jdefoe0424
Active Member
We've had our first TT for almost a year now. I originally had a 5th gen 1500 Laramie 5.7 w/ 3.92 gears. Was a minimally optioned Laramie and had decent payload at 1615lbs.
Early this year I jumped to a 2500, mostly because of the good trade-in values. Didn't get the 2500 I wanted, but it was in the desired budget. I now have a Tradesman 2500 with the 6.4 and 3.73 gears, sticker says 3036lb payload.
The TT is a 2014 Coachmen Freedom Express 282BHDS, sticker says 7,700 GVWR.
I have a Husky centerline WDH, bought a drop shank for the 2500.
DD comparison. Obviously the 1500 got better mileage and was more comfortable. Though I feel like the 6.4 drives better with the higher shift points. Obviously there's a huge discrepancy in creature comforts, so I'm not going into that.
I will definitely have to get an aftermarket LSD/posi etc. when one becomes available, this thing is terrible in the snow with the Transforce HT's, 4x4 works well though. Due to $$$, and other priorities I likely won't change the tires until absolutely needed.
Towing Comparison. The 2500 feels more stable, much less movement when big vehicles pass. But it does feel like less power than the 1500, probably due to extra weight (~1500lbs) and less gearing. I still get the same undulations I got with the 1500, though it does feel like it's more controlled and dampens them quicker. When on the highway, you can definitely tell the 6.4 has more torque at 2k RPM's than the 5.7 does. It would pull slight grades at 65-70 mph in 7th gear if you let it, I found myself locking it out of 8th so it wouldn't shift back and forth.
Full disclaimer, I did not actually measure or truly set up the WDH for the 2500(other than being close on height). I pulled one washer out and figured it would be good enough for this trip, and it was.
I was amazed at how much cooler the temperatures stayed, trans temp on the 1500 would follow coolant temp whereas the 2500 held 165-170 the whole time.
Didn't see oil temps above 230ish, but didn't push that hard either because I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere.
Weights. I finally made the time to get to a cat scale, and I'm glad that I did. I found out that the trailer weighs ~6700lbs, this is all tanks empty after the weekend of camping. Though the fridge did have food in it, water bottles were mostly gone. We typically travel with ~1/3 tank for bathroom and lunch stops, but the first trip this year was 1.5hrs away and I haven't sanitized the fresh water side yet.
Tongue weight is 760lbs w/out WD, spec on the trailer is 737lbs. Now this definitely surprised me as we have all the chairs and outdoor kids toys in the front storage compartment. We also recently upgraded the mattress to something that is 95lbs vs the worthless one that was probably under 40lbs. I was fully expecting it to be over 800lbs.
Tongue weight w/ WD is right at 12%, w/o is closer to 11%. Camper total is 6700lbs.
That's where I start to get some understanding from what I've felt various times I've pulled it with the 1500. I always packed most of the stuff in the rear(suitcases and water), occasionally a few last minute things on the bed in the front. This was to help with payload on the 1500 as I thought it was higher than it actually was.
One trip I put too much water in the fresh tank(it was over 2/3 full), figured it wasn't a big deal as we weren't going that far anyways....well the water tanks are above/behind the axles...no more explanation needed there.
I now am 100% confident that I was still within all ratings of my 1500 by 2-250lbs, BUT I also could have kept it a little longer and still been OK, load range E's probably would have made me extremely happy. I'm sure that there were trips where I was within 100lbs of max GVWR and we have another baby coming so it would only get tighter in the coming years.
I now know that I need to load more stuff in the front of the camper and that will help load the springs on the truck more and hopefully make it behave better.
I need to measure truck and trailer to get the drop specified in the manual, and that will likely determine the path forward.
I'm sure there's more, if I think of anything else I'll come back and edit here.
edit 5/18. added pics too.
Gas mileage I think is about the same as the 1500, I traveled mostly 2 lanes and a little bit of highway and the EVIC was telling me 9.2 mpg. I'll know more when we make our yearly trek from the midwest to the northeast to visit family.
I'm mixed on the tow mirrors, definitely better than the standard mirrors but was hoping for a little bit better view than what they have when flipped up.
Early this year I jumped to a 2500, mostly because of the good trade-in values. Didn't get the 2500 I wanted, but it was in the desired budget. I now have a Tradesman 2500 with the 6.4 and 3.73 gears, sticker says 3036lb payload.
The TT is a 2014 Coachmen Freedom Express 282BHDS, sticker says 7,700 GVWR.
I have a Husky centerline WDH, bought a drop shank for the 2500.
DD comparison. Obviously the 1500 got better mileage and was more comfortable. Though I feel like the 6.4 drives better with the higher shift points. Obviously there's a huge discrepancy in creature comforts, so I'm not going into that.
I will definitely have to get an aftermarket LSD/posi etc. when one becomes available, this thing is terrible in the snow with the Transforce HT's, 4x4 works well though. Due to $$$, and other priorities I likely won't change the tires until absolutely needed.
Towing Comparison. The 2500 feels more stable, much less movement when big vehicles pass. But it does feel like less power than the 1500, probably due to extra weight (~1500lbs) and less gearing. I still get the same undulations I got with the 1500, though it does feel like it's more controlled and dampens them quicker. When on the highway, you can definitely tell the 6.4 has more torque at 2k RPM's than the 5.7 does. It would pull slight grades at 65-70 mph in 7th gear if you let it, I found myself locking it out of 8th so it wouldn't shift back and forth.
Full disclaimer, I did not actually measure or truly set up the WDH for the 2500(other than being close on height). I pulled one washer out and figured it would be good enough for this trip, and it was.
I was amazed at how much cooler the temperatures stayed, trans temp on the 1500 would follow coolant temp whereas the 2500 held 165-170 the whole time.
Didn't see oil temps above 230ish, but didn't push that hard either because I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere.
Weights. I finally made the time to get to a cat scale, and I'm glad that I did. I found out that the trailer weighs ~6700lbs, this is all tanks empty after the weekend of camping. Though the fridge did have food in it, water bottles were mostly gone. We typically travel with ~1/3 tank for bathroom and lunch stops, but the first trip this year was 1.5hrs away and I haven't sanitized the fresh water side yet.
Tongue weight is 760lbs w/out WD, spec on the trailer is 737lbs. Now this definitely surprised me as we have all the chairs and outdoor kids toys in the front storage compartment. We also recently upgraded the mattress to something that is 95lbs vs the worthless one that was probably under 40lbs. I was fully expecting it to be over 800lbs.
Tongue weight w/ WD is right at 12%, w/o is closer to 11%. Camper total is 6700lbs.
That's where I start to get some understanding from what I've felt various times I've pulled it with the 1500. I always packed most of the stuff in the rear(suitcases and water), occasionally a few last minute things on the bed in the front. This was to help with payload on the 1500 as I thought it was higher than it actually was.
One trip I put too much water in the fresh tank(it was over 2/3 full), figured it wasn't a big deal as we weren't going that far anyways....well the water tanks are above/behind the axles...no more explanation needed there.
I now am 100% confident that I was still within all ratings of my 1500 by 2-250lbs, BUT I also could have kept it a little longer and still been OK, load range E's probably would have made me extremely happy. I'm sure that there were trips where I was within 100lbs of max GVWR and we have another baby coming so it would only get tighter in the coming years.
I now know that I need to load more stuff in the front of the camper and that will help load the springs on the truck more and hopefully make it behave better.
I need to measure truck and trailer to get the drop specified in the manual, and that will likely determine the path forward.
I'm sure there's more, if I think of anything else I'll come back and edit here.
edit 5/18. added pics too.
Gas mileage I think is about the same as the 1500, I traveled mostly 2 lanes and a little bit of highway and the EVIC was telling me 9.2 mpg. I'll know more when we make our yearly trek from the midwest to the northeast to visit family.
I'm mixed on the tow mirrors, definitely better than the standard mirrors but was hoping for a little bit better view than what they have when flipped up.
Attachments
Last edited:
