2003 Silverado 3500 DRW

[Uvafan15]

How can I determine the tow capacity? I am trying to determine if it can pull a 15 Raptor 405ts.

It’s a 03 Silverado DRW, rear wheel drive long bed. GVWR 11,400.

[Tuz5150]

check the door jam sticker for payload, axle rating, and and towing info.

[chuckster57]

You also need to know the GVWR of the trailer and the pin weight. Use 25% of the trailer GVWR to determine the pin weight of an EMPTY toy hauler, They are nose heavy when there isn't anything in the garage.

[Uvafan15]

I don’t see the payload. The camper dry is 15,500.

The door jam sticker also has GAWR front 4,670lb GAWR REAR 8,550lb.

[chuckster57]

I don’t see the payload. The camper dry is 15,500.

The door jam sticker also has GAWR front 4,670lb GAWR REAR 8,550lb.


The trailer will have a GVWR rating, it’s on the federal sticker on the drivers side near the front.

Can you get the truck to a CAT scale? If so fill it with fuel at least, and we can sort of guess/estimate the rest.

8550 might be enough, but I would want to know.

[rhagfo]

check the door jam sticker for payload, axle rating, and and towing info.

I don’t see the payload. The camper dry is 15,500.

The door jam sticker also has GAWR front 4,670lb GAWR REAR 8,550lb.

You won’t see a “Yellow” payload sticker on a truck much before 2006. On older trucks you need to do it the old fashion way, take the truck to a scale and weigh it ready to tow and subtract that from GVWR off of the VIN sticker. With a GVWR of 11,400# and a dry weight of 15,500# on the trailer not likely within the numbers.
Just looked it up 18,000# GVWR and a 3,700# dry pin, not good if your trucks GVWR is only 11,400#.

[MattHelm21]

My loaded 2004.5 Silverado 3500 CC dually(LLY) with me alone, tools, but no other items for camping weighed 8500 lbs. That year, the GVWR of the truck was 11,500 lbs. I expect in 2003, the numbers wouldn’t have been better. That only left 3000 lbs for pin weight and I lost some of that when my wife, dog, and other camping items were added.

My 2016 Fuzion 414 reported a pin weight of just over 3500 lbs on the Keystone web site. I knew that was too close for comfort and was the reason I moved to the late model truck with a 14,000 lbs GVWR. It’s a good thing I did because after loading the Fuzion and taking to the scale, my pin weight is just over 4000 lbs. Your situation may differ but this should give you some ball park idea if the truck will work.

Edit: After checking the Keystone brochure, it lists the unloaded pin weight of the 405ts as 3785 lbs and the GVWR as 19000lbs. That unloaded pin is definitely over the payload capacity of my old truck. Once you load the truck and trailer I can’t see how you would not be in dangerous territory.

[notanlines]

It would also be my opinion that you would be over on a truck pushing 20 years old by probably close to 1500 to 2000 pounds. Don't let anyone trick you into believing that your toys in the back will balance things out. Sadly it doesn't work that way, not even close. You would not be happy towing that RV with that truck.

[Jshopes81]

Youll be under on your axle ratings, gvwr doesnt mean squat outside of licensing. Go to a cat scale and see how much weight you can put on each axle. Youll most likely be able to carry the pin weight from a legal stand point. You probably wont like how the 03 version of the dmax pulls that much weight with the 373 gearing. I pull a 16 385 fuzion with my 03 6.0 and 4.10s. It does well for being well under 600ft lbs as the duramax is too, but ive got gearing on my side and you dont. My fuzion has 17k gvwr and under 14 empty. After a few trips ive decided its getting a built and warranted long block and some healthy tuning.