1/2 ton, 3/4 ton, and 1 Ton Trucks! Know the Towing and Payload Differences!

what's going on guys so one of the most common questions that I get asked is always related to a certain type of truck to pull or tow a certain type of trailer and they want to generally know if they're in a good position to do that well the challenge that a lot of people may not understand is really what are the differences between a modern-day half-ton truck a 3/4 ton truck a one ton single rear wheel truck and a one-ton dually and shoot even a midsize truck in terms of towing capacity as well as payload capacity because both of those are huge factors when it comes to safely towing a travel trailer or a fifth wheel [Music] alright guys so we just got here to AutoNation Chevrolet in Corpus Christi Texas this is their North dealership they got two of them here and what I'm gonna do is walk around to each class of truck that they have and give you an idea of what to expect in terms of tow capacity versus payload capacity because it's very important again that you get both right so let's get started with this ok let's first focus on some of these midsize trucks so these are generally going to be the lightest and smallest pickup trucks that you'll be able to find these trucks will generally have anywhere between about a 1,200 pound all the way up to roughly a two thousand pound cargo capacity depending on the configuration that you buy these trucks in a two wheel drive truck is going to generally have a higher payload capacity because the two-wheel drive system is a lighter system than having a four-wheel drive system but these trucks are gonna vary depending on how you get it equipped four-wheel drive heavily loaded truck with all the features is going to have a lower payload capacity than a relatively stripped down truck so again if you are looking at getting one of these trucks in its most common form which would be something like this where it's a crew cab four wheel drive package vehicle that's gonna have more options than one of these lower trim models you're gonna expect to see about a thirteen hundred pound payload capacity if you get one stripped down slightly and two-wheel drive you can see all the way up to about eighteen hundred pounds depending again on cab configuration drive as well as features that you have in it but a good area would be between 1200 all the way up to about 2,000 pounds cargo capacity making some of these trucks actually exceed half ton trucks in terms of cargo capacity however the maximum towing capacity is only going to be about 7,000 pounds as rated by the manufacturer in most cases I don't recommend towing a travel trailer or an RV weighing over 3500 pounds with the truck like this mainly because of the high-profile nature of an RV and how they react to wind and sway so these trucks are going to have relatively high cargo capacities even though the towing capacity is going to be relatively low let's move on to the half-ton trucks now when you're looking at half-ton things can get very very interesting mainly because a high SPECT out high trim half-ton truck is generally going to have a very low cargo capacity something like a high country Chevrolet is usually gonna have maybe a 1200 or even eleven hundred pound cargo capacity if you get one of these Trail Boss trucks you're also gonna see a relatively low cargo capacity mainly because of the components that they use to make the truck more off-road capable as well as some of the features inside if you want to get the highest cargo capacity of a half-ton truck you generally have to get it in a relatively basic package now a regular cab truck like this is going to have the highest payload capacity especially if it's in two-wheel drive as you step up and you start adding features you add length to the truck like an extended cab that's where you're gonna see your cargo capacity slightly dip because the gross vehicle weight rating of most of these trucks are going to be relatively the same so the more stuff you add to the curb weight or the empty weight of the truck will actually take away from the cargo capacity if you look at a two-wheel drive truck like this you can generally expect to see about a 1600 to 1800 pound cargo capacity now in terms of towing capacity these half-ton trucks are generally going to have towing capacities rated anywhere between about 8,000 pounds all the way up to about 12,000 pounds depending on how you get the truck equipped again the more stuff you add to the truck it can affect your towing capacity and you always want to remember just because a truck might be rated for 12,000 pounds towing does not mean that the cargo capacity that you have is going to be able to support a trailer that has a 1200 pound tongue weight so keep that in mind a high spec tout truck is generally going to have a relatively low cargo capacity and that is pretty much the same for even your heavier duty trucks so with a half-ton truck like most of these I generally recommend keeping an RV at around 6,000 pounds and the reason for that is because a lot of people may not realize that even though these two trucks look identical this truck may have an 8,000 pound rated maximum tow capacity where this truck might have an eleven thousand pound maximum tow capacity and unless you specifically know the numbers on your truck in what they've done to allow that truck to tow more and what the cargo capacity is of your truck you could be putting yourself at risk by overloading the truck unintentionally so that's the main reason why I usually say try to stick to about six thousand pounds gross vehicle weight rating of course there's some play there and towing experience has a lot to do with it as well if you've towed a lot of trailers you understand how to load your trailer properly you understand how to fight sway when it occurs things like that then you could be safe going beyond that six thousand pounds but for people getting into RVing for the first time looking at travel trailers this is something to keep in mind also the other thing you really need to pay attention to is that half-ton trucks have very soft rear suspension these are designed for comfort they're designed to be able to haul some cargo but at the same time they generally are relatively soft in the back which means just because you can load a fifth wheel hitch in it you can put a fifth wheel tongue over the back the pin weight of a fifth wheel generally being anywhere from about 2,200 pounds all the way up to 6,000 pounds depending on what you're getting it may not appear to make the back of the truck sag much but when you start to hit bumps when you start to hit expansion joints when you hit potholes things like that you're really gonna max out your suspension and you have a very very high risk with the fifth wheel of bottoming out your suspension losing control of the vehicle and possibly damaging or bending your frame that is one of the things people generally don't think about when they try to pair a half-ton truck to a fifth wheel they hitch it up they sit back and they say well look it looks level but then when they hit a bump they don't realize how much stress that's putting in on a relatively soft suspension so that's the main reason why I say you should never pair most fifth wheels to half-ton pickup trucks there are a few out there that are incredibly light even the pin weight is very light and in most cases those will be okay but there aren't a lot of manufacturers that make those alright let's move on to a 3/4 ton truck alright so when you're looking at 3/4 ton trucks you're moving into a different class of truck completely what that means is that this truck is generally going to have upwards of between ten thousand pounds gross vehicle weight rating all the way up to about twelve and a half thousand pounds worth of gross vehicle weight rating and what that really means is that you have far more cargo capacity and generally more towing capacity this is really where you start getting in that sweet spot of a truck that has a good high payload capacity as well as a good number for towing what you want to be cautious of though is if you're looking at a 3/4 ton truck versus a one ton single rear wheel truck the payload capacity is going to be significantly different between the two when you put a diesel engine like this Duramax Allison transmission equipped 3/4 ton Chevy in front of us and you pair that diesel to it that diesel weighs significantly more than its gas counterpart so if you get this in a 3/4 ton package you may find that the actual cargo capacity in this truck is really about as much as a half-ton truck it might be in that eighteen hundred and nineteen hundred pound range simply because the weight of the engine is a significant factor in the cargo capacity that's across all manufacturers it's not just general motors so one thing to keep in mind and one thing to always pay attention to is the door sticker on these typically your cargo capacity on a 3/4 ton diesel equipped truck is going to be between about seventeen hundred and fifty pounds all the way up to about twenty-eight hundred pounds when you get into a one ton single rear wheel truck that's where it will jump up to between about twenty-five hundred pounds all the way up to about thirty six hundred pounds with a diesel when you get the gas equipped version you're generally going to see the payload capacity in the twenty five hundred pound range up to about thirty four hundred pounds for a three-quarter ton and in a one ton single rear wheel you'll see it anywhere between about thirty two hundred pounds all the way up to about forty one hundred pounds so the gas versus diesel argument really comes into play when you're looking at payload capacity for these single rear wheel applications the towing numbers have gotten really good on a lot of these trucks most of the time I would say if you're going to be towing a travel trailer you can go all the way up to about fourteen thousand pounds with a travel trailer which is actually really hard to find most of them are going to be between about nine and eleven or twelve thousand pounds this would be a great vehicle to tow your larger heavier travel trailers whenever you get into anything greater than that you're gonna want to look at either a one ton single rear wheel truck or even a one-ton dually mainly for the increased cargo capacity as well as the stability now believe it or not if you want to get the maximum payload capacity in a three-quarter ton or a one ton truck in a crew cab four wheel drive format this is the package you'd need to get it in this is a work truck package this package is gonna give you the highest payload capacity simply because it's relatively stripped down there's not a lot of bells and whistles and because there aren't a lot of bells and whistles it doesn't take off of the trucks payload numbers so whenever you're looking at 3/4 ton or 1 ton of single rear wheel trucks keep that in mind oftentimes the thing that kills your payload capacity is going to be the diesel engine as well as the fact that you have a fairly high spec truck so when you look at these trucks you always want to factor in what has been done to the truck from the factory to take away from the payload ok so neither the north or the south chevy dealership had any new dually trucks in stock so instead I'm going to show you guys a forward because the Ford dealerships right down the street so whenever you're looking at moving to a dually that's really where you're gonna get the best mixture of both towing as well as payload capacity generally a one-ton dually pickup truck from any of the manufacturers is gonna have between about a forty eight hundred pound all the way up to about sixty five hundred pounds worth of cargo capacity and that's usually going to be in a crew cab or an extended cab version it goes even higher than that in a regular cab version but if you're looking at getting into a dually truck that's where you're talking about suspension that is significantly stiffer suspension that is designed to hold an excessive amount of weight which means if you're going to be hauling a heavy toy hauler or a heavy fifth wheel or even a very heavy travel trailer you don't have to worry about the trailer moving and causing too much movement in the back of the truck thus causing instability so when you talk about moving from a 3/4 ton truck or even a one ton single rear wheel truck that are still gonna have comparatively soft suspension compared to a dually the dually is really going to shine in terms of giving you a great towing number as well as a great payload number so with the truck like this from any of the manufacturers it's not gonna be just for you can look at a ram or you can look at a GM truck you're gonna expect something like this to have about 55 to 57 hundred pounds on average as your payload capacity which means if you have a heavy toy hauler with 4,000 pounds worth of pin weight you're still gonna have a significant amount of cargo capacity to haul the people and your belongings inside of the truck without overloading the vehicle so that's really nice also the big perk is the towing numbers the traction you have on the ground the redundancy of having the two extra tires in the back but when you look at towing with a dually you do need to understand of course the increased width the fact that you won't be able to run it through your traditional car wash and the fact that you may not be able to maneuver it as well as you might have a smaller truck the key behind all this at the end of the day is finding out what the best truck for the best application is in terms of towing what I like about dual is overall it kind of gives you the best of everything with the only compromise being the extended rear end as well as a slightly wider turning radius except if you go with something like a 450 with that wide track front axle what you can expect to tow with something like this would be your large travel trailers in excess of 10,000 11,000 pounds that you just want the most possible sway control and the most possible stability when towing what you would expect to tow with something like this would be your very large travel trailers even your destination model travel trailers anything that's going to be over 12,000 pounds what you would also expect would be something like a fifth wheel between about 12,000 all the way up twenty-five thousand pounds they do make some that are heavier but there aren't very many of those or even a toy hauler in the 18 to 25 26 thousand pound range mainly again because of that increased cargo capacity and the ability to tow and stop your larger trailers plus the extra weight of these trucks make them inherently more stable and the redundancy of the extra tires anyways guys I hope you've enjoyed this video I just really quickly wanted to point out the different types of trucks and my recommendation in terms of towing and the differences between these trucks and I hope this video has helped you when deciding to get your next truck guys if you haven't had a chance please take a moment subscribe to my channel give me a thumbs up and we will talk to you again very soon [Music]

Channel: Big Truck Big RV

Views: 527,333

Keywords: RVing, New RV, RV Shopping, Lippert, Jayco, Forest River, Toy Hauler, Winnebago, Coachmen, Airstream, Dutchmen, Morryde, Offgrid, Solar, RV Solar, Trailer, Apex, Voltage, F450, F350, F250, Living Vehicle, Light Ship, Crossroads, Cruiser RV, DRV, Entegra, Heartland, Keystone RV, KZ RV, Redwood RV, Starcraft, Thor, Tiffin, Venture, Riverstone, Dynamax, Palomino, Prime Time, Shasta, Grand Design, Newmar, Powerstroke, Cummins, Duramax, Towing, 2023, 2024, RV, Travel Trailer, Fifth Wheel, Coach, Motorhome, Toyota, 3500, 2500

Id: U79pQR7xdX8

Length: 14min 51sec (891 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 02 2020