I put a deposit on a new fifth wheel trailer, which is the reason I bought the F250 originally. I thought the towing ability was within specs as I tow my 30ft car trailer with no issues, but now I find that my truck has a GVWR of only 10000lbs which will put me over weight with a trailer with a pin weight of 2400 lbs and a GVW of 14500. Is this correct?

My truck is a 2019 F250 with the 6.7 crew cab, towing package and factory puck system.

Please advise

 

Very easy to go over the payload capacity on a diesel powered F250. These trucks are better suited to towing a large travel trailer that doesn't dig into the payload too bad. RV dealers won't tell you anything that may kill their sale...happened to us a few years ago. A 350 one ton would be close...I just ended up getting a DRW F350 to tow a heavy 5th wheel.

 

First, you need to weigh your truck by itself. I'll give you some ball park figures. My 2014 F350's empty weight was 8740 (5140 front, 3600 rear). If your's is similar a 2400 pin weight will put you about 11000; over your GVWR.

You also need to look up your Gross Combined Vehicle Weight GCVW. This is the maximum for everything. My F350 GCVW spec was 23500. Add your loaded GVWR to your trailer weight less pin weight to get your actual GCVW.

You also need to consider the weight on your rear tires. Since a F250 is SRW, you will be close to maximum on the tires.

This is just the basics. Drop me a PM with your email and I can send you a spread sheet to input your own numbers in.

The bad news; I can tell you right now that a 10k F250 will be overloaded with the 5th wheel you are considering. My 5th wheel gross is 16k, actual weight about 15k. My pin weight is 3920. I moved from a F350 SRW to a F450 DRW because the F350 was just a little over loaded; the tire limits were what really convinced me to swap. A F350 DRW would work better for you.

I'm not going to tell you what to do or that there are not people out there towing in your situation; there are. I have seen 3/4 ton SRW trucks pulling triple axle toy haulers; I keep my distance. You just need to be informed. Good for you thinking about it.

 

My guess is that the pin weight you are looking at is the listed "dry" weight (i.e. with nothing in the trailer). Most 5er's will have somewhere near 20% or slightly more of the trailer GVWR as the actual pin weight which puts you around 2,900# for your 5er. As mentioned above however, nothing is better than driving over the CAT scales to know exactly how much your pin weight is, as well as available payload (once you, people, hitch, stuff are in truck). Once with trailer loaded for a trip connected to the truck (loaded for trip with people) and then once with just the truck. Once you have done that, you will know just how far over you are, and what type of truck you should be looking for.

 

Thank you very much for your comments. I did PM you however I dont think my planned towing arrangement is going to work. Obviously I focused too much on trailer weight and not the weight on the truck.

 

You should scale it and see if you are over on any of your axles or tires (gawr on the white sticker on the door jamb). And then see if you are over you registered gcwr total. At minimum this is your biggest concern, the rest is registering legal weights in the truck (truck by itself) and what Ford advertises.


As said above Ford advertises the gcwr at 23500. If its a 4x4 crew cab short bed 4x4 it is rated to tow 14,500 from Ford.

I have the same truck and go over all these besides registered weights and axle/tires. With a gooseneck and on short trips primarily.

 

Good advice. Where I live the port of entry officials allow us to weigh; no charge. I think they are pleased that people with RV's want the information. I've also seen highway scales that leave their displays on when they are closed. You can take all the measurements you want.

 

Just about any Fifth Wheel of any size is going to be too much for a F-250 do people do it yep all the time is it safe to do nope.

 

Ah its not unsafe most of the time. Thats an exaggeration.

 

Tell your wife we said you need a new truck

 

I went through this I decided to get a 1 ton, I had two 2500 and each time I try to make it work, oh I was able to tow it with no problem but I had this little voice in the back of my mind just eating away at me so I finally found a new leftover 1 ton 18's with 19 miles on it.

 

with the drive train, brakes, and tires the same between the f250 and the F350SRW, there really isnt a difference in safety.
If the OP has the trailer tow package the difference is one rear leaf spring.

 

Not if it is a gasser . . . . F250 gasser has a payload rating about the same as an F350 diesel. . . . . less power of course . . . .

 

You will be over the rear axle rating before you get over the payload.
the gas engine on really helps the front axle the rear axle is where the weight is going to be.

 

And the gas F350 has the same rear axle as the F250 6.2 and 6.7 non high capacity tow. They change the air pressure to 80lbs though.