A little help please...

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Tebpac

Tebpac

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Joined
Aug 20, 2016
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Location
State College, PA
So I'm sitting here trying to figure out my towing capability.  We've been looking at TT's that weigh 5000 to  6000lbs dry weight.  (so far)  We have a 2012 Toyota Tundra dual cab 4x4, 4.6L V8  with a 6' bed and "tow pkg".  I believe the hitch to be a class IV.  I have the Tow/Haul button for the tranny and believe with the tow pkg, gear ratio to be a 4.10
As far as tongue wt, I've seen 750 to 1030lbs?  Towing wt is listed at 9800lbs.  Gross combined wt is 16000.  TV curb wt is 5385lb and gvwr is 6900

Am I looking at too heavy of a TT?  From my figures, which my math stinks in the past, I should be ok? 

Does everyone travel with a full fresh water tank?  How much water to be put into black/gray water tanks? 

Newbie here trying to figure things out....
 
Often trucks run out of payload weight limit before reaching their towing weight limit. So one must know the truck's payload and hitch receiver capacity in order to figure things out properly. The payload is on a sticker, often on the side of the door, and IME the receiver capacity is on the bottom of the receiver or in the owner's manual.

The receiver must be up to the tongue weight applied and the payload should be up to the tongue weight minus the 10-20% of tongue weight that a weight distribution hitch will send back to the trailer axles. And of course the payload must be up to the other stuff loaded in the truck--passengers and gear. So using a weight distribution hitch a tongue weight of 1000 pounds might put only 800 pounds of load on the truck. However the tongue weight remains 1000 pounds.

You can find out your tongue weight using a tongue weight scale or with a kludged method using a bathroom scale, methods for that are found online. Conventional wisdom is that tongue weight should be 10-15% of the weight of the loaded trailer. I pulled a trailer with 17% tongue weight and it tracked solidly.

 
You are probably in the ball park looking at rigs in that weight area.  Check the gvwr on the trailer, and add that to the current curb weight of your truck. Dry weight for a RV doesn't mean much since you will never use it in that fashion. 

As for travel weight, usually traveling  with  a full  tank of water is not necessary. Most places you go will  have water available to fill with,  and the gray and black tanks will usually  be dumped when you leave.  Food, clothes, toys, and people will be your biggest weight concern when traveling, but that can also be mitigated somewhat by shopping when you arrive as opposed to taking cases of water or other drinks with you. 

Have you tried to get the truck weighed yet to determine your starting weight?
 
Forget the TT dry weight and use the TT GVWR for estimating purposes. Estimate tongue weight to be 10% of that.  For example, if the trailer you like has a GVWR of 8500, assume the tongue is going to put about 850 lbs onto the Tundra.

The 2012 Tundra's tow rating is for an empty truck and driver only, so it has to be decreased to allow for the extra weight of the passengers, gear and trailer hitch. For a rough estimate we usually deduct 10-15% from the tow rating for that.

The Tundra's hitch receiver rating will have three numbers:
a. The max weight it can pull
b. The max weight it can carry (Weight Carrying)
3. The max it can handle if a Weight-Distributing (WD) hitch is used.

WD shifts some of the trailer tongue weight forward so that it gets carried by the Tundra's front axle and reduces the load on the hitch. That's why the WD rating is higher than the Weight Carrying rating.

All of these numbers can be fine tuned if you get actual scaled weights for the truck and trailer, but that is not really practical when shopping. That's why we have these rule-of-thumb estimates.
 
I haven't weighed the truck yet. 

Looking at the hitch, there is no sticker and no numbers showing weight rating stamped anywhere.  Someone had said when they bought their Tundra, there was a sticker where the chain hook ups are but it fell off.  Nothing in the manual about what the hitch weight rating is other than stating to stay between 9-11% of the GVWR of the trailer.  However, I downloaded a pdf file from Toyota that had the trailer tongue weight at 1030lbs.  Problem with this is that it also stated that my GCVWR was 16000 where as my manual says 14000 :eek:.  So anyways, going to read up some more on WDH's since I don't have one.  I did find out that the vehicle capacity weight is 1255lbs with the tow package so I'm thinking that they figured the weight of the pkg into it. 

Curb weight plus GVWR TT puts me close to 14000, if indeed that is the actually GCVWR.  Need to look at that some more.  Thanks for all of the help. 
 
First of all, there is a yellow label on the driver door B pillar which will give you the max weight of cargo and passengers THIS truck is designed to carry.  By definition, this is truck GVWR minus its weight as it left the factory.  Find that label.  My guess is it will be around 1200# - 1400#.

You state the TV (tow vehicle?) GVWR is 6900# and curb is 5385#.  Note this is probably for a no option dual cab 4X4.  The weight of all options must still be deducted.  The yellow label does this.

Add together the weight of all passengers, pets and cargo to be carried the truck.  Add 80# for a WD hitch.  The difference between this and the Cargo Carrying Capacity (CCC) is the max weight remaining for a tongue wt.

As Gary said, ignore all dry weights on the TT.  Look ONLY at GVWR.  Nobody ever goes camping with an empty camper!  A good estimate of Tongue wt is 10% - 12% of GVWR.  Less than 10%, and the TT may not pull well or track well.  More than 12% is not an issue as long as the truck is rated to carry the load.  Likewise, ignore any published tongue or hitch wt.  It applies to an empty TT.

A 6000# dry TT, plus 2000 cargo = 8000# gross wt.  This is a 800# - 900# tongue wt.

I believe you are really pushing or exceeding the capacity of your truck with a 6000# dry TT after you add passengers and cargo.
 
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