Newbie Question

[Hcshorthairs]

I have a 09 Chevy Silverado 4 door 1/2 ton pickup, ot has a 5.3 vortec engine in it with a 3.42 gear ratio. I cant figure out how much I will be able to tow. Looking for any insite ot help figuring it out, any help is appreciated.
Will

[mtofell]

Two numbers you need to know about - how much can the truck carry (payload) - this is usually all the people and things in the truck + any tongue weight the trailer puts on the truck. Next is how much the truck can pull. This is the total of everything - truck, everything in the truck, trailer, everything in the trailer.

The door sticker on your truck should have some information on one or both of these numbers.

[tuffr2]

What do you want to tow? A boat tows easier that a travel trailer. So does a V nose cargo trailer or a flat bed trailer.

IMHO the typical 1/2 ton truck can tow around 6,000lbs. comfortably on the highway at 70 mph.

I maxed out a mid sized truck as I towed my 5,000lb camper for 3 years. But I was only towing at 45 - 50 mph on back roads going to local state parks. It towed fine. But when I tried to make a 300 mile trip my mid sized truck struggled uncomfortably. Two hands on the wheel and lots of steering corrections as semi trucks whizzed by. Semi trucks have a bow wave of air that 1st pushed my rig to the right then sucked it to the left as it passed.

I traded for a F-150 which towed this same trailer now loaded to 5,500lbs at 70 - 72mph comfortably with the same Drawtite WD hitch. No effect from semi trucks.

I towed a different 6,500lb trailer with my friends 2005 Ram 1500 5.7 hemi. That trailer felt too heavy for that truck and felt like it was pushing the truck around more than I liked. It could be the 2005 Ram had a shorter wheelbase than newer trucks. I do not know why it was so uncomfortable as I expected easier towing.

So where do you want to tow? Back roads or highways? There is a difference.

[Hcshorthairs]

I live out West in the mountains it would be a bumper pull travel trailer, some hwy and some in the mountains .

[tuffr2]

In the mountains out west a non turbo engine loses 3% of it's power per 1,000feet of elevation. So you are down 12% - 18% most of the time and more some of the time.

Obviously the lighter you stay the better. If you never towed before you will know you are pulling a trailer. My F-150 would get 20mpg solo highway and 10.5 highway towing a 5,500lb trailer.

If just you a 5,000lb trailer would be fine but for a family of 4 or 5 I am not sure you could pull a 7,000lb comfortably.

They do make wizz bang weight distribution (WD) hitches with sway control that are expensive but work really well.

There should be a factory sticker inside the drivers side door jam. There you should see an 'Occupant / Cargo Capacity should never exceed xxxx lbs.'.

If that number is 1,500lbs or less you can not tow a 7,000lb trailer probably. The tongue weight could be over 1,000lbs on a 7,000lb trailer

How much weight were you expecting to be able to tow?

[Dropthejacks]

According to the Trailer Life Towing guide, depending on equipment, your truck is rated between 6K-9600 lbs towing. If you have the factory tow package, you should be closer to the 9600 end of the rating. You would need to reduce that by 20% for safety, as you do not want to head down the road pulling a barn door behind you while towing your max allowable weight. So that brings you closer to 7600 lbs maxed out and loaded. Probably going to want to find something in the area of 5K lbs empty, and loaded to about 6300-6500 for a halfway comfortable pulling experience.


https://www.trailerlife.com/wp-conte...Guide-2009.pdf

[SmokeyWren]

Originally Posted by Dropthejacks

According to the Trailer Life Towing guide, depending on equipment, your truck is rated between 6K-9600 lbs towing.

All the towing guides, including Trailer Life/Good Sam and the Ford RV and Trailer Towing Guide give unrealistic max weights of any trailer you can tow without being overloaded. That's because they use GCWR (pulling power) as the limiter, but GCWR is rarely the limiter. GVWR (weight carrying capacity or payload capacity) is almost always the limiter when matching travel trailer (TT) to tow vehicle

Originally Posted by Hcshorthairs

I cant figure out how much I will be able to tow.

Modify your question by adding "without exceeding any of the weight limits of the TV" and you won't find a definite answer on the internet or in any towing guide. The only way to get a good estimate is to weigh the wet and loaded tow vehicle (TV), then do the simple math.

1] Load the TV with everybody and everything that will be in it when towing.

2] Drive to a truck stop that has a CAT scale, fill up with gas, then weigh the wet and loaded TV.

3] Add the weights on the steer (front) and drive (rear) axles to get GVW. Subtract GVW from GVWR of the TV to get payload capacity available for hitch weight.

4] Subtract 100 pounds from the payload capacity available for hitch weight to get payload capacity available for tongue weight (TW). (That 100 pounds is the estimated weight of a good weight-distributing (WD) hitch such as an Equal-I-Zer or Blue Ox SwayPro.)

5] Divide the payload capacity available for TW by 13% (0.13). The answer is the max GVWR of any TT you want to consider. Or if the trailer specs do not include GVWR, then dry weight plus cargo carrying capacity (CCC) = GVWR

If you didn't cheat yourself by not including everybody everything in the TV that will be in it when towing, then you'll probably be disappointed that the max weight of a TT you can tow without being overloaded is around 5,000 to 6,000 pounds. My 2012 F-150 SuperCrew was slightly overloaded with my small TT that grossed less than 5,000 pounds when wet and loaded for the road. That was just me and DW and two dogs. Plus a toolbox, spray-in bedliner and a 200-pound camper shell. Factory options included tailgate steps and running boards.