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Old 03-13-2019, 05:39 AM   #41
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TT is a Coachman Freedom xpress factory weight 3875

Tv is a Toyota 4Runner, max tow cap 5000 lbs.
I just went through what you are .. I had a 2018 4Runner ( that I really liked) I bought a 2019 Wildwood XLite at 4000 dry. Tried to justify every way I could to make it work. In the end, I felt I could pull safely, but when any mountains got involved that I wasn't going to like the performance. That plus felt like I would be really beating on the 4Runner to make this work. I traded for a 2018 GMC Sierra SLT, 6.2 motor. I'm sure I will be much happier with this set up. Good luck with your decision.
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Old 03-13-2019, 05:40 AM   #42
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That is the stupidest thing I’ve read yet, tow to your max. Wow
Towing TT's for 35 years. I don't have a clue what the tongue weight, TT weight was on any single one of them. Didn't kill my family, didn't kill anyone. I stay under the speed limit, I pull off if I feel the winds are too high. Had a car trailer that was wandersing once. Pulled off, moved the car on the trailer and all was good and I did it without a Cat scale and a hour of math. Stick a 16000lb 5ver on 1/2 ton ?...that's just stupid.
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Old 03-13-2019, 06:59 AM   #43
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Here's my 2¢
2/3
The end.......
OK Tow no more than 2/3 of your rated max. You will be happy and your truck will be happy.
(And don't guess!! Get weighed! Weigh the entire rig truck and trailer then unhitch and weigh the trailer. Weigh it on the way to go camping with all the stuff including water you normally take.)
Did I mention don't guess!!
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Old 03-13-2019, 07:10 AM   #44
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That is the stupidest thing I’ve read yet, tow to your max. Wow
You are being sarcastic, right? You are joking, right? Seriously you would not tow at the vehicle's max weight?
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Old 03-13-2019, 07:23 AM   #45
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My truck is within its capacity. I tow the speed limit up to about 65 (have some 70mph roads) . I don't do it for safety but for the fact that fuel economy tanks past 60mph so it seems.

As for towing up to the capacity, nothing wrong with that. This is how the vehicle was designed and will be fine (and legal) despite certain confirmation biases. The tricky part can be finding that max capacity from the marketing, I can pull a space shuttle, information. But that was covered above.
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Old 03-13-2019, 07:54 AM   #46
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You don’t see them because they do get caught running back roads. Been there , some get away with it till caught. Fines are very high. Oh. And fined for bypassing scalehouses. I’m a former truckers d us legal haulers don’t like the rouge ones, gives us all a black eye. Especially the million dollars insurance policy’s that must have on each truck


When I was driving a commercial rig I dodged all the scales, empty or loaded.
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Old 03-13-2019, 08:18 AM   #47
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Most of the people I see in campgrounds have never weighed there trucks. People on these threads talk about overloaded truck vehicles all the time but in the real world most people that pull campers have no idea what everything weighs, like me. I haven’t ever heard of people pulling a rv getting sued for being in a accident overloaded. If weighing your truck makes you feel safer then by all means do it.
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Old 03-13-2019, 08:20 AM   #48
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Limits and capacities established by the manufacturer are exactly what they are and can be used to determine how much you can tow. It is only "Opinion" that if you stay within those you are somehow not safe. If you have a percentage you wish to be within these capacities I think you are safe and responsible but if someone does not follow your #'s it does not mean they are not. Smart responsible people prepare there TV and Camper with upgrades like better brakes tires suspension and monitoring systems and stay within capacities. One thing for sure dealers will tell you you can pull it no problem and they are probably right what they do not say is you cannot stop it .
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Old 03-13-2019, 08:21 AM   #49
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A whole lot of commercial drivers tow above there max, just dodge the scales. I don’t believe I have ever heard of a overweight commercial driver being sued
But a ticket fine costs $1 per pound of overweight and the broken slow lane pavement on our interstates is a constant reminder of what outlaw truckers do.
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Old 03-13-2019, 08:25 AM   #50
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I owned a trucking company for 37 years until we sold it. We had 28 semis. Tried to be 100% legal but failed a few times. Had a good reputation with DOT. Ran a tight ship. If we weren’t maxing out our loads we were not maximizing our profits. The first pound costs, the rest ride free.
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Old 03-13-2019, 08:36 AM   #51
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Maximum tow ratings are conservative, there's a safety margin built into them. Otherwise the vehicle would fail as soon as the max rating was exceeded. Things with safety ratings always have a cushion. Common items like chain have working load limits where they're always safe to use. This is typically 33% to 25% of the point the chain will break. Just an example of how this works everyday, not that you can exceed the maximum tow rating by 3x or 4x.

It's obvious you can exceed maximum towing capacity, it's done every day. Eventually, though, something is going to wear out or break.

Towing and Happy Towing are two different things to me. We can all tow to max rating with near impunity but that's usually not a happy tow. I prefer a ton excess capacity to handle long grades, higher summer temperatures, and the like. Overkill always works.

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Old 03-13-2019, 11:49 AM   #52
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I'm towing about 5200 lbs loaded with 7000 lb max tow rating. I think I'm typically around 10,500lbs loaded combined weight, with 12,000 lb GCVWR. Works well for me, but I would not take it into any serious hills.


With your combo, putzing around Florida is probably fine, but you seem to be right at your limit, by the time you include your stuff (sorry, I have not read the 5 pages of posts). I would not take your rig into the hills.
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Old 03-13-2019, 12:11 PM   #53
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You know what they say,, scroll on. Giving bad advice by saying tow “ maxed out” is stupid. Comparing a 80,000 lb rig that’s made to tow that safely, is way different then a pickup whether 1500, 2500,3500. Sorry that’s my advice, as a former professional truck driver. Never called anyone a name, only a wrong comment I corrected
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Old 03-13-2019, 12:31 PM   #54
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You know what they say,, scroll on. Giving bad advice by saying tow “ maxed out” is stupid. Comparing a 80,000 lb rig that’s made to tow that safely, is way different then a pickup whether 1500, 2500,3500. Sorry that’s my advice, as a former professional truck driver. Never called anyone a name, only a wrong comment I corrected
Well, I deleted my post 2 minutes after I entered it (didn't really seem all that beneficial in the end), but you must have really been watching this thread to catch it!
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Old 03-13-2019, 12:45 PM   #55
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For the record, I'm one that has no problem towing at the limit. Like ChuckS said, the engineers have already built in several layers of safety margin. That is NOT justification to exceed any limits. But for those who may find themselves closer to their limit than they expected to be, it is reason enough to feel confident. But like Chuck also said, if you simply want more cushion, fine. But there is nothing wrong with towing at the limit.

I used to tow a 3100 lb popup camper with a minivan, very close to the limit (using 8,000 lbs of our 8,300 lbs GCVWR). I did this knowing that I wouldn't be taking it out of the flatlands, and it worked very well for us for 7 years. The best grade I ever saw was crossing the Mississippi between Wisconsin and Minnesota. I had a 400 lb WDH (for the 375lbs TW) and the same Prodigy brake controller I'm using now, and it was a great rig. And for all the bad press about the transmissions in the late '90s Chrysler minivans, I never had a problem in those 7 years.

That's real, experienced advice. Nothing stupid about it, unless you have a problem with reality.
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Old 03-13-2019, 01:20 PM   #56
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I personally don't believe that today's vehicles have as much "cushion" in their tow ratings as they once did.

In this day and age with the towing numbers going so high just to attract buyers, I think that the tow ratings are just barely on the edge!

And max tow weight rating still doesn't mean that you can just throw that amount of weight behind the vehicle no matter what the circumstances, as many here seem to believe.

There are many other numbers that will max out long before you reach that mystical max tow weight!

But who really cares...

We can all do whatever we want no matter what...right?
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Old 03-13-2019, 02:47 PM   #57
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I feel pretty safe with my rig, I have a 2012 3500HD Duramax SRW pulling a 2014 Cedar Creek 32RL that says the camper can carry 3927 pounds. There is no way I can put that much weight in my camper. Well if I was carrying lead maybe.
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Old 03-13-2019, 02:59 PM   #58
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I personally don't believe that today's vehicles have as much "cushion" in their tow ratings as they once did.

In this day and age with the towing numbers going so high just to attract buyers, I think that the tow ratings are just barely on the edge!

And max tow weight rating still doesn't mean that you can just throw that amount of weight behind the vehicle no matter what the circumstances, as many here seem to believe.

There are many other numbers that will max out long before you reach that mystical max tow weight!

But who really cares...

We can all do whatever we want no matter what...right?
JohnD10,
I hear you. But I don't think anybody on this thread has said you can just throw anything back there. You say, "as so many here seem to believe", but to the contrary, so many of us are actually going out of our way to clarify the opposite, that you have to do the math.

Also, how much cushion there is isn't the question. The question at hand is, Can you tow up to the limit. The point is that engineers use safety margins, and we do test to the stated loading, so as long as you don't exceed the stated limits, you are safe.
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Old 03-13-2019, 03:01 PM   #59
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I feel pretty safe with my rig, I have a 2012 3500HD Duramax SRW pulling a 2014 Cedar Creek 32RL that says the camper can carry 3927 pounds. There is no way I can put that much weight in my camper. Well if I was carrying lead maybe.
That's another good point. There have been plenty who feel the need to always plan for the trailer's max GVWR, when choosing a tow vehicle. As you point out, that may not be possible for some trailers. So doing an actual estimate for loaded weight can mean saving a lot of money, if it means getting an F150 instead of an F350 (for example).
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Old 03-13-2019, 03:12 PM   #60
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JohnD10,
I hear you. But I don't think anybody on this thread has said you can just throw anything back there.
Then you need to go back and read this whole topic thread, as well as all the others about this topic...again!
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