Sea:\>Drive

Truck in sig w/factory receiver. Have a 14Klb rated pull bar, and a SS 7500Lb 2" ball so they aren't the issue. My question is the receiver. Boat is 4800lb dry, trailer is #1200lb so I'm already at 6K lbs prior to fuel (68gal), water (17gal), beer (who knows), food, etc... (I guesstimate around 6500lbs on average).

I believe the hitch is rated to 5K lbs without WD hitch (which isn't possible on a boat trailer).???

My boat is only 24', so how do all these folks pull 7k plus from their receivers? Are they upgrading, or am I just

dodgezilla04

my bumper hitch is rated at 5k. the receiver hitch is 10k weight carrying and 12k distribution.

are you putting the ball on the bumper or the receiver?

jkitterman

You should be just fine. Tongue weight should be in the 5-10% range on a boat so you won't have a problem there. The WD is required for the issue of having too much weight on the tongue and isn't usually the case with boat trailers.

bulabula

Balmer, huh? Kinda late in the season for boat ridin'.... but hey, we were out a week or so ago on the Ches Bay and up in the Harbor on my buddy's 29' Formula Fastech burnin' gas and boiling water.

I pull my Formula 272 without issue and its a little heavier than your boat. As stated above, tongue weight isn't an issue. With a single engine you may have a little more tongue weight than me (not as much weight in the stern), but with twins my tongue weight was a little light so I repositioned the boat a little further forward on the trailer for some more weight. I wouldn't sweat pulling your boat at all.

Mine is all winterized.......

Not sure what you pulled the boat with before, but my previous tow vehicle was a F350 crew cab 4x2 gasser dually: it sucked the gas, slipped badly coming up wet ramps, but going down the road it was a little more stable in the back end due to its wider hips. But overall? The Dodge beats it hands down - easily.

Did you say a 2" ball? I thought that you would have a 2 5/16" ball. What is the GVWR of the trailer? Mine is 10k.

I weighed everything once on the way to the ramp (the whole fam damily, gassed, beered, soda popped, you name it), and the boat trailer was over 8700 and the entire rig was almost 17k.

truckjunkie

10K weight carrying on a STOCK hitch? If your hitch isn't stock please disregard. But if it is stock, where did you get this information? That weight would infer a 1K tongue weight, and I've never seen any documentation from Dodge that says they approve a 1K tongue weight (weight carrying).

This subject has been discussed over and over and over. The 05 model trucks have a sticker on them that says 500/5000 weight carrying, but the 04.5's do not. I got information from a dealer that said it was actually 600/6000 when they looked it up in some manual they had. I asked for a copy of the documentation, and they said NO.

If there's a sticker on your hitch, go with what it says - both weight carrying and weight distributing. If there's no sticker on your hitch, read below:

There have been several threads on this subject over the last couple of years - here's a couple of them:

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ad.php?t=84463

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...=hitch+ratings

Personally, I'm going to probably go with this setup with some Timbrens whenever my Wife lets me get something to tow that's heavy: https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=100590

Oh - also - I think that Equal-I-Zer weight distributing hitches are OK for use with boats, but you'll need to check with them: http://www.equalizerhitch.com/

Sea:\>Drive

Most is as I thought and I'm not going crazy. Looks like I'll be in the market to upgrade to a Class V receiver soon. Thanks gentlemen. Oh to answer some questions:

Yes 2" ball, trailer has 5400lb capacity I believe.

Ball is on a 14klb solid aluminum drawbar in the receiver, ball is SS 7500lb rated.

I've been trailering it this way for a few years, was just curious really. Prior to this I towed with my family van, but it really wasn't up to the job, thus the CTD now. The van did okay to the local ramp (< 1mile) but this up coming summer I want to take a trip to the Poconos, and I know the van wouldn't like the mountains, the CTD wont care a bit.

bulabula

I find it interesting that you think you need a class V receiver for pulling your little boat, yet have no qualms about overloading the boat trailer (assuming its a 5400 GVWR as you said).

Before you take it out of town into the mountains next year you might want to take the whole rig and get it weighed just so you know what you're working with, especially the weight on the trailer axles and tires.

Sea:\>Drive

I said "I believe" I didn't say for sure (and I said load carrying not GVWR). I would hope it is higher than that considering the weight sitting on top of it wet is >5400lbs prior to me putting any gear in my boat. Although it is not uncommon for a boat dealer to sell someone an underated boat trailer, it happens all the time. Life is a series of lessons learned along its entire path.

So you find it interesting, are you suggeting I continue to tow my boat as is and just not worry about it?

bulabula

I hear you about boat trailers and dealers (RV dealers too...). We've got some good dealers around I will say.

I consider myself rather safety conscious and usually go the "overkill" path, but I will say that I pull a bigger and heavier boat than you and I'm not worried about my receiver. My tongue weight is about 600 lbs fully fueled. I also check the receiver few times a year, but not as a pre-flight every trip.

I have been known to lecture knuckleheads on the boat ramp pulling 27 foot boats with Subarus ..... if not for my safety on the road, then for his foxy wife and cute little kids.

mule3010

Man my 32' cruiser weighs a bit more and I've been pulling with the factoy class 4 since new. In fact I never even really gave it much thought.
Joe