Hi, I am Karen in Texas. I have a 1997 F250 Crew Cab 2WD short bed 7.3 TD with 3.55 rear end. I want to tow a 5th wheel with GVWR of 13,740, hitch weight of 1740. Is this possible? Would changing the rear end help any? If so, which one? And, how much does it cost to do something like that? Any other things I could do to improve tow capacity for this truck? If the truck won't handle this particular trailer, what is the towing capacity of the truck? What weight should I be looking for? Thanks for any info anyone can give me.
Karen

 

Hi, Karen!
There are some similarities to our trucks, so let me take a stab at answering your questions.
I want to tow a 5th wheel with GVWR of 13,740, hitch weight of 1740. Is this possible? Your truck probably weighs close to 7000 lbs empty. By the time you add a fifth wheel hitch, get a few people and their stuff in the truck, you'll probably weigh closer to 8000 lbs or more. Since you have an F250, your gvwr is 8800 lbs. Once you put the pin weight of the trailer in the bed, you'd likely be at 9700-9800 lbs total weight on the truck. Technically, you'd be overweight, though in the real world, people do it all the time.
Would changing the rear end help any? If so, which one? And, how much does it cost to do something like that? 3.55 gears are great for mpg when running empty, but a little too long legged for towing. The other gears that the factory put into our trucks are 4.10's. Depending on how often you intend to pull your trailer, you could opt for 4.10's, or even 4.56's. Your truck and trailer combination would weigh about 21500 lbs if the trailer is fully loaded with stuff, and the factory recommendation is a 20000 lb maximum.
Personally, if it were me, I wouldn't pull that trailer with that truck. If I had both, and had to make it work, I'd change the gears in the rear end, (or swap rear ends completely with another truck with 4.10's), add air bags in the rear to help support the weight, do a few engine mods to give you more power, install a good exhaust brake, and plan on taking my time in getting somewhere. With your truck, I would think that a trailer with a 10000 lb gvwr, and hitch weight of around 1500 lbs would be all I'd try to pull on a regular basis. Though the pin weight of the trailer would technically put you over the truck's gvwr, the total weight of the two would still be a manageable load.
Whatever you do, add some gauges to help you keep track of what's going on under the hood.
I hope this helps.