Hi everyone, I’ve got towing questions!!

[Kevin D Pem]

I think in vehicle weight. They use weight rating, same thing I'm just odd.

When I looked at my post I knew I was off somehow. I would suggest using 80% of the rating. Then subtract truck weight plus fuel, you and any passengers you might add. I would reserve the payload numbers for the trailer and put luggage in the trailer.

Now for the rest of the story:

In the mountains you not only need to make it up the hill, you must come down the hill. The engine/w turbo(s) if the turbo kicks in will get you up the hill, but the engine displacement will do little to hold back the load you managed to get up to the top. On long grades my truck with 5.7l engine will struggle to hold back my rig (6800gvw), truck is rated to haul 10000 trailer. I travel in the mountains and feel those numbers 6800# are my comfort zone.(edit) I forgot, I have 3.7gears.

 

[Kirk l]

I think in vehicle weight. They use weight rating, same thing I'm just odd.

When I looked at my post I knew I was off somehow. I would suggest using 80% of the rating. Then subtract truck weight plus fuel, you and any passengers you might add. I would reserve the payload numbers for the trailer and put luggage in the trailer.

Now for the rest of the story:

In the mountains you not only need to make it up the hill, you must come down the hill. The engine/w turbo(s) if the turbo kicks in will get you up the hill, but the engine displacement will do little to hold back the load you managed to get up to the top. On long grades my truck with 5.7l engine will struggle to hold back my rig (6800gvw), truck is rated to haul 10000 trailer. I travel in the mountains and feel those numbers 6800# are my comfort zone.(edit) I forgot, I have 3.7gears.

Thanks Kevin! This truck has progressive range selection on its 10 speed trans for grades but it seems like it will take some getting used to that. I’m old school when it comes to driving in mountains and braking, downshifting etc. so many changes to vehicles today. It comes with travel trailers programmed into the truck . Just going through that section in the owners manual and the screen instructions that accompany it are puzzling. The older I get the less patience I have for reading manuals . This one will involve some coffee and time and maybe a final exam!

 

["EZ"]

The manual that came with the truck says GCVWR of 11000

GCVWR is the weight of the truck plus the weight of the trailer combined. This includes the driver, any passengers, tank of gas, all camping gear including coolers full of ice, spare tires for truck or camper, etc. ANYTHING you put in that truck or camper counts and must be added.

Something else you may not know is that if your truck has a curb weight of say 7000 lbs. this is for the BASE MODEL truck. SO if you have the fancy version you have to add the weight of all those options to your truck weight when calculating the GCVWR.

All in all I think you're going to be OK if you buy a small camper. A V-6 wouldn't have been my first choice for an engine to tow with but again if the camper is small then you're probably OK.