Towing 10,000lbs with 1/2 ton, or upgrade?

[Gem99ultra]

I know exactly how you feel! I have a little half-ton Chevy and need to haul a compact tractor w/implements; total ~7,000# including trailer. Truck was rated for 5,000# towing. Considering the cost to upgrade the truck to properly pull 7,000# required:
Rear eng swap to 3:73 gears (3rd member & axel swap)
Transmission upgrade
Cooling upgrade
Brakes upgrade
In short, the cost was prohibitive. BUT - I love my little 1/2 ton Chevy. It's nice, never wrecked and gets 20+ mpg on the highway.
Looking a new trucks was fun, but reality hits pretty quick when you see the $50K+ stickers.
So - I bought a used 3/4 Chevy truck (same year) diesel with towing package; rated for 10K #. 132K miles, $2,000. Put another $1,000 in it for farm tags, mechanical repairs, etc. I can now use it for next to nothing when I need it, which is maybe 2,000 miles per year. And I'm keeping my little 1/2 ton truck for general everyday use.
Sure - a second truck does cost you a little every year, but nothing like loosing your favorite ride and having a $700 truck note every month.
... just something to consider...

 

[LBrown59]

One thing you always have to keep in mind, if you do not follow the manufacturer numbers to the letter you will be liable in an accident.
I've been there done that with lawyers and they will eat your lunch if you are one pond out of spec, that's what they do. Secondly your insurance company may or may not cover you if they run the numbers and you are out of spec, remember it's their job to find ways NOT to pay for anything. yes, I agree vehicles today can carry and haul more than listed and many people do it day in and day out, BUT, you have to ask yourself is it worth it. My answer is always NO.
You want to be 100% on the vehicle, the trailer, the type of chains, tires, inflation, ply, brakes, etc.etc.etc.

Lawyers and insurers are always the thorn in the side.

 

[LBrown59]

10,000# with a pick up truck is about as serious as it gets. Most I have pulled is 8,000# with a 1996 Dodge 3/4 ton Cummins diesel. Pulling it wasn't the problem. Stopping it was. I had a 10,000# rated tandem drag trailer with brakes on both axles. Don't worry about under power on pulling. Worry about stopping the gosh darn thing.

Always is.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Lately I've been focusing on 1999-03 Ram 2500/3500s since I hear good things about the 5.9L Cummins turbodiesel. For example the 1999 Ram 2500 regular cab, 2WD automatic with either the 3.55 or 3.92 rear end has 10,300 lb towing capacity according to the operator manual. This drops to 9,900 lb for the 4WD setup.

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That seem awful low. My 2004 F250 with the diesel and 4x4 is rated for over 16,000#

Chris

 

[flusher]

That seem awful low. My 2004 F250 with the diesel and 4x4 is rated for over 16,000#

Chris

Need to make a correction--those towing numbers came from the 1999 Annual Tow Ratings published by Trailer Life magazine

Trailer Life Magazine: Follow the Road to Adventure

The Ram operator manual only covers the gas engines.

Interesting. The Trailer Life info for 04 F250s show max towing ratings in the 13,000 lb range. Nothing near 16,000 lb until the F450/550 data. TL caveats their info by saying that the manufacturers' operating manual data supercedes the TL numbers. I assume that the 16Klb number for your F250 comes from the op manual.

Which points out the problems a newby like myself has in finding the actual towing ratings for these PUs.

 

[brin]

Lawyers and insurers are always the thorn in the side.

I have to say from personal experience, I agree about the insurance companies...should an accident happen they will look for any way to not pay and worse the police , if it is a serious accident along with the insurance investigators will no doubt determine the weight guidelines were exceeded..they do not miss much so prudence here is the rule...things just are not like they used to be..there is no gimmme's best to foresee what the worse case scenario could be and be sure you are legal...Remember " Murphy's Law "

 

[wkpoor]

I wouldn't worry a thing about a lousy few hundred pounds over. Look at all the 250/350's towing tandem dually's down the road that are thousands over their limit. And BP isn't as bad as some say. Sure GN can be better but not all applications will allow it anyway. Most important thing is stopping as already pointed out. Just make sure the trailer has real good brakes. A well made trailer with properly placed load and god brakes....you'll be fine.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Need to make a correction--those towing numbers came from the 1999 Annual Tow Ratings published by Trailer Life magazine

Trailer Life Magazine: Follow the Road to Adventure

The Ram operator manual only covers the gas engines.

Interesting. The Trailer Life info for 04 F250s show max towing ratings in the 13,000 lb range. Nothing near 16,000 lb until the F450/550 data. TL caveats their info by saying that the manufacturers' operating manual data supercedes the TL numbers. I assume that the 16Klb number for your F250 comes from the op manual.

Which points out the problems a newby like myself has in finding the actual towing ratings for these PUs.

I am a trailer dealer and have data on all vehicles but the problem is a lot of the time they are just bumper pull numbers. The reason being I am a boat trailer dealer and 99.9% of them are bumper pull. The numbers you are seeing are bumper pull numbers I would guess. As you know the BP is lower than the GN number. My truck was limited to 12,500# off the bumper because that was the limit of the hitch. I upgraded it to a 15,000# hitch to handle the jobs I have.

A easy and accurate way to figure is look at the door jamb sticker for the max GCVWR. For example my F-350 is 24,000# so that minus the actual weigh of the truck, 7,600# in my case, equals your legal tow rating. In my case its 16,400# The main thing is not to exceed the trucks limit or the weak point which may be tires, rear axle, most likely the hitch itself. I have broken a hitch on a F-250 and seen one fail this year on a new Dmax. Have also see one completely ripped off a 97 F-350. Pulled all 8 bolts through the frame.

Chris

 

[flusher]

I am a trailer dealer and have data on all vehicles but the problem is a lot of the time they are just bumper pull numbers. The reason being I am a boat trailer dealer and 99.9% of them are bumper pull. The numbers you are seeing are bumper pull numbers I would guess. As you know the BP is lower than the GN number. My truck was limited to 12,500# off the bumper because that was the limit of the hitch. I upgraded it to a 15,000# hitch to handle the jobs I have.

A easy and accurate way to figure is look at the door jamb sticker for the max GCVWR. For example my F-350 is 24,000# so that minus the actual weigh of the truck, 7,600# in my case, equals your legal tow rating. In my case its 16,400# The main thing is not to exceed the trucks limit or the weak point which may be tires, rear axle, most likely the hitch itself. I have broken a hitch on a F-250 and seen one fail this year on a new Dmax. Have also see one completely ripped off a 97 F-350. Pulled all 8 bolts through the frame.

Chris

Thanks for the info. You're absolutely correct about calculating towing rating from GCVWR minus actual weight. Finding the actual weight sometimes is the problem when looking at manufacturer's data.

 

[Bama67]

Thanks again for all the replies. I mulled it over alot today, and I beleive I will just keep my truck. I didn't know my truck was rated to tow as much as it is, about 9,500lbs, so I will let the water out of the tires (which I hate to do because it helps SO much) That alone will save me several hundred pounds.

I am pretty sure I will still get the 4.56 gears, don't forget my tires are right at 35" tall, so it wouldn't be that much lower than stock anyways. It will also help big time off the line and around town, and when I did it on my old truck my mileage actually went up about 2mpg in the city, stayed the same on the highway.

I am not worried about the engine or trans in the truck to much. The Super Duty's use the same thing, and are rated to tow much more. The gears would also take alot of load off the trans. And I am going to do the add-a-leaf, to get me back end up a little higher than the front, like stock. But taking off the leveling kit and the $1,500 new tires is not really an option. I would trade before I did that.

Tires should be good, they are Load E rated.
The brakes on the truck are great, I used it for a long while with no trailer brakes, but I have since got trailer brakes. It helped alot too.

And I think some are selling this truck short due to the fact it is a (1/2) ton pickup. Have you seen the frames of these late model F-150's lately? It is MUCH more robust than my old 2002 ford frame, and looks twice and strong, fully boxed, front to back. I am not sure how they even rate them has 1/2, 3/4 ton etc anymore. They just get bigger, and stronger, every new model. These frames look like 3/4 ton frames of just a few years ago.

But what really made me decide to keep her, is that I shouldn't have to do this forever. I bought the land before we sold the house, and the house has been for sale for a year now, once it sells (if ever) we will be moving over there.