Half Ton Towing???

[JmackB4]

I have a 2015 Ram 1500, 5.7 Hemi. It has a 6 inch lift and 37 inch off road tires. I am looking at getting a travel trailer and I just want to know a few things.

1. What would be considered safe towing capacity?
2. Will my lift and oversized tires drop my overall towing capacity?

 

[rule18]

Moved to 4th Gen section. Check this out for starters it shows all the cab, engine and bed combinations with payload and max towing capacity but it's definitely not the whole story. Your lift/tires will certainly affect your towing experience. Other members will certainly chime in here.

 

[dhay13]

Lift and tires won't change your max tow capacity but will certainly affect how it tows and how comfortable it is. I don't have experience towing with anything lifted like that but wouldn't think it would be comfortable. In stock form I'd say in general a 1500 is limited to about 7000lbs max as far as comfort. With the lift and tires hard to say what your comfort level would be. Others will chime in that might have experience towing with a lifted truck.
One thing to consider is gear ratio. If you have 3.21's then with 37's your effective gear ratio will drop to maybe 2.70's. Definitely not good for towing.

 

[Roper46]

Welcome to the forum from south Georgia. I am not the modding lift, big tires etc type person, all my trucks have stayed stock. So I will let others chime in on that part.

 

[rzr6-4]

What is the weight of your trailer?

What type of lift? RC spacer garbage, long travel I-beams, lift springs. etc...

Normally I make fun of the safely rating police but in your case it could come into play. 6" is definitely enough to where you are going to make sure you have a good sway bar to help prevent excess body roll. The type of lift you used could play a factor depending on weight. Will need more info from you on that part.

My biggest issue would be the 37s. Absolute torque killers. This can be made up for some depending what gears you have in the diff but they will be an issue regardless. Shuffling around town and maybe on the highway you may not notice much but pulling off from the stop sign you will have to get on it some, and driving down the interstate pulling a giant wind sail behind you, I'm sure you will be running 3k rpms at least.

Certainly wouldn't be my first choice but it certainly CAN do it. My questions for you will help determine just how difficult it will be though.

 

[ramffml]

I have a 2015 Ram 1500, 5.7 Hemi. It has a 6 inch lift and 37 inch off road tires. I am looking at getting a travel trailer and I just want to know a few things.

1. What would be considered safe towing capacity?
2. Will my lift and oversized tires drop my overall towing capacity?

You can keep your truck stock to have proper towing ability, or, run lifted with massive tires and get "the look" with terrible towing performance. Pick one.

You might get away with it if your trailer is small and light enough (like an rpod). If you're trying to pull 35 feet and 9000 pounds then I'd say you have the wrong setup for that, even stock that is not going to be a nice pull.

 

[zrock]

All depends on the quality of lift that was put in. Cheap lift then you are going to lose some capacity but if a good quality lift was put in your capacity should have stayed the same.. Always makes me wonder why people put these big lift and tires on and the truck never see's any off roading just a waste of money if you ask me. Then you will see them towing this huge trailer with a big drop hitch just to compensate for the height..

 

[CanuckRam1313]

Welcome, from Ontario, Canada.

As others have indicated; your current gearing is key to start with. If you're 3.21 with that set up you're going to likely get yourself into a situation where it isn't a nice (or possibly safe) tow.

If you have 3.92, you're better equipped to start. However, with the current set up you're still going to have to make adjustments, depending on the weight and length of your TT.

The sag would likely be pretty extreme, to the point where air bags would be needed to balance out the truck for a safer ride.

Either way, my #1 priority with a set up like yours would be to ensure I could safely tow in all driving conditions if I was going to purchase a TT and had your truck set up.

 

[2003F350]

I would say that as long as you're looking at a small travel trailer you should be fine, though you'll need a big drop hitch and probably a good WDH setup. Chances are you're going to be fighting body roll with the truck regardless, because the forces during turns have a longer moment arm than if you were at a stock height. Tire sidewall flex during cornering will also come into play, how bad it'll be is debatable and determined by what tires you have. A LOT of lift springs have lower k-values, but not all, so that really depends on your lift and who made it. As mentioned above, 37" tires without the right gearing are going to make taking off slow.

Overall, lifted trucks do worse towing than non-lifted, and the higher the lift the worse it gets.

 

[nlambert182]

OP if it were me, I'd find another tow vehicle or put this one back to stock. Sure, it might physically tow it, but a lift kills towability. You may still be within your numbers but the experience is likely to be uncomfortable and frustrating with anything much larger than an rPod. If you have 3.21 gearing running 37s, forget it. But... if you want to try it, by all means. Sometimes experience is better than anecdote.

Lifted trucks generally aren't very tow friendly (coming from someone who had a lifted truck at one point and that towed with it).

 

[seadog1272]

Rule of thumb for choosing a trailer to match your truck (Not Lifted)

Take the YELLOW payload sticker weight (usually on the vehicle drivers door jam), and from that, subtract everyone and everything that will go in or on the vehicle (Stuff). You, your mate, the dog, the kids, fire wood, groceries, generator, 100lbs for a weight distribution hitch (WDH). With the remainder left, divide by .13, and this will be super close to the max loaded weight (GVWR) of a trailer that you can tow without being overloaded (trailer (GVWR) includes axle weight and tongue Weight). The .13 is right in the middle of the recommended tongue weight of 10% to 15% of trailer weight for a stable tow. (Low tongue weight causes fish-tailing, Braking, and control problems)
Never exceed the weight capacity of the lowest-rated component of your towing system. For example, your trailer hitch may be rated to tow 5,000 pounds, but your vehicle may only be rated to tow 3,500 pounds

Example of a Trailer GVWR your vehicle can safely tow
Vehicle Payload - Stuff Divided % Trailer GVWR of
1086 250 / 10% 8360 lbs
1086 250 / 13% 6430 lbs
1086 250 / 15% 5573 lbs

 

[seadog1272]

I have a 2015 Ram 1500, 5.7 Hemi. It has a 6 inch lift and 37 inch off road tires. I am looking at getting a travel trailer and I just want to know a few things.

1. What would be considered safe towing capacity?
2. Will my lift and oversized tires drop my overall towing capacity?

Rule of thumb for choosing a trailer to match your truck (Not Lifted)

Take the YELLOW payload sticker weight (usually on the vehicle drivers door jam), and from that, subtract everyone and everything that will go in or on the vehicle (Stuff). You, your mate, the dog, the kids, fire wood, groceries, generator, 100lbs for a weight distribution hitch (WDH). With the remainder left, divide by .13, and this will be super close to the max loaded weight (GVWR) of a trailer that you can tow without being overloaded (trailer (GVWR) includes axle weight and tongue Weight). The .13 is right in the middle of the recommended tongue weight of 10% to 15% of trailer weight for a stable tow. (Low tongue weight causes fish-tailing, Braking, and control problems)
Never exceed the weight capacity of the lowest-rated component of your towing system. For example, your trailer hitch may be rated to tow 5,000 pounds, but your vehicle may only be rated to tow 3,500 pounds

Example of a Trailer GVWR your vehicle can safely tow
Vehicle Payload - Stuff Divided % Trailer GVWR of
1086 250 / 10% 8360 lbs
1086 250 / 13% 6430 lbs
1086 250 / 15% 5573 lbs

 

[gypsy400]

Put the stock tires back on for towing. The oversized tires are going to lower your overall gear ratio and suck all your torque away.

 

[dhay13]

Do they even made a WDH with big enough drop?

 

[2003F350]

Do they even made a WDH with big enough drop?

That comes with one? No, not that I'm aware of. However, there are longer drop bars available to make it work, though I think the rating on some of them begins to suffer. When I had my 'Wagon I had to get an 'extended drop' bar, to let the hitch head get low enough for our camper. Mind you, mine was only about 3" longer than stock so I didn't lose much, if anything, in rating.

 

[62Blazer]

You have decent advice above. I would start to see what that particular truck was rated for when stock from the factory. Generally that rather large lift and tires decrease how much it can comfortably tow, both in handling and overall power. A few comments:
- While the large tires "hurt" the effective gearing and you will have less "power", I'm not sure how gearing has anything do with safety???
- Axle gearing and the affect of larger tires doesn't bother me for initial take-off or acceleration. Generally when you notice it the most is going 65 mph down the interstate and start pulling up a grade. The trans will want to downshift a lot more.
- Also not completely sure when people talk about a "quality" lift kit affecting towing performance.
I've pulled many different trailers using many different trucks over the last 30+ years. Currently using a lifted Power Wagon on 37's (equivalent to a normal 2500 with about 3" of lift). The truck is factory rated stock to tow 10k. I have pulled a 32' 9k enclosed trailer on the interstate and it handles fine.
In any case, decide how big of a trailer you want. There are a lot of factors, but start with the factory towing capacity and probably reduce that by at least 15-20%.....that's not the end-all answer, but just where I would start.

 

[LumberJakl]

Day one purchasing my hemi in 2017 with installing a Zone 6" lift with 37's, my hemi never gave me any issues during towing and on long travel days. I made sure my trailer brakes work to help assist with braking, and give myself good room in front of me from vehicles had never made me worry once with my setup.
Having rear airbags will help enormously to maintain good front traction for steering and braking.

 

[2003F350]

Having rear airbags will help enormously to maintain good front traction for steering and braking.

Many studies out there showing that this statement is false as rear air bags do nothing to transfer weight back to the steer axle with a bumper-pull style trailer - they only raise the rear end of the vehicle. Weight is only returned to the steer axle by lowering tongue weight (reducing weight behind the rear axle), either through redistribution of the weight on the trailer or a WDH.

 

[Philis]

I have a 2015 Ram 1500, 5.7 Hemi. It has a 6 inch lift and 37 inch off road tires. I am looking at getting a travel trailer and I just want to know a few things.

1. What would be considered safe towing capacity?
2. Will my lift and oversized tires drop my overall towing capacity?

I have been towing through a 1,500 and two 2,500’s. If you load your truck bed up, people, stuff, liquids, propane, batteries, add anything else and I’d advise strongly you will not like dry weight 7,000 lbs. I have gone through air bags on a 2,500, and new Fox shocks, and can say for certain my 32” was uncomfortable to tow. I now have a Power Wagon 2024 with 35” & 20 inch wheels. It affected the soft ride of stock wheels. I going with Timberin load stops over stock bump stops. And may do more. I tow a 6,000 lb dry weight Rockwood TT. Please do your research on Gross vehicle weight, hitch weight, tongue weight, CCC, cargo carry capacity. Please over truck you tow vehicle and live happily ever after. Better to have too much truck than not enough. Put a weight distribution hitch on the rig. Weight it all and separately at a weight station. You will not regret a minute of over trucking your trailer.

 

[crash68]

^^^ what @2003F350 stated

Having rear airbags will help enormously to maintain good front traction for steering and braking.

Here's a video that shows the difference between air bags and WDH. https://youtu.be/XBZu39pQ8Gg