Ok all, i am in the market to buy a fifth wheel toy hauler. I plan on living in it year round, as my landlord put the house i am renting on the market. I have an 06 f350 PSD. I would like to get the biggest trailer it will pull so i have the most amount of room. I have never pulled anything that big before, but have driven large trucks. Not scared to pull it will be just over cautious the first few times. My truck has an 8 foot bed and suggestions on hitches? I was looking at the BW turnover ball with 5th wheel companion. Also thinking of having air bags installed at the same time. Will be going to a few dealerships in the next couple of weeks to look at trailers. Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

PS gauges will be going in as well.

 

First thing you need to know is what your truck is capable of. Axle ratings. Also your tires. Look at the sidewall of them, not the door cert.

Tire sidewall will list at max psi. That is what I would recommend you tow at. If they are not E-rated, then get new tire. Take that max load x 2 and then that is max without comprimising the tires.


Suggest you go to a cat scale, pay the 9.50 and get the truck wt. They will do each axle and then the combined wt.

With this info you will know how much of that 5er or toy hauler you can add to the truck.

My guess is going to that your truck right now weights around 8K. Here is a link to your towing guide:
https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/...trp17Jan06.pdf

Towing guide looks to me like your max is gonna be 15K.

Now for the 5er/toyhauler you can bet that what ever you are looking at will not have a correct king wt listed. They are always overly optimistic. Instead I would suggest that you take the gross of the trailer x 20% and use that number for king pin wt.

King pin wt is what is going to go on the truck...to be added to that 8K number. Most will go over the rear axle. So max rating for the axles, minus current wt is your net available to add on. Some will transfer to the front but not enough to count on.

Hope that gets you started.

 

What senix says is good advise. I just wanted to mention that Toy Haulers are much heavier than regular trailers and have a much larger carrying capacity. For example my TH weighs in dry at 8411lbs and has a carrying capacity of 4614lbs. GVW 13025lbs. Also most recreational vehicles are really not made to be lived in full time but plenty of people do it just fine...I would go for a unit big enough that you could spend some time in. Unless you really need the room for toys, seperate bedroom and garage would keep it more homey.....If you buy used only a couple of years you may save a lot of money..

 

Check out Open Range.

Slide out Patio.

 

I agree with Freyja. Open Range has the best bang for the buck that I have found, with plenty of floorplans to choose from.

 

I highly, highly, highly suggest finding a friend, or trusted individual, to go with you when you look at RV's and have them nitpick everything, especially if you are looking at used RV's. If you are not familiar with RV's, someone who is will be able to find more problems to allow you the opportunity to document problems before signing purchase papers. As well, you will be better prepared for any salesmen BS to be called out.

 

You said that you are going to be living in it so is there special reason you want a Toy Hauler. The back end of a TH takes up a lot of living space and it makes it harder to balance your load when traveling. One other thing you want to do is spend some time (a few hours) inside the rig without any sales people around and get a feel for how livable it is, we live in our most of the year and this is very very important if you want to be happy in a small living space. If you plan on doing a lot of traveling pull all the slides in and see how usable the major parts of the trailer are like Refrigerator, bathroom and bedroom without any slides out. Look past all the smoke and mirrors that pop out at you when you first look at any unit and concentrate on quality of materials and construction. Then check out the axles and tires to make sure they are rated to take 10% more than the GVWR of the trailer minus 20% for pin weight.

A few have suggested looking at Open Range,they are a new company and they look nice but of the ones we seen in the park we where are last winter had major problems with water leaks poor design and one had the side wall cracking because what appeared to be frame flex.

When you find a unit that you like try and find one the same brand with some age on it and see how it looks after a few years out in the elements. Also if you find one with the floor plan you like but not all the options ask about ordering one. Some of the options I would look for is Heat Pump or pumps, Disk Brakes, if it's a heavy unit 17.5 wheels and tires, four door refrigerator just to name a few.

Denny

 

We bought our toy box for a duel purpose . Both our kids are deep in sports , son is a wrestler and daughter plays traveling ball . So it made sense to buy a moving hotel room . So we could stay on site, have our room , meals ,showers, and comfort of our beds . We our close to 35,000 miles on our 5er and have to say it has been great to be our home on wheels . Then when we have down time and use it as it was intended to be , load the Jeep and motorcycles . And take off to our play zones and just relax. Like others have stated these type of 5th wheels are heavy , they carry lots of water ( mine holds 150 gals ) , fuel (40gls for toys, 20gls for gen) . The frame structure itself is heavier , mine is made by Zeimmen equipment trailers , for Warrior . The more slide outs there are the more weight is added . If your going to fulltime in it , it makes a unique house with a small garage . There are alot of great floor plans out there now , makes for easy living in . I carry more pin weight without the toys loaded then when they are in it ( axle to pin spread ) . Each manufacturer set them up alittle different . I think the most importin thing is before you sign on the line is to hook up to the one you like , and go weight it axle by axle . You will find alot of great info from this forum , Happy shoppin