[vin63]

I think everyone had good intentions about the OP's inquiry about increasing his towing capacity...I only jumped in when the discussion was mainly addressing the gearing and an increase in horsepower. Driving for a living in the past, and still pulling a trailer regularly for racing, I see/saw all kinds of accidents as a result of vehicles overloaded...the worst part is that in almost every incident I saw, the overloaded vehicle took out at least one other vehicle next to them. That was why I brought up the tongue weight, braking, load distribution, etc. because a lot of people don't consider those things and get in trouble on the highway when the load starts to sway. And, I absolutely cannot condone pulling 8K to 10K pounds with a half-ton truck because the tongue weight would almost always exceed the payload capacity of the vehicle, if it didn't, I would question the stability...keep in mind that even a load distribution hitch is not going to stop the sway.