Overthinking?

[keymastr]

A half ton truck will be maxxed out at 28'. 36 ' is dangerous and the dealer should never have let you leave the lot. Your truck is perfect for a 26' 5000 pound gross weight trailer, that's it. My F250 would struggle with that trailer and a windy day would make it undrivable. You need more truck.

[charliez]

Dealers here will let you push an rv off the lot. They don't care and you as a driver will always bear all liability and risk the moment your tv begins to roll.


You don't judge what your TV can handle by length, you go by weight. Yes, you will feel more affects of side and head winds due to more length. It's kinda too late when someone has already made the purchase. You don't just take trucks back like you do mini-blinds at Walmart.



A good suggestion for the OP is to take the rig to a weigh station and gets some numbers. Look up info on what to weight. Front wheels, rear wheels, with wdh and without, so you know exactly what weight is being transferred to the front by the hitch setup, etc. That will tell you what is what. You almost can't go by stickers and brochures and salesman's statements. Especially when it's new and not full of stuff. That will help guide the OP on just what extra capacity he does have to load stuff and where it should be loaded.

[winniman]

What you plan on doing with the trailer would be a deciding factor. My friends I listed, have the same rig. By and large, they just pull it 10 miles from home to the lake. Their parents have a lot they go to for camping. They said their trip east was OK, but its hard to say if they would do another long trip again. It sure makes for a long day of driving when you are riding the line at maximum.

[docmorgan7]

Originally Posted by winniman

What you plan on doing with the trailer would be a deciding factor. My friends I listed, have the same rig. By and large, they just pull it 10 miles from home to the lake. Their parents have a lot they go to for camping. They said their trip east was OK, but its hard to say if they would do another long trip again. It sure makes for a long day of driving when you are riding the line at maximum.

Seeing how we live in Minnesota, we will mainly be planning camping trips around here. As much as the wife would like to plan a trip out west for some mountain camping, the reality is that our truck probably wouldn't be the best for that. Thankfully the truck is a lease, and it's well within the towing standards set by the manufacturer. If I blow the transmission, it's covered. There's lots of campgrounds within a couple hour radius of the house. Sounds like we'll be OK. Once the lease is up, then we can upgrade the vehicle.

[docmorgan7]

Originally Posted by charliez

Dealers here will let you push an rv off the lot. They don't care and you as a driver will always bear all liability and risk the moment your tv begins to roll.


You don't judge what your TV can handle by length, you go by weight. Yes, you will feel more affects of side and head winds due to more length. It's kinda too late when someone has already made the purchase. You don't just take trucks back like you do mini-blinds at Walmart.



A good suggestion for the OP is to take the rig to a weigh station and gets some numbers. Look up info on what to weight. Front wheels, rear wheels, with wdh and without, so you know exactly what weight is being transferred to the front by the hitch setup, etc. That will tell you what is what. You almost can't go by stickers and brochures and salesman's statements. Especially when it's new and not full of stuff. That will help guide the OP on just what extra capacity he does have to load stuff and where it should be loaded.

I plan on running it over a CAT scale next time I take it out.

[Reevesfamily]

I think you know what you have and your spider senses are leading you in the right direction. You're a professional driver so that's not surprising. That TT is too long for a comfortable driving experience with that short wheelbase. Even with a Hensley I don't think you'll be happy, just not enough TV. Big truck traffic will give you fits. I pulled 8500 lbs/35' with our 150 KR for 2 years and finally decided enough of that mess and got my 250 CC 6.7L diesel with 3:73 gear. Night and day better. 14+ mpg towing, not to mention 24 Hwy with no trailer on.

[c_l_phillips]

I just went through a situation similar to yours.

In Dec 2018 I bought a 2019 RAM 1500 Crew Cab 4WD Laramie. When I bought it, I had zero plans to pull anything with it.

Then I agreed to purchase a new Keystone travel trailer (can’t remember which one now) that had a dry weight of 6500 and a GVWR of 8k.

To make a really long story short, I traded in my 2 month old truck, lost $10,000, and bought a 2019 Ford F-250 Diesel.

I think you need to take a look at the placard on the inside of your driver door. It will list what your truck weighs with all of the options from the manufacturer. Then you need to add the weight of any other options you’ve installed after buying it (tonneau cover, running boards, etc), add weight for a full tank of gas, and the weight of all passengers.

Then subtract that total from the GVWR of your truck (also on the placard) and that’s how much payload you have left. Remember, you’ll need to include the weight of your WDH and around 15% of your TT’s loaded GVW. It’s usually here, and was for me, where I found I could not safely pull the TT I agreed to buy. Unfortunately, I think it’ll be the same for you.

[rvethereyet]

I was at a dealer the other week. I saw a guy who just bought a new camper. His truck was squatting so much his front wheels were barely toughing the ground. It should be against the law for a dealership to send, ( folks who didnt know what they were doing), a rig out on the road in such dangerous situation.

[docmorgan7]

It might be me but I don't see the truck sagging at all.

[docmorgan7]

Originally Posted by c_l_phillips

I just went through a situation similar to yours.

In Dec 2018 I bought a 2019 RAM 1500 Crew Cab 4WD Laramie. When I bought it, I had zero plans to pull anything with it.

Then I agreed to purchase a new Keystone travel trailer (can’t remember which one now) that had a dry weight of 6500 and a GVWR of 8k.

To make a really long story short, I traded in my 2 month old truck, lost $10,000, and bought a 2019 Ford F-250 Diesel.

I think you need to take a look at the placard on the inside of your driver door. It will list what your truck weighs with all of the options from the manufacturer. Then you need to add the weight of any other options you’ve installed after buying it (tonneau cover, running boards, etc), add weight for a full tank of gas, and the weight of all passengers.

Then subtract that total from the GVWR of your truck (also on the placard) and that’s how much payload you have left. Remember, you’ll need to include the weight of your WDH and around 15% of your TT’s loaded GVW. It’s usually here, and was for me, where I found I could not safely pull the TT I agreed to buy. Unfortunately, I think it’ll be the same for you.

I already contacted the truck dealer regarding my issue. Naturally, they said that I should be fine. We are in the process of planning our first trip. It'll be a short trek to where we are going so it'll be nice to see how it goes.

[Gigattime]

Originally Posted by Off Road

The groaning noises you were hearing were most likely coming from the hitch setup. They make a lot of groans at low speeds, turning corners, etc. and it is perfectly normal.

Agreed. You can use hitch lubricant at recommended locations (depends on the type and manufacturer for what those locations are) to reduce noise.

[ntgibbo]

I'm in the same boat, just purchased a 35 foot Forest River Heritage Glen TT and my 2009 Titan does OK with pulling it,the trailer sits level on the load distribution hitch and there's very little sway , have zero issues stopping it.

But I'll only use my Titan for short trips, will be upgrading to a ram 3500 when we get going on long trips and full timing.

[NanaW]

We have a 27’ TT dry 5417 we pull with our 2011 Ram Hemi 5.7 with air bags and equalizer hitch we haven’t had any problems at all

[capsfloyd]

Only lube the Equalizer on the places recommended to
I’ve had 2 , there noisy , creeping , groaning
That’s when you know it’s working.
One of the best WD hitches , around with out spending a lot of cash on
Hensley or pro pride