Switching to a 5er and need help
 

Ok, long story short... My current setup is a 2017 CCLB 4x4 6.7 pulling a 2016 grey wolf 26RR. We love our camper, it's perfect for the wife and me and our 95lb horse of a dog, but add 2 grandkids or 2 adults and things get a little tighter. We are thinking about switching to a 5er for more room bigger back door more sleeping for more people ect. I have my eye on 2-3 different units but as I dig in and research about these units and the manufacturers I start to get nervous. I have pulled GN trailers and understand the difference between the two types of trailers, what I am looking for is any input from you guys with experience in brands and manufacturers, good and bad. What few reviews I've been able to find are older or real scary. Bottom line, that's a lot of money and I'd like to do some research before I plunk down that kind of money. Thanks for the help.

Does your F-250 have the camper package? That gives you the upgraded suspension and the sway bar.

Check the trailer guide to see what your capacities are:
https://www.ford.com/resources/ford/...U_r2_Sep29.pdf

My truck has the high capacity trailer tow package and the heavy service front suspension with the 10000lb payload capacity, that's why I bought it knowing I'm upgrading to a 5er. I'm interested in what manufacturers to look at or stay away from.

Before I bought my F-350 I shopped around, thinking I might get a slide-in, but it was not to be. What I found was that any "nice" camper was going to be right at the capacity of the truck. It's like the manufacturers said, "Wow, look at all that cargo capacity. Let's use it up!"

Lance had some really nice campers. If you scroll through this subforum and especially look at the slide-in pictures thread you may see a trend of what people are buying.

Watch your pin weight with a 250. You CCC will disappear quickly. I had a '15 250 Lariat 4wd 6.7 CCSB and only had 2150 lbs of CCC. I couldn't find a 5er toy hauler I could legally, and comfortably tow.

What brands/models are you looking at?

I'm looking at the carbon 357 by keystone, but not real happy about the pin weight and the slide out on the awning side. Still looking and comparing units.

A Keystone 357 is F350 Dually territory, without any doubt! Your GVWR on that trailer is 17K lbs, which would put your pin weight somewhere in the 3400-3500 lbs...plus a 5ver hitch, plus cargo, driver, passengers, etc. You would probably be at close to 4500 lbs. PAYLOAD. Dually territory for sure! I'd be surprised if you even have 2200 lbs of payload capacity on that truck.

I had a 2011 almost identical to yours and the payload was 2148 lbs. Horrible for such a nice truck!

I'm confused, according to everything I read in the manual with my setup 10000lb payload up grade, high capacity trailer tow package, I figured the 357 would be within the limits of my truck. It is close to the limits but not over. I understand weight limits and I never load to those limits, after adding up my weights of the truck including pin weight I'm at 10000, I'm figuring high. The trailer is 17000 maxed out, I'm at 27000. Ford says my truck is CVW is 27500. It would be rare more likely never the camper would be maxed out. If I'm missing something let me know.

Are you sure about that? I think the F-250 has a 10,000 lb GVWR, not a 10,000 lb payload. Not even the F-450 has that much payload.

Canvas Man, if I'm reading the Ford trailer chart right, your trailer can't weigh more than 13,200. The maximum GCWR allowed for an F-250 is 25,700.

Canvas Man.....I can assure you, you do NOT have a 10K payload. You are confusing payload numbers with the GVWR of the truck. Your F250 GVWR is 10K, The truck is going to weight approx. 7800 lbs.....which will leave you a "payload" of around 2200 lbs. So here is the sure way to tell what your actual payload is.....

On the Driver's side front door post area there will be a sticker that is mostly white, with some yellow highlighted numbers. You will see the cargo carrying capacity....which is your actual payload capacity of the truck.....YOUR truck. That number is the amount of payload the truck had when it was built....and it includes a full tank of fuel only! No driver weight, no passenger weight, no additional stuff that you may have added....a toolbox, a hitch, firewood, an aux. fuel tank....anything and everything that the truck has on it or in it. As I stated previously, I had a truck almost identical to that one and the payload capacity was 2148 lbs....and my GVWR was 10K. Check that sticker and see what your truck is rated for and get back with us.

Ok, let me take this opportunity to say I'm not to bright... HRTDK and xrated I'm sure you guys got a good laugh at my last comment. You where both right, I checked the door sticker and sure enough it says "passengers and cargo not to exceed 2040". Boy do I feel dumb, so any way that's why I started this thread so I can learn and not make a 40-60k mistake. So I'm going to ask, do I count pin weight as payload? I'm under the impression you do. Thanks for the lesson.

Yes, pin weight gets subtracted from payload (aka cargo). Your 5th wheel hitch counts as cargo, so don't forget that also.

Canvas Man......I'm not laughing at all.....we've all been there at one time or another.....some of us will admit to that, others either won't admit or are too proud to say they didn't know. Just so you know, a little over a year ago, I pretty much went through the same learning curve you are now experiencing. It's a long story on my end, but the short version is I bought a new F250 CC 4x4 Diesel in Octl., 2010.....one of the new 2011 models. At the time, I didn't know squat about payloads, GVWR, etc. I just figured that a 3/4T truck should be able to pull anything I wanted to buy when the time came for me to get my 38' Toy Hauler. Boy, was I ever shocked and feeling pretty stupid when that time came. My 2148 lbs of payload was about 1500 lbs to light for the T.H. I wanted. Keep in mind, there was about 6 years time span between when I bought my truck and when I went looking for a T.H. So, once I discovered the error of my ways.....I have spent a lot of time learning what I can about the subject. I will always try to offer advice to someone about towing and capacities, payloads, GVWRs and such to try and help them from making the same mistake that I made......so you aren't alone. Like I said, we all start out at the beginning, at some point in time. The wise men take the advice of others that are more knowledgeable and learn from it......and that's what I did. I just HATE to see someone make the same expensive mistake that I did, so I do what I can to try and help. Holler if you have further questions......and Yes, as HRTKD pointed out, the pin weight is counted against the available payload.

And one other thing to remember, on the later model trucks, that payload number is based on the weight of the truck, as it was built, and with a full tank of fuel. Anything else and everything else counts against the available payload. Driver's weight, passenger(s) weight, pets, coolers, firewood,...anything and everything that goes on or in the truck....including the 5ver hitch. So, as you can see, the F250 doesn't have a whole lot of available payload for a 5ver of a much size.......Sorry!

What gets me is I drive all over the place for my business and see all kinds of rigs going down the road. I see CCSB's pulling 5ers all the time and not small ones either, I passed a guy pulling a 38-40 ft cardinal 5er with an f150 and I cringed. I've been pulling trailers for a long time and I understand that everything has a weight limit and when I see these things I think if they can do that with that truck, I should have no problem doing that with mine. I guess it's like mom use to say, if everybody was jumping off a bridge, would you?