Easy Tow Capacity- Ram 2500/Cummins
From : chauncey gardiner
Q: i bought an 06 ram 2500 bighorn with the cummins engine because my 1500 was struggling with a 5500 lb trailer. thanks to advice from many of you on this ng. with the 2500 i can accelerate on 7% grades while pulling this trailer. this is very cool. what a beautiful truck. of course now i want a bigger trailer. im looking at a 30 fifth wheel. dry weight is 7500- i should be able to keep it well under 9000 loaded. my tow capacity is supposed to be about 12800. does anyone tow such a load with this truck i want to be able to do those 7% grades *easily.* ive been told one shouldnt go over about 75% of tow capacity so i would still be under that. i have the 3.73 axle ratio. thanks for your help! .
Replies:
From : mike simmons
i bought an 06 ram 2500 bighorn with the cummins engine because my 1500 was struggling with a 5500 lb trailer. thanks to advice from many of you on this ng. with the 2500 i can accelerate on 7% grades while pulling this trailer. this is very cool. what a beautiful truck. of course now i want a bigger trailer. im looking at a 30 fifth wheel. dry weight is 7500- i should be able to keep it well under 9000 loaded. my tow capacity is supposed to be about 12800. does anyone tow such a load with this truck i want to be able to do those 7% grades *easily.* ive been told one shouldnt go over about 75% of tow capacity so i would still be under that. i have the 3.73 axle ratio. thanks for your help! chauncey the rv you are considering is about the size of my rig. my ctd hauls it around like it is not even there. dont sweat it just hook up and git er done. mike .
From : greg surratt
on wed 28 jun 2006 124157 -0700 chauncey gardiner cgardiner@removethis.myrealbox.com wrote i bought an 06 ram 2500 bighorn with the cummins engine because my 1500 was struggling with a 5500 lb trailer. thanks to advice from many of you on this ng. with the 2500 i can accelerate on 7% grades while pulling this trailer. this is very cool. what a beautiful truck. of course now i want a bigger trailer. im looking at a 30 fifth wheel. dry weight is 7500- i should be able to keep it well under 9000 loaded. my tow capacity is supposed to be about 12800. does anyone tow such a load with this truck i want to be able to do those 7% grades *easily.* ive been told one shouldnt go over about 75% of tow capacity so i would still be under that. i have the 3.73 axle ratio. thanks for your help! i just completed a trip from virginia to illinois and back. outbound route was i-64 across virginia west virginia and kentucky i-71 up to i-74 into illinois. return route was i-70 across indiana and ohio i-79 down to i-68 in pennsylvania and maryland to i-95 and i-64 in virginia. i-68 had some pretty impressive pulls 6 and 7% for 5 or 6 miles at a stretch. the lowest speed i saw was 47 mph. tow vehicle is a stock 98.5 24 valve ctd with 3.54 rears and an automatic 235 hp. trailer is a 1989 34.5 foot nu-wa hitchiker fiver. scaled weight this trip with full water and fuel was 18890 lbs. so i figure the trailer was somewhere around 12200. fuel mileage averaged 11.5 at 60 mph. your 06 with 9k shouldnt have too much of a problem doing what you ask. greg .