Ruthless - Welcome to the technical forum. There are many things to consider when matching a tow vehicle to an RV. The first one I'll mention is payload capacity of the tow vehicle. According to the GDRV Website, the gross vehicle weight rating of the 2600RB is 7,850#. Let's say you load the trailer right up to it's maximum weight and the tongue weight is 12%. That would make the tongue weigh 7,850# x 12% = 942 pounds. Add a 100# hitch to the back of the truck, and you're at 1,042 pounds. Now add in the weight of the driver and passenger at 150 pounds each, a generator at 80 pounds, and another 300 pounds of cargo, and you're at 1042 + 150 +150 + 80 + 300 = 1,722 pounds of payload.

Using the number of 1,722, check the tire loading placard on the truck under consideration and see if it has the capacity. I'm attaching a copy of a tire placard from a F350 below below:

In this particular case, the F350 has a payload of 3,339 pounds. This would easily handle the 2600RB, passengers and cargo. What you'll need to determine is if the trucks you're considering have the capacity for these weights. The numbers I gave are estimates only. You'll need to adjust your calculations based upon passenger, cargo and tongue weights that are based on your situation.


I'm sure others will weigh in with other considerations such as tire types, axle ratings, GCVWR, etc.

Jim

Ruthless, congratulations on your Grand Design. Opinion - Priority should be safety and peace of mind. IMHO opinion you need to go to at least a 3/4 ton to have an adequate tow vehicle for your home on wheels. Your aversion to a higher capacity truck is puzzling. The larger tow vehicle comes with more suitable tires and suspension for the task, and no larger outside dimensions than a half ton. The possibility that you will want a larger RV down the road will necessitate the bigger truck. At that time, you will need the real truck!
Do we need to assist you in a search for Ruth? Best to you!

OP, I currently daily a 2024 Denali 3500. I have and still drive a 2004 Sierra 2500HD, had but no longer in the fleet, 2006 2500HD, 2017 2500HD and 2018 2500HD. The 2024 rides not great (need to play with tire pressures to fix this) but much better than the 2004, and still better than the 2018 2500.

Reasons to upgrade from a 1500 to a 2500. 2500 comes standard with larger brakes and rear axle gearing (diameter). Available 6.6L GAS engine that from what I understand is a towing monster, increased payload and trailer towing capacity, and the trailering option you are adding to the 1500 could push the price over that of a comparably equipped 2500. Lets also mention slightly higher self weight of the vehicle to help slow and stop the trailer when the brakes act stupid (this is not an if but a when) due to something beyond your control.

I do know that if you daily a lot of miles you will want to lower the tire air pressures a bit to soften the ride. Get a good portable compressor that uses cordless drill batteries and use to adjust your tire pressures for towing.

Gas milage wise the 6.2 and the 6.6 are close for daily especially on longer drives.

What are the payload capacities of the trucks you're considering as well as the one you have? That's really the limiting factor. Personally, I think you may be in 3/4 ton world but maybe not.

What I would do in your shoes, since you have the truck and trailer, is do 3 weighs at a weigh station and see what your existing setup really is. This will tell you your actual tongue weight. It will also tell you how much payload weight is already used when you subtract the truck weight (without the trailer) from the truck's gvwr and compare that to the payload capacity on your door sticker.. This difference between the two is the extra stuff you carry that could be helpful to know in evaluating the other trucks you're interested in.

You said the existing truck tows "ok". I would look at your weight distribution hitch setup and see if that could be tweaked some and improved. Try following the hitch setup procedure in the article below and see if that helps

https://www.rvlifemag.com/how-to-set...-hitch-system/

A new 1/2 ton truck may be nice, but maybe you wouldn't be gaining much towing wise, so I'd do the homework on you're existing setup first before trying to make any decisions. Then compare what you have to what you might buy.

My thoughts? Buy a 3/4 ton. They are the same size as the 1/2 ton...so as a daily they will be the same experience.
But if you really don't want a 3/4 ton, find the most capable 1/2 ton available and don't add many options to it so it has as much pulling/carrying capacity as possible. Or maybe keep what you have if you aren't gaining much.

If you are really set on getting a 1/2 ton truck, investigate the F150 HDPP (Heavy Duty Payload Package). This provides near 3/4 ton payload with tires and suspension to match. The Ecoboost V6 is more than capable of hauling your trailer. Your Ford dealer will not likely know anything about this package and you will have to factory order the truck . . . but, it is there (or at least was up to the 23 order guide which is the last time I looked). I comfortably hauled our Reflection 5th wheel for many years and many thousands of miles with the 2014 version of this truck.

Rob

All good comments, just want to remind the OP to consider available torque. Everything else being equal, the model with the higher torque will have the greater towing capacity.

Welcome to the forum! I have the same trailer that you have and I had the same debate 1/2 ton or 3/4 ton. I have been RVing for around 40 years and have had several tow vehicles and I am on my 3rd trailer. I had a 2015 F150 with an ecoboost and was rated to tow 9900 lbs and I use a Blue Ox swaypro hitch. The F150 was able to tow my 2600RB OK, but it was not comfortable at speeds over 55mph. After much research I came to the conclusion that the limitation on the F150 was the payload. Our travel trailer tongue weight is around 900 lbs add in 2 adults and any cargo and you are pushing up close to the payload capacity, now throw in dynamic changes to the tongue from passing trucks, wind, etc and you can get into stability problems, which I experienced. I bought a 2023 F250 with a 6.7 diesel and on a recent 3000 mile trip the truck performed flawlessly at speeds up to 75mph. I will never go back to an F150. Another advantage to the 3/4 vs 1/2 ton is that the 3/4 ton is heavier and that also contributes to the stability. If you take short trips the 1/2 ton is OK, if you plan on taking long trips the 3/4 is better since it is a much more stable ride. I also tend to take trips that are in the thousands of miles at a time so I want to be comfortable when I tow. I also chose the diesel purely from an efficiency point of view, my F150 got 9mpg towing my F250 gets 13 towing the same trailer.

Strider Good “real world” numbers (that fit with my own experience). Thanks for posting.

Rob