Can we safely tow this TT?

[JNKS2010]

Our tow vehicle:
2015 GMC Sierra 1500
Double cab standard bed

GVWR:7200
Gross axle weight ratio rear: 3950
Gear ratio: 3.42
Max towing capacity: 9200lbs

The trailer is:
2015 Surveyer 291BHSS
About 6,000lbs
Hitch weight according to book was 744

What are your thoughts? My head is spinning with all these numbers...

Info about us:
2 adults and 2 daughters (3 and 13)
More weekend warriors then anything else
Our favorite camp ground is about a half hour away... But we may travel up to a couple hours once or twice a year...

[jevanb]

it should work ok, load the trailer up with all your gear and gas ,kids and head to the scales.

[JNKS2010]

Haha my goal is to not find out the hard way!! This is the one we want to buy.

[grumpyer]

Should be FINE....just don"t overload it like traveling any long distance with full water tanks.

[jevanb]

ok , what is your truck loaded weight, including everything that would be in the bed, deduct that from the GCWR and that is your trailer Gross allowable, it is within your spec`s? including trailer tongue weight, what is your GCWR? what is your rear axle weight ready to camp without trailer attached??. with a 6k trailer weight sticker add about 700-1k lbs for extras including the weight of your receiver hitch.

[bikendan]

one important number you haven't supplied, the truck's payload capacity.
newbies tend to overlook this number, which usually is the more important number.
payload is where most vehicles fail, when it comes to towing trailers. many have great towing capacity numbers but lack enough payload, especially SUV's.

look for the amount on the driver's door sticker.

[youroo]

Go to (chaingingears.com) you fill in the blanks and they tell you if your TV is suitable! Youroo!!

[JNKS2010]

Does 1,665 sound right for a payload capacity?

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by JNKS2010

Does 1,665 sound right for a payload capacity?

sounds like it could. if you posted a pic of your door sticker, that would help.
you have to subtract the weight of your passengers, any cargo in the truck or bed and the weight of the WDH, from that 1665 number.
what's left will be the available amount for the trailer's LOADED tongue weight.

don't use fictional dry numbers. get the yellow sticker weight of the trailer to start with.
that 744 number will get close to 1000lbs., once you add the weight of the battery, propane, water and cargo in the trailer.

so you can see how payload ends up being a much more crucial number for 1/2 ton trucks. if the loaded tongue weight is 1000lbs., then you only have 665lbs. for anything in the truck.

[asquared]

Look inside your truck drivers door frame for the tire loading sticker. It will say something like "all occupants and cargo should weigh less than x lbs". That is your truck's payload. Now subtract the weight of your family, any pets, and any gear that will be in the truck when towing. What is left is your available payload. Your trailers loaded hitch weight must be less than this number in addition to the trailers loaded weight being less than your towing capacity. Sadly you will find your limitation is payload. So for arguments sake let's just subfamily plus anything in truck is 500 lbs. If the 1665 came off the door sticker then that would leave you 1165 lbs available for tongue weight.


Looking at the tt- it has a gvwr of 7744 lbs (dry weight plus cargo capacity). While this is within your towing capacity it is going to be at the upper limits of your payload. Ideal tongue weight is 13-15% of loaded trailer weight. This would mean a tongue weight of 1000-1200 lbs if loaded to max weight. On average people tend to put 1000-1500lbs into their trailers. This would mean a loaded tt weight of 6800-7300 lbs. That means a tongue weight of 750-1095 lbs. You can see how tight this is going to be.

To give you real world numbers, my old tt had a factory listed dry weight of 5700 lbs. It had an actual loaded weight of 7300 lbs (per cat scale). My tongue weight ended up at just shy of 1000 lbs.

I think the answer depends on how much weight you put in the truck and if that payload you listed is true to your truck with all options etc or a brochure number.

[JNKS2010]

The numbers are true from stickers. The TT weight is actually 5858 that's dry obviously. Loaded the GVWR for the TT 7744 lbs. based on the calculation from the web site listed above is max trailer weight is 7200

[asquared]

Originally Posted by JNKS2010

based on the calculation from the web site listed above is max trailer weight is 7200

If you mean the max tt the website says you can handle is 7200 lbs, then I think you will find this tt to be too much trailer for the truck.

[davel1971]

your not going to exceed towing capacity with that trailer, payload is what you need to be looking at. With the weight of everyone and everything in the cab and bed, weight of hitch, you will be close if not over your limit.

[JNKS2010]

Even with a WDH and airbags in the rear you guys think we will be over?


Surveyor 291BHSS

Sent from my iPhone using Forest River Forums

[4mula1fan]

Overweight is overweight. You can't change a vehicles limits no matter what you add on...

[OldCoot]

Wouldn't worry about your truck-trailer combo. Just make sure you get a good wdh and sway control.

[smonagle]

We had a Gulf Stream 29bhs that I pulled with a 2011 Ram 1500. It was not the ability to tow that was the concern. It was definitely the payload that overloaded first. The trailer itself had a dry weight of 5800 lbs. of course this doesn't include added items such as battery, propane, awning, and anything else that is added. Once loaded we were pushing 1,000 lbs of tongue weight. That only left me around 509 pounds of payload. Once I added the wife and kids and dog I barely had room to bring anything in the back of the truck. I truly thought my truck could handle it but decided I would upgrade to a 2500. I could not believe the difference. No more white knuckle drives. The truck handles the trailer with ease. Best decision I have made


2011 Forest River Flagstaff Classic 831KRSS
2011 Coleman 267BH Fifth Wheel
2013 Ram 2500 5.7 Hemi

[The_Rhino]

IMO the ONLY 1/2 ton capable of safely towing a TT in the 7,000 range is the F150 HD... For all other 1/2 tons, you have to reduce the payload to the point where you can no longer bring-along the gear that makes camping practical & fun...

Our yellow sticker TT empty weight is 6,650 with a tongue weight of around 650. However, when loaded for a comfortable week of camping, we are at 8,400 (tongue weight of 1,050). So, ready-to camp we are hauling 1,750 of gear in the TT plus an additional 1,050 of people, fuel & gear in the TV. This makes our payload @ around 2,100.

Our CAT scale results BEFORE dropping 300 lbs. of unnecessary tools & wood:

Ram 2500 & Tracer 3150 weights at the CAT Scale:
Steer Axle: 3,300 (Base=3188, Max=4750)
Drive Axle: 4,580 (Base=2582, Max=6000)
Trailer Axle: 7,340
GCVW: 15,220

Note, I could probably use the WDH to transfer more weight to the front axle, but with the Ram 2500 rear springs, this setup "feels" best. The wheel clearance looks even since I'm only using 2/3 my max payload of 3,000...

[JNKS2010]

ok, so after some thought we are now thinking a smaller TT. we like the quality of the forest river surveyor the one we additional wanted 291BHSS with a slide out for the dinette and a couch may be too much TT from what we are reading for our 2015 GMC Sierra 1500.

what we are thinking now is a surveyor 245BHS, looks and quality are the same, the slide out is just a dinette and no couch, with this configuration, we will lose 692 lbs on dryweight and lose 118 lbs on hitch weight. according to changinggears.com we will increase our TT towing capacities upto 7800 lbs from 7200 lbs. is a 600 lbs difference that much better and more easily and more comfortable to tow? if not and we need to go lower then 810 lbs, we will need to look at other brands such as the bullet from keystone. which we would rather not do. their forum stinks compaired to this one.

[Eaglelover]

Did I miss the engine size in the truck??? That is a key factor. Frank