opinions (i know this is dangerous :))

NC Hauler wrote:

Coach-man wrote:
Hi, I am sure you will love the upgrade to a 5th wheel. Towing, Weights, and all the alphabet soup of ratings, can get very confusing! You wanted opinions? Here is mine, first about 20% of the weight of your 5th wheel will be in the bed of your truck, add to that the 200 or so lbs. For your hitch, then add for you and your passengers, and anything else you put in your truck. Add that up and check to see how that stacks up against your payload capacity. Oh, and did I add that the advertised weight of the 5th wheel does not include the propane, food, clothes, and other things you may want to take along with you? You could add air bags, or helper springs, but that does not fix, axle, wheel, or brake issues.
Now, that I stated all that, I have a 2500, added a helper spring and changed tire and wheels, and I pull a 35' fifth wheel. Is my TV at capacity, yes it is, I will change to a 3500 dually at some point. I beleive you also own a Ram? Dodge boys do not have the money other makers have, so the engine, tranny, and frame are the same on the 2500 and 3500 models. If you have the 11.5" rear end, then tires and wheels will be your area of concern. Also I think you should be looking at some lighter 5th wheels to get you into the ballpark. BTW, my GD Solitude weighed in at 11,300 lbs according to the sticker, so your rig should weigh around the same. Good luck!

..."Dodge boys do not have the money other makers have, so the engine, tranny and frame are the same on the 2500 and 3500 models"

Wow, great dig:R...The 2500 has the same highly rated tensile strength frame, but rear ends can be different...The 3500 also offers the Aisin Transmission...so evidently Ram had enough money to upgrade the transmission in the 3500....The 2500 can come with a 68RFE 6 speed automatic OR a manual transmission, (GM nor Ford offers this....guess Ram has enough money to offer an auto or a manual on the 2500's as well as the 3500's, except with the 3500, you can go manual, 68RFE 6-speed automatic or the medium duty tranny Aisin 6 speed...so you can get THREE different trannys with the 3500 SRW and 2 different one's with the 2500....The 3500 dually offers an 11.8 rear end, three different tranny's and 3 different gearing options...son, Ram must be plum broke after all that...


Nice dig on Ram though.... it didn't go un-noticed:) I didn't notice what truck you have, but will guess it isn't a Dodge/Ram:)

Rest had been covered already with 20% of the GVW, etc.

The point I was trying to convey is with the Dodge 2500, and the heavy duty rear axel, if the OP was close on weights, helper springs and proper tires could make towing the fifth wheel possible and safe. Ford and GM have many models in the 250/2500 catagory and more careful research would have to be done before just adding springs! Not ment as a knock on Ram!