2012 f250 Diesel Engine Fifthwheel towing

[losmt21]

Everyone.

I am glad to be a part of this formum. I have seen some really good questions get answered and I firmly believe this discussion. I wanted to ask a couple of questions concerning fifthwheel towing. I have a 2012 F250 Diesel short bed with 3.55 gears. I am currenly looking at purchasing a 2014 gateway (heartland) Fifthwheel. The Dry weight is 11,000 and the Gross total weight 14,000. The pin weight will be 2070 lbs. My truck is 10,000 I was wondering if I would have enough truck to pull this camper? 90% percent of the time I will be camping local within 15 minutes from my house. Maybe once a year travel outside of GA. Reading from my door are Front #5940 and rear 6100 from the sticker on my door.

[sdetweil]

Peg Leg wrote:
You say 6100 on the rear. This means you've got E rated tires at 3042 lbs at 80 psi. This is your weak spot. You might be able to find some 3400 lb capacity tires to help out. This would not change your rear axle rating or your GVWR, you would have to get a DOT inspection and recertify the truck for that. But your not a commercial vehicle either.

The rear is also sprung for 6100 lbs so you may be looking at some more upgrades.

that is not how it IS sprung, just how its documented. for taxing and licensing purposes the manufacturers need to have a vehicle 10,000 gvwr or less. that is the 250 or 2500 or whatever dodge calls it.
the technical part doesn't have to matter. its the door sticker that counts.

the axles, brakes and tires are identical between the 2011-2014 Ford F250 and 350 SRW trucks. the springs are different 250 to 350.
but the towing capacity is the same (23500 gcvwr) regardless of rear gear 3.55 or 3.31, and the trailer max is the same.

the part numbers are identical.

but in the end, you still have to figure out what is best for you.
a blown tire, carrying technically too much could lead someone's lawyer to make your life hell.. not to mention the possible injury to your passengers or yourself.

[Peg_Leg]

You say 6100 on the rear. This means you've got E rated tires at 3042 lbs at 80 psi. This is your weak spot. You might be able to find some 3400 lb capacity tires to help out. This would not change your rear axle rating or your GVWR, you would have to get a DOT inspection and recertify the truck for that. But your not a commercial vehicle either.

The rear is also sprung for 6100 lbs so you may be looking at some more upgrades.

[PA12DRVR]

The question for you to consider, and only you can answer it, is whether or not you want to stay within the published limits for your vehicle....meaning the limits published by Ford, not the axle manufacturer, not the tire manufacturer, and certainly not the internet experts.

If you want to stay within the vehicle limits published by Ford, then you need to weigh your truck as loaded for camping: subtract that figure from your truck's GVWR...that's the leftover payload you have to play with.

If you don't want to stay within your vehicle limits, just see what others are towing with F250's and do what they're doing.

[therink]

losmt21 wrote:
Thanks for getting back to me so soon. If thats the case what would be the largest 5er I could haul. Then I will proably look for Fifthwheels under 10,000 Gross. Thanks for your help!

Steve

I would recommend a fiver with gvwr under 12k to be within posted gvwr of truck. Will it handle more? Sure, but I prefer to stay within the posted ratings on the sticker with my set up. In the event of an accident, exceedance of any truck ratings could come into play.
You will likely get lots of opinions on this issue. Its your choice.
Good luck and be safe.
Steve

[Rjdreyer]

My payload on my F250 is 2020 lbs. It is listed on the drivers side door sill. Need to keep all additional weight put into/on the truck close to these numbers.

[Old-Biscuit]

Pin weight will be closer to 2800# when loaded up for camping.

You will be over RAWR and probably over/close MAX LOAD rating on tires.
You will probably be over GVWR also.

Our 5'vr at 14K has a pin weight of 2900#(+) and I am right at ratings on my '07 3500

BUT as we travel we see a LOT of 250/2500's towing 5'vrs I would question towing with my 3500. I believe ratings are there for a reason so I stay close...at the edge :B

Take your truck to a CAT scale (or any scale) and get it weighed......fully loaded up camp ready (you, passengers, stuff in cab/bed).
Then you will have weights for front axle, rear axle, total for truck.
Take rear axle weight and subtract from RAWR...that will be your 'payload'...how much pin weight you have room for. (don't forget to add weight of 5'vr hitch 250# if you don;t have one in truck bed).

Look for a 5'vr that 20% of GVWR is same/lower than your actual payload.

[sdetweil]

losmt21 wrote:
Everyone.

I am glad to be a part of this formum. I have seen some really good questions get answered and I firmly believe this discussion. I wanted to ask a couple of questions concerning fifthwheel towing. I have a 2012 F250 Diesel short bed with 3.55 gears. I am currenly looking at purchasing a 2014 gateway (heartland) Fifthwheel. The Dry weight is 11,000 and the Gross total weight 14,000. The pin weight will be 2070 lbs. My truck is 10,000 I was wondering if I would have enough truck to pull this camper? 90% percent of the time I will be camping local within 15 minutes from my house. Maybe once a year travel outside of GA. Reading from my door are Front #5940 and rear 6100 from the sticker on my door.

I just sold my 2012 F250 shortbed. when I weighed it empty, the rear axle weight was 3380. so 6100-3380 = 2720. so a pin weight of 2070 would leave u about 650 lbs to carry on the truck axle. (people, stuff in the bed, and any extra weight put on by stuff in the trailer).

the 10,000 is a paper statement, cause the rear axle, brakes, tires are the same as the 350. if you look at the tires they are rated at 3680/tire (@80 psi). thats 7360. the 350 with the 11500 gvwr has a RAWR of 7000. so an additional 900 on the same tires.

so, you will be close to the max carry weight. the gcvwr is 23500 on both the 250 and 350, so you can PULL and STOP a lot. my truck weighed 8830 empty.. of its 10000 limit. so 23500-8830 = 14670.
so you will be close but not over there.

you WILL want to add some additional spring support in the rear. as they softened the 250 springs to make it more 'comfortable'.
I added Firestone airbags to mine.

many of my friends on the ford truck forums http://ford-trucks.com/forums/forum205 tow large with 250's. I wasn't comfortable myself being right at the edge.

I moved up to a 2012 350 dually as the trailers we are looking at have a near 3000 pin weight and almost 16000 gvwr.
(I miss my 3.31 gears tho!)

[losmt21]

Thanks for getting back to me so soon. If thats the case what would be the largest 5er I could haul. Then I will proably look for Fifthwheels under 10,000 Gross. Thanks for your help!

Steve

[therink]

Hi
The pin weught you stated is unloaded frok factory. The pin weight will actually be about 20% of the loaded trailer weight. If you use the gvwr of 14,000 x 20%, the pin weight loaded will be up to 2800 lbs. I believe the gvwr of your f250 is around 2900 lbs. That will lrave you about 100 lbs for passengers, gear/tools/firewood in the bed,options and hitch.
That fifth wheel should be towed with nothing less than a SRW 1 ton truck.
Don't get me wrong, the truck/engine will pull it fine, but you will be exceeding one if not more of the posted weight ratings for the truck. I would not do it.
Steve