Yes. they are rated higher. also you engine is about 225hp. The new 5.4 which is smaller than your engine is 300hp and they have bigger brakes to help with the stopping

 

Not trying to highjack, but where do you find this kind of information? Any idea what the factory GCWR on my 97 F350 CC 4X4 would be? 460 with E40d & 4.10?
Thanks in advance for the information....................

 

That is straight out of the owners manual... and the ratings are the same for all trucks of this generation(1987-1996 + the '97 HD trucks).

The 460/E4OD/4.10 combo has a max 18.5k GCWR, and that would be for a 1-ton truck with the biggest available axles and brakes. An interestng side note here is that a CC 4x4 truck like this probably weighs in at around 7k all by itself, so even this thing is only rated to tow an 11.5k trailer.

 

I don't know how true this is, but I had a client who did a lot of RVing. This was back when I sold insurance. He told me that you can tow a heavier fifth wheel than a regular bumper pull type of camper because of how the trailer attaches to the truck. According to him, the fifth wheel trailers are much more stable and easy to tow. The tongue weight is over the back axle instead of pushing down at the very back of the truck. Because of this, the front of the truck doesn't rise nearly as much, resulting in better control. Again, this is what he told me. Your opinion may vary, but he claimed to have tried all the possible truck/camper combinations--slide in camper/bumper pull/fifth wheel.

 

In most cases you can, but the 351 is not enough to pull this combination. You also have more wind resistance to overcome with a Fifth Wheel trailer.

 

I agree with Duct tape, the total reason that manufacturers put the GVW at what they did is not what the frame would handle, not even what the motor would handle, its all about stopping what you have. I can tell you that I used to pull a 35' fifth wheel with 3 slides, grossed out at 14,000 lbs, with all my gear and water in the fresh water tanks, etc. My truck handled it fine, and stopped it fine, however I was pulling with a 2008 Ford F250 with the 6.4L powerstroke. But my truck was rated for 16,700 lbs pulling from the bed, thats the other thing that everyone hasnt taken into consideration, the 13,000 lbs that your truck is showing to be rated for, thats pulling from the receiver, or bumper depending on your set up, fifth wheel towing will allow you to pull a heavier trailer because your pulling from over the axles and not the rear of the truck, you could possibly safely pull your fifth wheel because it is a fifth wheel and not a travel trailer, the old books that came with trucks just gave a total trailer weight, they didnt differentiate from fifthwheel to bumper pulling, and there is a difference and no one who has ever pulled anything can argue that point.
I will tell you that I agree with everyone on the motor, while the 351 was a good motor and was tried and true, I have a feeling your going to hook onto your trailer for the first time and the first small hill you approach and the accelerator is on the floor and your doing a max speed of 35mph till you top it, you will park it and get something with some bigger *****. I love diesels, if your going to pull somethihg that heavy you should really think about getting one, you can pick up a late 90's with a 7.3 for decent money. What your going to gain is more efficient towing, better fuel mileage and longevity from the engine. I have pulled with big block gassers and diesels and from experience I can tell you the difference is night and day between the two.
Now, if your just going to the lake 20-30 miles from your house on the weekends and staying in your trailer and pulling it home on Sunday, you can put up with how it tows for that kind of usage, but if your considering hitting the open road and seeing the country, take my advice, trade up, even if the payments are a little higher I assure you you will make up the difference in mileage. Grant you, my 6.4L never got any better than 7.5 mpg pulling my trailer, it was still better than the 5 I would have gotten from the V10 or 460. I have never owned a 7.3 but people I knew that had them said they would get 9-10mpg pulling a similar set up as mine. Food for thought, definately something to think about. There is nothing more discouraging than having that much weight and barely topping hills, you can almost hear the time ticking off of a gas motor with that much weight.
I would atleast consider it, but try your 351 and see how it does, you'll never know till you try.

 

I agree with the doubters on the 5.8, just doesn't have the torque. I pull a 29' TT @ 7100 lbs with my 97 F250HD 4x4, 5.8 4:10's, E4OD. It's a dog on any long run hill, pedal to the floor half way up, 40 mph. My F350 4x has a 460 and while it's much better, it's no where close to a Diesel. You'll want to trade up if your going to be a "Full-Timer". Keep in mind that regular cab 4x2's have the most towing capacity, over Ext & Crew cab trucks too.

 

I pull my 7-8000 pound mud truck rig by the goose once a month. Its fine. But i got the low first to get it rolling. and just keep watch around you and you will be fine stopping.

 

Thanks for the information Conan. My truck does just fine for what I use it for, pulling a GVW 12k trailer with a skidsteer & accessories on board (probably 9,500 - 10,000 total weight.)
Brakes on both axles. The Crew Cab wheelbase seems nicer to pull with than a single cab I have used. Can't feel the trailer behind me as much in the CC.

 

Use this as an example then make your own decisions as to what to do. My wife has a cousin that got the wild hair and decided to start hauling cattle, when he first started he bought a 40' goose neck cattle trailer with 3 axles. His truck......was a 2001 1 ton dodge dually with a 5.9 cummins and a 5 speed manual transmission, the truck was 2wd. Now her cousin has never been the brightest of souls but a good guy, but I dont know that he ever loaded his trailer within the limits of his truck's rated capacity. One story in particular I remember he was loaded down with about 24,000 lbs of cattle, + the dry weight of his trailer that I dont recall + his truck, so figure around 34,000 lbs gross +/-, now he was way over what his truck was rated for obviously, taking the wind in Southwest Oklahoma where he was delivering them to, he had the hammer down, in 4th gear and top speed was 65 mph.
I told that story simply for you to realize that basically when the manufacturer sets the GVW of a truck, it is usually lower than what it will actually do, my wifes cousin was probably better than double what his was rated for and he didnt bend his frame, didnt smoke his brakes, nothing happened. If your hell bent on pulling with your 351, (which per my previous post I dont recommend) just turn the brake controller up a little more so the trailer will do a little more braking than usual and you will be fine. Still I would be ready for top speeds of 65 on flat surfaces and 30 mph top speed on small grade hills, and God forbid you try to attempt any mountain passes. Good luck

 

That F-350 460 or PSD range, realistically.... too heavy for your 351w F-250.

 

Just because someone did it once and didn't wreck or cause any visible damage to the frame doesn't mean they didn't fatigue and weaken it. Towing that far over the rating is stupid and dangerous. Yes there are engineering tolerances built into tow ratings, but not double.

This is really bad advice. The title of the thread is "can my truck do this safely" and clearly the answer is no.

 

Well let's be truthful here, he's a grown man, he simply asked if it could be done......money says by the time this post is forgotten about he's already towed it over a 100 miles and knows exactly what it will do. I wasn't giving that story as advice, had you read it at all you would have keyed In on the part where I said he wasn't the brightest of souls, hence the story. I told the story to alleviate his mind that he wouldn't shell out his truck if he had to pull with it until he could afford to trade up, if ever, besides, the weight he would have on it wouldn't be but a few thousand pounds and his trailer brakes are going to do most the braking. I've towed trailers my whole life and I have yet to pull onw with trailer brakes that I didn't have the trailer doing the majority of the braking

 

If you'd read the whole thread title you would have known that he didn't just ask if it could be done. He asked if it could be done safely.

 

What did people do before we had diesels so prevalent? 25+ years ago trucks had the same if not less power and were built just as stout as our F series and they didnt have very powerful diesels.

As a tow truck driver for many years I can say we towed things with trucks that didnt fit the bill with no issues. Take an older V8 F350 wrecker for example, I once loaded medium duty chevy truck with it (we flat towed it) and had no issues. Yes it was slow to start off but the brakes handled it. Ive towed things with wreckers where the only way to turn was hit the brakes, putting the frontend down and turn-now that you know is overweight.

I also own a toyota t100 truck (shut your piehole if your gonna point out brand loyalty or whatever) besides my F250 (down for the count till I get funds to repair it) and I towed a toyota MR2 spyder with a uhaul travel trailer. Thats 4500lbs of weight at least and the trucks rated at 6000 GVWR. It pulled it fine, I had no issues stopping or starting and could maintain speed rather well. Was my foot to the floor every so often-yea but I had it out of OD too and I have 4.30 gears so its still quite low. She pulled that car for 500 miles with no problems at all.

So just cause the truck is rated for a certain number it is very conservative b/c if any car maker said you could tow 20k lbs safely and you got into an accident and sued they would be in a world of hurt. Im willing to be that if you have a 10k lb towing capacity that you could safely tow 15k lbs if you took it easy. Trailer surger brakes are nice and so is an electronic controller if it has the setup.