There it is.

Generic Tundra yellow door jamb sticker: “Your payload is 200 lbs more than a RAM 1500 so buy this. Your GCVWR is the space shuttle weight so yes, you can tow that trailer.”

 

[Trooper4]

I thought this old horse died. PLEASE put down the stick and leave him in peace.

 

[Willwork4truck]

I thought this old horse died. PLEASE put down the stick and leave him in peace.

Ha. Hey how do you like your bed cover? I need one and to match the tri-tone ivory would be nice!

 

[Trooper4]

Ha. Hey how do you like your bed cover? I need one and to match the tri-tone ivory would be nice!

Love it, but unfortunately I don't think they are color matching right now. You would have to check to make sure. They are really great people to work with and did right by me when I had to get replacement rails because I damaged them.

 

[834k3r]

FWIW, this past weekend I completed my first trip with our TT (4,790 GVWR) pulled by my new '21 Laramie Sport (3.92, 5.7eT). All I can say is it's worlds better than my previous rig ('14 Honda Ridgeline). Gas mileage was about the same as with the Ridgeline, but everything else was better. Engine braking was fantastic (note: USE TOW/HAUL MODE; IT'S FREAKING AWESOME), OEM brake controller was so much smoother than the aftermarket unit I had with the Ridgeline, and power going up hills was more than I hoped.

I used a WDH with the Ridgeline, but didn't have time to set it up before this trip. Hardly any tail sag at all, but will set up the WDH for the next trip regardless.

It's just great towing with a far more capable rig than I had before.

edit: added the WDH statement.

 

[WhattheTruck!]

We'll be picking up a TT later this summer. We were ready to pull the trigger on one towards the end of last year but things got a bit too crazy with trying to order the one we wanted so we decided to hold off a bit longer. I'm a spreadsheet guy so that was my go-to for evaluating options. I thought I'd share the info that I was using to help with our evaluation in hopes that it might help someone else who's as, uh, 'critical' with their assessment as me . Just send me a PM if you have questions.

 

[IvoryHemi]

We'll be picking up a TT later this summer. We were ready to pull the trigger on one towards the end of last year but things got a bit too crazy with trying to order the one we wanted so we decided to hold off a bit longer. I'm a spreadsheet guy so that was my go-to for evaluating options. I thought I'd share the info that I was using to help with our evaluation in hopes that it might help someone else who's as, uh, 'critical' with their assessment as me . Just send me a PM if you have questions.

View attachment 87661

The math is wrong on your tongue weight. 13% of 7,494 lbs is 974 lbs not not 827 lbs (that’s only 11%)

 

[WhattheTruck!]

The math is wrong on your tongue weight. 13% of 7,494 lbs is 974 lbs not not 827 lbs (that’s only 11%)

The formula is using the unloaded trailer weight + cargo weight rather than the maximum weight capacity of the trailer. That is an important call out, however, as I used your approach first to find trailers that would be within my available payload if 'fully loaded'.

 

[IvoryHemi]

The formula is using the unloaded trailer weight + cargo weight rather than the maximum weight capacity of the trailer. That is an important call out, however, as I used your approach first to find trailers that would be within my available payload if 'fully loaded'.

Gotcha. So your number is GVW since GVWR implies max load.

Good way to test since the extra 147 lbs at GVWR will eat up remaining payload.