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.

If you get a new truck, you can probably find a 1 ton SRW that is within ratings but you are pushing the upper bounds where I would want to move up to a dually.

You could pull and carry a pretty big TT with a SRW 3500 plus you have the truck bed for gear.

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

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.

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.

5th Wheel with no dually truck | Good Sam Community

valhalla360
Navigator
Aug 07, 2020
If you get a new truck, you can probably find a 1 ton SRW that is within ratings but you are pushing the upper bounds where I would want to move up to a dually.
Lwiddis
Explorer II
Aug 07, 2020
You could pull and carry a pretty big TT with a SRW 3500 plus you have the truck bed for gear.
TXiceman
Explorer II
Aug 07, 2020
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
BurbMan
Explorer II
Aug 07, 2020
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.
way2roll
Navigator II
Aug 07, 2020
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.
N-Trouble
Explorer
Aug 07, 2020
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.
ford_truck_guy
Nomad
Aug 07, 2020
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 !
BB_TX
Nomad
Aug 08, 2020
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.
rhagfo
Explorer III
Aug 08, 2020
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.
Pipeman
Explorer
Aug 08, 2020
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