I have a new 2008 2500 Diesel 4X4 Quad Cab short bed.I just purchased a 5th wheel camper and paid close attention to the trucks towing capacity which I stayed within the limits.
Now a friend asked about hitch weight which I never thought of being new to trucks.
According to my truck specs that I looked up it says the payload weight is 2050 lbs but my dry hitch weight of my new trailer says 2500 pounds!
Am I in trouble what can I do? Please if anyone can tell me what to do. Someone said I could buy more shocks for my truck, will that do it and are they expensive. We just retired and are in S.C. and haven't towed the new trailer more than 4 miles from the dealer to our camp ground. How will I get back to upstate NY?

 

Buy Firestone Ride Rite air bags! That will solve all your problems. That will essentially make your truck equal to a 3500 SRW. How big is your trailer? After the air bags you shouldnt have anything to worry about. Its not a big deal at all and an easy fix.

 

also you could upgrade your shocks to bilsteins, but this wont help towing capacity, it will just help handle it better. Shocks dont carry the weight of the truck, Springs do. Shocks just help control the weight that is being thrown around.

But you will for sure want Air bags, and thats really all you NEED

oh and on a side note, i read another post where you were asking about Fuel additives for cold weather. DONT run any additives in your 6.7 yet. They will help clog stuff up. I dont know if anyone has ran any anti gel or not but im not going to run any additives at all. But then again it doesnt get ridiculously below 0*F here in arkansas to often

 

I'm no expert, but I would think you are OK being you are only 450 lbs over the rated amount. Usually, the only things to be concerned about is the weight rating of your rear axle and the load rating on your tires. I do know that the only difference between a 2500 (3/4 ton) and a 3500 (1 ton) is the extra overload springs. So if your 2500/3500 axle and tires are within the required weight rating (they should be) then worst case is you would need to add some overloads to the rear. If you do that, I recommend either the Firestone or Airlift air suspension systems. Both work great and are fairly inexpensive. I would also go back and talk to your trailer dealer, they're usually pretty knowledgable about what you can safely tow with a 3/4t or 1t rig, single read wheels or duals. Good luck, let us know how it turns out

 

As long as you don't exceed your GCVWR, adding the airbags will be OK. Just ensure the kingpin is positioned 2" in front of your rear axle, which is where the hitch mfg requires them to be. You will need a slide hitch to keep your camper/truck clear of each other. I'm a sales manager in the RV business, so if you have any detailed questions, PM me and I'll get you the answers.

 

MtnTrucker, i guess you have had better experiences with your dealers then me, most Trailer places will try and sale a 40ft toy hauler to a guy with a tacoma if they can get away with it. I dont trust them for nothing.

FFLarry, hope i didnt affend ya, i was just speaking about all the places ive delt with.

How bad did the truck ride with the trailer hooked up? Also does it obviously squat quite a bit with the trailer hooked up? Like he said you could have the overload from a 3500 put on, but i think the best way to go is Ride-Rites from firestone....

 

LOL, I'm so far over my payload rating with my camper on it would shock you. As long as your not going over the max rating of the tires, wheels and axles you will be fine. If the truck is sitting low in the back just add some air bags to level it out.

Also make sure your tire air pressure is up around 70~80 psi. With a heavy load your tires are the weak link.

 

You can add another 3-500 lbs to your pin wt by the time you load up.Most mfgs are light on factory pin wt,as these are generally stripped models.AS long as you are able to tow level ,you will be okay.I have a pin wt of 2800 lbs on a Dodge 3500 ,similar truck, handles great!!

 

You have to weight everything to know the truth. Specs put down on paper can be misleading. Go out and weight each axle of the truck, hook up the 5ver and reweigh everything. Now that you know the exact weights (make sure 5ver was full of water, propane, camping gear) you can begin to understand your next move. Don't try guessing about the weights, get them.

The advice about air bags and bilsteins is solid. Start with the facts then decide if you need to add on.

 

I'll agree with all of what Grantx5 says, and add the following:

I wouldn't worry much about the payload/GVWR thing. The only mechanical difference between your 2500 diesel and a SRW 3500 is an overload spring, and the GVWR goes up by 900 - 1100#.

Just don't exceed the rear GAWR (Gross Axle Weight Rating), which will be about 6200#. Your empty rear end weight will be about 2800# give or take, so you can load about 3200# or so on the back of the truck.

If the rear "sags" too much when your trailer is loaded on, add something like airbags, Supersprings, Roadmaster active suspension, Timbrens, Hellwigs...the list goes on and on. Depends on your wallet and what kind of ride you prefer.

I investigate crashes for a living. Drive alert, pay attention, drive sober, drive at proper speeds, and don't sweat exceeding GVWR by a slight margin.

 

My Vanguard claims to be 1750ish on the hitch. It makes my 03 squat about 2.5 inches even if the trailer is dry and empty. (2500 lbs would make me worry.) I inflate the Firestones till it comes back to where it is stock (35-40psi). The truck is rated to 13000lbs tare and the trailer weighs in at 7500 lbs before water and cargo. If you do the air bags only, it should take you about 2 hrs. Installing the controller and routing the air lines and tyeing into the Pac-brake air system easily doubled that for me. If you go with the Ride Rite's, start on the passenger side. It's the quickest side and it'll give you an idea as to how the driver side should look. The reason I mention this, is that if you have a shortbox quad cab, the emergency brake cable has a hanger welded to the frame on the driver side right where the top Ride Rite mount goes. I ground and painted my top mount out to clear it. I didn't like how crooked it was going to be. The install manual said it was okay to install like that, but I thought it looked like crap. Even the wife says it handles way better with the trailer now. The nicest thing is that it is a 1 ton I can turn down to 3/4 ton.

 

I have a 30ft 5er that sags my 3500. I added Firestone Ride Rites and my son and I installed them in about an hour. They work exactly as advertised. The one draw back to me was raising the truck up (inflating the airbags) put the trailer out of level (Front high) then had to raise the pin box to lower the front of the trailer now the bed to trailer clearance is tighter than I woud like. The ride is a whole lot better.

 

The way I figured out my pin weight was to go to a CAT scale and park the truck both axles on one pad and park the camper axles and landing gear on the one behind it. Get it weighed. Once that weight is recorded, lower the landing gear and take all the weight off the truck. Look for light between the hitch pin and hitch. Get it weighed again. Lower the camper back on the hitch and drive off the scales and go inside and get the two weigh tickets.

On the first weigh ticket you will have the weight of the truck hooked up on one pad and the weight of the camper hooked up on the other pad. There will be a total of both weights on the ticket. That total will be your of both vehicles. Compare that total weight to the GCWR (gross combined weight rating) of the truck. Compare the weight on the truck pad to the GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) of the truck. It is usually posted on the drivers door. Next compare the camper weight to the capacity of the axles on the camper. That weight should not be more than the combined capacity of the total number of axles on the camper. (i.e. 2 6,000# axles = 12,000#)

On the second weigh ticket, look at the weight of the truck with the pin off the truck. Take that number and subtract it from the weight of the truck with the pin on the truck. That will give you the pin weight of the camper. Compare the weight of the camper with the pin weight off the truck to the GVWR of the camper. That is usually found on a sticker on the left front of the camper. Do not compare the axle rating against this number. You will be over most every time. The axles on carry the weight of the camper when it is hooked up.

If any of the weights are greater than the prescribed limits, you need to lighten the load.