So with my current set up that i have if i added some bags to the back and took it easy. Do you think my truck is big enough or should i not waste my time and money? I am just not seeing anything on the market worth getting. I have a local car dealer looking for what i want but he said it will be a while. My registration is coming up and i don't want to fork out the money to register it if i am only keeping it for a month or so. I personally would rather keep my truck and put some money in to it. I am just worried i will run it in to the ground pulling that much weight.
Ok, the good news is that you already own the truck and it kind of pulls the load. That's a pretty nice truck, I've rented a few and my neighbors have one. Great daily driver, not all that different from the F150 Supercrew that I drive. Dempsey is correct that you are at max load at 7000#, and legal-wise if you go over and something bad happens the insurance company will leave you high and dry. I'm surprised that the tow rating isn't higher. Oddly, the '02 2500 5.9 quad cab was only rated at 8100#. Not that strange I guess, same drivetrain, just bigger axles and stiffer springs. Newer years with basically the same setup have 10,000ish ratings. I just peeked at the 2004 Cummins quad cab, 555 says 3.73=10,000, 4.10=12,000 and 610 version gets you 13,050 (Chev/Ford must have been 13,000 that year)
Here's a link to some towing guides by year:
http://www.trailerlife.com/trailer-towing-guides/ ( found this after I was done writing everything else, so the numbers may be little different)
To keep from thrashing your rig, you need all the cooling you can muster. Tranny cooler, larger finned diff cover. Synthetic lubes. Rear bags will help a lot, and get good shocks to help the truck control the load. EQ bars are a must if you don't have them already. Brake controller is assumed. And I guess you need to decide how you want to attack the uphills, what RPM are you comfortable with? That's where the big blocks / diesels are nice. And that's what drove me to diesel, I just got tired of wrapping out the 454 on every hill, especially long hills. Maybe the 8.1 and V10 are better. Campers also have more of a drag than a jeep on the flats, so your truck is working hard ALL the time, not just on the hills. That puts a sustained load on everything, especially that 9.25 rear axle.
I've used a bronco, blazer, cherokee, 3/4ton 2wd chev, 1ton dually chev, 1/2ton burb, 1/2ton xcab chev, 3/4ton burb and eXcursion to tow loads from 2000 to 12000#. Personally, I hated towing anything over 5000# with anything less than a 3/4ton (based on pre-'00 vehicles).
Newer stuff seems to be better equipped. My '08 supercrew seems to be about the same in stability, braking and overall HP as my '99 454 burb, though the engine has to wrap on the hills to maintain speed. Technically it's a 1/2ton, but axle, wheelbase, HP, brakes are all equivalent to 90's 3/4tons. Even the tow ratings. Mine has the 3.55 gears, so 8200# rating. 3.73's get you 9200#. Towing a jeep on a trailer is pretty low stress, other than max rpm on the hills. Now two jeeps? Naw.
Pretty much agree with the gas vs diesel comments above. My diesel X gets way better mileage than my 454 burb did, and diesel costs more. I've spent some money on it (tranny, turbo, tunes, bags, etc) but it's a keeper for me. The tow rating for mine was 11,000# (F250 with same drivetrain and wheelbase is 12,500# but max GCWR is same at 20,000#)
If I had to sell it and couldn't get an '02 crew with the 7.3 set up the same as mine, and couldn't afford a newer one (no 6.0 unless someone had already paid the penalty), I'd find a way to buy my neighbor's '99 V10 crew shortbed, replace the dinky 265's with less dinky 285's and be done. Of course that year was only rated at 10,000#, two years later the same truck is magically rated at 10,800 or 12,500 depending on axle ratio. Two years later than that, it's 12,500 or 15,000 for the dually. Bumper pull. Go figure.
