Do I need a Duelly ?

I towed with my old SRW 1 ton about 60K miles with 35 foot double slide challenger. It hit the scales at about 13,000. I stopped by a Cat scale and I was within all tire and and axle weights. Total was 21,400 combined.
It towed OK, I had plenty of brakes. But, when a truck would pass me I could feel it push and then pull me. Also During high side winds I had to really work to keep it straight. I hit water standing in VA once at 65-70 mph and thought I was going to loose it. A dust devil just north of Vegas knocked me across two lanes and again I about lost control. The other 10 years of towing was fine. I did have a supercab long bed, and yes the longer the tow vehicle the better. I felt I was safe and towed mountain passes just fine. I lost a rear tire on the truck once, and had in been on say the WV turnpike I might not be here today.

Even though I love the look of the new trucks and 20 inch wheels I love my DRW and how well it tows, the extra margin of safety for the once every 5 year or 30,000 mile instances where the******hits the fan.

Now hitting the scales at 29,040 and a 38 foot rv I wouldn't want a SRW truck for a rig that size.

Think about this, road construction, two lanes with concrete barriers on each side, the lane shifts across the median, with a tractor trailer beside you. The roll at pitch of the road will cause the SRW some issues that might be just enough to rub the side or trade some paint. I wouldn't pull my current rig on a smaller truck, the above happens all the time, to me anyway and the thoughts of it on a SRW gives me white knuckles.

If you plan on towing a lot, get a DRW, it's just set the cruise and drive with one hand, or one finger if you want. Sit back and enjoy the drive.
Or you can buy a SRW, fight the wind, the trucks passing, pitch and roll of the road, maybe you'll never have anything other that long stress filled days, or maybe not.

btd35 wrote:
You need a dually. Mine is same demensions. I pulled it with a SRW once. It's fine on the straight, but get on a curvy road and it feels like the trailer wants to push the back end over. Not a nice feeling.

Be aware that a 40'er doesn't fit on lots of campgrounds like state parks. Hope you're good at fitting it in tight places.

Agree you should get a dually. Pulled my fiver with both a SRW and now a dually and I can feel a difference in stability. As for your length and state parks I have not had an issue in Alabama or Georgia. Good luck.

Here is something to think about.... the truck that you are most considering ..... does it have enough braking power to stop both the trailer and truck in the event the trailer brakes fail! This is not such a stupid question, as this actually happened to us a couple years ago.... no just once, but about 3 or 4 trips ... no brakes in the trailer and we limped the trailer home. After a couple visits to the shop, found out the brake wires on the trailer rubbed and were shorting out. This we finally learned after the 3rd time to the shop, and they examined both truck and trailer and still missed it the first 2 times.

Believe me when I say, my wife and I were truly on panic mode driving the trailer with no brakes, but at the same time ... completely confident the truck had enough "umph" to it to handle both flawless! We did take secondary roads, got off the interstae, and drove much slower, and I started braking much sooner, and prevented us from getting into any tight squeezes that might require a braking lock-down situation (which never happened).

So what I'm saying is, the bigger the truck, the more tires on the road, the heavier the truck body, the stronger the brakes, is the truck you want.

Far too often, folks consider only the towing ability ... they forget about the braking ability ... If you were in the mountains on the down hill side, and all of a sudden your trailer brakes when out .... what kind of truck would you want to be in? Then, you decide!

The safest would be tandem duel with 18 speed on tall rubber, but yes a dually will do fine.

A SRW 1 ton MIGHT have sufficient GVWR and rear Axle GAWR to carry the pin weight, but I would not use anything less than a 1 ton dually.

You will see folks pulling larger 5th wheels with 3/4 ton and 1 ton SRW trucks and they will tell you that they do fine. If you ask these folks about the weights, they do not have a clue as to the weights, but they will tell you that once they added the air bags, it did not squat so bad.

If you are dead-set on using a 3/4 ton truck, you need to cut your trailer looking back to a 32' max length...They are usually within the weight limits.

I recommend that you read up on all of the tow ratings and understand them. You cannot us the truck manufacturers Maximum Tow Ratings as they are inflated. And forget the trailers dry weight...a useless weight unless you plan to never add supplies to the trailer.\

And a Dully is a knife that is not sharp.

Ken

MTPockets1 wrote:
Dully...

What is a Dully?

That's what dually's are designed for! Sit back, enjoy the drive!

Get the truck towing specs from the manufacturer and read them. Don't accept personal opinions, get the facts. You are legally responsible for having an adequate tow vehicle.

Dully...

Cummins12V98 wrote:

MPI_Mallard wrote:
Take everyone's GOOD SOUND ADVISE!!!! don't settle for anything less than a 3500 Diesel dually with a 8' box, get an exhaust brake if you can, with a dually you get fantastic tracking and control, you'll be ready for anything! I just cringe when I see these big fiver owner's hauling with those lil' trucks, they can't not know it's not safe. I gatta' newby here that has a 40' 16.000+ fiver using a Chevy 2500 SRW that the previous owner told him that's all the truck he'll need, I'm just glad I'll be on my lot in Florida a week before he leaves Canada, going through the blue ridge mountains should be a real eye-opener for him!

Red Green:
Remember, I'm pulling for ya. We're
all in this together

Yup! It really makes me sick to see people unknowingly have way too much tail for the dog!

Then it pizzes me off when people knowingly tow way too much for their TV.

Every year along I-10 I see several 2500's towing their big toy haulers laying on their side. I am sure they all said "it tows just fine" !

When I towed with my 98 RAM/Cummins 2500 4X4 with a combined weight of 20.5K I knew that was the safe limit. I could have added bags and 19.5's and towed my current 36' MS but I knew it was not the right thing to do.

It's been said on here many times "ya just don't know until you have towed with a Dually" !!!

Thanks for the great answer, that is really putting it into perspective. Between the roll-over reference to the Too much tail for my Dog reference. Well said. Thanks