Picked up the new home. Road warrior
Anyone who is interested. 34" tires with 2" rear lift. I had a ton of room. 2014 415 road warrior. Big girl. Truck towed it great. No issues. Weighted it at the scales and im over on the rear ax...
Forum Discussion
Bedlam wrote:
The fifth wheel has independent braking of the tow vehicle, but the TV needs to have sufficient brakes if something goes wrong. There are braking standards with the the FW brakes working properly, but I have not seen a standard with the brakes disabled. So the question is what is sufficient TV braking? Towing the passes when full will strain your power train. You can drive smartly and slow down instead trying to keep up passenger cars or gear the differentials down and keep your top end speed down. Use your exhaust brake on the way down - If you are using your your service brakes, you are going too fast for conditions (weight and grade).
At some point you may want to upgrade to a larger or newer TV for added comfort and capacity, but you will not know until you have completed a few trips fully loaded to your favorite destinations.
The braking factor is the reason I upgraded to a larger truck. My F-350 really struggled to stop the rig. It had the power to pull the Fuzion 362 loaded with street bikes or a Smart Car. The F-350 is a single rear wheel so the stability was not as good as a dually.
On one trip the pig tail wiggled out, no lights, no brakes. I got pushed through a busy intersection in Birmingham Alabama. Luckily I didn't hit anyone or get t-boned from the traffic coming from the side street.
On another trip I got pushed down the south side of Monteagle Mountain headed to Chattanooga. I smoked the brakes on the truck and trailer. My F-350 does not have and engine/exhaust brake.
The Freightliner M2 doesn't care if the trailer brakes work or not. I bought the M2 used, not knowing the trailer brake relay was not working. For several trips the trailer brakes were not operating. The M2 stopped the rig with no problem. The two stage engine/exhaust brake is amazing. I never need the service brakes on downhills or ramps.
One of my tag lines is "too much truck, maybe... too much trailer, never again”.
People argue weight numbers on the forum all day and all night, and that’s OK. Discussions like that keep people on their toes, studying their rigs. How you add numbers or stats to braking capacity, I don’t know, but you will know if you go over the limit. Some will call it the pucker factor. If someone can quantify that limit, please share it.
