I haven't had any issues with the short bed and needing a sliding hitch. If you saw how I have to back that in on the side of my house you would think I would need the extra room the slider would give me but I seem to do ok.

Just curious whitetail, the tongue weight of the 5th wheel is maybe 700lbs at the most. Other then that the whole thing is about pulling a good amount of weight. The drive train on the 350 and 450 are the same. The 5er has electric brakes, the boat has surge brakes. What would a 450 do for me?

There is one hill pulling in to Page that climbs about 3 miles at 6%. Coming down that was interesting. I could see where an exhaust brake would be nice.

 

A F450 will give you a 4.88 rear axle, bigger springs, bigger brakes.
I just returned from the Silver Valley area in Idaho from a 4 day weekend.
(Nice place, I recommend it)
My 5th wheel is 13.5k empty, about the same as your trailer and boat combined.
Intake was the 6637, (AIS removed for this trip as an experiment, the filter minder keeps bottoming out even when the air filter was new.)
5" exhaust.
Boost and Pyro gauges.
Power Hungry Performance chip installed and using the 25HP tow tune. (basically the next step up from stock.
With the 4.88 axle and in OD the engine will be doing 2500rpm at 70 mph.
The only time I had to shift down was on a 5% or greater hill and even then it had to be a long one like a mountain pass.
Everything else, the turbo just spooled up and we continued on our journey.
When I had to shift down, then the best speed to settle on was 50 mph, 2500 rpm. Turn on the cruise control and the boost would hover at around 18-21 psi and the EGT would be 1100-1150.

 

is it possible to put the 450 or 550 brtakes on a 350?

 

Great picture..... has anyone heard " to pull tripples it has to be a 5er"..I pull tripples (31 ft tag a long camper and 16ft trailer....DOT here in Ga says 75FT max...no mention of the 5er....other people are saying it is suppose to be a 5er??? just wondering...I am pulling until DOT or police says not to...

 

Do you have any kind of exhaust brake Kwik?

I really didn't feel issues with stopping. If I was going to do anything it would be to go back to the cryo slotted rotors and carbon pads that I had on my last truck. That made a huge difference in stopping power.

The absolute biggest problem with my truck and towing like this is the tires. The 315's the previous owner put on there not only screw up the axle ratio and make towing harder they are not stable in the high cross winds. They flex too much in the sidewall. I will definitely go back to a stock size E rated tire when these things wear out.

 

Mine does the exact thing, if I am spinning and digging in 4LO and the torque converter locks...and I get some traction then it will stall. My simple solution has been to keep just enough pressure on the brake pedal to keep the torque converter unlocked but not enough to apply the brakes and watch the tranny temps. I haven't had to do that often but occasionally on a real nasty hill it's got me over the top.

Your last truck was a dually wasn't it? do you thing maybe a difference in gearing is why your last truck never did that? also the 315's.....if you last truck had stock sized tires....

I run 285's but used to run 315's and the stalling was more of an issue with the bigger tires.

 

Where at in the Silver Valley? That's not too far from me. Agreed, anywhere in North Idaho is nice this time of year.

 

yea clem its probably the tires. Next time I'm going down to the 285's

 

A F450 or 550 with the dual rear wheels will put the single rear wheel to shame. also the front axle is built stronger and wider, the spindle is bigger and stronger, gear ratio, when it comes to pulling no comparison.

 

I don't know about shame, maybe an awkward silence or a slight blush....

but I agree the gears are where it is at. If my 350 was a tow only rig it would be sportin 4.88's for sure

 

I stayed at Blue Anchor RV in Osburn, Idaho.

RV Park North ID.

Basically 4 miles east of Kellog where the gondola ride is going up to the ski/mountain bike area.
Only decent RV place that I could find in the immediate area and the place is nice.
One thing I noticed about the town is there is a LOT of mobile homes that people live in but nowhere did I see a trashy place.
Everything was clean, mowed lawns, everything was tidied up real nice.
There is a paved bike path that goes the entire length of the canyon, stretches on for miles.
We also rode the Hiawatha trail. I highly recommend it if you like that sort of thing.
You are riding along an old train track that has had the tracks removed and a road put in instead. Perfect incline for easy hill climbing because it was graded for a train.
You ride through all the tunnels and over all the trestles. All of them are so high you look down at the tree tops below.

Route of the Hiawatha Bike Trails, Idaho

And pictures of the Hiawatha trail.

Route of the Hiawatha Picture Gallery

I will be returning there someday soon to ride the paths down from the top of the gondola ride.
20 minute ride up to the top and about a 40 minute ride down through the trees and then you go back up and do it again.

 

I'll second that.
I was really impressed at how well the truck did.
Turbo just spooled up to a jet engine scream and we went up all the hills with no issues.

 

I bet that's a beotch to back the boat into the water.....

 

get to the lake, drop the boat, bring the trailer down to the beach and set it up, go back and bring the boat down. Better not have any backing involved, I sure don't want to back up that rig. The dang KOA in Flagstaff was so tight I thought I was going to have real problems, but still, you drop the boat and come back and get it not a big deal.

 

Yeah, you make sure that you do not run into any dead end driveways, filling stations or parking lots that you cannot turn around or pull thru.