Silverado towing..

[cpjp7885]

Hello, I am new to the site definitely enjoying it. I am in the market for a camper now but I am having a problem finding the safe towing capacity. I have a 2013 Silverado LT crew cab 5.3 with the towing package and HD transmission cooling package.
GVWR is 6800 and the manual says towing capacity is 6900LBS. Trying to find safe limit. My payload is 1556

 

[SpencerPJ]

IMO, and I had a YukonXL with similar stats as you, I would stay under 25' TT box, and under 5500LB gross weight. That will give you a tad of spare room, you will want it. My YukonXL pulled my current 21' TT around 5500 lbs OK, my newer F150 does a much better jib.

 

[cpjp7885]

Thank you for the response. I’ll definitely keep it under 25 ft.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Go weigh the truck with a full tank of gas. Add the weight of any additional passengers and gear you might carry in the truck bed.

With a recommended tongue weight of 10-12% a 6900# trailer wants to be at 690-828#

With 150# of gas and say 600# of people you will probably run out of payload.

I am not as conservative as others and would probably go for like a 10% margin or 6000-6200# if I can make payload weight.

 

[Kirk]

Your truck's wheelbase also makes a big difference in what you can safely tow. The distance from the coupler to the rear trailer axle should be no more than twice the wheelbase of the tow vehicle.

 

[donn]

Safe towing capacity is real life ready to travel scaled weight subtracted from the GCWR which you can find either from a GM dealer with your VIN or numerous places online.
Ready to travel scaled weight includes a full gas tank, seats occupied by people you would normally have with you plus anything you would put in the bed, in addition to this add 150 pounds for the hitch assembly.
What a trailer weighs? For get terms like shipping or dry weight. You will never tow a dry trailer. Instead to be sure your error is on the safe side find the trailers GVWR and use 15% of that as hitch weight. Normal TT hitch weight will between 12 and 15% of its loaded weight.

 

[Ray-IN]

This online trailer towing calculator is accurate and impartial.

 

[Frizlefrak]

The thing to remember is that the closer you get to the truck's limitations, the less fun towing is. I see that you're in Georgia...Are you heading for the mountains in the northern part of the state, or do you plan to tow mostly in the flatlands? If you're headed for the hills, it's a good idea to allow more of a margin of safety, say 20% under your max.

Remember when looking at your trailer's weight to disregard dry weight, as it's essentially meaningless. In a perfect world, you'd load the trailer up ready to camp and get it to a commercial scale to find out what it really weighs. That's not always practical, so in lieu of that, use gross weight instead. Assuming your 6900 tow capacity is correct, I'd stay under 5500 lbs of trailer weight, and a 660 lb tongue weight. With a 1500 truck, I'd cap length at 24' as well.

There are some pretty nice travel trailers in that range.