I bought a 91 W 250 recently to pull our new 20' Toybox Tahoe unit. I had not planned on getting a new truck, but the unit was much heavier and bigger than the 20' would lead you to believe. I have calculated the weight loaded and it is right at the 7000-7200 lb range. I have a WD hitch on it. My truck is a three speed auto with the 3.08? gears. I think I saw in the owners manual that this truck was only rated at 12000 lbs Gross COMBINED weight. Is that right? If the truck weighs 5600 lbs., it is only rated for 6400? Somebody set me straight on this. I just cannot believe that I read that right. I hope I am wrong.<br>Chris<br>

 

Your math seemed to be correct to me. I think its those highway gears thats killing most of the GCVWR.<br><br>Curious, what is the GVWR of the truck? 8800 or so?<br><br>Did the scales say your truck weighs only 5600? That seems kind of light. Even my old ford gasser weighed more than that.<br><br>

 

I was just roughly guessing at the weight of the truck. I have no concept of what a diesel would weigh in a 3/4 ton truck. The GVWR for the truck is around 8800 though. I am going to pull the camper and not worry about it. I really think that has to be too conservative or something. I have a Tacoma with a GCVWR of 9000 lbs. and I know it is at least 3000lbs less. Does that mean that I cannot pull anymore with the Dodge than I can with my Tacoma? <br>Chris<br>

 

I think you will find that the Tacoma is closer to 5000lbs and the Dodge is min. 6500lbs with the Cummins. The tow behind will not have over 1000lbs hitch weight and you will by the book be crowding the limits. However if the truck is at 60mph at between 1600 and 2400 rpm in 3rd gear it will pull it better than any gas vehicle even with 3.42 or 3.5 gears. With direct drive transmissions your ability to lift the load is where the tall gears will be a disadvantage and excess heat could be generated in your torque converter, but the 727 auto has mega options for correcting this as big block gassers ran into similar problems. Aux trans is is another option as long as you select an under-drive model to lift with. The 3 speed falls short when it shifts as you are always on the bottom of the engines torque curve and maxxed right out just before the upshift. Don't let this worry you as the stock cummins still produces more torque (420ft lbs) than any equivelant gasser with 100+ more Cu Ins and works harder in industrial equipment all day under these conditions. My 91 saw 20-24k gross daily and your numbers are not even close, truck on dude. PK

 

I appreciate the stats and the comments. The Dodge seems to pull it fine the little bit that I pulled it (about 3 miles). I just did not want to be grossly overweight. The listed load rating just seemed really low to me. Just to be precise on the vehicle weight though, I did weigh the Tacoma and it was 3510 lbs, loaded but without me in it.<br> I plan on weighing the whole rig once I get it to where I can tow it right. I still have to get a tag for the truck and camper. Paperwork seems to take forever. Thanks.<br>Chris<br>