Get a W.C hitch rated for 12000 and a soild pindle and rated ball. Have Fun I have pulled our loadmasters 1000s of miles! ps beef up your fender supports!

 

You be just fine with your rig, I've pulled alot bigger boat with the same size Truck. The only thing I would do if I were you would be have my selling dealer upgrade my trailer brakes to Electric over Hyd. , they are so much better than a surge brake system. Good luck and have fun on the water
James

 

runamuk, everyone has to get their hitch terminology correct, so everyone else knows what the others are explaining.

The part of the hitch that is bolted to the back of the truck frame, and in your case at the factory, is called a receiver. It is a class IV receiver that is rated to pull up to 12k lbs.

The part of a functional hitch that holds the ball is called a ball mount. The ball mount can have a drop and in your case is 6". The ball and ball mount are rated for tongue weight and gross trailer weight being pulled. I have found ***** and ball mounts rated for 10K but not higher. The ball mount slides into the receiver and is secured by a 5/8 " pull pin inserted through the receiver tube enclosing the ball mount tube. The receiver and ball and ball mount are supposed to support, in the form of tongue weight, not less than 10% (e.g. 1200 lbs TW) of the total weight pulled up to a maximum of 12K lbs, or not more than 15% (e.g. 1800 lbs TW) of the total weight pulled to a maximum or 12K lb.

 

, Sorry, My receiver is factory and both my ball and ball mount are rated for 12k lbs. The ball mount is a solid steel unit through out, no box tubing. I got mine on sale for a little over $100.00 at a local trailer supplier.

A word to the wise:
In my state Ca , it is illegal to tow anything over 10k without proper drivers liscense. If you are caught towing over 10k lbs without having a class A liscense there will be a hefty bill attached to your ticket and you will be "Parked" until you can remedy that situation!

Rick

 

No Dodge factory receiver on a RAM of any generation is rated to pull anything like 12K without weight distribution (WD). On the 3rd gens the factory receiver is rated at something like 6K without WD.

Some very large percentage of boat trailers come with surge brakes and you can't use WD with surge brakes. So if the trailer has surge brakes you can't pull that boat with a Dodge factory receiver without exceeding it's ratings by ~100%: not something I'd be comfortable doing.

For a couple hundred bucks you can get a Class V receiver that will allow you to do this without exceeding the receiver's ratings.

 

i think this might be a case of "being TOO informed" on this site, one of the few downfalls of these information/discussion boards.

pull the freaking boat and keep up maintenance on the truck and boat, and when going on long trips just fuel up when you get there. got any pics of this setup?

 

My dad pulls his 43' Black Thunder with a pair of Bull Dogs, about 17,500lbs with his 3500 with 0 problems. We had a "custom" hitch built for it though. The hitch frame run up the truck frame for about 3' and we use six bolts per side, not the factory 3.