2006 F250.....HOW MUCH FIFTH WHEEL CAN I PULL.....weight of fifth wheel

[Timon5435]

Looking into buying a fifth wheel and have a 2006 F250. Wanting to get some feedback on what you guys are pulling. Total weight of trailer. Also what brands do I need to stay away from. Thanks in advance for your replies.

[wingfoot]

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Looking into buying a fifth wheel and have a 2006 F250. Wanting to get some feedback on what you guys are pulling. Total weight of trailer. Also what brands do I need to stay away from. Thanks in advance for your replies.

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Mod. is probably going to move this to "Towing and Hauling"....located at the bottom of the forums..

The information you are looking for is in your manual..both for conventional and fifth wheel trailers..If for some reason you don't have a manual you can find on FMC's web site..

Good luck

[GrampyJim]

Look to your trucks recommendations.... Three things to consider.... Gross rear axle weight rating, gross vehicle weight rating and gross combination weight rating.... Our RV sales people have been churning out some trailer deals lately where they should be considering selling their custoers a "package"....

If all the necessary considerations aren't applied, there is the chance for some "white knuckle" moments when towing.

[SmokeyWren]

2006 F-250 4x4 PSD CrewCab diesel:

Your limiter is GVWR of 10,000 pounds. Your wet and loaded pickup with 5er hitch installed and normal tools and junk in the truck and one passenger plus you and a full tank of fuel is going to weigh around 8,500 pounds. That leaves 1,500 pounds for the weight of the kingpin (hitch weight). That's a 5er or gooseneck trailer with a max wet and loaded weight of about 8,500 to 8,800 pounds. Or that's a bumper-pull travel trailer (TT) of about 13,000 pounds.

So your first act is to load the truck up with Mama and the kids and the trailer hitch (but no trailer) and go to a truckstop that has a CAT scale. Fill the truck with diesel, then weigh the wet and loaded truck. If it weighs around 8,500, then use the above numbers. But if you have more tools and junk and maybe kids and dogs and therefore gross 9,000 pounds, the 5er just shurnk to a max of 6,000 pounds. The TT would still be a reasonable 9,000 pounds.

If your pickup is a shorty, it's going to weigh a bit less, but the GVWR is also going to be less. So the max trailer weight is going to be the same.

When guessing the weight of a trailer, don't guess. Simply go by the GVWR of the trailer. If your sweetheart is like most of ours, then you're going to be loaded to close to the GVWR of the trailer when on the road RVing.

[Timon5435]

Isn't the GCWR Gross combined weight ratio on these trucks 23000. Meaning that you can pull a trailer with a weight of XXX plus what you have on board including curb weight of truck as long as you do not exceed 23,000 pounds In your example truck and stuff weighing 8500lb you can pull a trailer with a weight of 14500 including stuff and hitch weight? Or am I just confused....Because I could not find a single 5er weighing in a 8000 lbs.

[Diesel_Aggie]

I don't know if the 23,000# GCWR is correct but will make that assumption. Based on that you are correct that you could have 14,500# trailer and be within GCWR. That's only half of what you need to look for. Your GVWR is that max weight that can be on the truck. Fifth wheels typically have about 20% (2900# in this example) of their weight on the hitch and the other 80% (11,600# in this example) on the trailer axles. A 10,000# GVWR with an 8500# truck only allows you 1500# to load including tongue weight. The tongue weight of 2900# far exceeds this.

[XXDieselXX]

I may be getting my trucks mixed up, but what if the aforementioned truck (2006 F-250 4x4 PSD CrewCab diesel) has the camper package option? I thought that added an additional leaf spring, and if so, wouldn't that increase the capacity of the truck?

[marspec]

Here's some real world numbers:

2005 F-250 4x2,SC, LWB, 6.0, Line-X, hitch, full fuel, two PAX and dog:

GVW: 9800 Actual Weight: 7400
GWFA 4850 Actual: 4400
GWRA 6100 Actual: 3000

Trailer GVW: 16000 Actual 13380
Truck Front Axle: 4480
Truck Rear Axle: 5640
Total Truck: 10120
Trailer Axles: 11240
Hitch Weight: 2640
Trailer Weight: 13880

So although I was under design weights for truck axles and GCWR I was slightly over on truck GVW. I had many empty cabinets in trailer and had to monitor DW to make sure they stayed that way. Truck pulled OK but I felt uncomfortable in the stopping department. That coupled with the fact DW is hinting about adding a washer/dryer, which in our unit is all the way forward, gave me the out to buy the F450!!!

I haven't weighed the 450 nor towed yet. Did hook it up and lowered hitch one hole to level it out.

Chuck

[m3nschmeyer]

I had a 2006 F-250 CC XLT SWB with the 10K GVWR package with a GCWR of 23K.

I towed a 27' Wildcat that grossed just under 10,000 lbs.

At the scales:

9,900 GVW including pin weight
18,500 GCW truck and trailer loaded with water, etc.

It towed it fine but not much room for error as I was under my GVWR by only 100 lbs. My Wildcat is rather light on the pin which is why I got away with towing the 10K, other 5th wheel trailers may have heavier pin weights thus reducing the gross weight that you can safely tow and stop.

I agree with the others above and use 8-9K as your max trailer weight for your biggest issue with that truck is the limit on the cargo capacity of that truck. The cargo capacity for my truck, as listed on the driver's side pillar, was about 2,800 lbs. For me, that meant 2800 (CC) - 1300 (wife,kids,hitch,tools,stuff) = 1500 left for the pin weight so if you put 20% of the trailer weight on the pin that would limith your trailer to 7,500 lbs; if you went with 15% on the pin that would limit the trailer to 10,000 lbs.

Regardless of what the printed numbers say, through experience, the max I would tow with that truck is 9K.

I now tow that trailer with a 2007 F-350 CC LWB DRW 4.30 gears rated at 13,000 GVW and a GCWR of 23,500 and cargo capacity of just over 4,800 lbs.

Now with the 350 I'm not worried about pin or GCWR, I'm worried about what I can safely pull and stop on steep grades, so, I would only tow a maximum of about 12K since I live on a steep hill and tow on hilly roads and up and over Skyline Drive.

[SmokeyWren]

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Isn't the GCWR Gross combined weight ratio on these trucks 23000.

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Yes.

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Meaning that you can pull a trailer with a weight of XXX plus what you have on board including curb weight of truck as long as you do not exceed 23,000 pounds.

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No.

Ford says loud and clear that you cannot exceed either the GCWR or the GVWR of the tow vehicle. Almost all the RV experts agree with Ford, but of course a lot of RV salespersons poo poo the ban against overloading. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

So, you can pull a trailer with a weight of XXX plus what you have on board including curb weight of truck as long as you do not exceed 23,000 pounds PROVIDED you do not exceed 10,000 pounds GVW on the 4 pickup tires.

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In your example truck and stuff weighing 8500lb you can pull a trailer with a weight of 14500 including stuff and hitch weight? Or am I just confused....

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You can pull a trailer with a weight of 14,500 pounds PROVIDED the hitch weight is not more than 1,500 pounds (using the example of the wet and loaded tow vehicle grossing 8,500 pounds). So that means a big 5er or gooseneck that grosses more than about 8,800 pounds is out. You might be able to tie onto a TT that grosses 14,500 pounds and has less than 1,500 pounds hitch weight if you very carefully arranged the load in the trailer to result in only 1,500 pounds hitch weight. That's 10.34 percent hitch weight, so it's do-able, but requires judicious loading of the trailer. Normal hitch weight for a properly-loaded TT is 11 to 12 percent.

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Because I could not find a single 5er weighing in a 8000 lbs.

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You didn't look hard enough. My Keystone Sprinter, 26' long with one big slide, has a GVWR of 7,900 pounds. It's perfect for two adults, and we've often had two or three grandkids along for the trip. Neither the dinette or couch convert-a-bed is big enough for adults, but we've sometimes had one or two adult guests "make do" with those short beds, or an air mattress on the floor.

The Sprinters have grown heavier, so I don't see one now at less than 9,000 pounds.

But Keystone also makes the less-expensive Springdale 5er, and three of them are less than your max of 8,500 to 8,800 pounds GVWR. For example the 249FWBHLS has a GVWR of 7,860 pounds. Apparently, the FWBHLS is short for fifth wheel bunk house large slide. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/warmsmile.gif[/img] It has a queensize bed for the parents, plus bunk beds, plus the couch and dinette convert to beds. The big limiter is carrying capacity = only 1,415 pounds of dishes and bedclothes and food and clothing, etc. And you won't have enough tires, wheels, and springs weight capacity for more payload, so don't even think about it. Plus, it's a "mid profile", which means less than 6' floor to ceiling in the bedroom. Not perfect, but a lot better than a low profile, which has about 4' floor to ceiling in the upper bedroom.

http://keystone-springdale.com/index...&year=2007

[brassc]

My '06 F250, SuperCrew, FX4 loaded and ready to roll:

Steer Axle 4600
Drive Axle 5680
Trailer Axles 10280
Total 20560

Traler is '06 Cedear Creek 36RLTS

[creeper]

A F250 Diesel pulling only a 8k trailer is the sadest thing I've seen. 8K trailers are made for F150.

DO NOT LOOK at the weight of the trailer unless you would be coming close to the GCVW. For you to do this on an F250 is a really big 5th and you will be gobs over the GVW.

It's all about the PIN weight.

Weigh your truck fully loaded. Subtract that from the GVW and that is your max pin weight.

My truck 7400lbs loaded with full tank of gas.

Fifth 12K lbs. loaded. Length 35feet.

Pin 2000 lbs.

It's about loading and how it's built. Search for a 5th from a company that realizes that they have to lower the pin weights. Take a look at the Heartland RVs.

[hiljoball]

I found this spreadsheet on an RV forum.

It allows you to enter your truck and trailer data to help you see if you have any issues. Also useful for planning prior to a purchase of a truck or trailer.

It is obvious that a lot of work has gone into this useful tool.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1nh79/d...info/id72.html


To use it, you need to dowload and save it. You need Excel or a compatible spreadsheet program.

[mrnecsteve]

There is nothing sad about having reserve capacity with your truck.

[HaulinDuals]

WOW! That has to be the most comprehensive towing analysis spreadsheet on the PLANET! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smokin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smokin.gif[/img] Thanks for the link. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif[/img]