Moving from a Bumper Pull to a 5'er

danrclem wrote:
I bought a 2011 F-250 SC with 3:73 gears and a 6.2 earlier this year. We have a family camping trip each year and my son wanted to see how it would pull his TT that grosses at less than 6,000 lbs. He has to make two trips anyway to pull his boat down. It pulled it easily through the hills in southeastern Ky. on I-75. He was driving and I was a passenger. We came back and I pulled my FW which grosses at 10,000 lbs. I don't know how much actual towing weight was but don't think it was up to the 10,000 lbs.

I got better gas mileage than he did despite the heavier weight but I did drive slower. I increased my gas mileage on the return trip by slowing down to about 63 mph. You'll be just fine with a 9,000 gvwr camper. I don't know how it would do in the Rockies but I suspect it would do ok there also.

A FW does have a bigger frontal area but most are shaped more aerodynamically. The front also sits very close the the TV cab so the air has very little distance to dip down and cause extra drag. I'm in the camp that says a TV and FW have less drag than a TV and TT. I'd have to see actual testing that says the opposite to change my mind.

You can apply designs to improve aero for either design so yes a near flat front TT could have more drag than a 5th with a frontal radius design. With the design being equal the one with more frontal area will have more drag and that would be the 5th wheel.