Towing Weight Capacities For 2015 Ram 3500 With Cummins Diesel
Updated 03/18/2015 | Published 03/14/2015
Question:
Im shopping for a truck to pull our new 5th wheel. I want a diesel motor. While the Ram 2500 has plenty of towing capacity for a 16,000-17,000 5th wheel with that big turbo diesel, it DOES NOT have the payload capacity to handle to 2,500 or so pounds of hitch weight of the 5th wheel. A 4x4 Crew Cab 8 foot bed Ram 2500 with the Cummins diesel only has 2,100 pounds of payload capacity left over. Take off 400 pounds for me, the wife, and our dogs and another 200 pounds for gearinch in the truck and you only have 1,500 pounds of capacity for the weight our the 5th wheel hitch, which is 1,000 pounds LOW!!!! Am I missing something? I sure see a lot of 2500s going down the road pulling 5th wheels. Are they safe? Thanks!
asked by: Kevin S
Expert Reply:
It is good that you are doing your homework before you buy your truck. Many people make that purchase only to find they are unable to handle the trailers they want to haul.
I did some research and found that a 2015 Ram 2500 with the Cummins diesel has a payload about 2,996 lbs and a towing capacity of 17,600 lbs. The towing capacity would be for the fully-loaded-ready-to-tow condition of your trailer. Another rating I found for this truck is the GCVW. This is the combined weight of the truck, fully-loaded trailer, cargo, passengers, and even gas in the truck. For this truck I found that the GCVW is 25,300 lbs.
If you decide what truck you want, let me know and I can make some recommendations that will work for you. I have attached a helpful article about fifth wheel hitches you can check out.
