towing a 17' Casita Travel trailer W/ a RAM 1500

[James R Williams]

Hi is anybody towing A 16'-17' Casita travel trailer ( or scamp/other of about the same weight & size) with a Ram 1500, if so what motor, rear end gears, or other other equipment are you using,
Also dose it do well climbing over mountain passes .
we live in Phoenix (1086' elevation) and there are several mountain passes to cross just to get to Payson Az (one of them is 4800'elevation) and that's not even talking about the mountains to climb over on the way to flagstaff or Showlow Az.
Thanks

[ShelbyM]

Not what you asked but maybe close enough to be helpful? F150 with 5.0 and 3.73, towing 17' Casita. Tows well as a rule. Once climbing a pass in WY the trans temp got high enough that I was watching it closely. I can't remember the numbers. You should be fine if you get the Hemi V8 and a reasonable axle ratio. Just be careful not to option it up so much that you lose your payload, especially if you plan to use a topper.

[John in Santa Cruz]

we hauled a casita 16 SD all over the western US using a Tacoma v6 stick shift 4x4, had no problems except the kinda pathetic payload of the Tacoma. Any full sized truck should pull pretty much any fiberglass trailer up to around 21 feet just fine. I do recommend adding airbags to the rear axle of the truck so you can stiffen it up under a full load and still have it ride reasonably when you're not towing and running light.

[steve dunham]

We have towed a 16ft Scamp , a 17 ft Casita SD and an Escape 21C with a Ram 1500 with the 5.7 liter Hemi V8 engine — 3.55 & 3.92 rear end — factory brake controller - anti slip rear end — 33 gal fuel tank
Whether it tows well in the mountains is a personal opinion but we did make it up and over the Rockies on several occasions without encountering any problems
We have towed all over the Midwest without issue .
We currently have a 2019 Ram 1500 Laramie which we hope to replace with a 2023 1500 hybrid.

PS : We added air bags to the rear suspension

[John in Santa Cruz]

any reasonable vehicle should be able to pull most any trailer within its towing capabilities up the steepest grades if you downshift enough. might need to rev the motor up into its power band to do that up the steepest grades, i recall needing to maintain 4000 RPM in 3rd gear in the Tacoma up some really steep hills when the tacoma was fully loaded and towing.

[mary and bob]

We are towing a Casita SD17 with a 2012 Ram 1500, 5.7 Hemi engine, tow mode trans. option. The truck is the 4 door extended cab, 2 wheel drive, don't know the gear ratio of the rear. I installed air bags in the rear springs and run them at 12 psi. We have only traveled the East Coast, Upstate NY to Florida, over the mountains in VA, and the truck has worked out great. It has 20" wheels and a fiberglass cap.

[TomE11]

We have towed our Casita 17 quite a bit with our 6 cylinder Toyota Tacoma. Notable passes include the Grapevine, Tehachapi pass, the Siskiyou's in California/Oregon, and the road from Phoenix to Sedona. We always had power to spare. Often we would be in fourth gear, occasionally third, but never needed more than half throttle to maintain speed. On multi-lane freeways, passing uphill was always an option. I can't imagine having any issues with a full size 8 cylinder truck.

[lpdolan]

I’ve pulled our Scamp 19 all over the country, literally, including a trip to Alaska, with our 2013 Ram 1500 Quad cab, 3.6L V6 Pentstar with an 8HP45 transmission and 3.21 Axle ratio that I bought new with the intent of pulling the Scamp. The six cylinder engine puts out 305 horsepower and it was a going machine. We took it over Eisenhower pass, which I understand to be the highest pass on the interstate system, without any problems at all. I scaled this truck and trailer regularly and we were always below the GVWR, the GCVR of that vehicle and trailer of 9,500 lbs and did not exceed any axle weight limits. The maximum trailer weight for this truck as configured is 4250 lbs. The heaviest our Scamp scaled was 3,460 lbs on the trailer axle and about 450lbs on the truck bed from the “5th wheel.” The truck currently has 160,000 miles on it and has had no engine or transmission problems to date. This truck has the tow mode and I used that while pulling the trailer. If this truck had a 3.55 rear end the GCWR would have been 11,200 and a trailer max of 11,200 lbs. On the trip to Alaska we averaged 17mpg for the 13,000 miles. I have been very pleased with this truck and trailer combination.

[Radar1]

We don't have the Ram, but do have the same Pentastar V6 that is standard, but in our Dodge Durango. Even with the standard drive ratio, it can pull 6200 pounds with the V6 and tow package. We towed our 3,000 lb Scamp 16 over all the passes between GA-OR-NH and it did well.
We tested it on a local loop pulling our heavier Escape 19 and I was impressed.
We almost bought the Ram 1500, but if you are still looking, you will need to keep an eye on payload ratings to make sure it has what you need, and check the Ram towing guide to confirm the different tow ratings for the V6 to get the rating you need.
The 5.7 hemi would work great but uses a bit more fuel in daily driving.
We ended up getting a Ford Ranger 4 cyl Ecoboost to replace our aging Dakota and that did great pulling our 19' Escape up and down the passes between MT and GA.

[Jann Todd]

Originally Posted by James R Williams

Hi is anybody towing A 16'-17' Casita travel trailer ( or scamp/other of about the same weight & size) with a Ram 1500, if so what motor, rear end gears, or other other equipment are you using,
Also dose it do well climbing over mountain passes .
we live in Phoenix (1086' elevation) and there are several mountain passes to cross just to get to Payson Az (one of them is 4800'elevation) and that's not even talking about the mountains to climb over on the way to flagstaff or Showlow Az.
Thanks

We have towed our 2007 17' Casita all over the Colorado mountains passes including Wolf Creek and Monarch which are both as bad or worse than I-17 from Flagstaff to Phoenix. We've done that road a few times also. We used a Chev Blazer and a Trail Blazer with 6 cyl 4.2 and 4.3 engines. We did just fine. Any 8 cyl should do as good as or better than a 6 cyl.

[rgrugg]

Originally Posted by Jann Todd

We have towed our 2007 17' Casita all over the Colorado mountains passes including Wolf Creek and Monarch which are both as bad or worse than I-17 from Flagstaff to Phoenix. We've done that road a few times also. We used a Chev Blazer and a Trail Blazer with 6 cyl 4.2 and 4.3 engines. We did just fine. Any 8 cyl should do as good as or better than a 6 cyl.

I towed an Escape 19 with a Ram 1500 crew cab short box. 5.7 hemi, 8? Speed transmission, 4x4 3.21axle. Did a magnificent job. Did not need any air bags or wd hitch. Mpg depending on various conditions ranged from 11 to 16 towing. The 16 mpg was fairly rare.

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

any reasonable vehicle should be able to pull most any trailer within its towing capabilities up the steepest grades if you downshift enough. might need to rev the motor up into its power band to do that up the steepest grades, i recall needing to maintain 4000 RPM in 3rd gear in the Tacoma up some really steep hills when the tacoma was fully loaded and towing.

I will admit my prejudices , while it may not harm anything, climbing a mountain in second or third gear at 4000 RPMs , while watching my transmission and engine temperature climb to dangerous levels , just seems wrong to me.
In the beginning we towed with a V6 truck that down shifted at the slightest hill or grade , and couldn’t maintain speed on flat ground if there was any kind of head wind .
My idea of a good tow vehicle , at least based on what I’ve read on this forum is out of synch with the majority. In my world , I shouldn’t have to turn up the radio to max volume so I can hear it over the roar of the engine .
I would not recommend the vehicle that I own cause what I find acceptable may not be for others

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

I will admit my prejudices , while it may not harm anything, climbing a mountain in second or third gear at 4000 RPMs , while watching my transmission and engine temperature climb to dangerous levels , just seems wrong to me.
In the beginning we towed with a V6 truck that down shifted at the slightest hill or grade , and couldn’t maintain speed on flat ground if there was any kind of head wind .
My idea of a good tow vehicle , at least based on what I’ve read on this forum is out of synch with the majority. In my world , I shouldn’t have to turn up the radio to max volume so I can hear it over the roar of the engine .
I would not recommend the vehicle that I own cause what I find acceptable may not be for others

as long as your torque converter is locked up, the transmission shouldn't heat up much if any regardless of the load. with my f250 diesel, which has a 3+OD 4 speed, if I know I'll need to downshift to get up a hill, I'll take it out of OD *before* the grade starts so the TC lockup will engage immediately, and then my RPMs are high enough (2000-2500 on that 7.3 diesel) to pull me up most any grade at reasonable speeds

[RCF13]

I have a 17' Casita Trailer that I tow with a Nissan Frontier and have not had any problems I live in the Black Hills of South Dakota when I pick it up the only difference pulling it was about a lost of 4 miles per gallon.

[Bill rv tech]

Chev 1500 w 5.3 and tow package ; 17’ FD only problem : campgrounds too full!! But we get there with no problems!!

[ellen95616]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

we hauled a casita 16 SD all over the western US using a Tacoma v6 stick shift 4x4, had no problems except the kinda pathetic payload of the Tacoma. Any full sized truck should pull pretty much any fiberglass trailer up to around 21 feet just fine. I do recommend adding airbags to the rear axle of the truck so you can stiffen it up under a full load and still have it ride reasonably when you're not towing and running light.

I agree with John. I tow with an F-150 with a V-6 EcoBoost 3.6L turbo. My truck has a shell and a set of Firestone airbags. It pulls Sherman Pass on the Kernville Plateau with power to spare. The truck is rated for an 11,000 lb towing load, so the 3,000 lb. Casita is an easy tow. Plus, the EcoBoost has lots of torque on the lower end, so it’s great as a tow vehicle.

[JaxDan]

I am towing with a 2018 Durango GT AWD with the Pentastar V6 not sure the axle ratio but it seems to have all the power I need and the 8 speed trans does just great. So far on short pulls under 100 miles I was getting 18 mpg towing but these were not fully loaded. A Ram 1500 any engine and rear gear ratio should pull the Casita well, IMHO.

[thumper-tx]

Any Ram made should tow that Casita fine. We towed ours all over the west with a 2003 Tacoma.

[steve dunham]

My 1999 Dodge V6 truck had a 2000 lb tow rating and did an absolutely terrible job of towing our 16 ft Scamp
Trucks have improved a lot in the last 20 years .

[starbrightsteve]

[QUOTE=John in Santa Cruz;804609]as long as your torque converter is locked up, the transmission shouldn't heat up much if any regardless of the load.

I tow my trailer with an F150 with a 2.7 liter eco boost engine and a 6 speed transmission. Exactly how does one make sure their torque converter is locked up?