Buying a 39' Keystone Alpine 3660 and picking up Oct. 1st.

Why are so many trailers GVWR at 15,500 lbs? I believe this the upper limit of most modern SRW 350/3500 trucks. I have also had this confirmed my multiple RV dealers. Granted the OP would be more comfortable with a DRW truck but a SRW truck, properly setup would suffice.

Me Again wrote:

cmeade wrote:
We have a 2014 Alpine 3500RE with 4 slides and Ram 3500 4x4 SRW megacab with airbags and Bilstein 4600 shocks. My DW will not drive a dually due to a backing up "incident" years ago. We have towed about 10k miles so far (one trip CA to TX 5200 mi) and TV did great. We tow at 62 mph which appears to be the sweet spot. Things get unsettled at 70 mph and above so a dually might be the best bet if you want to go fast but fast not advised. Highly recommend the SRW if you don't drive like a crazuy man!! BTW B&W companion hitch and 2680 pin weight and 13.5 k lbs loaded weight.

Please to not confuse the issue for the OP with your smaller lighter trailer. With a CC of only 1880, the OP will be pushing his/her 15.5K GVWR most of the time.

Chris

????????? My 5ver is 39ft and GVWR is 15,500 and UVW is 12,500 which is the difference between OPs Alpine and mine. My loaded weight is about equal to his empty weight. I was giving OP a realistic example of a 3500 SRW pulling an Alpine.

Carefully examine the trailer towing guides from the truck manufacturers. It lists what '5th wheel' towing specs are for the model truck you may be interested in. We purchased a 2015 Alpine 3535RE and tow with a 2012 F350 SRW 4x4 Crew. From the 2012 Ford Trailer Towing Guide, Trailer tongue (trailer king pin for 5th-wheel towing) load weight should be 10-15% (15-25% for 5th-wheel towing) of total loaded trailer weight. Make sure vehicle payload (reduce by option weight) will accommodate trailer tongue (trailer king pin for 5th-wheel towing) load weight and weight of passengers and cargo added to towing vehicle. Addition of trailer tongue (trailer king pin for 5th-wheel towing) load weight and weight of passengers and cargo must not cause vehicle weights to exceed rear GAWR or GVWR. These ratings can be found on the vehicle Safety Compliance Certification Label. Always check the towing guide associated with the model year of the truck you are purchasing. Safe travels.

The unanswered question is why Keystone/Alpine produced a 39' trailer with only 1880 carrying capacity???? Do you think the sales person told the OP that they will have to pack really light with this model?

Chris

If you are pulling a 5th wheel there is never any reason to not buy a 3500 series truck. They ride the same, the cost is about the same in many cases they are cheaper to license because they are based on their weight vs the value of the truck. A 2500 might be okay for pulling a travel trailer but not for a 5th wheel.

B.O.

Chris, your numbers look good, but it is telling that the OP on this post should be looking at a DRW TV to stay within rear axle rating.

rhagfo wrote:
Chris, good luck with the weigh in!
Have you lightened the bed boxes a bit? I assume you will post numbers once you have scaled good or bad.

Russ

I will post the weights here as they are relevant to the OP situation.

Steer 5120
Drive 6620
Truck 11740
Trailer 12780
Total 24520

So the truck is over it's 11,700 GVWR but under it's licensed weight of 12K.

Overall happy with these numbers. Given a trailer with 500 pounds more dry pin weight, it appears that I would be over on my rear axle with OPs new trailer.

I will guest that my pin weight is around 3000-3200 pounds, so trailer is right around 15780K and I have a little more CC. These weights we have in the trailer would put the OP trailer way over it's GVWR.

Chris

cmeade wrote:
We have a 2014 Alpine 3500RE with 4 slides and Ram 3500 4x4 SRW megacab with airbags and Bilstein 4600 shocks. My DW will not drive a dually due to a backing up "incident" years ago. We have towed about 10k miles so far (one trip CA to TX 5200 mi) and TV did great. We tow at 62 mph which appears to be the sweet spot. Things get unsettled at 70 mph and above so a dually might be the best bet if you want to go fast but fast not advised. Highly recommend the SRW if you don't drive like a crazuy man!! BTW B&W companion hitch and 2680 pin weight and 13.5 k lbs loaded weight.

Please to not confuse the issue for the OP with your smaller lighter trailer. With a CC of only 1880, the OP will be pushing his/her 15.5K GVWR most of the time.

Chris

We have a 2014 Alpine 3500RE with 4 slides and Ram 3500 4x4 SRW megacab with airbags and Bilstein 4600 shocks. My DW will not drive a dually due to a backing up "incident" years ago. We have towed about 10k miles so far (one trip CA to TX 5200 mi) and TV did great. We tow at 62 mph which appears to be the sweet spot. Things get unsettled at 70 mph and above so a dually might be the best bet if you want to go fast but fast not advised. Highly recommend the SRW if you don't drive like a crazuy man!! BTW B&W companion hitch and 2680 pin weight and 13.5 k lbs loaded weight.

Wow, I'm finding I don't know much about fifth wheels at all. So it looks like a dually is in order... We are planning on being full timers. I have so much to learn!