Mark,
your calculations are right as far as they go. What you are missing is that the weight the dealers is telling you for that truck is likely under what it will actually weigh when you get it home. My personal recommendation, get a 1 ton SRW. I think you would be much happier and likely it would be a bit less money. You also did not add the hitch weight did you? Maybe you can get the dealer to loan you a similar truck for a quick trip to the local scales to verify the weight? What is the listed Gross combined weight rating for that truck? 20K? IF so you will be rogit at or a bit over with the trailers GVWR of 11,750 and the trucks GVWR of 9200.

I would not trust the curb until it was actually weighed. But basically you are doing it correctly. If you watched your weight and keep the trailer and passengers on a dies, it is doable. You will right at your limits.

Ken

Last night went over to state of RI, I'm from CT. Big truck dealer. Looked at a 3500, 4 door, with an 8 foot box, holy sh--. That was big, and a big price tag too! 52K with all the buttons. Gonna look around for an extended cab with an 8 foot box 1ton. If they make such a thing. There were a lot of warnings or concerns on here about short bed and fifth wheel hitches, sliders, etc. Let you guys know how I made out. Do any of you have the slide hitch in a short bed? Thanks

Down side, you will not find a short bed 1 ton in GMC product. Might look at Ford or Dodge, they both offer 1 ton short bed trucks. This is the last year for Dodges Mega cab For that 52K you can get a 1 ton mega cab dually Resistol model. With that you get a new cowboy hat to boot And enough truck to drag the world to a stop.

quote:

Originally posted by 450Donn:
For that 52K you can get a 1 ton mega cab dually Resistol model. With that you get a new cowboy hat to boot And enough truck to drag the world to a stop.

Ummm....check out the GVWR on that MegaCab 1 ton dually.

Rusty

quote:

Originally posted by RustyJC:

quote:

Originally posted by 450Donn:
For that 52K you can get a 1 ton mega cab dually Resistol model. With that you get a new cowboy hat to boot And enough truck to drag the world to a stop.

Ummm....check out the GVWR on that MegaCab 1 ton dually.

Rusty

Still has the 23,000 GCWR

But I will agree that because of the extra weight of the mega cab the pin weight rating is down some. But I think it still has a 11,500 GVWR And a short bed dually has to be one weird ride

quote:

Originally posted by 450Donn:
But I think it still has a 11,500 GVWR.

Go to the Dodge website and build a 4x2 MegaCab dually. 10,500 lbs GVWR. Dodge really missed the 5th wheel market with the MegaCab dually due to (1) the short bed and (2) the inadequate GVWR. This has been discussed extensively on the TurboDiesel Register forum.

Hey, the new 1500 comes out in 2009 and the 2500/3500 in 2010. Maybe they'll get 5th wheel towing figured out this time. Heck, if fuel prices don't improve by 2010, we may not have to worry about towing 5th wheels.

Rusty

quote:

Originally posted by RustyJC:
Heck, if fuel prices don't improve by 2010, we may not have to worry about towing 5th wheels.

GM has already announced that they will stop producing their large SUVs and trucks...can Ford and Chrysler (Dodge) be far behind?

And if the "Big 3" stop making their large trucks, what do you think is going to happen to the fiver market?

quote:

Originally posted by LindaH:
GM has already announced that they will stop producing their large SUVs and trucks...

Actually, GM announced that they were shutting down large truck and SUV production at four (4) plants. They still have capacity in other remaining plants to build the trucks that they forecast the market will support. They've just announced that they will shut down excess capacity as a reaction to the drop in truck/SUV sales. They're not leaving the business - at least at this point in time.

Rusty

Ford made the same announcement last week. If you look at a Ford, you may have to select something from the lot.