How easy/difficult to travel with 14,300 lb dry fifth wheel?

Our Redwood was just over 14K empty and just over 40', we have it loaded for Long Term Travel, including combo washer, genny, dual pane glass, and more so loaded weight is between 17K and 17.5K depending on how much water we're carrying.
We've just completed a 17K mile trip from Central Florida to Alaska, down the West Coast, through all the major Western Parks and back to Florida and averaged 9.76 MPG (all hand calulated, actually on an Excel spread sheet).
We've stayed in all types of Parks and some were a littly tricky, but we made it.

I used a Hypermax Econ tuner on my 6.0 liter Powerstroke and wouldn't consider going without it. More power and 2-3 mpg better mileage. Well worth the price of around 400 bucks. I returned to a factory tune last week before dropping off the truck for repairs and it felt like I was dragging a parachute. The loss of power was really noticeable.

Seems weight isn't the main factor in mpg. Frontal wind drag is. I haven't towed a heavy trailer but have gone from a 4,000lb to a 6,000lb and now to an 11,000lb fifth wheel. Have seen only about a 1-2mpg drop at most between all three pulling with the same truck.

My trailer is CAT scale weighted over 16,000 # we do not full time .We camp everywhere we ever did ,but each time the trailer gets bigger the number of sites in individual parks we fit is reduced.
Mileage is just noise in the overall coast of RVing ,our F250 got 11 mpg ,the volvo gets a bit over 9.0 mpg.

Thank you all! I appreciate the input! Anyone else?

mabynack wrote:
I have a 14,000 lb fifth wheel that I tow with a 6.0 Ford Diesel. Mileage depends on the terrain, but normally I average just under 12 mpg. I've gotten as good as 14 mpg and as bad as 9.9 mpg when climbing in the Rockies.

My biggest issue has been tires. The rig has two axles and takes ST235/85R16s, so it's right at the allowable weight for the four E load range tires. I try to keep as little unnecessary weight in the RV as possible. I dump the tanks before starting off in the morning and keep the freshwater tank at about a quarter full. I've blown out four tires on this rig and two of the blowouts did over a thousand dollars in damage.

I check the tire pressure every morning before I start off and I do a walk-around every time I stop; I check for loose fenders, dragging objects, and overheating tires. I drive no more than 65 mph.

I've found a couple of RV parks where I couldn't get in because of the layout of the park. Several of the ones I visited on the Eastern side of the Sierras have a max length of 24 feet.

Yes tires have been a problem. I went to the next load range tire and haven't had the problem. Only had one blow, and it was a true miracle it did no damage. Ours weighs in at about the same dry at 14,400.

We lived on ours for a year, and traveled all over the US except the northeast. Our 99 Dodge has pulled it well, getting average of just under 13 mpg running a power chip.

I have a 14,000 lb fifth wheel that I tow with a 6.0 Ford Diesel. Mileage depends on the terrain, but normally I average just under 12 mpg. I've gotten as good as 14 mpg and as bad as 9.9 mpg when climbing in the Rockies.

My biggest issue has been tires. The rig has two axles and takes ST235/85R16s, so it's right at the allowable weight for the four E load range tires. I try to keep as little unnecessary weight in the RV as possible. I dump the tanks before starting off in the morning and keep the freshwater tank at about a quarter full. I've blown out four tires on this rig and two of the blowouts did over a thousand dollars in damage.

I check the tire pressure every morning before I start off and I do a walk-around every time I stop; I check for loose fenders, dragging objects, and overheating tires. I drive no more than 65 mph.

I've found a couple of RV parks where I couldn't get in because of the layout of the park. Several of the ones I visited on the Eastern side of the Sierras have a max length of 24 feet.

Our's is #18500 loaded. We have plenty of room for what we bring along. We do full time and as long as you have the right truck that will handle your GVWR, you should be good.

We have just updated our truck and love it. No problem pulling our load and we are getting 10-12 mpg pulling and 14-17 empty.

Enjoy.

Our loaded fiver weight is just under 16,000. The Montana we have is 39'2" long when not hooked up. We have visited maybe 75 different campgrounds across the country and never had one we couldn't get into. We have had a few that were a challenge, but we could get into them.

Our F350 SRW does great with the 6.7 diesel. I have never had to use 4 wheel drive while hooked up. Our overall average is between 11 and 13mpg. Wind will play an important role in your daily mileage when pulling a tall fiver.

As long as you have a truck for the weight, no problem.

Typically a trailer of that sort of dry weight is very big presenting all kinds of campsite access problems especially if you like SPs & NPs.