Tow Vehical

rayeckles wrote:
Thanks guys the GVWR rating is 15000 lbs, the rig is a Bighorn Silverado

based on the rule of thumb that pin weight is 20% of trailer GVWR would give you a pin weight of 3000#. Actual pin weight varies with a lot of factors such whether you carry water or not, what you've got loaded in the trailer and where it's loaded (behind the wheels vs. in front of the wheels).
To give an example using actual numbers, I've got 3500HD Chevy Diesel. The truck loaded with our 2 dogs, wife & I, full fuel, hitch in the truck bed, etc., (i.e. loaded ready to tow to go camping) weighs 8300-8400#. My truck GVWR is 11,400# so the difference is what i could have for pin weight = 3100-3000#. My trailer has GVWR of 14000# and a pin weight of 2600#. So, in this case my pin wt. is less than the 20% thumb rule, but not by much.

Thanks guys the GVWR rating is 15000 lbs, the rig is a Bighorn Silverado

Long bed Dually, large gas eng. or diesel 1 Ton, the only way to go, IMHO

That's going to be a heavy trailer when it's loaded, get all the TV you can afford.
Nobody ever complains that they have too much TV.

Get a dually in your choice of brands and travel with a piece of mind.

rayeckles wrote:
Well I bit the bullet, went out a bought a new 5th wheel and need some advise. What tow/ truck should I look into, the dry load is approx. 11298 lbs. What truck would you recommend and size and gas or diesel. Thanks RV'ers.

Dry weight has little meaning. What is the GVWR of the trailer. Generally a 350/3500 class SRW would be a good starting point. Kind of depends on the year of the truck also.

It is easy to not have enough truck, and much harder to have to much truck.

My choice would be either one of the two 3500 SRW Diesel long box offerings. If looking at RAM be sure it has the Aisin transmission, which is a $2650 option(Code H28 I believe), which is much better than the RAM inhouse 6 speed auto. Recently I have test driven two of these bad boys. Really Nice!

Chris

Agree dry weights aren't worth the paper they're printed on. But based on that number my guess would be for your true shipping weight to be approx 12K depending on options etc. so that would most likely put your Gross somewhere between 14 to 15K which means pin weights in the 2500 to 3000 range. So for these possible numbers I wouldn't go for anything less than a 350/3500 SRW Diesel, to remove all doubt just go the Diesel Dually and not worry about it.

dup post!

what is the make/model of the trailer?

what's the trailer GVWR?

dry wt. is kind of a meaningless number cause 1) it doesn't accurately represent trailer wt. that you'll actually be towing and 2) it's a design number that oftentimes doesn't include options, propane, batteries, any water or waste in the tanks, etc.

It's good that you bought a trailer first and are now shopping for the appropriate truck.