Towing an RV! Why a 3/4 Ton Pickup? Here's your answer!

all right so we are back inside of this 2021 chevy silverado carhartt edition 2500 duramax diesel with the 10-speed allison transmission this is a crew cab z71 package in an ltz trim level which means this is just about as highly equipped as you can get one of these trucks it's got that really awesome kind of self-lifting tailgate which you know what i generally tend to think features like that are a bit gimmicky but there's been two times so far that i've used it one of those was when i was unpacking a big box from the back of the truck i picked up at the ups store and my hands were full so i was going to give it a shot just to see how convenient it might be if i used my knee to lift the tailgate up a little bit and let the self-closing mechanism kick in to pull the tailgate shut and i gotta tell you it was pretty convenient i don't think i needed it and quite frankly i think just the fact that the tailgate opens so slow it tends to be a little bit more of an inconvenience for me but in that specific scenario it worked out rather well so i think there are absolutely use cases for it especially for folks who might be disabled or folks who might need a little bit more assistance getting that tailgate shut when their hands are full [Music] anyways we are back inside of this 2021 silverado beautiful truck this incredibly gorgeous gloss black exterior with the yellow carhartt emblem and the yellow pinstripe going down the side make this truck stand out in a very bold way now i know there's a lot of folks out there who just want a pure jet black truck with nothing on it and you can get that that truck is available but to get it with the embroidered carhartt logos to get it with this really unique kind of overall look to the truck is going to appeal to a lot of folks who are big fans of chevrolet and carhartt so kudos to chevy for putting such a really cool looking package together today's video though is to focus on something a little bit different so we have this really beautiful truck and i'm going to take it to a local rv dealership just to give you an idea of the type of trailer you can hitch up behind these trucks now there have been so many towing demonstration videos of these trucks including the ones that i've already done on my channel when i went out and reviewed this towing a ten thousand pound trailer towing fifth wheels things like that so you can check those out if you want to know more about the towing dynamics of this truck when you actually have a trailer behind it but i know a lot of folks who are shopping for rvs want to specifically know what size of trailer is adequate for a truck this size and i'm going to point that out but i'm not just going to point it out i'm going to go into detail to explain why that is probably the missing fact that a lot of folks oftentimes overlook or they don't notice when they're looking at trucks they understand that trucks have payload capacity they understand that trucks have towing capacity they understand the differentiation between certain trucks from a half-ton perspective to a three-quarter ton to a one ton but oftentimes the details in what to look for in a travel trailer or a fifth wheel that you might need to really focus on before you select your truck or trailer are often missed so that's what we're going to talk about in this video i'm going to be pulling into the dealership here in just one second all right so from the previous video you all know that this truck has a cargo capacity of 3085 pounds that is a very important number to look at this has a trailering sticker on here which shows that it has a conventional towing capacity of 18 500 pounds and a maximum tongue weight capacity of 1850 pounds so these are all numbers that we have to consider what's really nice about this sticker right here showing this 1850 pounds is the fact that it doesn't automatically say that you can put a trailer with a hitch weight of 3085 pounds because they're trying to factor in all additional weights that might be in this truck as well as the hitch and everything else that factor in so what type of trailer could you put behind this truck that has a conventional weight of under 18 500 pounds but a maximum tongue weight of 1850 pounds or less also the maximum gooseneck towing weight or pin weight that you could put in the back is 2 75 pounds so these are all numbers that we want to look at let's go take a look at some trailers all right whenever you're looking at fifth wheels a lot of folks ask me all the time can i tow a fifth wheel behind a three-quarter ton truck and the answer's a very very difficult answer to provide simply because there are so many different sizes and weights of fifth wheels on the market can you tow one of these large jayco north points probably not mainly because of the actual pin weight the weight that's going to be resting over the back of a truck in the case of even this shorter one right here which is a relatively short jayco north point this thing's still going to transfer roughly 3000 pounds of weight to the bed of your truck which means if we look at the numbers of that specific truck having a maximum payload capacity of three thousand eighty five pounds you will likely be over your maximum payload capacity with just the pin weight of this that doesn't include the 200 pounds worth of fifth wheel hitch that you'll need in the bed as well as the people inside of the truck the fuel or whatever supplies you bring in the truck or however you plan on loading these up oftentimes a lot of these heavier larger fifth wheels are gonna have a three thousand pound pin weight before you've even loaded anything into it and if you spec these out with additional features such as a generator things like that larger propane tanks supplies inside all of that adds to your pin weight before you've even loaded a single bit of supplies into the rv so you want to keep that in mind now what about something like this jayco eagle series fifth wheel this is a relatively compact fifth wheel let's take a look at the numbers on the side of it this has a gross vehicle weight rating of 11 000 pounds this specific unit is going to transfer roughly 20 of that weight to the back your truck whenever you're loaded up which means you're gonna have over 2500 pounds worth of weight transferred to the back of your truck before you've accounted for people supplies your fifth wheel hitch or fuel that's all incredibly important information to understand because it explains why a fifth wheel with an 11 000-ish pound gross vehicle weight rating which is even under the conventional towing capacity of that truck really isn't a good idea to put behind a three-quarter ton truck it's simply the amount of weight that you're transferring up here to the back of a truck like that now if you had like a 3500 hd that had an additional 600 pounds worth of payload capacity then i would say you would be well within the margins of what a truck like that could handle but this is one of the reasons why i mentioned time and time again that the best type of trailer for a three-quarter ton diesel or gas pickup truck is going to be a travel trailer mainly because when you look at the numbers let's look at the numbers on this unit this has an 8 596 pound gross vehicle weight rating so once you've taken this specific trailer you've loaded it up with all of your supplies you've loaded up with everything you need you're going to likely be transferring about 1500 pounds to the back of your truck on top of that you have your actual weight distribution hitch that you're also going to have on your truck which is going to add roughly another 100 pounds to the back of your truck and then you have to factor for everything going inside of the truck now why does floor plan matter when it comes to a unit like this because you can have storage up front you can have things inside of the front more importantly though if this unit is a front kitchen unit which i bet it is you are likely going to have more stuff loaded in this area this is where it's going to be heaviest in this specific unit because of the refrigerator because of everything up here all your cabinets all your storage all of this area whenever you look at travel trailers and what vehicle can tow them appropriately you also have to keep in mind that all floor plans are a little bit different they're all laid out slightly different things are in different places and where that weight rests it's important to understand that the difference between a travel trailer that might only transfer 10 percent to the back your truck versus one that could transfer 15 to 20 percent of its weight to the back your truck is incredibly important in understanding what your payload capacity is and you know what's kind of funny is the fact that on my way over here to the dealership i passed by a brand new 2020 silverado i believe it was a high country but it was hauling a arctic fox travel trailer which if you guys are familiar and you follow my channel you'll realize that arctic fox is probably one of the best manufacturers of travel trailers out there so it was really cool to see that somebody had the right setup three-quarter ton diesel truck hauling a very very heavy but relatively compact travel trailer now i'm standing next to this viking because this unit has absolutely no slides when you look at the weight it's a relatively light seven thousand five hundred and thirty pounds this unit is still going to transfer roughly eight hundred pounds when loaded to the back of your truck so what type of truck would be best suited to tow something like this i would still say a three-quarter ton truck why because if you take that weight roughly 800 pounds and you add roughly 900 pounds worth of hitch worth of your truck the people inside of your truck the supplies you bring inside of your truck that's really where you're going to see that a three-quarter ton shines could you haul something like this behind a half-ton truck yes there are half-ton trucks that have the payload capacity to do it but if you don't pay attention to the sticker on the door of your truck you might find out really quickly that your specific truck does not have the payload capacity to be able to handle both the tongue weight of this trailer as well as everything that goes into your truck when you're hauling the hitch the people the supplies all that stuff again 900 pounds is a good number to kind of calculate as an average in terms of the weight that you'll have in your truck and on your truck before you even hitched up your travel trailer so if the actual tongue weight of the trailer you're looking at is going to be greater than the payload capacity of your truck once you add that roughly 900 pounds worth of weight and that again being people and supplies and hitch to your truck then you're likely going to need a larger truck or a truck that just has a greater payload capacity there are half-ton trucks that are out there i mention it time and time again there are certain trucks that you can get with a heavy duty payload package those trucks are set up to haul larger travel trailers larger trailers in general they have firmer suspension they are designed with generally a higher rated tire so those are all things to consider again for the sake of what i talk about on my channel i like to be very conservative in terms of my numbers because most people simply don't understand what their specific truck is capable of hauling and i like to point that out i like to make it so if you guys watch my channel you have a pretty good understanding of what a safe margin is in terms of towing a travel trailer anyways guys that was the point of this video it was to really talk about what that silverado that i have the 2021 2500 hd carhartt edition would be best suited to tow could you put something like this behind it you could but you'd have to be very very careful in terms of where your payload is loaded and how much you're actually transferring to the back of the truck again oftentimes it doesn't come down to the gross vehicle weight rating of your trailer it comes down to how much of that weight is resting on the back of your truck that is probably the single most important fact you need to keep in mind payload capacity on your truck is equally if not slightly more important than towing capacity because oftentimes these trailers won't meet your truck's towing capacity when in fact they're killing your truck's payload capacity anyways if you haven't had a chance please take a moment subscribe to my channel give me a thumbs up and we'll talk to you again very soon you

Channel: Big Truck Big RV

Views: 194,471

Rating: 4.8779588 out of 5

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Id: My6RZeQZxSE

Length: 12min 1sec (721 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 06 2020