My apologies if this post is repetitive. I have a 2009 Chevy Silverado 3/4 ton, 4 wheel drive, 6 liter engine.I'm trailer shopping and have been told(by various trailer dealers)that my truck can pull everything from a 4 foot shortwall to a 10 foot shortwall. :) I realize my truck may able to pull anything for a short period but would like to stay within reason.What do you folks think? Should I be looking at empty weight? GVWR? Thanks for the help.
Posted 2015-01-27 9:09 PM (#162393 - in reply to #162392) Subject: RE: towing capacity
Expert
Posts: 2453 Location: Northern Utah
Your biggest problem will be the pin weight overloading your truck. Most 3/4 ton just are not rated to carry the kind of weight that a LQ GN will set on the hitch. Take your truck and run across the scales, add in the avg weight of the passengers that you normally will take with you and figure what kind of gear you would normally put in the bed. Even better would be have all that loaded when you cross the scales. Subtract scale numbers from the trucks rating and that is how much trailer you can hook up.
Most GN will put 15-20%, LQ usually push that to 20-25% of the trailer weight. My 4h with no LQ just gear in the dressing room weighs 13,000lbs all loaded, 20% of that = 2600 lbs. Which is almost more than my 1 ton truck can handle when I add in a full tank of fuel, 4 people in the cab and a couple bales of hay in the bed.
Your engine and tranny are the same as 1ton trucks, So they are not the problem, It's your axle rating and your truck GVW
Posted 2015-01-28 1:43 AM (#162394 - in reply to #162392) Subject: RE: towing capacity
Expert
Posts: 3802 Location: Rocky Mount N.C.
Originally written by ndurance on 2015-01-27 5:57 PM
My apologies if this post is repetitive. I have a 2009 Chevy Silverado 3/4 ton, 4 wheel drive, 6 liter engine.I'm trailer shopping and have been told(by various trailer dealers)that my truck can pull everything from a 4 foot shortwall to a 10 foot shortwall. :) I realize my truck may able to pull anything for a short period but would like to stay within reason.What do you folks think? Should I be looking at empty weight? GVWR? Thanks for the help.
Your truck with a 3.73 axle ratio will have a max. Trailer weight rating of 9900#. A 4.10 ratio will be rated at 12440#. Duramax diesel trucks were rated at 15200#. Don't buy more trailer than you can pull, I have a 2010 GMC 2500HD, 6.0 gas, 6 speed automatic, 3.73 gears and I spend a lot of time in fourth and fifth gear pulling a Shadow 24' on the floor 2+1 with three horses. Don't be under trucked. My old 8.1/Allison, 4.10 truck and the 2011 Duramax/Allison truck lives in sixth gear pulling the same load. What is the GVWR of the trailers you're looking at?
Posted 2015-01-28 3:50 AM (#162395 - in reply to #162392) Subject: RE: towing capacity
Elite Veteran
Posts: 690 Location: missouri
Retento is absolutely right. A few years ago, we overloaded (literally) ourselves and bought an awesome huge LQ over 40' in length... We have a F-350 4x4 with air-ride and overload. We had the hitch on a moveable plate so that we could correctly position it for weight and balance. At that point, we had a combined loaded (2 horses) of about 33,000 GVW. It works fine in moderate hills...Fast forward a few months.. We bought a Freightliner hauler. It was exactly what we needed. We sold it to a Rodeo cowboy who fell in love with it. NOW, we will need another one by fall of this year.Advice; unless you do A LOT of traveling with your rig, stay conservative until you want to step up like we have.. we LOVE to camp and RIDE, but when your rig costs half of what your house does... it kinda spoils some of the fun. Some of the best times we ever had were with a new 6'SW Titan tricked out and with a shower stall and porta-pot in the closed off stall w/ walkin door from front....it was light and easy to pull anywhere! Good luck to you in your hunt.
Posted 2015-01-28 8:15 AM (#162397 - in reply to #162396) Subject: RE: towing capacity
Elite Veteran
Posts: 720
Originally written by ndurance on 2015-01-28 5:34 AM
Hi: Thanks so much for the information. I'm shopping for a 3 horse, aluminum, 6 - 8 foot shortwall with living quarters.Is this reasonable?
I certainly believe so. For what it is worth, the 8' wides pull heavier than the 7' ones. Have friends with trucks like yours, and do both kinds of trailers. But there is a difference.
towing capacity
