2012 dodge ram 3500 dually towing capacity

Hello all. I need a little help please. What are my max towing capacity for a bumper pull and 5th wheel / gooseneck for a 2012 ram 3500 dually crew cab long box 4x4 with 4:10 gearing. Sorry for the stupid question. Thanks

I'm not sure on the 2012's. But that info should be in your owners manual.

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Just remember, their numbers for the truck base weight and payload are way off..... My 2012 3500 ST CCLB with my 5th wheel hitch, tool box, full tank of fuel and two people weighs 8300#. This gives me a real world payload of 1800# and not 2800# as Dodge suggests. Had I bought a 2500, I would have been over GW of the truck by about 400# when towing our 5th wheel.

I've been looking at these numbers as well. I'm going to upgrade to a 12or 13 model to pull a small fifth wheel and a boat at the same time. Not to hijack a thread but it seems that dodge is way behind the other big 2 in payload and numbers if I am researching correctly. Maybe I'm wrong but for a ccsb 3500 4x4 it show 13650 with 373s. Ford and Chevy are 15700 and 17000. Am I reading something wrong, I wouldnt think there would be that much difference. I understand the truck will pull whatever, but I would like to do it legally. Sorry if I high jacked the thread.

I've been looking at these numbers as well. I'm going to upgrade to a 12or 13 model to pull a small fifth wheel and a boat at the same time. Not to hijack a thread but it seems that dodge is way behind the other big 2 in payload and numbers if I am researching correctly. Maybe I'm wrong but for a ccsb 3500 4x4 it show 13650 with 373s. Ford and Chevy are 15700 and 17000. Am I reading something wrong, I wouldnt think there would be that much difference. I understand the truck will pull whatever, but I would like to do it legally. Sorry if I high jacked the thread.

That's a good question and I find it hard to gauge. Either Ford and Chevy are overrating their payloads and towing capacities and/or RAM is underrating theirs. All have similar powertrains, gearing, springs, shocks, axles, unloaded weights etc yet RAM seems to always be lagging behind. Why they all choose to do this I've not yet seen a good answer for. No one's ever said it's because Ford uses and unobtainium axle, or RAM uses plastic springs instead of steel. My father-in-law bought a RAM dually at the same time we bought our SRW 3500. They both have the same leaf springs minus the overloads on the SRW and I know the dually has a different rear axle but the pay load difference is quite substantial so without factoring in stability it's probably true the SRW 3500 is quite a bit underrated. Heck, I know this is true as I've had buckets of dirt thrown in the back of the 3500 that would squat the 1500badly, even with air bags and yet the 3500 barely noticed it.
Perhaps they're looking at longevity issues and warranty claims to be minimized but is that really an issue anymore? Most people don't own their cars much past their payment period anyways.
Now the question is, can you supposedly over load these trucks and can it handle it? Without a question. I've overloaded my RAM half-ton several times at least on paper and it was fine so obviously there's wiggle room. How much? I guess you'd have to ask a RAM engineer but I've never seen anyone willing to quote a number.
But I constantly see folks pulling large trailers with their 250's/2500's down the road and are probably in dually territory, yut their rears aren't really sagging and the truck appears to be towing the load just fine.
Not entirely a deciding factor in towing either but a lot of those monster 5th wheels have deceivingly low pin weights these days as well so maybe that's why the truck's rears aren't sagging as bad as they should.
I replaced my half-ton with a one ton because I'd rather have more truck than trailer as you rightfully should. Now I don't have to worry so much about upgrading my 5th wheel like we plan to but at the same time, I won't be looking at trailers that a dually should be pulling.
I guess I really don't worry about it too much as it boils down to good judgement. Back to lots of guys pulling huge trailers with 150's, 250's or whatever even though the manual says you can doesn't mean you should. I wouldn't be driving an F150 to pull 11000lbs of trailer on a constant basis even though the specs say I can.

I don't believe its a stupid question at all.

I've wondered why Certain weight ratings are influenced by more then just suspension and gearing.

In a recent Car and Driver examination of the three HD trucks. Dodge came in last in the drag race and a few other classes,(How often are you drag racing while towing a heavy trailer...) But the 1 inarguable point is that the ram was able to control a load much better then the other rigs, stopping distance and Exhaust brake function.

I'm figuring they are under-rated more for liability purposes as far as. Can your 3.73 CTD Ram pull a 17,000# trailer... almost certainly. IF something should go wrong... Ram isn't going to take responsibility.
It's also possible, that the other groups have been bumping their numbers up and up to "one up" the competitor and left Ram behind.

To directly answer your question though, assuming your rig is a Laramie Longhorn(heaviest)

4,345 Payload.
19,100 Max Towing.

that's according to the ramtrucks.com website.

EDIT:
According to the Chrysler page linked above,
4,330 Payload.
19,050 Trailer.
again, assuming Longhorn.

Main thing to look at is the GVWR of your truck, it's either 12,200# or 12,300#. THAT is what will limit how much you can tow...I doubt you could tow a 19,000# 5th wheel unless you had the HO Cummins with the Tow Max package with 30,000# GCWR (4:10 rear end part of package), but even with that, the GVWR is not as high as it should be. there would be a good possibility that the pin weight of a 19,000# 5er would put the truck well over it's GVWR and start pushing the trucks RAWR, though I doubt you would exceed that. Pin weight of that heavy of a 5er could easily hit 3800-4000#, which is how much you would be dropping in the bed of your truck, not counting weight of the truck with full fuel tank, 5er hitch, family, pets and whatever else one would put in their truck gearing up for a camping trip....

I'd find out what your trucks GVWR is, weigh the truck like you were going camping and subtract that weight from the trucks GVWR...that'll give you an idea of how much pin weight you can drop in the bed of your truck...To figure pin weight, take about 20% of the 5er's GVW and that'll "ballpark" you a fairly good idea of how much pin weight you'll be dropping in the bed of your truck....most will exceed their trucks GVWR before they exceed the trucks GCWR....usually the way it goes....Just look at your owners manual, do some simple math and toss in some common sense on matching a 5th. wheel up with your truck and you'll be fine....

enough to move a house lol.

I have a 10 model 2wd with 3.73 and its fine pulling a 22k horse trailer. That is CAT scale weight not judged. Yes its loaded as hell and I have hyd brakes but it has pulled it 25k miles just fine. HOWEVER, it does lug and shift alot. In a 35mph head wind it may not pull 6 gear.

So about month ago bouth 12 model 4x4 with max tow. It will run circles around the 10 truck. IMO all because of gearing. I know it has high out put but in reality its the 4.10 gear. I am actually impressed at how it pulls. It also got 1mpg better fuel with less than a 1k miles on the truck than the 10 model does now pulling same trailer. So I am hoping that in say 25k miles it gets another mpg. If so i will be just thrilled. Thrilled at 9.5 hoping for 10.5 that is. Big Whoop hah?

J

Go to rambodybuilder.com, there are weight chart once you drill into your specific truck that are very accurate and detailed. The payloads obviously can not include your tool box. They assume a single occupant and full factory fuel tank, but do not appear to take into account the weight of the 5th wheel hitch equipment.

I have a 10 model 2wd with 3.73 and its fine pulling a 22k horse trailer. That is CAT scale weight not judged. Yes its loaded as hell and I have hyd brakes but it has pulled it 25k miles just fine. HOWEVER, it does lug and shift alot. In a 35mph head wind it may not pull 6 gear.

So about month ago bouth 12 model 4x4 with max tow. It will run circles around the 10 truck. IMO all because of gearing. I know it has high out put but in reality its the 4.10 gear. I am actually impressed at how it pulls. It also got 1mpg better fuel with less than a 1k miles on the truck than the 10 model does now pulling same trailer. So I am hoping that in say 25k miles it gets another mpg. If so i will be just thrilled. Thrilled at 9.5 hoping for 10.5 that is. Big Whoop hah?

J

I too have the '10 CCLB 4x2 with the 3.73 rear end. I worry about pulling our 42' toy hauler (dry weight 14,050) every time we head out. The truck pulls it just fine at 10 MPG, but coming from a '03 2500 w/the HO cummins and 4.10 rear end (pulling my old 9k lb. fiver), I believe the 2500 would pull the toy hauler easier then the 3500 does. However, there is no way I would do it.

From the towing guides that I have read, this truck is only rated at 13,650 lbs while the Chevy and Fords are around the 15K-17K (conventional towing) mark. I've looked at changing out the gearing, but haven't pulled the trigger just yet. Might end up just changing trucks instead.