How Much Fifth Wheel Can I Tow Reliably? - Diesel Forum

Glen5241 · 03-16-2008, 10:59 PM

Like my sig says, I have a 97 OBS F350 CC 4x4 with 4.10 gears. Have added a Sonax valve and Tri-C springs to the trans along with Mobil 1. Have a Tymar intake and H-Max downpipe with 4" side exit exhaust with a resonator and no cat. Recently added a Wildman chip with these burns, stock-high idle-economy-tow-performance. I run 33-12.50 tires. I am looking at buying a 5th wheel toy hauler. Either a 30' or 34' Rage'n. Both have double axles and approx. dry weights are 8250 lbs and 9100 lbs respectively. I'll be using it for 2 sport quads. With 150 gallons of water and 40 gallons of fuel, max weight should be 11-12000 lbs. Would this be fine for my 225 stock hp 7.3? What weights are others towing with similar trucks? I know the newer trucks have a lot more hp but I bought mine new Jan 98 and it only has 49K miles. I would probably add air bags to help keep things level. Any suggestions/recommendations would be appreciated.

NickKent · 03-16-2008, 11:09 PM

You are going at it all wrong. Don't worry about the horsepower end of it. The truck is fine. You need to crunch the numbers for GVWR, RGAWR, and GCWR. If you are good to go with those numbers and the trailer then you'll be fine.

Glen5241 · 03-16-2008, 11:22 PM

I was thinking about the GCWR and GVWR. All that info is on the info plate, correct? I don't have any factory manuals as they were stolen, go figure, a few years ago when someone got into the truck. They took my flashlight and all of the manuals.

NickKent · 03-17-2008, 07:52 AM

GVWR and RGAWR are on the door sticker. I think your GCWR is 20k. A 12k trailer with 20% pin weight is 2400 lbs. If your truck weighs 7500 lbs and your GVWR is 9900 lbs. that leaves you a payload of 2400 lbs. But, you need to make sure you are not over your RGAWR or tire ratings. You should weigh your truck at a cat scale loaded like it would be to pull the trailer. You should also base the trailer weights off of the trailer's GVWR not what you think it should weigh loaded.

aberach61 · 03-18-2008, 03:02 PM

I have an OBS 96 350, with 4.10 gears. I hauled a 36 5er with 3 slide outs. I weighed myself at a Cat scale, and weighed 21,000. I was probably over the GCWR, but never had any problems with the weight, pulling or stopping. The truck sat pretty level with the camper attached. You may want to scale down the tire size when pulling the camper. When I towed with my 33in tires on, it made for the worst ride, because the camper sits weird. Pulling with 265/75 size tires, the truck and camper sat nice and level, and rode nice. Hope this info helps.

aberach61 · 03-18-2008, 03:06 PM

Oh yeah, before you start hauling with the power upgrades, ya better get those gauges in. One question for you, does your engine get really loud the more you push your EGTs up?

SmokeyWren · 03-18-2008, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glen5241

I was thinking about the GCWR and GVWR. All that info is on the info plate, correct?

No. GVWR and GAWRs are on the Federal Certification Label. But to get GCWR you need either a Trailer Towing Guide for your year/model vehicle, or else you need the PSD Supplement to the Owner's Guide.

Quote:

I don't have any factory manuals as they were stolen, go figure, a few years ago when someone got into the truck. They took my flashlight and all of the manuals.

Since your manuals were "borrowed", you can download copies from the '94'-97 FAQ right here on TheDieselStop.
Downloads - 1994-1997 Power Stroke FAQ

In a nutshell, with 4.10 rear axle ratio and 7.3L PSD engine, your GCWR is 20,000 pounds.

Glen5241 · 03-18-2008, 04:58 PM

Thanks for all of the help. My next project now that the weather is better is install the gauges and get my Prodigy controller set up. I don't want to have to change tires but if it helps, may have to do that.

SmokeyWren · 03-18-2008, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glen5241

I don't want to have to change tires but if it helps, may have to do that.

Tall tires and towing heavy don't mix. And a 12k trailer is towing heavy. But your tall tires aren't very tall. With your 33s, you have close to the equivalent of a 3.99 axle ratio. That should be plenty for towing a 12k trailer.

Your biggest problem will likely be exceeding the GVWR of the tow vehicle. If your GVWR is 9,200 pounds, then you'll probably exceed the GVWR.

Glen5241 · 03-19-2008, 05:28 PM

Thanks for all of the input. Here are some specs on the trailer. It is a Rage'n FA3405. Unloaded weight is approx 8860 lbs. Add 150 g. water, 40 g. gas, two sports quads, and then food, clothes and any other goodies. The quads are no more than 400 each. Dry hitch weight is approx 2140 lbs. With the quads in the rear and the fuel tank toward the rear, would this unload some of the pin weight? Water tank is just in front of axles. This is a dual axle. The truck weighs 7k with a plywood bed kit, snug top shell, tools, extra parts and stuff and my spare. Obviously, some of the weight will be gone to tow. GVWR is 9200 lbs with GCWR at 20k. I see a lot of similar trucks towing a lot bigger trailers as well as seeing quite a few with 11'6" overhead campers, which I looked at and some are well over 3k lbs. Would I be pushing things or am I relatively safe? I don't drive stupid, especially when towing. I've been passed by people towing 40' 5ers and I am driving 65-70. I tend to be overly cautious. I am also looking at the B&W hitch with the Companion 5th wheel. More thoughts?

aberach61 · 03-19-2008, 10:38 PM

I have a B&W hitch on my truck. Our trucks are the same except mine is only a Reg. cab. I had a adapter to go from a fifth wheel to gooseneck when hauling my 5er. It was a big one to as I described above. I plan on getting the companion. Just seems so much easier to deal with. Make sure you check ebay when buying those parts, ALOT cheaper! But like I said earlier, truck and trailer I was 21K, and had no problems. Here are the actual numbers from a CAT scale in Pioneer TN...
Steer axle-10,000
Drive axle-5,960
Trailer axle-5,040
Gross weight-21,000
This is with my 33in tires on. With the taller tires, your trailer is going to sit higher on the bed transfering the weight differently throughout the setup which is not good. The trailer was tri-axle too, and as you can see, I had alot of weight on the fron axle which I don't think is good. I attribute that to the tall tires.
To change to the smaller tires for towing, I just had a set of steel rims that came on the truck with the smaller tires. Doesn't look as good, but it works. When I went to take the larger rims and tires off, because of the torque that trailer put on the truck axles with the oversize tires, I had to use a breaker bar and I kid you not, a 3 foot cheater pipe and alot of straining to get those lugnuts off. When some of them came loose, they sounded like gunshots. Left my ears ringing. I didn't have that problem when taking the smaller stuff off to put the big stuff back on.
Alright, my novel is done. Hope I helped.

aberach61 · 03-19-2008, 10:43 PM

So you can see what my truck is.

mack400 · 04-06-2008, 07:32 PM

I tow heavy and would assume this is a 3 axle unit with brakes. Having trailer brakes on 3 axles is the ticket. This will be a heavy unit and guages would be a necessity, EGT, Tranny are are definate. On my unit, I have a post EGT guage and agree with the knowledgeable people on this site that post egts can read a minimum 300 degrees lower. I prefer my Banks Stinger package set-up as I have it but without (yes...without) the towing chip installed. I think it runs cooler. If your gonna climb hills those temps all-around will rise quickly especially the tranny and it will stay hot for many miles after you level out. Otherwise I would hook-up with a 25K 5th wheel hitch, The 15K-16K hitch will actually bend as my well known brand did. I now have the 25K Valley hitch.