Going from travel trailer to fifth wheel soon

As advised, carefully check your available pin load capacity based on the real weight of your truck ready to camp.You will find that a 1/2 ton truck will be limited by the rear axle GAWR and GVWR. A 5er will impose a higher pin weight that will the hitch weight of a travel trailer. So your limiting capacity will be the trucks true payload capacity ( that is what is left over once you load cargo and passengers in the truck).

Practically speaking, most 1/2 ton trucks will max out on pin weight with about a 24' 5er.

DO NOT listen to the Rv sales person. They seldom understand tow ratings and limits. A 1/2 ton towable trailer will only be OK if you tow the trailer empty and never have more than yourself in the truck.

Ken

I did some calculation for my BL and found he was fine with his 30' plus TT but would have to go to about 28' in a 5'er he could handle. Better floor plan selection and more area with the TT so that's what he stayed with. He has the same TV as you.
It was the tongue weight that killed it.

Jack_Diane_Freedom wrote:
Make sure you pick one with lots of storage as you will lose the use of your truck bed for transporting your camping equipment. When deciding on which 5er make sure you allow for the heavy weight of the 5er hitch.

The Anderson Ultimate only weighs 40lbs.
He'll still have the room in front of the hitch. I have 45" of room and very rarely use all of it as my 5'er holds most everything we take. And he won't have to pack and unpack the stuff out of is truck as most can just stay in the 5'er. Really a moot issue.

http://www.palominorv.com/ProductInfo.aspx?model=puma&page=floorplandetails&floorplanid=3945&RVType=FW

This has about a low as dry pin as I've seen. Look at your trucks payload sticker and see how that matches up with the dry pin. You can get an Anderson 5th hitch that only weighs 60lbs, that will help keep weights low. Problem with 1/2 tons and 5'ers is the higher pin weights vs lower tongue weights of TT's. JMHO but you get more TT for the money than 5'er as a general rule. You can also tow a bigger trailer when going to a TT. Not sure what the fascination is with wanting a 5'er when having a 1/2 ton. It seems like you give up extra living space that you could have if going with a TT over a 5'er. If it's a matter of a shorter unit for camping then that's understandable.

With that being said I would rather seen someone with a 1/2 ton tow a 5'er at max load vs a TT at max load. 5'ers just tow so much easier.

Could the OP post his trucks ratings?

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Load your truck up ready to go camping.......all passengers, and stuff in cab, full tank...and go get weighed.

Weigh ticket will give you Front axle weight, Rear axle weight and trucks total weight.

Compare to YOUR trucks FAWR, RAWR, GVWR and Rear tire max load ratings......then you will know how much weight you can 'Carry' as in 5vrs pin weight (Don't forget the 200# of hitch weight that will be in truck)

Look at the trailers you are interested in......take 20% of their GVWR to use as a guesstimate of pin weight.
Can you 'carry' that weight without exceeding RAWR, Rear Tire MAX Load Ratings and Trucks GVWR???

Words could not of been said better.

Load your truck up ready to go camping.......all passengers, and stuff in cab, full tank...and go get weighed.

Weigh ticket will give you Front axle weight, Rear axle weight and trucks total weight.

Compare to YOUR trucks FAWR, RAWR, GVWR and Rear tire max load ratings......then you will know how much weight you can 'Carry' as in 5vrs pin weight (Don't forget the 200# of hitch weight that will be in truck)

Look at the trailers you are interested in......take 20% of their GVWR to use as a guesstimate of pin weight.
Can you 'carry' that weight without exceeding RAWR, Rear Tire MAX Load Ratings and Trucks GVWR???

I am not saying not to buy one but my Cougar Xlite is over 1500 pounds of pin weight. If you look at the smaller Xlite you can find them with 1100 pounds of pin weight. Choose you floor plan wisely.

Jack_Diane_Freedom wrote:
Make sure you pick one with lots of storage as you will lose the use of your truck bed for transporting your camping equipment. When deciding on which 5er make sure you allow for the heavy weight of the 5er hitch.

When doing this , better triple check your weights , as you will overload a 1500 a lot sooner with a fifth wheel. It's not what you can pull , or stop....it's what you can carry in the bed , ( tongue weight) that will get you.

To stay within the gvwr capacity of your 1500 truck, you are likely going to need to find a fifth wheel with a "loaded" pin weight under 1,000 lbs.
I don't think you will find one. Do yourself a favor and consider getting a larger truck.

Cougars are nice campers! Very popular where I live. They must be good for so many to own them. In the area where I live, it seems folks have Cougars parked in their driveways for years (meaning they don't trade them) so they must be happy with them. (That's a good thing!)

Enjoy!