Advice needed -- will I regret a shortbed w/ 43' trailer?

[loudounrv]

I'm about to make a decision on a TV - Ram 3500 dually. I hope to have 14000 lb, 43 ft fifth wheel later this summer. I have 3 kids so I'm leaning towards the Mega Cab option for the added comfort for them, but of course this means I'll have a 6'4" box.

Am I going to regret having a shortbed every time I'm trying to back that trailer into a tight space, or will one of the slide hitches solve my problem? Can you recommend some good hitches to consider?

Thanks, Tom

[Land28BH]

camp nut wrote:
I have three kids also, get the Mega cab!!! The room difference isn't even close. For one the crew cab don't even have a full size seat and the middle seat is even smaller.

I traveled with three kids in the back of a Ram 1500 quad cab for years. When they were small, worked great. They only get bigger. (last trip we did they were 15, 16, 20). The point about the full size seat in the Mega is spot on. No other crew cab can compare.

As long as you can make the weights work and use a slider (preferably auto) with newer 5er rounded front, Should be a great match.

[camp_nut]

I have three kids also, get the Mega cab!!! The room difference isn't even close. For one the crew cab don't even have a full size seat and the middle seat is even smaller. I tow a 36' 5er with a slider hitch and I never used the slider in 7 years and over a 100,000 miles with the trailer. I have a SRW now but I am real close to pulling the trigger on a duelly. Get the 3500 ram and you won't have any problem with that trailer. the 13 and 14's have a new frame and the GVWR went up. According to the brochure I'm looking at right now. a 2014 4x4 mega with 6.7, aisin trans and 3.73 gears can tow 23,320, the GCWR of 32,000. People will disagree but that's what is in the book.

[wintersun]

I would check the wheelbase for the 3500 with the crew cab and long bed and compare it to the double cab with the short box. I would guess that the difference is about 24 inches. The other change will be with the turning radius which is probably 4 feet greater. As you are already going with a 2 foot wider dually the extra 2 feet in length and greater turning radius are part of the package.

At least with GM a 2500 diesel SRW truck can handle a 5th wheel up to 17,200 lbs. and I and a couple of friends have pulled trailers with a weight of over 13,000 lbs. all over the western USA.

The trick with the SRW truck is to get a dampened king pin box like the ones by Trailair and other companies. These greatly reduce how much trailer motion gets telegraphed to the truck cab and its inhabitants. This works better than DRW in terms of ride comfort.

More options with SRW in terms of cab and bed configurations.

[blt2ski]

First off, for a family of 5, a trailer with a whopping.....ooops excuse me, marginally SMALL 2500 lbs of available payload is pushing limits of the trailer. I use to add upwards of 3000 lbs to my 24' TT with my family of 6 on board with gear, food, water> yeah water in the tank! NO BODY that I know of travels with NO water in the tanks. Yeah some even have to travel with some in the black and gray tanks!

Also not sure what the axel ratings of the trailer are. You may truthfully from a legal vs warranty statement have more gvwr for the trailer. ie axel wt plus 25-30% of that for hitch wt, may be more than 16500. If you have two 6K axels for 12K, plus 4500 for hitch wt getting you to 16500, you're in trouble from the get go with a family of 5!

Truck wise, GO BIG on the payload part, ALL have the HP.torque to move the trailer. That WILL NOT be the issue. PAYLOAD for both truck and trailer WILL be your issue.

I pulled at 15-16K gcwr with a sw 3500 crew cab that had a whopping 12K gcwr with kids in the truck for some 50-80K miles and a 24' TT. NO white knuckle experiences thank you very much! Now towing the same trailer with an 88 ext cab and a 14500 gcwr. Dang near did not make it up a few hills due to too tall of gearing. had the power, but the tranny and axel gears sucked! Total useless POJ twuck!

Marty

[cummins2014]

loudounrv wrote:

byronlj wrote:
I found that my trailer loaded @ almost 17k pushed the short bed through the corners. I think the OP's dually will help a whole lot but the weight transfer to the front wheels caused by the short bed is also a factor I didn't like.
Dave

Hi Dave,

With the Mega Cab, the box is 6'4", but because the cab is so large, the wheelbase is the same as a Crew Cab with a 8' box. Do you think that would make a difference in the corners. Since I've never driven a 5th wheel, I'm not sure if I understand what you mean when you say the trailer pushed through the corners. But I'm guessing you're saying that feeling would be mitigated a bit if the bed were a little longer. Does it feel like the trailer's inertia is actually pushing the truck a little to the outside on tight corners?

I'm particularly worried about clearance with the cap when backing into tight spaces. Should I be worried about that, or would a slider hitch eliminate my concerns there?

Thanks again.

One of the big selling points of the Mega Cab for me was that it does have a longer wheelbase then my previous Superduty crew cab, and the ford has a longer wheelbase then the chev crew cab ., but the Mega cab does have the shortest bed , which could be concern when towing a fifth wheel. Just depends on the corners of the fifth wheel, and how far the pin box extends out on the fifth wheel. I will go with my old reese slider, if its a problem, I will go with a superglide .

If worried about clearance go a slider, I would anyway, and if you are starting from scratch I would go the automatic Superglide. The weight you are talking the price difference in a 18K Superglide ISR series is not that much more then an 18K manual slider. Automatic takes all the worry out

[DodgeVoltage]

I pull at 42 foot 19,500 lb toyhauler with no issues with my short bed megacab. I use a non-sliding B&W Companion. The shape of the trailer's nose and the amount the trailer's hitch sticks out in front of the trailer have a lot to do with it. I hardly ever get close to my cab. I have lots of trailering experience, so that helps. A friend of mine had a megacab with a Fusion TH and he hit his cab a few times taking out the back window. Like I said, the shape of the nose has a lot to do with what you can comfortably tow with. My Megacab is a 2010 and it is solid as a rock with my loaded camper.

[tsetsaf]

As long as your payload and weight ratings all fall in line the only difference will be wheel base. The longer truck will give you more stability. It will also make manuevering in parks more difficult. A short bed with a superglide will maneuver better and look "cooler" ;). Again as long as the numbers make sense you will be okay with either one. I like my shortbox and we are now towing a looonngg rig with it.

[byronlj]

It just seemed to transfer weight from the hitch area towards the downhill steering tire. I have to admit the dually tires really help. I tried my friends long bed srw before I bought my long bed dually.
As far as a slider hitch in a sb, there are thousands of posts on that. I have friends that have had their back windows blown out by turning and hitting bumps at the same time. I had two short bed trucks with sliders and never broke anything. Plus when extended, they are easier to maneuver when backing.
Dave

[loudounrv]

byronlj wrote:
I found that my trailer loaded @ almost 17k pushed the short bed through the corners. I think the OP's dually will help a whole lot but the weight transfer to the front wheels caused by the short bed is also a factor I didn't like.
Dave

Hi Dave,

With the Mega Cab, the box is 6'4", but because the cab is so large, the wheelbase is the same as a Crew Cab with a 8' box. Do you think that would make a difference in the corners. Since I've never driven a 5th wheel, I'm not sure if I understand what you mean when you say the trailer pushed through the corners. But I'm guessing you're saying that feeling would be mitigated a bit if the bed were a little longer. Does it feel like the trailer's inertia is actually pushing the truck a little to the outside on tight corners?

I'm particularly worried about clearance with the cap when backing into tight spaces. Should I be worried about that, or would a slider hitch eliminate my concerns there?

Thanks again.

[byronlj]

I found that my trailer loaded @ almost 17k pushed the short bed through the corners. I think the OP's dually will help a whole lot but the weight transfer to the front wheels caused by the short bed is also a factor I didn't like.
Dave

[rjstractor]

Since the 5er "overlaps" your truck by few feet, your overall length will be longer but not by 10 feet. Backing and turns may feel a little different because the pivot point of the hitch is further forward but with a little time driving I'm sure you won't have any problems. If you were going from a 16' bumper pull to a 43' 5er that would be a big difference but a 33' bumper pull is a pretty darn big trailer already.

[loudounrv]

Thanks for all the feedback so far! I've been shopping for truck and trailer for the last year, so I'm pretty sure the numbers will work. The GVWR of the trailer is 16,000. The dry weight is somewhere around 13,500, but I know those dry weight numbers aren't always exact when your particular unit arrives from the factory. Fully loaded, I hope we would be less than 15,500, but we'd still have a little margin if we exceed my estimates.

The listed "max trailer weight" of the Ram 3500 DRW Diesel Mega Cab 4x4 3.73 that I'm looking at is 17,450 lbs. I believe that capacity for for TT and not 5th wheels. But if someone knows how to calculate or where to find the different capacities for TT vs 5th wheels, I'd appreciate it.

The max towing capacity increase by 150 lbs, if I were to switch to a crew cab with an 8' bed, all other things being the same. The max payload also increase 150 lbs to 5,600 lbs for the crew cab. Those numbers are so close that I'm willing to overlook them for my 3 kids comfort in the back.

However, I've never driven a 5th wheel before. I've been driving a 33' TT for a couple of years, but I recognize it will be a totally new experience for me pulling a 5th wheel that is about 10' longer. So, that's why I'm looking for some solid advice here before taking the next step.

I plan on getting a sliding hitch, and I'm sure that will help. But since I've never driven a 5th wheel I'm really reaching out here to see if I'm worried about nothing and would be just fine with a 6'4" bed in most circumstances, or if I would find myself instead really wishing for an 8' bed after the fact.

Thanks again,
Tom

[45Ricochet]

Lantley wrote:
As others have mentioned be sure you have enough payload and beware many short beds have small 26 gallon fuel tanks

IIRC the truck OP listed will have a 14K lb GVWR and truck should be right about 9K lbs unladen weight. 5K should cover it I would think.
They did have to lower the tank size from 35 to 32 to make room for the DEF tank.
Yes prior years the Mega did have lower ratings, but I believe the ratings are now about the same.
I think you'll be fine without the slider OP if your RV has the rounded type cap on the front. Most new ones do unlike the old days when they looked like a box. I avoid getting into 90 degree turns anyway ( not great on the RV axles). Usually you can always pull forward a bit to keep em straight.

[Gemstone]

"First are you even sure you have enough truck for a 43' footer???" hmmm....appropriate question. My 37 footer is 19K loaded for travel....which led me to upgrade my truck...I found my 5.9 had plenty of pulling power, but no where near adequate stopping power.

And when you say "you can ask the salesman" for information...most of us have learned that is usually not a good idea, unless you want the moon and three acres of cheese along with your answer.

I see you joined this forum 3 days ago....I'd say keep reading and asking questions before you purchase anything.

Regards
Gemstone