Seeking "expert" advise!

Will be purchasing a 40 foot fifth wheel RV with a MTWR of 17,000 lbs. I will also be purchasing a Ford Heavy Duty truck as the haul vehicle. I REALLY do not want an F350 DRW if I can help it. I'm REALLY hoping a F350 SRW will work comfortably! What I would like for my haul vehicle is a F350 SRW diesel, crew cab, 4x4 (not FX), Platinum. What do you experts think? Advise? Thanks!

 

OK, first things first. Your "MTWR".....I am assuming that you are trying to say empty weight....right? If that's the case, first of all, completely disregard that number, No One goes camping with an empty trailer. So let's get the GVWR into play, which is a more "real world" number. Do you know the GVWR of the trailer? I will assume, as I have no idea which trailer you are considering that we will have somewhere in the 2000 lbs of "cargo" weight available....it might be more or it might be a little less, but for right now, that's all I've got to work with until you post up the trailer brand, model, and GVWR....in other words, the LOADED trailer weight. So let's get started.....

Empty weight = 17K
GVWR = approx. 19K
5ver hitch 175-200 lbs
Total....without any additional stuff, meaning passengers in the truck, luggage, firewood, tools, grill, .....anything and everything that goes in or on the truck =19,200 lbs

5ver trailers traditionally have at a minimum, 20% of the GVW on the pin of the trailer, so that's a pretty quick number to figure....19,200 x .20 = 3840 lbs. Notice I said MIMIMUM......sometimes that pin weight will be higher, and you may see 23% or even 25% of the trailer GVW. So let's calculate that number also, kind of as a worst case scenario.... 19,200 x .25 = 4800 lbs. So even somewhere in the middle of those two numbers, for an average.....which we have no way of knowing right now, would be approx.
4300 lbs.

Now the bad news. Even if you bought a stripped down work truck type SRW F350 with the gas motor, your available payload is going to be right at the very edge, and most like over the payload for the truck. And even if you did buy that stripped down work truck, 2WD, gas motor and the payload was really close, remember, you've still got to add up all the stuff that you think you will be taking along....wife, kids, dogs, tools, grill, firewood.....what ever else that will be loaded onto or into the truck, and than deduct THAT weight away from the available payload of the truck. And remember, it's never a good idea to be right at the edge of any of the truck capacities...ALLOW yourself some safety margin.

So in summary, a trailer of the size that you are wanting is clearly into F350 DWR range......Dually. And remember, air bags and helper springs do nothing to increase the payload capacity of ANY truck you buy....they serve to level the truck back out do a point, if the truck is heavily loaded. You need to either go ahead and decide on a Dually.....if you really want that size trailer, .....or.....if you have made up your mind that you will not get a Dually, then it's time to look at smaller trailer that are within the load ratings and payload capacity of a SRW truck.

Here is a link that you can use to determine payloads, axle weight ratings, etc. for a truck like you want to get......

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas...ps_-_Specs.pdf

Page 37 of 69 pages will put you on the area for the truck you are wanting.....Hope this helps you in your decision process.

 

A F350 4x4 diesel crew cab Platinum SRW will have a payload of about 3100 lbs. Your 5th wheel will have a pin weight of about 3900 lbs. if you add passengers, cargo, hitch etc you will exceed Payload by more than 1200 lbs.

My F350 Lariat CCSB has a payload of 3500 lbs and I'm right at Payload limits towing a 13000 lb load 5th wheel. My pin weight is 2800 lbs, light weight Andersen hitch and Tonneau cover adds 150 lbs. In the cabin I have another 550 lbs (me, wife, dog and bird cage)

 

We just about came up with the exact same numbers. Hopefully, no one will come along and give the famous line of....."You can tow about anything you want with a F350....go for it!"

 

That's the advice the RV salesman would give.....

 

Short answer - "No." You will be in DRW territory.

Rob

 

I thought about giving the short answer, but I was still in the house finishing my second cup of coffee and had the time to elaborate for the O.P. It's nice to be able to understand the "Why" of whether or not it's doable.....and in his case with that much trailer.....Nope!


SeventySeven250 wrote:
Ain't that the truth. There are a few that will give you honest answers that are mostly accurate, but it seems they are few and far between. And some of the truck dealers, depending on whether they need to "move" a certain truck or maybe a couple trucks that they've had for a while, might give you the same answer..."Buy this one, we've got a hell of a deal on those and let's face it, it's a diesel whatever.....It'll tow anything you put behind it!"

 

I'm guessing MTWR means max trailer weight rating.

Anyway, according to Ford spec sheets a 4wd, crew cab 6.7 SRW F350 can tow a 17,000lb or 19,000 lb fiver. You'll likely be over on GCWR and rear axle rating.

To the OP, do you feel comfortably towing a 40 ft 17,000 lb trailer behind a light duty truck?

Also, if you're buying the pickup for the lone purpose of towing a camper, have you considered getting a class C camper and hooking a small car behind it for site seeing and such?

 

Not really an expert, but someone who's learnt a lot in this group. There's a huge difference in what the truck can tow (a lot!) in theory and what it really can do. There are terms you need to learn GVWR of tow vehicle and towed trailer, GAWR, GCWR, tire rating and so on.

If you insist on a SWR, you'll need to go either light weight trailer or shorter. We had the same issue, therefore we want to pair a 34ft with a SWR. One has to give, truck or trailer.

 

Thanks for your reply Xrated! The MVWR is 17k lbs, dry pin weight is 3,300 lbs and its 40 foot long. Thanks!

 

You're welcome sir! So MVWR is actually GVWR...Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, and equates to a fully loaded trailer including trailer cargo. I'm thinking that dry pin weight is still going to go up several hundred lbs when fully loaded though and that is going to put you into Dually territory if you want a loaded truck, 4x4, Diesel. Sorry to be the bearer of disappointing news, but honestly, you are doing the right thing by asking BEFORE you purchase the trailer and truck....THEN find out you don't have enough truck. Good luck in your searching and certainly holler if you have any other questions.

 

Thank you everyone who responding! I seriously value your input!

I personally don't plan to pull something behind the RV. The pull vehicle will also be used as my personal vehicle as to why I have apprehension with a DRW. I guess it's best to get a truck that pulls the trailer than the trailer pulling the truck! Still open for more advise! Thanks!

 

Thanks so much xrated! I most certainly will! Have a great day and thanks for all the great info you post!

 

I posted this last December after laboring for countless hours on this. Now that I have over 10K miles on my new truck, I'm even more convinced I made the right choice. Hopefully you'll find my previous post (below) helpful:

Why I chose a F450 to tow my 40' 5th Wheel

I went round and round for months trying to decide which truck to entrust my wife, kids, and everyone around me on the road when towing my 40' fifth wheel. Last year, I was looking forward to the big bump in GVWR for the new F350 SRW, along with the 700# of weight savings (F150 number) on the new truck.

Well, 2017 came and the new truck isn't significantly lighter than the 2016 steel version and the GVWR didn't change.

The F350 King Ranch Ultimate 6.7 4x4 SRW long bed I wanted weighs around 8300#, which gives a 3200# payload for the max 11,500# GVWR. Here's how my weights stacked up:
5 passengers + misc gear + dog = 900#
5th wheel hitch = 150#
Empty trailer pin = 2350# (per my Sherline scale)
Expected trailer pin loaded = 2600#
Firewood, etc in bed = 200#
Roll-top cover = 75#

Total on wheels of truck = 900+150+2600+200+75=3925#, which is 725# over Ford's "do not exceed" GVWR / payload number.

Now what...
1. Decide that 725# over isn't too bad, maybe I can make it closer to 425# by loading carefully. The engineering margin would cover that. However, as an engineer, I know that the margin covers unexpected variables - when towing, there are many unexpected variables.
2. Decide that many tow way more over the capacity of the truck without problems.
3. Decide that the Ram 3500 SRW has 800# more payload and surely Ford just didn't rate the truck correctly (kind of silly given the marketing pressures).
4. Buy the Ram SRW (a test drive killed that choice).
5. Get a 6.2 to save 750#, but I tow with a gas motor now and don't like it.
6. Get a XLT with few options to save weight. I really like the creature comforts of the King Ranch, but this was a very reasonable option.
7. Get a F350 dually and deal with a sub-optimal truck 90% of the time I'm empty, including parking difficulty at each trip.
8. Get a F450 to mitigate parking issue (wide-track is great), but at a $3K cost

Well, I went with a F450 King Ranch Ultimate - ordered it on Saturday.

The thing that really closed the deal for me was a Bible verse that I came across while I was struggling with this. (I'm a follower of Jesus Christ.) Deuteronomy 22:8 says "When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement (railing) for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence."

I know that this will seem odd to some, but for me, the principle in scripture was clear. God holds me accountable how my decisions affect the safety of others. If Ford says that the F350 SRW 6.7 4x4 King Ranch isn't enough truck for my towing situation, I'll take their word for it. I'm not judging anyone on this forum, just sharing what helped me with this difficult decision.

 

Great read! Thanks for the info!