Towing Heavy 5er with SRW Truck

I am confused about why a SRW vs a DRW will have a different turning radius if the wheel base is the same and the wheel cut angle is the same, how in the turning radius greatly different?

I do not think I would ever purchase a DRW truck. If I had the need for more the 7K like the new SRW RAM 3500's have, I would dial 1-800-Rickson and install 19.5 wheels and tires. I would however little lower gears than 3:42. Come RAM at least offer 3:73 gears in the SRW 3500.

Chris

2008Wildcat wrote:
I have towed a 13' 2" tall 5th with both a DRW and now a SRW truck.

Is there a difference? Sure. The DRW felt more stable in turns. I installed airbags for stability, not extra weight carrying. I am more than confident in my SRW truck.

I will gladly turn circles inside of your DRW trucks turning radius, plus find plenty of parking that isn't a mile from where I want to go. Try taking your DRW truck up the Mt. Washington Auto road....tell me how great it is there. Oh, wait, you won't be going up the road.

Everyone has their own situation and preference. If you full time, and drive around the country, park your rig, and sit there, I'm sure a DRW is the best thing since sliced bread. If you travel back roads, go visit places once you are there, and have to park your rig into tight places, SRW is great.

I can tell you, 90% of the RV delivery drivers I see on a daily basis are towing with SRW trucks.....to them, it is all about registration, maintenance, wear, being able to get in and out of tight spots, and capability.

Your preaching to the choir...I purchased a dually, based on my towing needs, and more than likely making one more purchase on a much heavier 5er... so I've got the truck. though I've never had to add air bags to any dually I've ever owned. Did have to help level a 2500 once.

No doubt you could turn circles inside the circle I would make. Never been to the part of the country you're talking about, but I've never had to park a "mile" from anywhere to have to walk somewhere, (now we're into embellishing:)). I go through drive throughs, and the dually is my daily driver.

One minute you say everyone has their preference, which is 100% correct, then it appears you get a bit mad by stating, the DRW is the "best thing since sliced bread"..."reeked with sarcasm for sure:)

I would only recommend a dually for anyone who is going to tow a very heavy 5er...It's what you get use to...I've owned a LOT of SRW trucks, and thus far, the maintenance is no more for the dually than for the SRW, (cept when you replace tires...do buy two more:)).

I do a lot of "back roading" in the states of WV, NC and VA and I've yet to not been able to get where I wanted to go...most are in the middle of no where, several you have to drive through creeks, so I guess it's what you make of it.

Again, in full agreement with you, I just don't take it to the level of preaching that the only truck one can tow with is a dually, that is inanely ridiculous, BUT, if someone is towing heavy, I may recommend a dually, but I don't spew out sarcasm or bias when I do either.

I could also tell you that 75% of all RV delivers that I see and read about on the cummins forum or the diesel place, use dually's to tow and deliver 5er's with...guess it depends on what part of the country you live in.. I sure wouldn't want to deliver or tow a 23,000# 5er around with a SRW truck when a dually would do a better job of it...Again, everything has it's place, just like a dually, just like a 3500 SRW and 2500 truck....nothing more, nothing less....Most don't need a dually, BUT, some do....I've owned all and liked all for what I needed them for.....

I have towed a 13' 2" tall 5th with both a DRW and now a SRW truck.

Is there a difference? Sure. The DRW felt more stable in turns. I installed airbags for stability, not extra weight carrying. I am more than confident in my SRW truck.

I will gladly turn circles inside of your DRW trucks turning radius, plus find plenty of parking that isn't a mile from where I want to go. Try taking your DRW truck up the Mt. Washington Auto road....tell me how great it is there. Oh, wait, you won't be going up the road.

Everyone has their own situation and preference. If you full time, and drive around the country, park your rig, and sit there, I'm sure a DRW is the best thing since sliced bread. If you travel back roads, go visit places once you are there, and have to park your rig into tight places, SRW is great.

I can tell you, 90% of the RV delivery drivers I see on a daily basis are towing with SRW trucks.....to them, it is all about registration, maintenance, wear, being able to get in and out of tight spots, and capability.

JEBar wrote:
our last former truck was a Chevy 3500 Dually, our current truck is Freightliner Sportchassis .... prior to them we towed with a variety of single rear wheel driver trucks .... at one time I bought into all of the stereotypical reasons why a dually was the only way to go when towing heavy campers, boats and trailers .... hundreds of thousands of miles through all of the lower 48, over the Rockies and prairies have convinced me that should I ever buy another truck for towing it will not be a dually .... it will be a late model, one ton, single rear wheel truck .... with the capabilities of the new generation of trucks, I'm convinced that the days of having to have a dually for the vast majority of campers on the market is history .... folks most certainly should go with whatever style truck best meets their needs

Jim

Don't recollect anyone saying anyone HAD to own a dually...I don't have the obvious experience you have....I only know what I know from towing pop-up's, travel trailers, hilos and 5er's all through the mountains with plain old regular cars, and trucks....no big deal, been doing it for about 40 years now....No where did anyone state that you absolutely needed a dually to tow with....that's a bit ludicrous..

If I found a SRW truck that would do what I needed it to do, that would be what I would own..but I'm one of the "Weight police", you know, one of those stupid fools who actually tries to keep within his trucks GVWR....not the RAWR mind you, but the GVWR...something unheard of now a day's and stupid in most peoples thinking.

I merely stated, that towing a 16,000# 5er though the very curvy, quite steep at times, mountainous roads in WV, TN, VA and NC that I've towed in....just so happens, I towed the same 5er with both...I Merely stated that the towing experience in my infinite stupidity was more stable when cornering on these up and down, steep curvy mountains. If the weight of the 5er doesn't call for a dually, then why buy one....don't recollect many, if any stating such....but hey, you have far more experience than I, and with much, much larger equipment, I'm merely speaking from towing rv's a with a silly pick up truck, or a car or an SUV....

"sterotypical"...man I can't compete with your infinite wisdom, I bow to superiority on the subject...I merely stated if one is towing HEAVY, ie 16,000# or more in the mountains, I think a dually would offer a more stable tow, but I'm not real bright....you have a HDH, I'm not in the same class.....you win, your right because...well, you have far more experience and know much more about all this......'nuff said.


.......gotta ask, why are you towing such a light weight 5er with a HDH? It's far more than a dually...one should be able to tow that with a brand new 2500....just curious.

our last former truck was a Chevy 3500 Dually, our current truck is Freightliner Sportchassis .... prior to them we towed with a variety of single rear wheel driver trucks .... at one time I bought into all of the stereotypical reasons why a dually was the only way to go when towing heavy campers, boats and trailers .... hundreds of thousands of miles through all of the lower 48, over the Rockies and prairies have convinced me that should I ever buy another truck for towing it will not be a dually .... it will be a late model, one ton, single rear wheel truck .... with the capabilities of the new generation of trucks, I'm convinced that the days of having to have a dually for the vast majority of campers on the market is history .... folks most certainly should go with whatever style truck best meets their needs

Jim

NC Hauler wrote:

ependydad wrote:

ependydad wrote:

travisgsf wrote:
Do you feel in control?

I'll be shocked if anyone who is currently towing over their ratings admits to not feeling in control (regardless of what they actually feel). You'll get a lot of folks saying, "tows just fine" and "barely know it's back there".

You'll get a handful of responses saying they used to pull with a 2500 or SWR or whatever and upgraded to a dually and claim a "night and day difference".

And you'll get a few of us who have only pulled with a dually telling you we can't imagine towing with less.

(shrugs)

5 pages and so far I've been right. :D

I didn't call out the bickering between the groups. These threads always bring that out in folks!

Guess I fall into the group that HAS towed the same 5er with both SRW and then Dually, BUT, never stated, difference was "night and day", but have stated, based on towing on mountainous, curvy roads, I could tell a difference in stability of the towing experience. Towing same 5er seemed to be a more stable tow...but I rarely tow on "Level" ground, so I'm basing again, on mountainous, curvy roads.

I too have towed with both srw and drw. I'm sure we have different driving styles but I like the way my srw handles better than my drw. I also tow in mountainous terrain in Tenn and Eastern Ky.

I use my trailer brake controller with my hand so that eliminates any trailer push in turns. Also, did your srw have the same sway bars as the drw trucks that you have had? That has more of an effect on control than drw's.

How much of a difference in year was the swr than the dwr that you changed to?

Johnny_H wrote:
These discussions always seem to point to only one consideration.....weight, well I really hate to bust any balloons here, but the biggest stability difference between the SRW's and the DRW's and even the class 7 & 8's is the height of most of the 5'ers on the road, come on folks, most of them are 13'6" tall. The same as the semis running down the road. That is the #1 stability factor between SRW and DRW.

I don't understand this one. My hitch swivels back and forth and side to side, so how does the height of the trailer significantly affect the stability of the tow vehicle? I agree the height of the trailer (mine is 13'4") does affect how the trailer "handles", and I worry about that, especially when cornering at highway speed. In fact, I keep my water tanks and fuel station full in part to lower the center of gravity. Are we saying the same thing?
And BTW, I really don't like the bickering and aloofness that some people inject in these discussions. We're all here to learn and share.

CumminsDriver wrote:

rtazz17 wrote:

bad99ram wrote:

fairhaven wrote:

ol Bombero-JC wrote:

donn0128 wrote:

The majority of those towing heavy with a SRW truck simply do not understand towing at all. They have listened to a salesman telling them anything to make a sale and go blissfully into the sunset ignorant of the real world around them.

How can you speak for "the majority" - the minority, or *ANY* group of tow vehicle owners?.:h

Did you interview them?.:h

Take a poll - or what?.:h

For your stats:
Never discussed (or even asked) what my 1T SRW was capable of towing.
I *knew* what those figures were - and planned accordingly.
I also knew - due to my previous SRW LB 1T pickup - the next one would *not* be a long bed.
There was never any towing discussion with that one either.

Dually was never in the consideration - if one *ever* is, it will be a singled HDT.

BTW - calling buyers "ignorant" - is a blissful case of being hoisted by your own petard..:S

.

X2 what ol Bombero-JC said.

X3

X4

X5
Plus I'd like to add, it never gets mentioned here about driver ability and experience. I know some people who would get themselves into trouble with a Dually towing a lawn mower on a small utility trailer, then there are the ones who have ability/experience and can handle larger trailers without the truck being a Dually. It's not all about the tow vehicle, it also matters who is behind the wheel!

Rich

X2 to what CumminsDriver wrote
X6

rtazz17 wrote:

bad99ram wrote:

fairhaven wrote:
X2 what ol Bombero-JC said.

X3

X4

X5
Plus I'd like to add, it never gets mentioned here about driver ability and experience. I know some people who would get themselves into trouble with a Dually towing a lawn mower on a small utility trailer, then there are the ones who have ability/experience and can handle larger trailers without the truck being a Dually. It's not all about the tow vehicle, it also matters who is behind the wheel!

Rich

Johnny_H wrote:
These discussions always seem to point to only one consideration.....weight, well I really hate to bust any balloons here, but the biggest stability difference between the SRW's and the DRW's and even the class 7 & 8's is the height of most of the 5'ers on the road, come on folks, most of them are 13'6" tall. The same as the semis running down the road. That is the #1 stability factor between SRW and DRW.

All I can base my experience on is towing the same HIGH PROFILE 5er over the exact same terrain, loaded to the same weight by a SRW truck and a dually.....Will agree height can have something to do with it, but having driven on curvy, mountainous secondary highway with the same 5er on a SRW truck and a dually....the Dually seemed to not "roll" for want of a better word as much as the SRW truck....the load seem to be a little more stable. (5er weighing 16,000#)....pin weight of 3300#


no ballons busted here, I'm going by my own personal experience and have no reason to embellish or lie about my experience.