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5th Wheel with no dually truck

rieltime
Explorer
Explorer
Greetings, my wife and I are in the early stage of being Seniors and are in the planning stage and intend on purchasing a RV (5th Wheel?) by spring of '21. We do intend on traveling across country and beyond when we retire and could travel about 4 months out of the year. Our budget is approximately $125k including truck. I stopped in a local RV dealer and looked at the Cedar Creek Silverback and liked the 31IK floor plan. This unit has a UVW of 11,244, GVWR of 14,435 and hitch weigh of 2,435. After digging in to see what type of truck is preferred, I noticed and came to the conclusion that I really should have a 350/3500 series, diesel with a dually. I really would prefer not to go the dually route as it limits the use of the truck as it would be my daily driver when not towing. So I need to shrink my 5th Wheeler requirement to accommodate. I intend on purchasing a turbo diesel truck and am leaning on the Chevy 3500HD double cab. I looking for my best option in a 5th wheeler to tow with it or equivalent. What size rig and weight of an RV should I be looking for and assured of being safe and confident? Would I be better off looking at TT's instead? Thanks all and be safe out there.
30 REPLIES 30

TXiceman
Explorer II
Explorer II
ACZL wrote:
1 ton SRW will handle anything w/ ease under 15k. No need for DRW in the senerio you spoke of.


Yes, but it must be a properly equipped SRW, Go back a few years and they will not have enough payload capacity.

On the newer truck, look for the yellow sticker on the drivers door jamb. It will provide the payload capacity of that particular truck. With the paylaod capacity, you can add the trailer loaded pin weight plus the hitch, plus passengers, plus any cargo to get your total payload. This total must be lower than the payload on the sticker.

You can use this method or weigh the truck and get the base line numbers.

Ken
Amateur Radio Operator.
2023 Cougar 22MLS, toted with a 2022, F150, 3.5L EcoBoost, Crewcab, Max Tow, FORMER Full Time RVer. Travel with a standard schnauzer and a Timneh African Gray parrot

ACZL
Explorer
Explorer
1 ton SRW will handle anything w/ ease under 15k. No need for DRW in the senerio you spoke of.
2017 F350 DRW XLT, CC, 4x4, 6.7
2018 Big Country 3560 SS
"The best part of RVing and Snowmobiling is spending time with family and friends"
"Catin' in the Winter"

mtofell1
Explorer
Explorer
15K loaded 5th wheel is well within all numbers for any of the new SRW 350/3500s. I probably wouldn't go too far above that without going up to a DRW.

StirCrazy
Moderator
Moderator
I tow a 40' 5th with a 2800 lb pin weight and I still have 1000 lbs left over in my 2014 F350 crew cab long box. I do have the 11500 lb GVW option though. thats one thing to look at for the truck, you can get higher payload and GVW packages depending on options.

Steve
2014 F350 6.7 Platinum
2016 Cougar 330RBK
1991 Slumber Queen WS100

Allworth
Explorer II
Explorer II
I pull 13,500# with my 3500 SRW long bed diesel and have never felt that I needed more truck.

Florida, New England, Nova Scotia, Yellowstone, Alaska, Yosemite, Monarch Pass, and everywhere in between.

A
Formerly posting as "littleblackdog"
Martha, Allen, & Blackjack
2006 Chevy 3500 D/A LB SRW, RVND 7710
Previously: 2008 Titanium 30E35SA. Currently no trailer due to age & mobility problems. Very sad!
"Real Jeeps have round headlights"

4x4ord
Explorer III
Explorer III
The more weight I get on the pin of my fifth wheel hitch in the bed of my truck the nicer the truck pulls. I would much rather pull a 14000 lb 5ver having a 3000 lb pin with my SRW than a tag trailer of any weight.
2023 F350 SRW Platinum short box 4x4.
B&W Companion
2008 Citation Platinum XL 34.5

Pipeman
Explorer
Explorer
I have a dually and it is my daily driver. I don't have a problem with it at all. It is 9 years old and a diesel, long box, 4 door and seats 5 people.I haul a 35 ft 5er with it. In my opinion there isn't any reason to be leery about using a dually as a daily driver. My 3 cents
Pipeman
Ontario, Canada
Full Member
35 year Fire Fighter(retired)
VE3PJF

rhagfo
Explorer III
Explorer III
Well newer SRW 350/3500's can have payloads above 4,000# you need to know how much of that will be eaten up before you hook up a 5er. We full time and we lost about 1,400# from our 5,411# payload of our 2016 Ram Laramie DRW. We daily drive the DRW as it is our only vehicle, you get use to the hips.
Russ & Paula the Beagle Belle.
2016 Ram Laramie 3500 Aisin DRW 4X4 Long bed.
2005 Copper Canyon 293 FWSLS, 32' GVWR 12,360#

"Visit and Enjoy Oregon State Parks"

BB_TX
Nomad
Nomad
Newer 350/3500 SRW trucks can handle pin weights well over 3,000 lbs. Just need to find the right truck configuration as the payloads vary based on engine, cab, bed, drive train, even tires.

MY 2020 SRW tows, stops, and carries the weigh just fine of my 16,320# scaled weight ( loaded ) fiver. These newer generation SRW's are not like the older ones...

My Payload is now 4562#... Up from 3364# in my old 2015 and that new 10 speed is great !
Me-Her-the kids
2020 Ford F350 SD 6.7
2020 Redwood 3991RD Garnet

N-Trouble
Explorer
Explorer
UVW is well with SRW limits. Are you going to be loading it with 3klbs of “stuff”. I barely carry that much weight in my Toyhauler even with a UTV loaded.
2015 Attitude 28SAG w/slide
2012 GMC 2500HD SLT Duramax
B&W Turnover w/Andersen Ultimate 5er hitch

way2roll
Navigator II
Navigator II
This is so funny, we just went through the same thing and bought a Cedar creek silver back 29RW and 2020 F350 6.7l turbo diesel. We are extremely happy with both choices. I've had motorhomes in the past and the Cedar Creek fifth wheel is a much better quality RV than the class A's we had. The wall construction, name brand appliances, insulation, a lot of goodies already built in, it's a long list. It was a little more money than comparable FW's but well worth it. The truck is outstanding and has tons of power. It's a single rear wheel and hardly squats under load of the FW - it actually lowers to level which is what you want. We didn't want a dually and with this FW (and probably much larger) you don't need it. This truck was built to do exactly what it needs towing the FW. The 10 speed tranny and lots of features that make towing so easy. We went with the 8' bed to avoid having to have a slider hitch. Feel free to PM if you have any questions but I'd say you are on a solid path.

Jeff - 2023 FR Sunseeker 2400B MBS

BurbMan
Explorer II
Explorer II
If you are going to travel 4 months/year, I would stay with a 5er. You can spend $3k on a Hensley Arrow hitch to make a TT tow as good as a 5er, but since you are starting fresh why bother.

The usual advice is to buy the trailer first, then get a truck with enough capacity to handle it. In our case, we got a truck camper that weighs 3017 lbs wet, so we needed a truck that could handle that plus cargo.

We just bought a 2015 Ram 3500 Laramie SRW crew cab longbox with Cummins diesel, and it is rated to carry almost 4300 lbs. Yes a dually will handle more, but like you, we didn't want a dually and the SRW had the capacity that we needed. The biggest challenge we had was finding a 3500 diesel that wasn't a dually!

A 3000 lb pin weight will get you a heckuva trailer.

TXiceman
Explorer II
Explorer II
The newer SRW trucks have higher payload capacities. But ignore the dry and brochure weights from the manufacturers. A typical 5er, loaded for full time use will have a loaded pin weight of close to or more than 20% of the trailers GVWR. Ours is 22%.

So the trailer you are looking at will be closer to 0.2 x 14,435 or more like 2887# or more.

Make sure the truck has a payload capacity of 2887# plus passengers, plus hitch, plus any cargo in the bed.

We are full time and use our F350 crewcab dually as a daily driver with no issues. It is not a matter of what you prefer, but a matter of what the truck can carry.

Ken
Amateur Radio Operator.
2023 Cougar 22MLS, toted with a 2022, F150, 3.5L EcoBoost, Crewcab, Max Tow, FORMER Full Time RVer. Travel with a standard schnauzer and a Timneh African Gray parrot

Lwiddis
Explorer II
Explorer II
You could pull and carry a pretty big TT with a SRW 3500 plus you have the truck bed for gear.
Winnebago 2101DS TT & 2022 Chevy Silverado 1500 LTZ Z71, WindyNation 300 watt solar-Lossigy 200 AH Lithium battery. Prefer boondocking, USFS, COE, BLM, NPS, TVA, state camps. Bicyclist. 14 yr. Army -11B40 then 11A - (MOS 1542 & 1560) IOBC & IOAC grad