Towing Heavy 5er with SRW Truck

[travisgsf]

I personally don't as my unit is 11k dry. I see a lot of SRW diesel trucks (newer models which I know handle more than older ones) towing huge 5th wheels or toy haulers.

Any of you have a setup like this? I'm talking 14,000+lbs of dry weight. From what I see the newer 250/2500 trucks pull around 16,000-17,000 at their max.

I was curious to know how these things actually tow with that much weight. Do you feel in control? Tow weight and truck is always a huge topic on every forum. I know almost everyone says go dually but not many people do.

[psford]

NC Hauler wrote:

Me Again wrote:
Did I miss something? Chris

Yeah, you missed some guy that I've ticked off so it's cyber bullying time for him I guess..

oh well, guess some of them have to have something to do.......

I have read several of your posts, but I am going to be polite here, but I never seen you miss a chance to post the above ,so careful who you think is bullying who.

As far as trolling, I guess, At this point my attempt at a little humor was not well received ( isn't blood pressure medication wonderful ) I will refrain from addressing anything that you reply. Sorry that it offended you, I will be more careful in the future .

[psford]

Me Again wrote:

psford wrote:

NC Hauler wrote:
psford, actually I'm taking no medications whatsoever, zip, nil, nada.....but again, I thank you for being concerned about my health, and again, I can show you how to block me so that you don't have to put up with me:)

Why would I want to block you, you guys are my early morning entertainment. One question I do have for you Ram ( Fiat ) fan boys , I know what color koolaid the ford guys are drinking, but have never heard what color you guys drink :B

Cummins Red!

Now would that be strawberry ,cherry , or whatever 🙂

[NC_Hauler]

Allworth wrote:
Eleven pages??? Come on, guys, give it up.

After 11 pages, you had to read it and post, "Come on guys, give it up"?? Could have went right by it...but definitely a value added post:)

[NC_Hauler]

rhagfo wrote:

Allworth wrote:
Hauler,

I'm sorry, but if your equipment is well maintained there is NO way your umbilical can come unplugged while in motion.

Cut? ... A faint chance.

Unplugged? ... NO!

With an attitude like that you will find out what it is like stopping the trailer with the TV only!
If you stick to Florida, you should be OK, hope it doesn't happen on a grade in the hills.

Yeah, got to admit, going down that 7% grade, initially I thought, "OH CRAP!!!", no brakes!!, but got slowed with EB, and truck in T/H and again, I was only having to slow down from about 55 mph...and the truck stopped the truck and the 16,000# 5er, but again, I did smell the brakes a little, so they did the job without fade..glad I wasn't running speed limit of 65 in that area:)..

Until one has towed in mountainous, curvy terrain, they may never know about braking for the entire combo....thank goodness I had the truck for the job.

[NC_Hauler]

kakampers wrote:
Chris...we use our integrated controller in the Chevy...works great!

NC Hauler...that's why we have a truck, that in an emergency as described, can actually stop both truck and trailer....EB and towhaul, IMO are a must!

Agree with you 100% 🙂

[NC_Hauler]

Allworth wrote:
Hauler,

I'm sorry, but if your equipment is well maintained there is NO way your umbilical can come unplugged while in motion.

Cut? ... A faint chance.

Unplugged? ... NO!

No Way??? Could be famous last words.....I didn't plug it all the way in evidently..I'm human, believe me, it can and did happen....Only thing I can figure is I didn't have it plugged in far enough for the top part of the plug in,(the cap),to latch onto the cable tab....Oh, it happened..JUST ONCE, but it happened...had nothing to do with "well maintained equipment", it came from "human error"...I'm human and I, evidently didn't have it plugged in all the way...about 25 miles from my house, going down I26, Saluda grade, I got the message, "trailer disconnected"...no reason to lie about it...it's a bit embarrassing to say the least, but we do make mistakes...oh, and I was in motion..no cut?? After I came to a stop, I walked to the back of the truck and plug in was laying in floor of truck....I looked at it, made an extra effort to push it all the way in, and drove off, it has never happened again, but I learned from that mistake...no, no cut...cable was and still is in pristine shape....

[rhagfo]

Allworth wrote:
Hauler,

I'm sorry, but if your equipment is well maintained there is NO way your umbilical can come unplugged while in motion.

Cut? ... A faint chance.

Unplugged? ... NO!

With an attitude like that you will find out what it is like stopping the trailer with the TV only!
If you stick to Florida, you should be OK, hope it doesn't happen on a grade in the hills.

[Me_Again]

Allworth wrote:
Eleven pages??? Come on, guys, give it up.

You are not required to read this! :S :S :S

Chris

[Allworth]

Eleven pages??? Come on, guys, give it up.

[kakampers]

Chris...we use our integrated controller in the Chevy...works great!

NC Hauler...that's why we have a truck, that in an emergency as described, can actually stop both truck and trailer....EB and towhaul, IMO are a must!

[Allworth]

Hauler,

I'm sorry, but if your equipment is well maintained there is NO way your umbilical can come unplugged while in motion.

Cut? ... A faint chance.

Unplugged? ... NO!

[Me_Again]

For those without disc brakes I highly recommend rewiring the axles in a star configuration with heavier wire. I did this last year and installed a MaxBrake Controller and junked the P2, and it is night and day different regarding braking. Just one seamless rig when braking.

Sadly MaxBrake has gone the route of BrakeSmart and Jordon. With so many new trucks having IBC'ers, the market is becoming very limited.

Prodigy will most likely be gone also at some point and people with older rigs will be screwed!

Chris

[NC_Hauler]

BUT...what happens if the connection between the truck and 5er comes unplugged or malfunctions?? I agree with both of you about disk brakes on the RV, BUT, I'm talking about having enough truck towing a very heavy 5er and one loses the braking ability of the 5er...it doesn't matter what kind of brakes you have on the 5er "IF" you lose the ability to make the brakes on the 5er work....THAT's when the EB, the T/H mode using the tranny to help slow one down, THEN the brakes that are on the TV itself...That's what I was getting at. It happened to me, bad thing, it was on a 7% grade downhill.....

My truck and the dinky electric brakes work like a charm, have never had an issue, they work flawlessly........until the cable from the 5er to the truck became disconnected...now, no brakes on the 5er...doesn't matter if they're disk brakes or not....if no connection, your truck now has to stop all this weight..THAT is what I was talking about.....

Agree, one has to have enough truck to stop all that weight, just in case something happens to someone while towing.....like it did to me.

[kakampers]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

j2catfish wrote:
One thing that always causes me pause is this idea that the truck has to be big enough to stop the 5er. That would be a good built-in safety factor but shouldn't the trailer brakes be good enough to stop the trailer? I know that might be a challenge for the electrical brakes commonly used but more and more rigs are using electric over hydraulic disk brakes and really have a greater stopping ability. Not to start the war over, but what do you think?
Catfish

My truck and DRV stop seamlessly because of the MaxBrake and the disk brakes on the RV. Sounds like a chichi but there is no delay you just feel the truck stop like driving solo. Before this combo I never thought that was possible.

What is important is having enough truck to handle the length and weight of what you are hauling in any conditions.

Although we seldom agree...I DO agree wholeheartedly on this subject!!

Our 2011 Chevy with tow/haul and exhaust brake and Landmark WITH disc brakes feels the same way...and we never dreamed it was possible to stop so seemlessly! Having "enough" truck for the load AND great trailer brakes makes all the difference!!

[AZ_T_T]

NC Hauler wrote:

Me Again wrote:
Another reason for a good exhaust brake! Nice cool service brakes. Jim imagine having warm to hot service brakes and loosing one's trailer brakes! Chris

OUCH!!! The EB makes a really big difference, as does the T/H mode, as I was braking, the EB was aggressively slowing me down and tranny was downshifting....when I got out of the truck, I could "just smell" the brakes a little...not much, but again, I was only doing around 55 mph when I looked and saw the message, "trailer disconnected"......Good to have equipment that can help handle that situation.

I love my EB! I believe by using the EB It will extend the life of the brakes on my FW by 4 or 5 times the normal.