I bought an older gal shes an 89'460 manual 5 speed .Hopefully ill hear that she can two this 18,000lbs?😀 Thanks for any input.

 

Once upon a time I had an 02 F250, V10 auto, SRW; she often had a 32 foot 10K pound Jayco Eagle fifth wheel loaded on her.

Come the smaller hills (found in my neck of the woods) she'd simply downshift and keep on chugging. What is your terrain?
Another concern is the available payload; an 18K load should have around 4500 pounds on the hitch. Is your gal capable of carrying that (within specs)?
Just for comparison purposes: my current (dually) diesel, loaded w/ 16K pounds, only yields 9 MPG on basically flat land. Your gasser will likely only get half of that (under similar conditions).

IMHO, 18K is a lot of load - I wouldn't try it with a gasser (running at high RPMs - especially one nearly 30 years old).

I traded her when she approached 200K on the odo; the Jayco has also been moved aside; don't forget to add your own pics.

 

The fifthwheel look similar to one we had. It had a dry weight of mid 8k and I find it hard to believe that that one is 10k more. I would check the weight. Combine weight of tv and trailer might approach 18k. Just my thoughts,

 

Hey KMC, I believe you've mistaken my pic as coming from the original poster.
Dry my Jayco was 8 something: I always tried to keep the load down (and estimated it at 1500 -2000) and so always drove slow/ prudent - just in case.
I did (one time) have a slow speed tire blow out.

 

Yep my bad thought it was the original posters setup. Drove a lot of them 460 and they were a beast of a power plant. 18k campers are DRW territory for sure.

 

We need more info on the 5th wheel.

You will be over loaded on the tires and axles off hand but provided more info on the trailer will help.

More than likely your trans is not up to the task and you probably don't have enough cooling capcity for the truck or the trans for that kind of load, unless 18K is referring to your combined or GCVWR.

 

We need more info on the 5th wheel.

We also need more info on the tow rig - maybe he's got a dually F650?

 

It's going to be a 2nd or 3rd gear flog on any considerable grade and you're going to be way over on GVWR and GAWR-rear. Watch temps (coolant & trans) like a hawk, and plan on about 4 mpg average.

 

In Ca. over 15,000 lbs. he also needs a class A license. 10,001 to 15,000 needs a restriction 41 on the class C license. I just went through that last month at the DMV. This is for towing 5th wheels.

 

What the h*ll 5th wheel do you have that weighs 18,000 pounds?!

Typo?

Is this an F-550 or F-650?

 

Mike, is that 15,000 you reference the GVWR of the trailer, with regard to California law? I've always wanted the straight scoop on the Ca. regs but they're like reading assembly instructions for a Chinese made swing set. I've had a California commercial A since I was 18 (now 54) so I've never done the research, but I'm often asked and have to admit that I don't know.

 

What the h*ll 5th wheel do you have that weighs 18,000 pounds?!

There are lots of the premium ones that (wet) weigh in like that; lookup Heartland Landmarks 365 or Mobile Suites.

 

The best quality fifth wheels weigh a lot. Check out the weights on New Horizons, Mobile Suites, Luxe, etc. They get much heavier than even 18,000 pounds.

 

So it's 11 tons dry wright and ill Probably put another ton?So 12 tons.....😎😇

 

what is the GVW of the trailer and do you have a link?