Tow rating comparison; 5th wheel vs bumper

blt2ski wrote:
Peaches,

Your rig probably weighs about 6500 plus minus 200 or so lbs. A quick way to tell the factory speced wt, Look in the glove box for the camper load sticker. If this says say 3000 lbs, add in the number of seat belts times 154 lbs IIRC and for a total of 3924, that is the factory speced payload with the options on YOUR rig. Take that 3954 less the gvwr probably 10K or 10500, and you have a pretty good guess that your base wt would be 6100 or 6600 with the two gvwr's I quoted.

You also probably have 4.10 gears, may have 4.56. GCWR is 16000 and 19000 for those gear sets. Not that it matters, as you are out of warranty. HP/Torque specs IIRC are 295/440 with the vortec 454 which is what you should have.


5whls should have somewhere from 15-25% hw on the truck. THe more generally speaking, the better. Many have tried to go with under 20%, then go to a higher payload rig, switch up to 22-23%, and say the towing is more comfortable, less sway bouncing etc.

Reality is, if you want to stay under gvwr, you will probably be limited to around 10-12K total lbs with that year model of dually. If you would have a 2000 or newer, then you could add another 2-4000 lbs, as they have a higher gvwr, axel ratings etc.

Marty