Can I haul Zetor with a ram 1500 and an aluminum trailer

[antares4141]

My dad passed away, I'm thinking of hauling his tractor from North Carolina to New Mexico. I thought if I had a 16' flat bed aluminum trailer with two 7000 lbs axles, and my 2012 ram 1500 5.7L hemi, 355 rear ratio, with a towing capacity 8850. Maybe I can? I don't have the exact model. It's in NC and I in FL at the moment. It also is equipped with a front loader. My dad bought it in 1985 from an add in the wall street journal. It sat in that cellar in NC for the last 34 years. Always started up and ran. Hardly been used. Rear tires are filled with ballast. I suspect if I am even going to come close I need to empty that out.

 

[diyfarmer]

My dad passed away, I'm thinking of hauling his tractor from North Carolina to New Mexico. I thought if I had a 16' flat bed aluminum trailer with two 7000 lbs axles, and my 2012 ram 1500 5.7L hemi, 355 rear ratio, with a towing capacity 8850. Maybe I can? I don't have the exact model. It's in NC and I in FL at the moment. It also is equipped with a front loader. My dad bought it in 1985 from an add in the wall street journal. It sat in that cellar in NC for the last 34 years. Always started up and ran. Hardly been used. Rear tires are filled with ballast. I suspect if I am even going to come close I need to empty that out.

You haven't said what model of Zetor it is? if it was a small one like 2511/4712 they be about 3 tons, where a 12145 would closer to 7 tons.

I presume a 2012 ram 1500 5.7L hemi, is some sort of American pick up truck? 5.7 Litre engine is some lump anyway be well able for pulling, here in Ireland most pick ups only have 3 litres engines, and they're big here.

 

[antares4141]

Almost certainly not 7 tons. 3 tons sounds about right. If you were to measure from the rear most part of the back tire to the front grille it would measure roughly 12', if you were to measure to the front of the bucket about 15'. The rear fender is about 5' high maybe. I wish I would have found the id tag wherever that is and taken a picture of it. Then I suspect you could be of a lot more help . Dodge ram 1500 with hemi and 6 speed tranny is rated for towing 8800lbs. Where would I look for the id plate on the tractor, I can probably get the neighbor who has a key to the cellar to take a picture of it for me. Thanks!

 

[diyfarmer]

On most older Zetors the plate is riveted under the steering wheel to the dash on the right side near the fuse box.

I had to look this up, as a Dodge ram 1500 with hemi and 6 speed tranny means nothing to me as they are not sold in Ireland or what a hemi is??? but with a towing capacity of 8800lbs or 3991 kgs, no offence but your truck doesn't have a great capacity for the size of it's engine, because our Isuzu D-Max can pull the same amount with only a 3.1 Litre engine.

 

[antares4141]

Thanks for the info, going to try to get the neighbor to take a look at it for me. No offense taken. Hemi is a cylinder head design on a gas engine where the spark plugs are between the valves as I understand it rather than off to the sides on conventional heads. Offers a slight advantage in performance and or economy for a few reasons which are described here:
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/hemi.htm
What the truck can actually pull and what it's rated for by manufactures is two different things. And you have to take gearing and transmissions into account as well as the power. For instance this website list's the 2019 dmax as capable of towing between 2500 and 3500kg:
https://www.carsguide.com.au/isuzu/d-max/towing-capacity

Here is a listing for the 2019 rams in their different configurations:
https://www.ramtrucks.com/towing-guide.html

Sorry it took me so long to reply for some reason I didn't get a notification you had replied.

 

[diyfarmer]

No offense taken. Hemi is a cylinder head design on a gas engine where the spark plugs are between the valves as I understand it rather than off to the sides on conventional heads. Offers a slight advantage in performance and or economy for a few reasons which are described here:

OMG you mean you have a 5.7 Litre PETROL engine, I thought it was a diesel truck, how are you able to keep the tank filled? Our Isuzu D-max does less than 30 MPG with a 3.1 LT engine, what does a 5.7 LT petrol do? 8 MPG. Juice must be a lot cheaper in America than in Ireland anyway.

 

[antares4141]

Again I apologize for the long response time. I'm not being notified when there is a reply to my post here. Have to check my spam filter.

In the old days 8mpg would have been about right.

I towed a travel trailer 8x20 maybe 9' high that weighed about 5500 loaded. Got 11 to 12mpg hwy. Keep in mind sail area of a travel trailer is a huge disadvantage when towing. A 5500lb flat bed would have been substantially better.

City driving not carrying a load maybe 17.

Highway 20 to 22 depending on the conditions.

That's a 2014 ram 1500 with the 5.7 liter hemi, 8 speed tranny, and 323 rear end gear.

I have another post I want to make about removing the bucket, tire weights, and emptying the ballast out of the tires.

 

[hugh43]

check the model # of the tractor check the rear tires for fluid as this will increase the weight maybe 600 lbs. if the model is known call a dealer most would tell the weight with loader you should equip your truck with an electric brake controller unless you rent a trailer with surge brakes. check your trailer bearings for over heating first 100 miles and every time you fill up!!! have you ever changed your transmission oil .check differential also .I just pulled a 24 foot cargo trailer 8' wide from Florida to WV.no problems.

 

[antares4141]

check the model # of the tractor check the rear tires for fluid as this will increase the weight maybe 600 lbs. if the model is known call a dealer most would tell the weight with loader you should equip your truck with an electric brake controller unless you rent a trailer with surge brakes. check your trailer bearings for over heating first 100 miles and every time you fill up!!! have you ever changed your transmission oil .check differential also .I just pulled a 24 foot cargo trailer 8' wide from Florida to WV.no problems.

zeter 5011 but it was rebranded by agri-power and sold as an agripower 5000. Tranny and differential in car or tractor? I've ignored the manufactures recommendation of first 30k for differential. Not sure why they are so stringent. In the old days people would run cars 200k and never change differential oil.

 

[diyfarmer]

Just made it up at Irish prices, we buy fuel in litres but a gallon of diesel here in Ireland in dollars is $5.72 or petrol be $7.24. What are the price in America?

 

[blk97f150]

Just made it up at Irish prices, we buy fuel in litres but a gallon of diesel here in Ireland in dollars is $5.72 or petrol be $7.24. What are the price in America?

In Virginia (USA), diesel is $2.54 to about $2.80 US$ gallon. Regular Gasoline near me is about $2.30-2.50 US$)

 

[diyfarmer]

In Virginia (USA), diesel is $2.54 to about $2.80 US$ gallon. Regular Gasoline near me is about $2.30-2.50 US$)

Wow OMG that is some difference, at those prices I can see why you have such a high power engines, my car's tank takes 44 litres of diesel to fill to rim and costs me 55 Euro or $61, but in USA at those prices be only $24.20 or 21 Euro to fill the tank and my car does 490 miles/800 Kms to tank fill.

 

[antares4141]

check the model # of the tractor check the rear tires for fluid as this will increase the weight maybe 600 lbs. if the model is known call a dealer most would tell the weight with loader you should equip your truck with an electric brake controller unless you rent a trailer with surge brakes. check your trailer bearings for over heating first 100 miles and every time you fill up!!! have you ever changed your transmission oil .check differential also .I just pulled a 24 foot cargo trailer 8' wide from Florida to WV.no problems.

Sorry again for the late reply. Good suggestion about the bearings. I am buying a new trailer and for 300 they will give you a spare tire a spindle mount and a new hub assembly. I might want to reconsider this. Because it's new and the trailer is going to be loaded already I thought I might have them install the mount and buy the rest some time down the road. Model is agri-power 5000 but that translates into a zeter 5011.

 

[antares4141]

Ended up buying an 18' aluminum car hauler trailer with 2 3500lbs axles that hauled the tractor really well. Took off the weights, bucket, and drained the tires. One had plain water in it the other pinkish fluid. Probably rv antifreeze. It was no problem. Have the tractor in New Mexico now.