Sorry...another tow vehicle capacity thread
Lets just get this out of the way up front. I am a newbie to camping that made an uninformed purchase of too much 5th wheel for the truck I have. I already own the camper and the truck so no going b...
Forum Discussion
op wrote:
I know I am not alone out there as far as towing more 5ver than the truck is rated for...I think the most popular combo I see on the road is SRW truck with 5ver behind. And even if some of those are 350s/3500s...the GVWR capacity of those trucks isn't different from the 250s/2500s.
Since I can't un-buy the truck or the camper (especially the camper)...I am trying to find out what the real potential consequences are from continuing to tow with the truck I have. I know it is not the limitations of the engine/transmission because they put the same engine/transmission in the 350s and 450s.
Looks like you have it figured right on the engine/tranny part. Looking at Fords body service specs shows your F250 simply has a lower 6100 RAWR rear spring pack rating than the same F350 SRW which may have a 6290 RAWR or a 6730 RAWR or a 7000 RAWR spring pack ratings....all in the same truck with the same specs.
Is it the brakes not being able to appropriately stop the vehicle? To make matters worse...I had plan to replace the stock/original fuel tank with a tank that basically doubles the capacity...so I don't have to stop every 250 miles for fuel. Doing this would add another 180 lbs. on top of the weight I detailed above.
The brakes are specked the same on Fords F250/F350 SRW trucks according to Fords clicky link .
It wouldn't make cents/sense for you to loose money on a trade for a F350 SRW when the only difference is higher rated rear spring pack and higher rated 18"/20" wheels and tires.
Check out the F350 SRW on page #73 where it shows a 6.7 diesel 4x4 crew cab short bed 10k GVWR or a 11.2k GVWR ......in the same truck as yours.
So its not hard to see why dot doesn't use the truck mfg GVWR or a payload sticker number which is derived from GVWR, to determine how much load a truck may carry.
I would get separate front and rear axle weights for your truck. That way you know exactly what weight numbers your working with.
A single gross weight doesn't tell us much...... unless your hauling commercially.
