air bags on truck
We were told that by adding air bags to our truck we could pull a 5th wheel that is heavier than the manufacturers recommendations. Does anyone know about this? We have been told by more than one RV d...
Forum Discussion
Cummins12V98 wrote:Golden_HVAC wrote:
Basically the manufactures publish the "Maximum towing ability" rating by taking a stock truck, without the 4 wheel drive 400 pound option, or any other options, and add a 154 pound driver. No passengers, not even 3 pounds of sandwich and diet coke.
Say the curb weight with the driver is 7,200 pounds. The GCVWR with truck and trailer is 22,200 pounds. Then they publish 'It can tow 15,000 pounds'. However this is not true. If the GVWR of the pickup is only 8,800 pounds (like 2004 and earlier F-250's or 9,200 pounds like the older GMC 2500 trucks) then the cargo rating on the truck is less than 2,000 pounds, and fifth wheel towing would be limited to only about 10,000 pounds before going over the GVWR of the truck.
And if you should want to go camping with your family, and take along 500 pounds of passengers, and perhaps install a 150 pound hitch in the truck to tow that fifth wheel, your truck curb weight will increase to say 7,850 pounds. Now even a 11,500 pound GVWR SRW F-350 made after 2005 would seem limiting on what fifth wheel you can safely tow before going over the GVWR. 11,500 - 7,850 = 3,650 pounds. Take a 15,000 pound fifth wheel, and 20% of that is 3,000 pounds on the pin. That will put you just under the pickup's GVWR by about 650 pounds. You will not be over the rear axle weight rating (something like 7,000 pounds in the case of the F-350 2005 and later with 18" rims and "E" rated tires). But the truck's braking system was designed to stop the entire 11,500 pounds, not 12,350 pounds or whatever someone might load it up to.
Get the right truck, and until then - select a travel trailer that is well within your cargo rating on the truck that you have, until you can get the truck that is needed to tow the fifth wheel that is of your dreams!
Have fun camping!
Fred.
Good points!
So now days there are about 10 different GVWR, and GRAWR depending on packages installed.
My 01 with Camper Package is basically a SRW 3500 not offered in 01, or 02, tires have 373# EA. additional capacity, 3500 springs, but the VIN sticker is still STATES 8,800# I tow at 10,000# and am still better than level with 600#+ available on the 6,084# GRAWR, which should be 6,830# due to the bigger tires.
Don't have bags don't need or want them.
