I tow a 2012 Arctic Fox 25S with my 5.7l stock 2007 Toyota Tundra with tow package. The AF has GVWR of 8,000 pounds, but it only weighs ~5,000 pounds dry. At 8,000 pounds and 15% tongue weight I am at 1,200 pounds; but I have never been close to 8,000 pounds. It is only my wife and my 1 year old son in the truck and we load almost everything in the trailer, so even if we were maxed we would still be within GVWR of the truck. Ready to camp the trailer weighs 6,500 pounds, I keep the tongue between 12-13% with my Sherline scale (around 800 pounds) and my truck pulls fine through the mountains of Alberta, BC and Washington. I have the reese dual cam WD hitch and sway is not an issue. At the scales I have seen about 15-20% of the tongue weight "transferred" back to the trailer when I weighed my rear axle without and then with the WD hitch.
AF builds their own frames so they can really control where the weight is with full tanks, when I fill my water tank I cant really tell a difference towing, it holds 58 gallons. When I am going home with some water in the black and grey, I cant tell the difference either, all of the tanks are centered around the trailer wheels very well.
Would it be better with a 3/4 ton, sure, but I haven't had any issues either. Take my time, travel around 100km/h, or 60 mph, gear down for the hills/mountains and stab the breaks when needed. Going up the hills/mountains I can easily hold 80 km/h, 50 mph; I'm revving the engine but no where near red line.
Overall, I think if you want to use a half ton you need to find the right trailer and understand that there are limitations. A front kitchen, probably going to be very tongue heavy, can you work around it, sure, but it will make life more difficult. A trailer that is well balanced and reasonable tongue weight is well within the realm of possibilities for a half ton.
Sorry for the long message...
2007 Toyota Tundra 5.7 CrewMax
2012 Arctic Fox 25S
Alberta Canada
You didnt mention what year of a Dodge, but I do have some experience towing with a 2004 Dodge 1500 Crew Cab 4X4 with the Hemi and 3.92 gears. I towed a 31 ft Keystone Hornet dry about 8000, and full closer to 9000 plus bikes, kids, coolers ETC. After all was said and done I was close to or a tad overloaded, learned a lot her on RV NET.
I had a hard time maintaining 65-70 MPH, I could maintain 60 MPH at around 3000 RMP, about 9.5 MPG, I could maintain 70 or 75 at 4000 RPM. MPG dropped between 7 and 8 MPG. Even using cruise, the tranny was constantly searching for the right gear.
I felt like the camper was pushing the truck. Not enough power going up big Hills, never took it in any mountains. But up the big hills we would be running 45 at 4000 RPM.
With the WD hitch, the truck leveled out nice, but without I wouldnt drive it. All in all I felt like I would end up destroying the truck and possibly putting my family in Danger.
I'm looking at model year 2012, so the Ram and the Ford are both 6 speeds and both have plenty of tow (pulling) power. I know both will tow my fairly light (6500lb est loaded weight) TT without a lot of struggle. If I was looking at 8-10k lbs, I might consider a diesel more, but I just can't justify the $$ to pull under 7k lbs.
Again, my main concern is payload and how serious to take that number. I was really surprised at the 1280 Ram payload.
What's the Toyota Payload in a CC 4x4?
I drove a 2500 Ram Hemi tonight, nice truck, but definately a "truck", which is fine, but kind of what I wanted to avoid. Also drove the F-150 EB tonight, nice truck as well, not as well optioned as the Ram 1500 for the same MSRP and I can buy the Ram for a better price, and lease for an even better price.
Ram 2500 just got too expensive with the options I wanted, and smaller rebates and no lease incentives. I've all but elminated it from the short list.
39 mo lease on a loaded F-150 Lariat, w/4k down, $450 mo
36 mo lease on a loaded 1500 Laramie, w/4k down, $350 mo
ckelly wrote: What's the Toyota Payload in a CC 4x4?
It's around 1500lbs.
I'm running a slightly heavier trailer than what you are looking to do, mine is 6500 dry, so I'm figuring I'm around 8000 loaded. With WD bars things level up fine and the Tundra pulls it without drama. I get around 10mpg towing and 16 in mixed driving.
The only issue I ran into was not enough turning radius with the WD bars on and when I take them off, I drop a couple inches. So, I picked up some Timbrens to fix that and they also help a little with stiffening up the rear "soft" springs when going over bumps loaded.
- Ken
2010 Toyota Tundra 5.7 CrewMax Limited, TRD Swaybar, Timbrens, Bilstein HD shocks
2012 Keystone Sprinter 272BHS
Reese DC Sway, Fastway Flip, Tekonsha P3
Yamaha 2400iSHC Generator
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So, I picked up some Timbrens to fix that and they also help a little with stiffening up the rear "soft" springs when going over bumps loaded.
