Dual rear wheel or single rear wheel?
Hello all!! Brand new here to the forum. I have just purchased and brought home our new 5th wheel(with a buddies truck)and I am getting mixed reviews on which setup to get. Our 5th wheel is a Palomi...
Forum Discussion
Passage0ftime wrote:
Opinion from another newbie? I never owned and RV before last Spring. Pulled my daughter horse trailer with an '05 1500 Silverado short bed, step side WT. Never comfortable. Kept it and bought a 2012 1500 crew cab with a 5L, also in a WT configuration, don't care for buttons and bells. Night and day difference.
Fast forward to last Spring, bought a Greywolf TT 30' and pulled it w/ the 1500, I traded in the fall for a 5'er. Pulled ok, right at the trucks limit weight wise, back to the days of the step-side. It was about 9500# wet. Bit of white knuckle, anxiety on hills and in the wind. Then I got a shot at a DRW 3500 Silverado with the 8.1 gasser engine and Allison 6 speed.. Way over powered for the trailer, sucks for daily driver, but towing is a breeze, and makes it all worthwhile. As the man said, there are times when having a bigger hammer just feels better.
What many here are glossing over is that modern 350/3500 SRW trucks have higher ratings and are more capable than the one pictured here.
The duallies that have 17" rims have tires on the front that are rate to only 3085 pounds at max inflation. The tires on my SRW 3500 are rated to 3640 pounds each or 1110 more capacity on the front axle. I would worry more about the front tires on a dually than I would the rear tires on a SRW. Failure of a front tire is a lot worst than the failure of a rear tire.
We have snowbirded for 10 years now and each year thousands of snowbirds show up in the South with SRW trucks. I have never heard of someone loosing their rig from a tire failure. Did have one guy that lost a rig on an icy road.
Some people just do not want a dually, that is why SRW 350/3500 manufacturers have stepped up their game. The 2013+ RAM, 2017 Ford and new GM all have frames that greatly improved the capabilities of these trucks. 18" and 20" tires are providing ratings that are much higher than 17" and 16" tires that were used for years on many models.
Safest thing a person can do is tow as a reasonable speed and keep ones tires reasonable fresh, using quality ones to begin with.
