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Old May 13, 2019 | 08:25 PM
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Towing Capacities

I'm a Ford guy but work gave me a Ram 1500. Excuse me for asking this question here but can someone tell me how I can find my Ram's Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating?
I found an official pdf from Ram which lists the trucks GVWR 7100 lbs, then lists the max trailer weight that this truck can tow 8240 lbs, and then lists the trucks GCVWR 13900 lbs... but the trucks GVWR and the Max Trailer add up to more than the GCVWR....

My truck is a 2018 Ram tradesman crew cab short bed 4x4 3.21
 
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Old May 13, 2019 | 09:01 PM
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It’s on the drivers door... NOT the yellow cargo capacity sticker on the B-pillar, but the white one with black type.

On Edit: I missed GCWR. Look up in the tow guide.
 
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Old May 13, 2019 | 09:10 PM
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Originally Posted by smokewagun
It’s on the drivers door... NOT the yellow cargo capacity sticker on the B-pillar, but the white one with black type.

On Edit: I missed GCWR. Look up in the tow guide.
Tow guide? I think that's where i found the numbers i have listed above. So, why the different numbers which conflict each other?
 
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Old May 15, 2019 | 06:23 AM
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Originally Posted by Brandon150
I found an official pdf from Ram which lists the trucks GVWR 7100 lbs, then lists the max trailer weight that this truck can tow 8240 lbs, and then lists the trucks GCVWR 13900 lbs... but the trucks GVWR and the Max Trailer add up to more than the GCVWR....
1
Max Trailer is calculated with an empty truck, not one loaded to max GVWR, and it isn't a weight rating. The "What's the biggest trailer I can pull" question is always one of calculating a series of loads on axles, frame, hitch, etc. and ensuring that each of the weight ratings on those elements is not exceeded. It is a rare truck+trailer combination that lets you max out each of those at the same time.

As a comparison, look at the door sticker for front and rear GAWR. Notice that if you add them up, they exceed the GVWR. Can't max all of them out at the same time.

So in short, you can't use "max trailer" in any useful way. Calculate the axle, vehicle, hitch loads for the trailer. Don't exceed any of their weight ratings.
 
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Old May 15, 2019 | 06:57 AM
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use the link below. it gives you specs by vin
https://www.ramtrucks.com/towing-guide.html
 
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Old May 15, 2019 | 07:14 AM
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Originally Posted by Akley88
use the link below. it gives you specs by vin
https://www.ramtrucks.com/towing-guide.html
i was trying this the other day and it won't load for my VIN.

So, trying to simplify this a little bit. The trailer I'm looking at is within the spec of the "max trailer weight rating". But if I add the trucks GVWR of 6800 and the trailers GVWR of 7749, the GCVWR for this set up would be 14,549 lbs. So, would I be legal with this set-up?
My truck is shown on the second to last line of the screen shot below. For some reason the GVWR says 6900 but my truck sticker says 6800, so there's a discrepancy there but this is the closest I've been able to get.

 
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Old May 23, 2019 | 09:13 AM
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Originally Posted by Brandon150
i was trying this the other day and it won't load for my VIN.

So, trying to simplify this a little bit. The trailer I'm looking at is within the spec of the "max trailer weight rating". But if I add the trucks GVWR of 6800 and the trailers GVWR of 7749, the GCVWR for this set up would be 14,549 lbs. So, would I be legal with this set-up?
My truck is shown on the second to last line of the screen shot below. For some reason the GVWR says 6900 but my truck sticker says 6800, so there's a discrepancy there but this is the closest I've been able to get.

So GCWR is the max weight of the truck, trailer, and all cargo including all passengers.

GVWR is the max weight of truck and all cargo including passengers.

Max trailer is the heaviest trailer you can tow with an empty truck, maxing out your GCWR.

So if you have a GCWR of 13800 and a max tow of 7990 as the second to last line indicates, your truck is about 5880 lbs with a single passenger and no cargo. As you add cargo and passengers, your max trailer will decrease to keep under the max GCWR of 13800 lbs.
 
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