Proper truck for a very heavy trailer
I am moving out of my tour bus that I converted and into a Space Craft trailer. Those of you familiar with Space Craft will understand that it's very heavy. It's a 43' fifth wheel trailer with about 7-8k of pin weight and about 24k of total trailer weight.
We're looking at trucks, and across the board it looks like the one-ton trucks can't cut it. So we've been looking at the Ram 5500 and the Ford F550 (and even the F650), so we've been learning way more about towing than we realized existed. We are in California, which limits our options. We've considered some of the semi tractors, but would prefer something that looks more like a pickup. We also are a family of three, so we need a crew cab.
One of the things we were not thrilled about with the tour bus was its inability to drive up a mountain over 30 mph. The bus had a 6V92T with 300 HP and ~900 lb-ft of torque and was similar weight, close to 26k lbs.
Looking at the 550 and 5500 options seems to put us in about the same boat, though sometimes with more torque. I'm hoping that it will be able to safely pull the trailer up a 5-6% grade at better than 30 mph, but is that just because of the better transmission with more gears, considering the power is about the same?
The F650 seems like a beefier solution but I've read in some places that they are just heavier and often slower.
So.. general thoughts on the right kind of truck to get and things I need to know about (like trailer brake controllers, possibly getting air suspension or maybe air brakes, power needs, axle ratios...)?
I feel like there's so much to learn I'll never know when I'm done, but we need the truck soon.
Generally looking at used vehicles with 30-90k miles.
