How easy/difficult to travel with 14,300 lb dry fifth wheel?

[janegowest]

I keep falling for the heavier rigs with lots of storage!! Anyone out there that is not full-timing, traveling with a trailer this heavy dry weight?

Or if you full-timers are traveling with heavy rigs, I would like to hear from you as well.

Oh, and what kind of MPG are you getting with your dually pulling your heavy rigs?

[rmalik1]

have fulltimed in the past and will again in the future. 15.5k dry which doesn't mean much, loaded we weight about 18k - Go to Escapee's smart weight and get checked then u know for sure; peace of mind for 55 bucks & thats w/ everything filled up! We don't stay at parks (to often) so it's not that important to us as long as we are close to what we want to see. MPG also is the cost of rv'ing so if it's 8,10,15 mpg then thats what it is. There are ways to reduce the hit u take in $ dependent on the length of time spent on the road and the length of time it takes u to get from point A to point B.

As for the problem w/ big rigs u get use to figuring things out. U will use a motor carrier road atlas, a good trucker/rv gps, extra fuel capacity with in-bed or replacement fuel tank or MDT truck, I've f350 psd,lb,crew cab,dw with a 50 gal in-bed transfer flow, dezl 560lmt, and don't have to worry much about finding fuel stops etc. I'm 6 feet shorter than a 53 ft tractor trailer rig so I go were they go for fuel and vittles !!!

[janegowest]

Not very heavy for a 41'. That's great!

[kakampers]

janegowest wrote:

kakampers wrote:
We fulltime and tow a 41', 17,600 pound Landmark with a 4,200 pound pin weight. We tow with a 2011 Chevy 3500 DRW and get 10-11 mpg....

Is that the dry weight?

No, that's loaded...dry weight was 13,864 lbs.

[RedJeep]

Forgot to mention... 8.5mpg, but mostly hill and mountain driving. My truck is older but drives great in my current configuration. 2001 7.3l diesel dually and 15-16k lbs for my toy hauler.

[janegowest]

kakampers wrote:
We fulltime and tow a 41', 17,600 pound Landmark with a 4,200 pound pin weight. We tow with a 2011 Chevy 3500 DRW and get 10-11 mpg....

Is that the dry weight?

[Cummins12V98]

TXiceman wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:

TXiceman wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Proper TV not a problem! 28K+ combined 9.5 hand calc West Coast average. Dry weight means nothing. Look at combined weight rating then take up to 25% of that to calculate your pin weight. Mine is 4,500#.

You might want o explain what you are taking 25% of to get your weight.

For a typical larger 5th wheel trailer, your loaded pin weight will run around 20% up to maybe 25% of the TRAILERS GVWR...not a combined weight.

25% of your listed combined of 28,000# is 7000#.

Ken

I could be a smart AZZ I suppose and say what is 4,500# 25% of but my RV weigh is at least 18K and probably more since I last weighed it so the answer is 25% of my RV's total weight 18,000# is 4,500#.

Go back and read exactly what you wrote.

I am not arguing, just wanting to make sure the readers get truthful information.

Ken

I see you could read it two ways.

I should have said. "Look at combined weight rating OF THE RV then take up to 25% of that to calculate your pin weight"

Thanks!

[TXiceman]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

TXiceman wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Proper TV not a problem! 28K+ combined 9.5 hand calc West Coast average. Dry weight means nothing. Look at combined weight rating then take up to 25% of that to calculate your pin weight. Mine is 4,500#.

You might want o explain what you are taking 25% of to get your weight.

For a typical larger 5th wheel trailer, your loaded pin weight will run around 20% up to maybe 25% of the TRAILERS GVWR...not a combined weight.

25% of your listed combined of 28,000# is 7000#.

Ken

I could be a smart AZZ I suppose and say what is 4,500# 25% of but my RV weigh is at least 18K and probably more since I last weighed it so the answer is 25% of my RV's total weight 18,000# is 4,500#.

Go back and read exactly what you wrote.

I am not arguing, just wanting to make sure the readers get truthful information.

Ken

[Cummins12V98]

TXiceman wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Proper TV not a problem! 28K+ combined 9.5 hand calc West Coast average. Dry weight means nothing. Look at combined weight rating then take up to 25% of that to calculate your pin weight. Mine is 4,500#.

You might want o explain what you are taking 25% of to get your weight.

For a typical larger 5th wheel trailer, your loaded pin weight will run around 20% up to maybe 25% of the TRAILERS GVWR...not a combined weight.

25% of your listed combined of 28,000# is 7000#.

Ken

I could be a smart AZZ I suppose and say what is 4,500# 25% of but my RV weigh is at least 18K and probably more since I last weighed it so the answer is 25% of my RV's total weight 18,000# is 4,500#.

[soos]

Our 5th wheel weighs in at just under 18,000 lbs.
We tow it an average of 10,000 miles a year and get an average of 11 mpg while towing. As mentioned, wind can be your enemy with fuel economy.
With duallies, the trailer pulls like a dream. and the truck barely knows its there. with so much rubber on the road, big rigs passing by don't affect us.

[mabynack]

Thanks for the tire info. I'm thinking of going to G load-rated tires before my next long trip. Not only are blowouts inconvenient, they're expensive and they never happen at a good place or time. My last one happened in the middle of Atlanta and the two before that were in Charlotte and Columbia, SC. All around rush hour. All three blowouts happened with tires that were only a year old.

The four E-rated tires on my RV are rated for 3500 lbs each. That means the four of them together are rated for 14,000 lbs. That's just under the gross weight of my RV. I realize that some of that weight is on the truck, but apparently not enough of it.

[C-Bears]

mabynack wrote:
I have a 14,000 lb fifth wheel that I tow with a 6.0 Ford Diesel.

My biggest issue has been tires. The rig has two axles and takes ST235/85R16s, so it's right at the allowable weight for the four E load range tires. I try to keep as little unnecessary weight in the RV as possible. I dump the tanks before starting off in the morning and keep the freshwater tank at about a quarter full. I've blown out four tires on this rig and two of the blowouts did over a thousand dollars in damage.

I check the tire pressure every morning before I start off and I do a walk-around every time I stop; I check for loose fenders, dragging objects, and overheating tires. I drive no more than 65 mph.

Just a side note since tires were brought up. A lot of manufacturers may put E rated tires on their units but you will find that G rated tires are actually needed once you get all your "stuff" loaded. My last two fivers have had Goodyear G614 "G" rated tires installed, plus I have a TPMS so I can monitor my tire's pressure/temp. I have never had a tire failure.

[mabynack]

rattleNsmoke wrote:
To the original poster......the writing on the wall is clear, buy the largest TV you can afford and you won't regret it.

I agree 100%. You'll never regret having too much capacity, but you will regret having not enough. My last truck had a 14,000 lb tow capacity and that was the gross weight on my RV. It towed fine as long as I wasn't in the mountains. I was going down the mountain into Gatlinburg TN in stop-and-go traffic and my brakes overheated and failed. Later I tried to back my RV up a hill into a camp site and noticed the transmission blowing fluid out the overflow from overheating. I bought a new truck with an 18,000 lb tow capacity and towed for almost 100,000 miles without an issue.

[Gemstone]

When I started in '06, I soon discovered that the LDT's of that era were not rated to tow/stop heavy rigs (my rig was 15.6K pounds right off the lot), which led me to use a HDT. One of the many benefits of using a HDT is extra storage space. I was able to de-load my rig by moving cargo to the truck...which I can never overload. Towing I can get 9-10 MPG.

Regards
Gemstone

[kakampers]

We fulltime and tow a 41', 17,600 pound Landmark with a 4,200 pound pin weight. We tow with a 2011 Chevy 3500 DRW and get 10-11 mpg....