Light 5th Wheels

Camper117 wrote:
I too am having a hard time finding a 5th wheel that I am comfortable with. I have a 2014 F250 diesel and would have thought that that could pull just about anything, but that doesn't appear to be the case. I was originally going to go the toy hauler route, but was convinced in that forum that it was too heavy for my truck (hitch weight of 3000 lbs.). Then decided to go with a 5th wheel and like the Grand Design 323BHS, which has a hitch weight of 1970 lbs.

I thought that was doable, but learned about the yellow tire and payload sticker on the door jamb of the truck. It says that the passenger and cargo weight should not exceed 1976 pounds. To me that pretty much rules out that camper.

Do you guys agree, and if so are there any 5th wheels that I could tow safely, or should I just stay with the travel trailer? I've only had the truck for a year, so trading up is not an option now. Guess I should have gotten a 350.

NEVER use the dry pin weight to figure loaded pin weight, except as a very rough estimate. You can divide the dry pin by the total dry weight and multiply by the GVW of the FW to get a VERY ROUGH estimate of the max pin weight. Also, if you take 20% of the GVW, you should be in the same ballpark, as that's a fairly common pin weight %. I've read numerous times here that both Ford and Dodge 250's and 350's share virtually identical parts in certain configurations, but only the placard is changed to show a lighter GVW for the 250/2500 class. I'm not a Ford or Dodge guy, so don't know for sure. Personally, I'm with the guys who say that if you stay within the RAWR and the tire ratings, you're OK. My own truck has 265 tires instead of the OEM 245 tires, which gives me about 900 lbs higher tire rating, and puts me =over= the RAWR instead of about 600 lbs =under=, with the OEM tires.

Lyle