Overweight Detection by dealer

[u130747]

I was wondering if the dealer has the ability to detect an overweight load.

With air suspension?


Or

Without air suspension?

 

[jdn112011]

I have no idea if it really shows up for the dealer but mine would be flooded with error codes if it were the case. I regularly have thousands of pounds of payload in the truck and limit the air suspensions capabilities. But I've had nothing said to me regarding it.

Somewhere over 1000 or 1500# the truck won't go into offroad settings or entry unless initiated by the key fob from outside the vehicle, but while highway driving the truck still goes into Aero and functions normally. Once you exceed 10,000# gross (on my Laramie longhorn crew with 6' bed it's a little over 3000# payload) it shows an error message on the evic (which I'm sure is likely stored) stating that air suspension is limited due to payload and it no longer goes into Aero mode on the highway.

It's kind of fun to unload with the keyfob away from the truck so it doesn't decompress the airbags and let the truck lift to see how heavy it actually was. I've seen the back of the truck stand up a good 6" from where it was after unloading.

I've come to call it the new air suspension setting of "Hot Rod Mode" because typically the front is still slammed at least in comparison to the back.

And I distribute weight pretty well. I load as much heavy as I can in the back seats and the front of the box. Though there's plenty of times it's been tail happy and still ok.

 

[SLT]

Hi jdn112011,
do you really load up your Truck to as much as 3000#?
The reason I'm asking, I want to tow my small 5th Wheel RV Trailer and I'm concerned about the Payload.

 

[jdn112011]

Yeah I regularly have over 1ton of payload in my truck. I haul the freight for my in laws a lot of the time. They have an Asian store up here and I haul a lot of rice, sauces, and canned goods as well as produce. 20x50#bags of rice plus anything else imaginable is pretty common for me. I load the Shit out of the truck and every wholesale grocer I've dealt with thinks I can't fit whatever it is I'm getting. Never once have they been correct
I even ran with a high rise topper for a while.
And I'm curious about weights and error messages myself so I regularly check myself on the scale on the way home which is a 350 mile trip to see exactly how heavy I am

 

[SLT]

You have the Air Suspension in your Truck?

 

[jdn112011]

Yes that's correct. And I don't believe there would be any way to detect if you had springs because nothing related to the springs themselves would have load sensors.

But with the factory air anything within 2000# or so of tongue weight I wouldn't worry about if you have the factory air suspension.

And as I said it's not until 10k gross that you get a solid evic message.

With my truck gross is 6800# with only fuel. So 3200# before the truck really bitches about it is pretty Damn good

 

[SLT]

jdn112011,
I'm not too much concerned about the Dealer, I'm more concerned about the Law. I want to tow my 5th Wheel Trailer, Pin weight 617#, Trailer GVWR 6500#. The Truck does not have Air Suspension. Have been towing with a Nissan Frontier, which was at its limit. What is your opinion
on this.
Thanks, SLT.

 

[jdn112011]

I would have absolutely no concern about it. If you seriously load down your truck with cargo too then maybe adding the bump stops could help with some bad roads and things like that but I wouldn't have any concerns to the truck or legal vehicle limitations. You're well within capacity

 

[SLT]

Thanks,jdn112011.

 

[Stan Laurel]

jdn112011,
I'm not too much concerned about the Dealer, I'm more concerned about the Law. I want to tow my 5th Wheel Trailer, Pin weight 617#, Trailer GVWR 6500#. The Truck does not have Air Suspension. Have been towing with a Nissan Frontier, which was at its limit. What is your opinion
on this.
Thanks, SLT.

Anything you did with a Nissan Frontier should be easy with your Ram. That Frontier is only 1/4 ton truck.

 

[Giuseppe]

I don't have airbags and I hauled not towed about 3000 lbs of rocks just fine. I'm getting airbags soon and I recommend everyone that plans on hauling and towing often to do that same

 

[Giuseppe]

Airbags with compressor that is bolt on is about 200 bucks

 

[jdn112011]

Yeah even with factory air you've got to have it loaded just right to not piss off the computer. But it's just a dummy message. Still levels just doesn't let you play with it. I saved a hemi and had it loaded way forward on the trailer the other day and it puts on the light but that's all. Beats the hell out of sitting on your bump stops in my opinion

 

[jdn112011]

 

[jdn112011]

Oh yeah @BoostN and I got a normal topper and painted to match. Bumper is fixed. Still waiting on tailgate to get finished but I found somebody willing to Repair it, so i'll be all back to normal this time next week.

 

[BoostN]

Oh yeah @BoostN and I got a normal topper and painted to match. Bumper is fixed. Still waiting on tailgate to get finished but I found somebody willing to Repair it, so i'll be all back to normal this time next week.

Good to hear. Nothing worse than a "Beat Up" new truck.

 

[jdn112011]

Yeah I've got Body works galore. They get to redo my rocker and respray my front bumper from the deer hit. Misalignmened the bumper valance and wore off the Paint on the bumper and they didn't pull out the rocker enough it's still dimpled in. Having a heck of a time getting good Work done

 

[BoostN]

Yeah I've got Body works galore. They get to redo my rocker and respray my front bumper from the deer hit. Misalignmened the bumper valance and wore off the Paint on the bumper and they didn't pull out the rocker enough it's still dimpled in. Having a heck of a time getting good Work done

I've figured out once you find a good body shop you should just probably stick with them. That's what I done and don't regret it. I've heard many horror stories around body shops and how they "fix" things.

 

[JSchneib]

I want to tow my 5th Wheel Trailer, Pin weight 617#, Trailer GVWR 6500#.

600# on a 6500# fifth wheel does not sound right to me. I think typically the pin weight on a 5th wheel is 25% of gvw. Only 10% on a tag.

Just checking. ..

 

[jdn112011]

Tag weight is empty and unloaded. Factor in the weight and position of your holding tanks if you're carrying water at 7-8#/gal and every bit of your tack. Everything that you put in your trailer needs to be added. So yeah tacking an extra 1000# of pin weight based on how you distribute your personals in the trailer is probably accurate.

Could the truck handle it? Probably. Most common would be air bag helpers or Timbren extended bump stops. Depending what you want your suspension to really be.

I personally don't get the whole half ton with a 5th wheel. They're not built for it. But to each their own.

Body wise you're probably capable within the weight of your trailer.

Engine, you're going to be ok but it's no race car and don't expect to let cruise make the engine scream pulling up a Hill without slowing down. In this case 3.92 gears will actually help you.

But easy going pull the size and weight you'll be fine. Just understand it is near the top of capabilities