TexasNate wrote:
Thanks for the input from everyone, it's much appreciated. We
The consensus seems to be that our truck is just not suitable for this heavy of a trailer so I think we're going to try to hire someone to transport it and then look into getting a more capable pickup for the future. Does anyone have a recommendation along the lines of what a baseline is for pickups for something this heavy? Should it be a 1
ton dually and less than 10 years old (or newer)? The last thing I want to do is put ourselves and other people on the road at risk but we travel a lot for work so I need to be able to pull this myself in the future.
Basically, you need to look up the specs on the truck. Tow rating is one issue but the bigger issue is payload.
A 5th wheel typically puts 20-25% of the weight on the pin, so a 16,000lb trailer will have a pin weight on the order of 3200-4000lb. That weight counts against the trucks payload. Add in a couple hundred for the hitch, maybe 350 for the people plus anything stored or bolted onto the truck and it's easy to need a 4500-5000lb payload.
