I tow an 18K fith wheel on camping trips with no problems. I got a good brake controller to stop the rig and Innovative Diesel tunes to pull it down the road.

 

We have pulled our 37ft. 1/5 whl over 50,000 miles. I've weighed the total load 3 or 4 times at 21,300 to 21,400 lbs. That's with both of us in the trk, full load of fuel. The trailer is fully loaded but we run with the tanks empty or at the most 20 gals of blackwater 99% of the time.

 

8,000# - F-350
5,000# - gooseneck dump trailer
8,000# - CAT skid steer loader
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21,000# total for no more than 50 miles or so.

My race car with enclosed trailer I gross at 19,800# and have driven almost 500 miles like that.

 

I pulled a 50foot morris air drill 20 miles. I dont no what it weighed but i needed 4low to get it out of the field onto the road. I did that to win a bet we normally use our 2000 freightliner century but it was out hauling grain.

 

I know I am going to get an earful but.... it's all fun and games to tow massive loads with a pick up but as a professional, it's pretty damn scary to see the loads I see some yahoo's pull with their trucks. It's fine on a logging road or somewhere on a farm but hauling 18,000+ lbs with an F350 is crazy, some without properly working trailer brakes, hollow receiver tube hitches,, yeah those ones rates for 6K lbs, the hollow ones, even the solid ones only haul up to 10K, and on and on it goes. I suppose we out in BC, Canada have more hills than most but I am so glad we have the DOT out here to catch people who go way over what the truck is able to safely tow. And no, 5th wheel hitches don't make your truck able to tow more than what the trucks brakes can safely stop. Having been nearly killed by this sort of thing, I hope people think about hooking up their trailer house and going for a ride, or 7 bobcats and 7 tons of lead or whatever.

PS.. check your cracked rotors..

 

When I was hualing stuff behind a F350, I was working for a Cat Dealerhip. My normal truck was a T800 and a 48' hydralic-tail Load King. We used the F350 for small things, or very short hauls on the questionable stuff (15k personnel lift, the T800 couldn't get into where the lift needed to be delivered). My stock F250 hasn't shown signs of cracks/overheating...but then when I've got a trailer on rear end I've got the controller dialed in. I seen trucks/SUV taken off the road by swaying trailers and others pushed through stop signs/lights because of no trailer brakes. I can't say I've seen it all, but I've seen enough to give Stephen King a run for his money.

 

Yes sadly, I have seen a few things too. One of the funnier ones was a guy dropping a 34ft boat into the water down a steep ramp with a 1/2 ton 2wdr chev P/U.. damn did I laugh. I knew what was about to happen so I got out my camcorder. Soon as the boat went over the crest to head down the ramp, it just drug the truck right into the water !! Just 4 streaks of black rubber and a guy who needed to change his pants.. I laughed so hard, moron. Who tows a 15,000lb boat with a 3,200lb truck with no weight in the box to boot !

 

I agree. The bigest load I ever pulled was a Sea Ray 300 Sundancer from Salt Lake City to Bear Lake- About 150 miles. The boat is a 33 footer and a bit heaver than mine, although an inch narrower and definitely an "oversize load". The boat weighed 12,000 lbs (dry) plus gas, water, stuff and a triple axle trailer. Total about 15,000 lbs. Very nice Metal Craft trailer with electric brakes.

My friend actually pulled that boat with a SRW Duramax which really struggled, especially due to a lack of stability. I always told him that he was crazy and he did buy a Top Kick (medium duty GMC). My Tow Boss pulled it great, including Parley's Summit on I-80. I'd never pull anything heavier with a conventional hitch and cringe everytime I see some bonehead pulling an obviously overweight load, especially with a SRW

 

I don't pull trailers with my 03 F-450 but I have grossed the truck to 17,000lbs which is the gvw on a F-550.

The biggest limiting factor is brakes put 3- 3.5 ton on the truck and you know its there with the braking.

I guess where you guys have nothing but flat land the word brake fade doesn't come to mind.

Decending 10% curvy grades with a heavy load taxes the brakes.

The only guys that do stupid stuff like putting a trailer behind their truck that is grossly overweight is Dodge guys. I guess they figure they are a truck tractor with their Dodge Cummins. They quickly have a good scare when they run out of brakes and they have a wild ride down a steep grade.

In my mind 10,000lb-12,000lbs should be max trailer weight behind a F-350 dually. A srw pick up can do it but it is nice to have the stability of dual wheels.

Where I'am if you lost your trailer brakes your dead a truck will never stop or controll a 10,000lb trailer.

 

Totally agree. I have logged too many KM's to count, few hundred thousand with my f350's and when I am towing 12-14k with mine, that's as much as I'd ever want to pull. Even at the top end of that, I slow down a lot and go down the hills very slow and my trailer brakes and controller are dialed in perfectly, and wow.. get this, I even have my breakaway charged and connected !! DUH.. We have some very long steep grades well in excess of even 10% and that's a death sentence if you haven't got everything right, unless you're willing to plow into the runaway lanes... no thanks.

 

I havent towed anything with my 06 yet but my 97, I used to pull this load a few times a year. If I were to guess, 5k # trailer + 280 bales @ 65# = 23k roughly

 

I just got back from texas hauling a cotton module builder with my 350 srw. The frame was under so much stress that between the cab and bed it was at the top 3 inches wide and at the bottom was 2 inches. It weighs about 28000 pounds with about half of it tongue weight on the reciever hitch. Now i make my own hitches to do this with plus beef up my reciever hitch and weld it to the frame. Done this about ten times with no problems.

 

hmm.. well that last post kinda shows EXACTLY what not to do. Assuming the best load range "e" tires, which carry around 3600 lb each, that's about 7200 lbs you can carry on the back wheels. Being super generous that only 2500 lbs is already on the back from the truck itself, that leaves roughly 5k. So lets throw 14 K on it for fun, triple the max and go on our merry way and kill someone. At least if the weight was on a trailer that could take the weight, and had axles to stop it. And assuming it was a 5th wheel hitch so it loaded the truck so the front wheels don't come off the ground, or skid when the brakes are applied, this would not be near as bad. Brutal.. just brutal. Out here they charge per pound of un registered GVW and that includes weight that is past the design specs, registered or not. thank god we have scales.

 

All of my trucks are under my dot number and my truck is tagged for 32000 pounds. When you have a job to do and you have two semis hauling the cotton pickers and one hauling tractors plus an international 4700 hauling a builder and my truck hauling one people stay out of the way. We usually take up about one and a half miles of road at a time. The pickers are 12 feet wide the tractors 10 and the builders 10. All are permited for oversize loads.

 

Are you talkin to me? Trailer IS rated to 25k on a hitch rated to 25k and you were correct in a$$uming that we drive down the interstate at 80 mph.

This goes from the field to the barn, which in Colorado is legal. Brakes on all 3 axles (which stop on a dime) on a HD pick up is not unsafe. I've seen WAY sketchier things from people hauling tandem trailers down the interstate. But what ever.