Dual Rear or Single Rear Wheels on Tow Truck?

[smcrea]

Hi,

I'm starting to research Trucks that are suitable for a TV.

I've read the the HUGE discussion on Diesel vs gas so lets not go there! 🙂

This question is: Do I need Dual wheels or single wheels?

We currently have a TT that we tow with our GMC Yukon XL 90+K miles but really struggled when we just did a 4 week trip from San Diego to Jasper NP in Canada vi Utah etc and back via Washington and Oregon.. Given the advancing miles and the prospect of doing even longer and tougher trips with my young family then its time to replace the Yukon while I still have some re-sale left in her.

We may sell the TT sometime in the future and get a 5th wheel that is MUCH heavier.. who knows? So my spec for the truck needs to be based on possible future trailers or 5'ers rather than our existing one. I don't want to be limited by my TV when it comes to choosing a new RV.

So with that said.. should I choose dual or single?

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Please can you give reasons for your opinions?

Many Thanks!

Steve

[Vulcaneer]

transamz9 wrote:

Vulcaneer wrote:
My trailer is GVWR of 14,250. Pin weight and hitch about 2900 pounds. My 06 V10 F350 SRW pulls it just fine. My new F350 6.7L diesel Crew cab, FX4, SB, SRW, 3.55 RAR is rated to tow 15,700 and carry 3990 of pin weight. But interesting is that the RAM SRW would not come close to handling this load. Only Ford, GMC, and Chevy would carry the weight with room to spare.

A dually does have some disadvantages when not towing. First of all, dually's are not available in anything but a long bed. Sure they carry more weight. But if you need a crew cab for a family, then adding an 8 foot bed to a crew cab is one LOOOOONG truck. I think the Ford F350 CC Dually has a 171" wheelbase. And since a dually is about 18" wider at the hips, it makes it pretty wide too. If you can live with that fine. But with my 102" wide trailer and narrow winding driveway, I could not back my rig in with a dually. Not to mention the extra expense and space requirements of a dually.

If you really need a dually, then go for it. For me, I'll keep my needs below dually capacity. My truck tows about 30% of the time. So then I prefer not to have a dually for the 70% of the non towing time.

I tow a 5'er that is very similar to yours in weight with a 2500 Ram and it handles it great. I also have a 3500 QC DRW and still choose to tow with the 2500.;)

No doubt, your 2500 SRW Ram can pull it and be fine. But is it rated on the sticker to do the job? I can tell you it is not. And the Ram spec's will bear that out. I wanted to buy a new Ram. The truck couldn't handle the load. Pretty simple. And if I am spending more than $55K on a new truck, I want to make sure it is rated to tow my trailer.

I can add bags, and axles, and tires, and springs, as well as, the next guy. But when I put my money down for a truck to haul my trailer, I want the confidence from the factory that the truck will do the job. Ram SRW won't handle the job.

Buy the way my 2006 F-350 V 10 did the job too. And it is also rated to do the job.

And Yes there were Short wheel base dually's available, back in the day. But not in this day. You want a new CC dually? It will be an 8 foot bed.

[retired-tech]

dually will have better traction and stability. you will not have to worry about another truck later if you decide you want something really big. disadvantage is more tires to purchase. i get about the same milage as the single wheel trucks i dont have any trouble driving the many duallys we have in the deep snow but since you dont have any i would not worry about that.

[thesumners]

gmc6000 wrote:
As a former dually owner, I can say unless you are pulling real heavy, over 16,000 lbs and need the extra payload capacity, go single wheel. Duallys are terrible in the winter, and the ride is rough when empty. As I said, I have had both, and would never go back to a dually unless absolutly needed due to weight issues.

I agree and disagree with this. First the agree part. I would not get a dually unless you know you really need one. They do not pull any more than a 3/4 ton diesel, they just carry more weight. A 3/4 ton will pull virtually any bumper-pull TT and a lot of 5'ers. The biggest and baddest 5'ers need dual rear wheels.

If you need one you need one, so be it. If not then you're stuck buying extra tires, navigating your wide load and parking in the back of the parking lot every time.

However, the ride is not rough. I've towed with a 2002 F-350 dually and it was much smoother than my old 1997 F-250, which rode like a Sherman tank.

[jerem0621]

gmc6000 wrote:
As a former dually owner, I can say unless you are pulling real heavy, over 16,000 lbs and need the extra payload capacity, go single wheel. Duallys are terrible in the winter, and the ride is rough when empty. As I said, I have had both, and would never go back to a dually unless absolutly needed due to weight issues.

This is interesting.

My former single rear wheel truck was a F-150. I think that my dually rides as nice or nicer than the old 97 F150.

The main reason I got a dually was because it was in my price range and I needed something to tow my trailer and haul my golf cart in.

But she is wide and long.

Thanks

[Huntindog]

Vulcaneer wrote:
My trailer is GVWR of 14,250. Pin weight and hitch about 2900 pounds. My 06 V10 F350 SRW pulls it just fine. My new F350 6.7L diesel Crew cab, FX4, SB, SRW, 3.55 RAR is rated to tow 15,700 and carry 3990 of pin weight. But interesting is that the RAM SRW would not come close to handling this load. Only Ford, GMC, and Chevy would carry the weight with room to spare.

A dually does have some disadvantages when not towing. First of all, dually's are not available in anything but a long bed. Sure they carry more weight. But if you need a crew cab for a family, then adding an 8 foot bed to a crew cab is one LOOOOONG truck. I think the Ford F350 CC Dually has a 171" wheelbase. And since a dually is about 18" wider at the hips, it makes it pretty wide too. If you can live with that fine. But with my 102" wide trailer and narrow winding driveway, I could not back my rig in with a dually. Not to mention the extra expense and space requirements of a dually.

If you really need a dually, then go for it. For me, I'll keep my needs below dually capacity. My truck tows about 30% of the time. So then I prefer not to have a dually for the 70% of the non towing time.

At one time you could get a Ford dually shortbed. I've seen some. Not sure if they still make them like that though.

[Huntindog]

Vulcaneer wrote:
My trailer is GVWR of 14,250. Pin weight and hitch about 2900 pounds. My 06 V10 F350 SRW pulls it just fine. My new F350 6.7L diesel Crew cab, FX4, SB, SRW, 3.55 RAR is rated to tow 15,700 and carry 3990 of pin weight. But interesting is that the RAM SRW would not come close to handling this load. Only Ford, GMC, and Chevy would carry the weight with room to spare.

A dually does have some disadvantages when not towing. First of all, dually's are not available in anything but a long bed. Sure they carry more weight. But if you need a crew cab for a family, then adding an 8 foot bed to a crew cab is one LOOOOONG truck. I think the Ford F350 CC Dually has a 171" wheelbase. And since a dually is about 18" wider at the hips, it makes it pretty wide too. If you can live with that fine. But with my 102" wide trailer and narrow winding driveway, I could not back my rig in with a dually. Not to mention the extra expense and space requirements of a dually.

If you really need a dually, then go for it. For me, I'll keep my needs below dually capacity. My truck tows about 30% of the time. So then I prefer not to have a dually for the 70% of the non towing time.

At one time you could get a Ford dually shortbed. I've seen some. Not sure if they still make them like that though.

[abednego]

4x4ord wrote:
One place you are wrong is that the F350 Diesel SRW CC 4x4 has a GVWR of 11500. You can opt for a the 10,000 lb GVWR at no extra cost - the optional 10,000 lb GVWR package consists of a different door sticker. (some states have higher licensing fees for trucks with GVWR's over 10,000 lbs) You can buy the F350 SRW SB CC with a gas engine and get GVWR of 11000 lbs. (3960 lb Payload)

Looking at the Ford trailering guide (I have a copy from March, 2012) you can indeed get a GVWR of 11,500 with a CC and 18" tires and wheels. I don't have the GCWR exactly (last figure I have recorded says 23,500 for a SRW 3.55 F350 CC 4WD), but that GVWR makes all the difference in the world in the calculations. I don't know about the 3.55 gear ratio, however. Can you get a 3.73 in a SRW?

[Farmer_David]

I have towed with a little bit of everything and I much prefer the stability of dual wheels.

[gmc6000]

As a former dually owner, I can say unless you are pulling real heavy, over 16,000 lbs and need the extra payload capacity, go single wheel. Duallys are terrible in the winter, and the ride is rough when empty. As I said, I have had both, and would never go back to a dually unless absolutly needed due to weight issues.

[4x4ord]

abednego wrote:
An F-350 SRW CC 4WD with 3.55 gear has a GCWR of 23,500, GVWR of 10,000, and a curb weight of 7,795. Based on the curb weight, the maximum payload you could handle is 2,205, and the maximum you could tow is 14,700. I hear the rule of thumb is not to tow more than 80% of your estimated max tow.

I don't have the GAWRs so I can't comment on payload. Based on my research, people aren't so much concerned with GVWR as they are GAWR. If you're a couple hundred pounds over the GVWR but under GAWR, other folks say you're fine.

There will also be a lot of people that say you can two 20k with the F-350 listed above. I have no comment or experience on that. All I know is I'm going to get a vehicle that, ON PAPER, will tow my trailer. To do otherwise is inviting disaster.

Given that I'm pretty new to all of this, someone tell me where I'm wrong and I'll correct my information.

-abe

One place you are wrong is that the F350 Diesel SRW CC 4x4 has a GVWR of 11500. You can opt for a the 10,000 lb GVWR at no extra cost - the optional 10,000 lb GVWR package consists of a different door sticker. (some states have higher licensing fees for trucks with GVWR's over 10,000 lbs) You can buy the F350 SRW SB CC with a gas engine and get GVWR of 11000 lbs. (3960 lb Payload)

[smcrea]

Bionic Man wrote:


without the dually I'm short on GVRW and that seems to make all the difference in the world. Furthermore, the size of the Rambox must be taken into careful consideration when choosing the FW and hitch system.

So are we saying that a Dual Rear wheel makes a big difference when pulling the 5th wheel?

Also I have heard the the 3500 is much more substantial in all areas to the 2500. Do you agree?

[transamz9]

Vulcaneer wrote:
My trailer is GVWR of 14,250. Pin weight and hitch about 2900 pounds. My 06 V10 F350 SRW pulls it just fine. My new F350 6.7L diesel Crew cab, FX4, SB, SRW, 3.55 RAR is rated to tow 15,700 and carry 3990 of pin weight. But interesting is that the RAM SRW would not come close to handling this load. Only Ford, GMC, and Chevy would carry the weight with room to spare.

A dually does have some disadvantages when not towing. First of all, dually's are not available in anything but a long bed. Sure they carry more weight. But if you need a crew cab for a family, then adding an 8 foot bed to a crew cab is one LOOOOONG truck. I think the Ford F350 CC Dually has a 171" wheelbase. And since a dually is about 18" wider at the hips, it makes it pretty wide too. If you can live with that fine. But with my 102" wide trailer and narrow winding driveway, I could not back my rig in with a dually. Not to mention the extra expense and space requirements of a dually.

If you really need a dually, then go for it. For me, I'll keep my needs below dually capacity. My truck tows about 30% of the time. So then I prefer not to have a dually for the 70% of the non towing time.

I tow a 5'er that is very similar to yours in weight with a 2500 Ram and it handles it great. I also have a 3500 QC DRW and still choose to tow with the 2500.;)

[abednego]

Bionic Man wrote:
The only short bed ram you will find with DRW is a Megacab. Overall length is very close to a CC long bed.

I was about to disagree with you, but then I went to Ram Trucks and you're absolutely right. If you choose the CC and the short box it puts you in the SWR.

I WISH I could get a Rambox dually and tow a 5th wheel, but without the dually I'm short on GVRW and that seems to make all the difference in the world. Furthermore, the size of the Rambox must be taken into careful consideration when choosing the FW and hitch system.

[Huntindog]

I'm another one of those guys that worked his way up to a dually TV.
I'm on my second one now, and I'm not ever going back.
Many think my truck is overkill....To me, that is a very good thing.

[Bionic_Man]

abednego wrote:

Vulcaneer wrote:
First of all, dually's are not available in anything but a long bed.

Ram sells various models with the short bed (6'4").

The only short bed ram you will find with DRW is a Megacab. Overall length is very close to a CC long bed.