School me on towing

[TransamGTA350]

I'm late to the party here, but I have some experience with this.

OP, sounds like you are OK from the numbers you shared, as long as your truck/trailer are loaded properly and your weight distribution hitch is set up correctly. As others have said, just make sure the truck maintenance is up to date and fresh fluids. No need to upgrade oil coolers or anything like that, as least for now until you see how it does.

When evaluating whether or not you are legally overweight, you have to look at all of the ratings both of the tow vehicle and the trailer and not exceed any of them.

On the truck, you cannot exceed the front axle GAWR, rear axle GAWR, GVWR (both axle weights added together).

Truck and trailer axle weights added together cannot exceed the GCWR of the truck (you said it was 13,500lbs per the truck)

The trailer axles cannot exceed the trailer GAWR

As previously said in this thread, on a 1/2 ton truck, you will typically run out of available payload due to tongue weight before you exceed the GCWR of the truck/trailer or the advertised tow rating of the truck (kind of a BS number anyway). Tongue weight isn't counted twice in the overall GCWR, but it does move weight from the trailer axles to the truck axles. With a 1/2 ton truck, towing close to the limits, you will find that moving as much gear to the trailer as possible will help.

Once you get all loaded up with the car, gear, people, dog, etc. head to a CAT scale at a truck stop and weigh the truck and trailer axles. You'll see exactly where everything is then. You may need to move things around on the trailer to adjust tongue weight and/or adjust the spring bars on the hitch to move weight between the front/rear truck axles. You will want a little more weight on the rear axle vs. the front for stability. I set mine up for about 200lbs difference.

If you're running stock P rated tires on the truck, I would suggest increasing air pressure, which will help side to side stability. Check the sidewall of the tires to see what the max inflation pressure is. Mine are 51psi and I target 45lbs hot pressure, so about 42psi cold.

Looks like you're running an open trailer, so that won't be as susceptible to being pushed around by the wind (either actual wind, or tractor trailer trucks going by). A standard friction type anti-sway hitch should work fine.

I tow a 24' enclosed aluminum ATC trailer with my 2018 Silverado 1/2 ton. It has the regular tow package, not the max tow. Tow rating of 9200lbs, GVWR of 7,200lbs and GVCW of 15,000lbs. With the trailer loaded with the Camaro, extra set of tires/wheels, tools/gear, fuel cans, 2 people in the truck I am maxed out at 7,200lbs combined on the truck axles and 15,000lbs total. I have a ProPride hitch, which is quite pricey compared to other hitches, but has a very unique design for anti-sway. This hitch is really the only reason I can tow this large and heavy of an enclosed trailer with a 1/2 ton truck safely. I towed from CT to VIR last month and could drive down I-81 through PA with all of the tractor trailer traffic with one hand on the steering wheel, no issue. Now, I will still say that this is all this truck can do and it's definitely getting worked really hard. I already owned the truck when I bought the trailer last year, so I'm running the truck for now, but will upgrade to a 2500 within the next couple of years.

Being able to tow your car to the track and back is a game changer. Happy towing.

[m6-lt1]

Originally Posted by TransamGTA350

OP, sounds like you are OK from the numbers you shared, as long as your truck/trailer are loaded properly and your weight distribution hitch is set up correctly.

Once you get all loaded up with the car, gear, people, dog, etc. head to a CAT scale at a truck stop and weigh the truck and trailer axles. You'll see exactly where everything is then. You may need to move things around on the trailer to adjust tongue weight and/or adjust the spring bars on the hitch to move weight between the front/rear truck axles. You will want a little more weight on the rear axle vs. the front for stability. I set mine up for about 200lbs difference.

Thanks for your input. It was really helpful and you brought up a few points I was wondering. How much do I need to care about weight distribution? The reason I am asking that is because I am towing a vehicle on an open trailer and correct me if I am wrong but I thought all I had to do was make sure more of the weight is over the tongue? The reason I thought I didn't have to care about weight distribution is because in my case I figured I can't really do much about it and all I had to do was load my front engine car with the front facing the tongue onto the trailer?

If I move stuff from my truck cab into the Camaro's back seat/trunk, is that what's going to ruin the distribution or if I have too many things in my truck cab/bed I may be required to move things into the Camaro?

[TransamGTA350]

Weight distribution is important and you will want to shoot for 10-15% of trailer weight on the tongue for stability. With the Camaro bring front engine, it’s going to naturally put some weight on the trailer tongue and it will likely end up in the appropriate range as it is. You may be able to move the car forward or backward on the trailer if you need to fine tune it. I agree that loading anything heavy in the Camaro trunk will take weight off of the trailer tongue and probably would not be beneficial. Other things to think about are if you will have a tire rack and/or tool/storage box on the front of the trailer. That can get heavy pretty quick and it’s all on the front, so in that case you may end up moving the car as far back as it will go on the trailer. All this becomes more clear once you weigh it on the truck scales.

[m6-lt1]

Originally Posted by TransamGTA350

Weight distribution is important and you will want to shoot for 10-15% of trailer weight on the tongue for stability. With the Camaro bring front engine, it’s going to naturally put some weight on the trailer tongue and it will likely end up in the appropriate range as it is. You may be able to move the car forward or backward on the trailer if you need to fine tune it. I agree that loading anything heavy in the Camaro trunk will take weight off of the trailer tongue and probably would not be beneficial. Other things to think about are if you will have a tire rack and/or tool/storage box on the front of the trailer. That can get heavy pretty quick and it’s all on the front, so in that case you may end up moving the car as far back as it will go on the trailer. All this becomes more clear once you weigh it on the truck scales.

Got it. Thanks! I didn’t realize I could move the car forward or back a bit on the trailer. I always thought the car had to be all the way forward. I’ll be using a pretty small trailer so I don’t think I’ll be able to move it much, if any at all.