I'm new to this site, but know the advantages to belonging to sites like this. Hope you guys can help.

Anyway, I own a 1994 F-250 Regular Cab 4x4 with 8' bed and manual transmission and 351 V8. I've owned it for three years now with no problems. Bought the truck from the company I work for as a hunting/home improvement truck. I've been wanting to get some type of camper for a while now because I love camping, the problem is my wife and kids have never been camping and I didn't want to drop a lot of money to find out they hate it.

Anyway, we were looking at a 1985 25' fifth wheel, we commited to buy it but the guy sold it a day later to someone else. The wife was really upset by this and got online today looking for something else. Long story short, we now own a 1988 30' fifth wheel camper and pick it up on Saturday.

After reading some of the posts about towing on here, I'm a little concerned about towing this thing. It has a dry weight of 7500 lbs and a 40 gallon fresh water tank which is roughly an additional 320 lbs. I know that we will be filling the tank before we go anywhere in it. I have a feeling that we will be around 9000-10000 lbs when this thing is loaded. I am new to pulling anything like this, I have towed a couple of cars and pulled some boats put nothing like this.

Here are my concrens. Do you think I will have any problems with the manual transmission? It's flatter than a wall around here and the trip should be like 10 miles, but we might venture out farther if I can get the family into camping. I'm also concerned about tounge weight. The camper is old and I will have to call the company for an owners manual, but I figured that a 12K fifth wheel hitch should do the job. Am I wrong about the hitch? Is there anything else I should be concerend about?

All comments are welcome. Any pointers or things I'm over looking would be great too. Thanks a bunch.

 

Most fifth wheel pin wieghts are 15-20% of the total wieght. My 4200 lb 5ver has a pin wieght of 800 lbs.
Your truck should be able to pull the trailer OK but your bed wieght is going to be close to capacity so make sure the springs and tires are up to the task. If the 5 speed is the Mazda unit than there might be trouble but most F 250s have the ZF which should be fine. The 12k hitch should be OK too.
Check some of the specific RV sites for more info.

regards
rikard

 

Thanks for the info. So how do i know if I have the Mazda transmission? First gear only goes to about 10 mph without redlining. As far as the springs and tires go, tires are fairly new with a load rating of 3042 lbs at 90 psi. The springs look good to me, a little surface rust but other than that pretty good. I've had some pretty hefty loads in the back and it seemed fine. Just 6 months ago I hauled 30 sheets of 4'x8' 1/2" drywall wich is just over 1600 lbs. I couldn't tell there was any weight at all while driving or looking at the vehicle. I really love this truck, its such a work horse.

 

with a 351 you should have the ZF trans.
you will be at the limit of the 351 with that weight load, but if it is all flatlands, so should be ok.
visually inspect the springs for cracks.
and just watch your speed with the single rear wheels. singles are not a stable a platform for towing a 5er as a dually will be.

if you are intelligent and pay attention to what you are doing you will be fine with that rig.

 

Does your truck have any of the heavy duty options? I've got the '95 in my sig which has the heavy duty towing package and overload springs from the factory. With my '99 5er weighing around 9000# when I've got it loaded, the truck barely sank low enough for the overload springs to touch the spring stops (I don't know exactly what to call them).

I wouldn't worry about the bed weight as long as you balance the weight in the camper front to rear. Like the other comments, I'd be more worried about any hills you might encounter. You didn't mention gearing; my truck has 3.55 and even with the 460, it had some issues pulling up a couple long hills because of the weight and the surface area for wind resistance.

 

Whatever you do, don't tow in overdrive. The ZF's overdrive gear is not that strong and you will wear it out prematurely if you tow in overdrive.

Other than that, as long as you pay attention and don't do anything stupid you'll be fine. You'll probably wish the truck had more power though. A 351 is not exactly well-suited for towing that much weight.

 

All great advice. The only thing I can add from experience is check out your rear spring hangers and shackles. They do tend to rust and rot in ways you can't tell until it's too late.

 

any weight distrubution hitch is a good idea as well, if the truck is equiped with overloads that would be a bonus too. also look into the airlift air bag system it adds stabilty . like the others have said, make sure your tires, and chassis are up to it .

my situation. i have a 30ft 87 bumper mount trailer that is 6550 dry. my 351 is slightly modiffed and i had a small issue with inclines with a 355 gear . . i have now got 373 gears and a weight distrubution hitch . and it is alot better

 

Just make sure you get a proper hitch mounted at a good shop! I have see to many DIY 5th wheel hitch jobs here in Iowa! I am sure you'll get it done right since you are on here to ask for advise but it burns me when I see a truck that has got a huge 3/8In steel plate bolted to the bed (instead of welded to the frame!), and a ball welded to the plate! IDIOTS! You should be fine to get a 12K 5th wheel. Just remember to think 20sec ahead when breaking and turning b/c it's like rolling a freight train... it's hard to stop once in motion! Others already covered the preventative issues so I'll cover a short list of mods to think about in the future....

WHEN and IF you find out you want to do more camping I would suggest a few mods to your truck so it handles the load better...

1.) rear air bag system
2.) Gears: you need to consider your gears and what your hauling. if you have 3.55's you might want to bump to 4.10's if you do a lot more towing of the camper. You might pay a little more for gas but it will tow that camper a lot better! find your rear gear ratio by axle code on door jam sticker... then look here https://www.ford-trucks.com/article/...de_Chart_.html
3.) Cam shaft. A decent cam will give you some extra HP and TQ to pull that big thing
4.) Convert to rear disks for better stopping power and less maintence
5.) Alternator- If you have a 7pin to the camper one of the wires is a "hot 12v" that will let you run a few items in your camper off the power from your alternator. I don't know what the 94 F250's had in them but a 130amp 3G alternator is never a bad call! Especially if you have a old 2G alternator! 2G's have a black external fan. 3G's have an internal fan

PS: ZF 5spd looks like this (notice the cross hatching on the case... I'm almost positive you have the ZF since you can't go more than 10mph in 1st. It sounds just like the granny low gear the ZF has.


m50d/m5r2 don't look anything like the zf
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech...5OD-R1_4wd.jpg

 

Ford never put the Mazda tranny behind a 351w.

 

I was posting the pic so he could double check. I'm certain he does have a ZF but you never know... The guys at the local shop suggested I use a M50D instead of a ZF when I first got Thumper and her tranny was blown. It's idiots like them that make me double check things... I suppose I have made my fair share of oopses too...

 

Thanks for the info, according to the chart I have 3.55 gears with a 5 speed H.D. Overdrive transmission. I'll take into consideration some of the mods you suggested. As far as the hitch, my father-in-law just got me a 20k removable hitch from a guy he knows that was mounted in a F-350. He's going to help me with the install, he's been driving truck for years and owns a fifth wheel also. Unfortunately he drives a newer 2500 Ram so he wasn't able to help me out with my concerns like you guys.

Just looked at the shackels and they look like they need replaced, guess what I'm doing this weekend. Thanks for the advice, I never would have thought of that.

 

one other thing is to make sure that the trailer brakes are in good condition and dont go cheap on a brake controller !

 

Boy do i wish my ZF still looked like that!

 

Me too but they work the same dirty and ugly or not!

Stick around! You find out it's nice to have a common wealth of knowledge at your finger tips! I didn't think I would be doing 1/2 the stuff I am today before I came here a couple years back!