Can I haul a 50hp tractor with a Ram 1500?

[Code54]

it's not worth the hassle or worry.

if you just need to take the garbage to the dump.. or pick up a load of stuff from the grocery or box store.. or haul a piece of furniture home. 1/2 ton is fine.

seems there's no inbetween on towing.

people either haul a trash can or want to pull a mini excavator..

I opt big and safe... if i loose a few$ in the way of fuel or rubber.. i figure that's insurance for being safer on the road.. both to me and the people i'm driving around. If i try to white knuckle it and my 1/2 ton wrecks while i'm overloaded and other get hurt. migth as well hang it up financially.

I have to agree - far better safe than sorry!

 

[JIGBUILDER]

I'm hearing ya, looks like I'll be looking to buy both truck and tractor! Lol The tractor will be a Mahindra 5010 4wd. Maybe selling a sweet 08 ram sport?! If anyone is interested, I'm in East Texas! lol
Thanks to all who chimed in. Take care, Merry Christmas ya'll!

My 50hp blue tractor 2wd with loaded 14:9-28 rears weighs 5340 lbs.
The FEL and a 6' mower brings it up to 7020 lbs.

My 18' 10k GVWR trailers 5.2k axles gross at 9460 lbs on the axles with approx. 1000 lbs hitch on the truck.
I pull it with the wifes 1500 crew cab chevy Z71 5.3 3.73 gears or my daily driver a '03 2500 Dodge/Cummins NV5600 3.73 or my 3500 DRW 4x4 454 4.10 gears crew cab beater.

Non are white knuckle.
The 1500 crew cab actually panic stops in a shorter distance than the two heavier trucks pulling this particular trailer. My trucks brakes stop the truck and all my trailers brakes stop the trailer.
Oh yeah, I have over 850k miles towing commercially legally and three different one quarter million miles safe driving awards with mostly one ton DRW trucks and several sizes of GN flatdeck trailers.
Some of the wild scenarios or kids or puppy dogs or ...... can be same said about any size truck pulling a loaded trailer.

Your '08 Ram Hemi has a 7xxx-8xxx tow rating. Later models are over 10-11k lb tow ratings. Your not going to hurt your truck unless you go full time and beat on the truck and use pizz poor maintenance.

I would get the tractor/trailer if you like it.
I also would weigh the trucks front and rear axles separately. That way you know what your working with. You can always buy a different truck later if it doesn't meet your needs.

 

[Soundguy]

i'd say 2 of your trucks have bad tires / brakes if the ld stops faster then the HD.. especially the one with 2 more pieces of rubber on the ground....

 

[Renze]

i'd say 2 of your trucks have bad tires / brakes if the ld stops faster then the HD.. especially the one with 2 more pieces of rubber on the ground....

Dont know what regulation there is in the US, but here your brake retardation (brake force actually) has to be between 45 and 55% of axle weight. If your trailer doesnt exceed the rear axle load of the half ton, (thus the designed brake capacity) it should make no difference than when the same tongue load is applied to a one ton, also within axle specs.

Truck brake system dont brake more or less depending on what weight is on the trailer. Most heavier vehicles have a load controller that reduces the rear axle brake force when the suspension doesnt sag, so it wont jackknife, but i doubt a half ton has it, because of the little payload vs. GVW ratio.

As long as you're within payload specs with the tongue weight and both trucks comply to the standard of brake retardation, truck weight doesnt make a difference in stopping at all, the trailers brakes make all the difference. All a truck axle can brake is the weight its carrying, not the weight on the trailer axle.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Truck brake system dont brake more or less depending on what weight is on the trailer.

My brake controller has adjustable force, that I tweak manually depending on how heavy the trailer is and how fast I'm going (highway vs. surface street speeds). I think this is pretty standard.

As long as you're within payload specs with the tongue weight and both trucks comply to the standard of brake retardation, truck weight doesnt make a difference in stopping at all, the trailers brakes make all the difference. All a truck axle can brake is the weight its carrying, not the weight on the trailer axle.

Something doesn't add up here. If this is true, how to trucks towing trailers that don't have brakes stop? Obviously, the truck's brakes slow the truck, and that deceleration force is passed back to the trailer through the coupling. The truck's axle is never carrying 100% of the trailer's weight, though. Likewise, if I manually activate the trailer brakes (via the controller) without pushing the truck's brakes, the trailer's wheels will lock up and slow the truck, but the truck's weight is never on the trailer's axle.

But maybe I've misunderstood your claim... :confused3:

 

[Egon]

On over the road trucks I'm wondering how the tractor weight/braking compares to the loaded trailer weight/braking as compared to pickup/trailer.

Or say an extreme like one of the Aussie cattle trains?

 

[aczlan]

On over the road trucks I'm wondering how the tractor weight/braking compares to the loaded trailer weight/braking as compared to pickup/trailer.
Or say an extreme like one of the Aussie cattle trains?

Well, for a 2007 Volvo 780 (Class 8 OTR semi, from http://www.brucknertruck.com/pdf/VolvoLiterature/780.pdf ) the combined GAWR could be up to 96000# and they are generally registered for 80,000# GCWR (going higher generally requires overweight pemits).
Per Wikipedia, axle limits are as follows:

20,000 pounds (9,072 kg) maximum on a single axle
34,000 pounds (15,422 kg) maximum on the tandem axles

Aaron Z

 

[Soundguy]

Something doesn't add up here. If this is true, how to trucks towing trailers that don't have brakes stop? Obviously, the truck's brakes slow the truck, and that deceleration force is passed back to the trailer through the coupling.

yep.. something doesn't add up..

 

[Renze]

My brake controller has adjustable force, that I tweak manually depending on how heavy the trailer is and how fast I'm going (highway vs. surface street speeds). I think this is pretty standard.

Agreed, but you cant adjust the agressiveness of the brakes on your front and rear axle of the truck itself (unless pushing the pedal harder)

Something doesn't add up here. If this is true, how to trucks towing trailers that don't have brakes stop? Obviously, the truck's brakes slow the truck, and that deceleration force is passed back to the trailer through the coupling. The truck's axle is never carrying 100% of the trailer's weight, though. Likewise, if I manually activate the trailer brakes (via the controller) without pushing the truck's brakes, the trailer's wheels will lock up and slow the truck, but the truck's weight is never on the trailer's axle.

But maybe I've misunderstood your claim... :confused3:

I think you misread... the TRUCK WEIGHT doesnt make a difference if you have correctly setup trailer brakes, because the truck will only be braking its own mass and the trailer brakes will be braking the trailer mass in a correct setup.. Now when you have poor brakes, brakes on one trailer axle or no trailer brakes at all, the truck weight DOES make a HUGE difference because you can apply more retardation without locking up the brake wheels... Though i would never ever suggest to take the highway without brakes on all trailer axles...

 

[joshuabardwell]

I think you misread... the TRUCK WEIGHT doesnt make a difference if you have correctly setup trailer brakes, because the truck will only be braking its own mass and the trailer brakes will be braking the trailer mass in a correct setup..

I see. Yes, I did mis-understand your point.