Dually Real World driving

[rayford118]

So Ive come to the conclusion that for the toy hauler i want, im going to have to upgrade from a F250 up to a dually (either ram or ford). My biggest concern has always been city driving and fuel economy since im on the road alot for work. Questions are: Is it really that much tougher doing city driving and normal everyday use with a dually over a 3/4 ton? Its not like im going from a coupe to a dually. And how much of a drop in MPG should i expect to see moving to a one ton? Right now i average about 18-18.5 in my F250 doing city and hwy driving.

[recycler]

Trailering Texans wrote:
OH please don't . I'm so sick of these folks in a dually who don't know how to drive or park them. They are over the line alot and can never pull into a parking spot without taking up half the next one. Please do the math to figure out if you really need to make that purchase - plus think about the cost of replacing tires. I know some folks are great at driving these - but many are clueless.

i think you'll find many people are just clueless dually or not..i see people doing same thing with honda civics...the two extra tires add cost for sure

[Stefonius]

rayford118 wrote:

Trailering Texans wrote:
OH please don't . I'm so sick of these folks in a dually who don't know how to drive or park them. They are over the line alot and can never pull into a parking spot without taking up half the next one. Please do the math to figure out if you really need to make that purchase - plus think about the cost of replacing tires. I know some folks are great at driving these - but many are clueless.

Trust me i would love to not have to get one. Would much rather just get a F350 SRW and just make sure tires and axles could handle the load, but from what Ive been reading that more than likely wont be possible. Or am I wrong?

You could probably get away with it. I've seen people going down the freeway with a 15k FW attached to an F150 with its nose in the air. God help them if they have to stop suddenly.

Personally, I prefer having the extra rubber on the rear. If I lose a drive tire, I'm okay. If the trailer sways in the wind, I'm okay. I'm not driving down the road loaded to 90% of the truck's max - I'm loaded closer to 60%, which gives me plenty of margin for safety and error. I can stop suddenly, accelerate up grades with ease, handle crosswinds and rough roads without the back end of the truck wobbling or hopping around and at the end of a day of driving, I'm not white-knuckled and exhausted.

Oh, and I *always* park between the white lines. 🙂

[45_ACP]

I had similar concerns about daily driving a dually. Those concerns disappeared within one week of driving.

Every time I even think about cursing the day I chose a dually, I think about the good feeling I have when we hitch up and drive off to the next adventure.............yeah :B

[The_Mad_Norsky]

Trailering Texans wrote:
OH please don't . I'm so sick of these folks in a dually who don't know how to drive or park them. They are over the line alot and can never pull into a parking spot without taking up half the next one. Please do the math to figure out if you really need to make that purchase - plus think about the cost of replacing tires. I know some folks are great at driving these - but many are clueless.

I see this too. Northern plains area.

But, also saw a gal pull her SRW pickup into parking at coffee shop the other day and take two parking spots, almost diagonally across both. If she had cared, it would have been simple to get that truck straight into one spot. She never tried.

Its not so much the vehicle as it is the impolite slob driving it.

And, since I don't class myself that way :B, I always manage to park my dually in one spot.

[rayford118]

Trailering Texans wrote:
OH please don't . I'm so sick of these folks in a dually who don't know how to drive or park them. They are over the line alot and can never pull into a parking spot without taking up half the next one. Please do the math to figure out if you really need to make that purchase - plus think about the cost of replacing tires. I know some folks are great at driving these - but many are clueless.

Trust me i would love to not have to get one. Would much rather just get a F350 SRW and just make sure tires and axles could handle the load, but from what Ive been reading that more than likely wont be possible. Or am I wrong?

[Fire19]

Having driven a Ford 350 dually in upper Michigan durring the snow is that the duallys are always fighting to find the track in the snow. I make sure I have weight in the rear and that helps quite a bit.

[ependydad]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

tgreening wrote:

rayford118 wrote:
you think i would need a bigger dually to pull a voltage 3950? or any other 42" TH. They all seem to have a pin of 3K and total loaded of 18-19K

Yeahhh. My Heartland has an advertised pin weight somewhere in the 3k range. In reality it's a verified 4,300 lbs.

Anyone that says pin weight is 20% is full of Barbara Streisand! My Mobile Suites is well over 4,500# and about 25%.

It's all in which fifth wheel you have and it's layout. My 42' Sabre is lighter (14k ready to camp; just under 16k GVWR) has 2,400 pounds and about 16% pin weight.

Re: the dually- very few issues with daily driving compared to a SRW of the same height and length. We're a crew cab/long bed in the Baltimore/Washington suburbs (read: tight parking spaces). My goal is typically to back in a spot where I can overhang the edge of the parking lot.

We'll do drive-thrus periodically and usually don't have a problem. There are some I won't try. And others, if I do it know that I'm going to drive over a curb.

[Trailering_Texa]

OH please don't . I'm so sick of these folks in a dually who don't know how to drive or park them. They are over the line alot and can never pull into a parking spot without taking up half the next one. Please do the math to figure out if you really need to make that purchase - plus think about the cost of replacing tires. I know some folks are great at driving these - but many are clueless.

[jmtandem]

Her father had a different idea.

Gee I wonder why? Funny!

[jmtandem]

My father has a 2005 Dodge SRW 3500 with the low HP engine. He gets 24 empty. If you need duals I would choose the Ram over the Ford because with Ram I believe you can choose duals and still get a 3:42 rear axle so I wouldn't expect the fuel economy to drop as much. My srw Ford is not great on fuel and the 3:73 gears and smaller tires of the dually would likely make it terrible.

Thanks for the reply. My Ram has 3.73 gears, 4x4, crew, longbed and the 325/610 high output engine. It also is an automatic so I am pleased with the 20-21 mpg at a steady 65 mph mileage. And the power is more than pleasing, it is amazing. Carried a 4000 pound cabover camper so the dually was much more stable. But still needed air bags and overload spring suspension bumpers. After that it worked 'just right'. I think the Ford has perhaps a little better stock springs for stability. With the camper on I got 13-14 mpg and towing our 30 foot TT now I get 12-13 mpg. I am willing to trade a little mileage for stability and a little better towing gearing for power in the mountains. I know a lot of folks tow fifth wheels with pin weights of 2500 or more pounds with 250/2500 trucks; if they tried out the dually I am sure the experience would be even more stable.

[banjo]

Posted this about 3-4 years ago..... Many, many years ago I took a girl from Highwood Montana out to the movies in Great Falls. Had a Diamond T DRW. Despite the snow we made it back to her place, but when I went to leave I could not get up the hill to the road. Her mother suggested I stay there that night. A neat idea I thought. Her father had a different idea. He went out and put the two outside rears in the bed of the truck. Took him about 30 minutes in the snow. Unfortunately his idea worked......... If you must have DRW to accommodate pin weight, make sure you have 4 wheel drive and a locking differential.

[Stefonius]

Mechanical problems with the car caused me to use my F450 as a DD over the winter. It wasn't too bad, but the advice others have given is absolutely correct. The unloaded ride quality will stir your coffee for you, which is convenient. The wider stance requires you to pay more attention to where the sides of your truck are, but if the mirrors fit, the truck fits. Traction in the rain, snow, mud, et cetera is not as good as with a 4WD single, but with 4k pounds of pin weight pressing down on the back axle, the extra two tires really grab the road. No amount of crosswind will push your truck around. Nobody will tailgate you when you're driving around town. You will not fit into the car wash, or most of the drive-thru lanes. Parking is not hard, but un-parking can be depending on what the cars around you do while you're in the store. For that reason, I park in the back of the lot and walk off all the pounds I packed on when I was driving a vehicle that DID fit into the drive-thru.

Oh, and the first time you hook up your giant FW and the truck says, "Eh - is that all you got?", then takes off like it was unloaded you will never get the grin off of your face.

[recycler]

once you get used to the daully hips it is not a big deal..is harder to get used to a longer truck..the extra tires and width can be a bit annoying in winter as the outer tires hit the slush trials on the road..i put weight in the box on my d250 for winter so doing it with my f550 won't be any different..once it becomes my driver..my family has been using daullies for daily drivers since the 80's

[4x4ord]

jmtandem wrote:
Owned a dually since 2005, after about 300 miles getting used to it, it is just another vehicle. As others have said parking garages and some drive thrus can be a little tight. Otherwise enjoy the ride, the stability, and the ability to carry a substantial payload. In the rain the duals keep others at a distance since they put out so much spray. Probably would want to get mud flaps. I would have another without even thinking about it. At a steady 65 mph not towing mine gets about 20-21 mpg. I am not sure the SRW would get that much better mileage. Tire time is the downside of a dually, six skins to purchase.

My father has a 2005 Dodge SRW 3500 with the low HP engine. He gets 24 empty. If you need duals I would choose the Ram over the Ford because with Ram I believe you can choose duals and still get a 3:42 rear axle so I wouldn't expect the fuel economy to drop as much. My srw Ford is not great on fuel and the 3:73 gears and smaller tires of the dually would likely make it terrible.

[SpencerRB]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

tgreening wrote:

rayford118 wrote:
you think i would need a bigger dually to pull a voltage 3950? or any other 42" TH. They all seem to have a pin of 3K and total loaded of 18-19K

Yeahhh. My Heartland has an advertised pin weight somewhere in the 3k range. In reality it's a verified 4,300 lbs.

Anyone that says pin weight is 20% is full of Barbara Streisand! My Mobile Suites is well over 4,500# and about 25%.

Similar sized TH's and 5er's can have much different pin weight % ratios due to the potential garage weight in the TH. Throw 2-3k lbs in the TH's garage, which is partially behind the axles, and you can see the pin weight drop considerably.