Still amazes me!

[TXiceman]

I just cannot figure out some folks. We are currently living in our 5er and like to walk the campground and see all of the other rigs. Had some folks pull in a few spaces down from us with a 36' or so Jayco Designer with FOUR slides, pulling with a Chevy Duramax 2500. He said it pulls fine and the dealer added air springs to get "up to the rating"...what ever that means.

He noticed that I have the company truck (a Dodge 1500) parked at the trailer and ask if I had the Hemi and how it did pulling my 36' Avion. Should have let him believe I used the Dodge, but told him, I had the F350 Dually to do my pulling. The little truck is the grocery and people hauler. He does not have a clue.

Ken

[TXiceman]

I just cannot figure out some folks. We are currently living in our 5er and like to walk the campground and see all of the other rigs. Had some folks pull in a few spaces down from us with a 36' or so Jayco Designer with FOUR slides, pulling with a Chevy Duramax 2500. He said it pulls fine and the dealer added air springs to get "up to the rating"...what ever that means.

He noticed that I have the company truck (a Dodge 1500) parked at the trailer and ask if I had the Hemi and how it did pulling my 36' Avion. Should have let him believe I used the Dodge, but told him, I had the F350 Dually to do my pulling. The little truck is the grocery and people hauler. He does not have a clue.

Ken

[RustyJC]

Reminds me of when we bought our first 5th wheel and pulled into the RV dealer with our brand new Dodge Ram 3500 V-10 dually. The salesman's eyes were showing dollar signs as he told us, "Wow, you can pull anything I have on the lot!"

Rusty

[Vette Racer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I just cannot figure out some folks. We are currently living in our 5er and like to walk the campground and see all of the other rigs. Had some folks pull in a few spaces down from us with a 36' or so Jayco Designer with FOUR slides, pulling with a Chevy Duramax 2500. He said it pulls fine and the dealer added air springs to get "up to the rating"...what ever that means. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Well Ken...What seems to be the problem...after all, its a DURAMAX! You should have told him you didn't need the hemi, the 6 cylinder does just fine.

[Hitchhiker]

I think many RVrs get caught up in towing with an inadequate vehicle because they just don't know what they don't know. We all know the salesman's are never any help and not everyone is computer literate enough to join a site such as ours. Nor do they perform any research on towing before matching their truck to a trailer.

Many see that others are towing large units with 1/2 and 3/4 ton trucks and figure it must be OK if others are doing it. Just human nature. A lot of idle chit chat at campgrounds reinforces towing too light, it's difficult to tell someone they just spent $35K-$50K on something that's inadequate.

My 2 cents worth.

[TXiceman]

Richard, I know what you are saying. I try to help the ones that are willing to listen, but with a new rig, they do not want to be told thay made a major whoops.

Another fellow there was working to deliver trailers from Indiana. He had a Dodge 2500 with a 3.73 axle and said he had delivered 38' Newmars and Mobile Suites. Said he did not need the 4.10 as it just wasted fuel and his 3/4 ton was fine with the air springs. Could not see why I wanted the dually and 4.10 axle.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can not make him drink.

Let's see now, I had my 2 cents to start with, and you added your 2 cents, and I added 2 more cents. Pretty soon we'll have a dollar...atleast on paper and we can get 2 tacos at Jack-in-the-Box.

[Dave]

Overloaded trucks with RV's are almost the norm if you ask me. It is usually the 3/4 tons that are overloaded.

Happens for three reasons.

RV sales man just wants to make a sale, the bigger the sale the bigger the commission. Example my 96 3500 had a GCVWR of 20,000 and sales man tried to convice me that a 40 foot tripple slide Travel Supreem at 16,000 pounds dry weight was well in the limits of my truck.

Car sales man are just that, they really do not know trucks. They also just want to make a sale. They usually have lots of 3/4 tons on the lot and one or two 1 tons. They always try to sell me a 3/4 ton. They explain my 12000 pound travle trailer will be fine with it as the truck is rated to pull 16,000 pounds. As we know the limiting factor on a 3/4 ton is the payload or GVWR. Example a crew cab 4x4 diesle is about 7200 pounds empty. That is 2000 pounds of payload left for the GVWR of 9200. Add 350 for husband and wife, 100 or more for hitch you have 1500 pounds of payload. My case add two kids and dog and you have over loaded the truck with a 1200 pound TT tongue weight.

Then the consumer. They do not understand GVWR, GCWR and GVW. They do not seek to learn it. They read the sales litature that a 3/4 ton can pull 16000 pounds and their done reading. They do not bother to read you cant exceed GVWR or Axle rating. They also have no clue what a truck weighs empty.

Most have never had a tire blow out on a single rear wheel truck loaded to its limit with a trailer in tow.

My moto is I have yet to hear any one complain about to much truck. I have heard plenty complain about not enough truck. I would rather error by getting to much truck than not enough.

[jperry29]

Dave,

I am with you. You can never have too much truck. My current TV is within +/-100lbs of every weight rating category. I have been to the scales several times to get the load right and stay safe, and balanced. But I am so close it is a constant struggle stay in range.

But I am fixing that, just ordered an F-550 built to the extra-heavy duty tow capacity of 33,000 lbs GCWR. This will give me a significantly larger safety factor for GVW, GCVW, Max 5th Wheel tow capacity, etc.

I would have preferred an F-650 but it just was not a practical choice as a daily driver.

[retired_ranger]

All,
I understand all of what you say but....I also understand that some people are HOPING that the salesman trying to get them into a RV is on the level. This happens especially with newer buyers. Enter ME. I pulled a alpenlite 24 footer with a weight of around 6k. No problem with my 97 Dodge 12er dually 4X4. Upon selling that RV and taking the wife to a lot she was destined to have our present 2000 Crossroads double slide weighing in around 11 loaded. I was one that took the word of the salesman shark that we were within the limits as the sale was ending that day. It pulls the RV alright and I still cannot really figure out if I am over or not. I do know that my truck weighs around 7200 with me in and hitch and a full tank of gas. Up hills she bogs a little. I have decided to try and upgrade the tranny as I have heard horror stories of the dodge tranny failure. I do not have the time to run to canada or northeast for a tranny change from DTT or others. Does anyone know of anywhere in the oregon state that does a good job of tranny upgrades for dodges? An am I just a little paranoid? The truck runs great and I know I can get more power and I also know that doesnt change the payload capacity. I can guarranty that I will not get bitten by the shark next time around.
Retired Ranger
97 Dodge dually diesel
2000 Crossroads all american
Woman with armpit paranha will travel

[LindaH]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I still cannot really figure out if I am over or not. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

You know what your truck's GVWR, GCWR, and GAWR (front and rear) are, don't you?

So take your rig down to the local scales loaded up for a trip and get it weighed. That will tell you if you're over on any of the weight ratings.

[TXiceman]

Another issue that will push the tow vehicle owner to the smaller truck is the insurance industry. There are a lot of companies that will not insure a 1 ton or a truck with a GVWR over 10000#. But they will sure take a 3/4 ton and not even ask what the owner is pulling and what it weighs.

Ken

[Barney & Cheryl Fife]

Retired Ranger, get in touch with The Powershop in Enumclaw WA 1-80-835-8839, or www.thepowershop.com
they know their stuff. I lost a Tranny in their area last summer and was lucky enough to get sent to them. Chuck Arnold is the service manager, and he is a pro. He's been active in the RV industry a long time. He also helped develop the first exhaust brake for Dodge long ago. Call him you won't be sorry. Barney

[RustyJC]

I would also recommend talking to Dave Goerend at Goerend Brothers Transmissions. Dave is highly respected in the Dodge/Cummins world, an extremely ethical, stand-up individual and his torque converters and transmissions offer a lot of "bang for the buck". Although he's based in Iowa, he may have an authorized installer in your area, or he can ship a completed transmission and/or torque converter for local installation.

Rusty

[Dave]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by TXiceman:
Another issue that will push the tow vehicle owner to the smaller truck is the insurance industry. There are a lot of companies that will not insure a 1 ton or a truck with a GVWR over 10000#. But they will sure take a 3/4 ton and not even ask what the owner is pulling and what it weighs.

Ken </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I had never heard that. I went from a 1/2 ton to a 1 ton in 96. My insurance went down even though it was a more expensive truck. They told me it was cause they have less claims on a 1 ton. I have had three insurance compaines since I started driving a 1 ton, Sate Farm, Allstate and USAA now. None have given me a hard time about a 1 ton with a GVWR of 11400.