Was going to PM RVPuller but thought this question may benefit others out there as well.

My wife and I are looking to go fulltime in a 5th wheel here in the coming months. Had a change in career plans that now allow us to hit the road. This was not really in our plans several months ago when we purchased our 2017 F250 6.2 CC SB. If it were I would have probably ended up with a 350 at the very least.

Anywho, we are kicking around the idea of trailers. With our current setup I am comfortable pulling the 30-35 ft "lightweight" trailers ones that are somewhere south of say 11-12000 GVWR. Issue is the wife likes those wonderful bed slideouts. Cant blame her the bedroom/bathroom setups are nice. However with those the trailer weight jumps to 14000 GVWR. What are your thoughts on towing these two trailers with our current truck? My main concerns are pin weight, and the 6.2 having enough mustard to pull it through the mountains out west here where we will likely be spending most of our time. If we can swing the heavier trailer I will be putting 4.56 gears in the truck. Currently we have the lame 3.73s. Hell I may even gear down with the lighter trailer.

Seems most people stay south of 10,000 with the 6.2 250. From what I gathered 14000 is at the upper end of the weight ratings of the gasser with the 4.30's. If I go 4.56 that'd give me a little more grunt. Just wondering if it will be enough.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Rambo

 

The simple answer is you can't go for the 14k! You lack enough payload to be able to take a heavy pin weight and your GCWR is limited because of the gear ratio and F250. Assuming you have 10k GVWR and the truck is right around 6800 lbs. The pin weight for a 14k is 2800 lbs which leaves you 400 lbs for cargo, fuel and people. Next obstacle even of that did work is you would be at 24k GCWR which is above the 22k allowed.

 

Good point. Based on the calculations from random info on the internet pin weight is trailer weight * 25%. 14000 * 25% is 3500. 12000 * 25% is 3000. Sticker on the door says max payload is 3351.
So either I need a serious diet or the 14000 is a bit tanky. That is at max trailer weight though. If I only load it to say 12000 then I would be within spec, correct?

 

Good question. I would think you would be safe if your actual weight was within the ratings, regardless of the maximum rated weight of the trailer.

 

As payload has been correctly addressed (too little truck for the proposed load) I would add the following (biased) opinion:

the 6.2 gasser will pull the load - but it'll be howling with a lower tranny gear. Changing the final ratio will make the scream even louder.
Short trips may not be too bothersome but those longer trips will become very annoying.

Just a guesstimate here, but are you prepared for mountainous 4-5 MPG expeditions?

 

I also want to add something, the torqueshift G while a good solid trans is not suited to full time towing at max GVWR. The trans is based on the 6r80 which came from the F150 and was originally based on the ZF HP26. The f350 has the 6R140 which is much more suited to full capacity towing.

 

I guess the question is....is it too late to go back and trade in trucks? Otherwise you will be pretty limited in trailer selection.

 

Shop around, you should be able to find a trailer with a bedroom slide under 12.5K GVWR. I have a 34' Sunset Trail triple slide that is 12300 GVWR and a 2200# pin weight. Granted I tow with a 2012 F250 with the 6.7 and don't know it is back there. There are a lot of nice trailers out there. Check out the Montana line.

 

We tow a toyhauler 5th wheel, which has a heavier pin weight all things considered. We have the 6.2 and 4.30 gears, our 5th is rated at 11860 and our last weigh put the two 5200 lbs axles at 10000 lbs while fully loaded for a trip. Our pin weight was low enough so we were under axle maximum on the F250. That said if you are an experienced driver you will be fine--But you will know you are pulling something and it takes some time since uphill you will not do 65mph. I have been in many mountains and have never been below 8.5 mpg out here in the West-- even at 8000 feet..
14000 gvw would be too much in my opinion as you will probably be over some limits. And if you lightly load, you will only start out light. As time goes on the wight increases.

I don't regret our 6.2, but we did buy it first like you. The toyhauler weights, as many have found out, did not match the sticker applied by the factory.

Godd luch in your search and travel safe!
-brent

 

I missed this yesterday because we are at a RV rally

I don't have your tire size or if your truck has any towing options so giving a opinion is hard to do but by looking at at the towing chart posted above your truck is rated to tow 15000 with 4.30 gears and 4x4, if it's 4x2 a little more so it's rated for 14K. you will be over the 22K combined rating but that is just a figure that means very little, even my F350 DRW with a 6.2 and 4.30 gears is rated at 22K but in real life I'm at 24.4K. To get a estimated pin weight use 20% of the trailers GVWR not 25%, the 20% will be the max even if you load if heavy up front like we are, the weight in your basement area will be carried more on the axles than the pin because of the distance from the pin, I have proven that to myself by changing my load in the basement and going to the local elevator and having it weighed. People thinking that just because it's a 6.2 you will be going around the motor at high rpm all the time just isn't true, with my 4.30 gears in 6th I run 2K at 65 and 2.5 at in 5th and that's where in at running down the road and of coarse lower gears on grades.

Getting to your truck what is the tire weight rating on the sidewall of the tires and can you change to a different tire and get a higher rating, look and see what the F350s are using (tire rating is directly related to the axle weight rating) and of coarse a gear change would be the first I would address but I would buy the trailer first and see how it handles it and then make a decision on what gears to use, set up a spread sheet with the different gears and rpm with 60 mph in 4th,5th and 6th. Depending on your tire size I'm guessing the 4.30 will work. I would also plan on installing air bags not to increase the axle weight rating but to stabilize and level the truck, if you let the back of your truck sage you will transfer more weight to the back axle, I even use them on my DRW. There are a lot of things you can do to your truck to make it a better towing machine and over the years I've done most of them. I would be more concerned with the trailer than the truck in today's world because of the smallest brakes and the cheapest suspension and tires the manufactures can get away with.

You said you are going full time so your traveling will drastically change compared to weekends and vacations, things slow down and so will your speed and distances you will be traveling in a day once you get out of the vacation mode, we still have a home base but we spend 7 to 8 continuous months on the road a year and some shorter periods on the road in the summer so like most of the people we travel with 200 miles is a big day and staying on one place longer is cheaper. We just started our fall, winter and spring trip and it will take us a month to get from SC Nebraska to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, it's called taking it slow and enjoying the scenery and sites. You will no longer have to race up a grades or drive at high rates of speed.

Denny

 

I'd do some research on the 'light' trailers, frame flex issues etc.. my 2018 F250 CCSB 4x4 with the 6.2 & 4.30 pulls our Arctic Fox 275L which has a actual empty pin weight of 2100, and dry weight of 10.6K. I've not weighted it, but have calculated it to be about 2500 pin & just under 12K, truck pulls it fine, even with ATV & trailer.. I do try to keep un-needed weights down.. Try renting a trailer that meets your needs, and see how it pulls etc. I sounds like you may be in for a lot of comprise with finding a light weight trailer & F250..

 

Thanks for all the good info here. To answer RV pullers question the truck currently has 275-70-18 Goodyear Duratracs on it with a weight rating of 3638. Combined for the tires is 7276, plenty considering I believe the RAWR is 6340. So from crunching the numbers and getting this feedback it now seems to me that the question is not if the truck can pull the heavier trailer, but can it pull it safely.

If I do end up re gearing it will likely be with 4.56 gears. (Got a 89 beefed up Jeep with low gears) So I err on the side of using that mechanical advantage as best I can. Attached is a chart of engine RPM at various speeds. (Attachement appeard to not work heres the link: Gear Ratio Calculator) If you haven't used it GrimmJeeper has an awesome website for calculation and a butt ton of info on gearing in general. To Ford390's point the 6r100 is derated from the 6r140. I am not sure the added effect of this in towing I would like to think Ford did their homework and the tranny can handle the load with the reduced engine power. But engineers have been wrong before. One thing I would have going for me if I do go with 4.56's is the mechanical advantage gained as reduced stress on everything upstream of the diff.


Back to the topic at hand. Again I am confident the truck will pull the heavier trailer with 4.56's. But what is the added risk? From what I have gathered the pin weight on the trailer I would be considering GD 337RLS is around 3100-3300 loaded up. The thing I now worry about is the RAWR and being over the 10,000 GVWR on the truck. What are your thoughts on this? What are the added risks? My thoughts are if there is an accident (God forbid) and I'm overweight I'm in hot water. Or getting a nice big fat DOT ticket for being overweight.

As we will be fulltiming it is difficult to weigh the larger bedroom layout with the added weight it will inevitably produce. A thought in the back of my mind is that as fulltimers we will be running with more gear than the average. This tends to sway me towards a lighter trailer such as the 303, or other half ton 5ths that cap out at 12000 GVWR.

Take Care,
Rambo

 

First never down size from what you want, remember you will be living in it. Again buy what you want and try it with no modifications to your truck and go from there. Also remember the F250 and F350 share the same brakes so if won't stop it's the trailer. You already know what a gear change will do so ignore that but by all means install air bags to level and stabilize the truck, it's also easy to remove them if you trade trucks. Don't over think this thing.
Denny

 

listen to this guy OP...this is the best advice yet. Denny, what part of Nebraska? We are in the Western part north of Scottsbluff.

 

We home base out of the Harlan Lake area.
Denny