SRW vs DRW

[pressure_welder]

Good morning everyone hope your all doing well, So just recently we built a home off of a lake we used to camp at regularly, by doing that we've cut our camping in maybe half.... we spend our usual 1 month trip up at our favorite lake every year though, so our towing needs has decreased significantly, so i actually got rid of our 2015 ram 3500 limited drw about 2 years ago now just because i couldnt justify it carrying my butt around 90% of the year as a grocery getter. So for last two years ive been using the welding truck to pull our rig to the lake 2007 5.9 quad cab, with G56. The truck handles the load perfectly fine, its no rocket ship but it does quite well, on a side note the reverse gear on the G56 is HORRIBLE, your either riding the clutch the whole time or are a race car driver, geared way to high.

Anyway, the welding truck isnt horribly family friendly with the quad cab, and looking into weather or not a SRW 3500 would actually fill our needs accordingly, more comfortable for the family, easier daily driver, and a little more justifiable to own than a dually year round as my personal vehicle. Our situation is a bit different and i am not sure how to read it. We pull our camper and boat in tandem and here are the specs.


2018 montana 305RL - 14,270LBS loaded weight, 2395lbs pin weight

19FT crestliner sportfish - 3800LBS loaded weight/trailer, 300LBS tounge weight. on a tandem axle trailer, 23FT overall length


so with these numbers gets us in around that 18,000LBS total mark. However if i just had the fifth wheel a SRW 3500 should handle that without issue.... ive always thought of the boat as dead weight when in actuality its just rolling resistance of course until your stopping. Would i be correct to say that just adding the toungne weight of the boat to the camper weight, and maybe even 1000lbs extra for rolling resistance, would have me still safely within a SRW 3500 towing capacity?

all in all our main focus is to just acquire somthing more practical to own year round, and not have to use the welding truck to haul the rig up to the lake. Personal vehicle at the moment is a laramie eco diesel which is an amazing commuter, but i do miss my 6.7

[Grit_dog]

Lantley, you’re gonna have to expound on how 2 more tires = more braking power.
Because I fail to see how it does.
Not that a dually isn’t super preferable for what the OP is towing, but the limits of traction on the srw hammering on the brakes won’t be realized except maybe on gravel or snow with a lot of weight on the rear axle.

[Grit_dog]

LanceRKeys wrote:
2nd gear is hardly a road block, I say drop that 5.9 into second and let er eat. Buy a new truck after prices go down. When you do just get a SRW.

What’s your definition of driving too slow? OPs trans, 1st is granny gear and 2nd is good for maybe 20mph at redline.

[Lantley]

Grit dog wrote:

Lantley wrote:
Your right that is a little different scenario.
I'm more or less OK with the SRW for what you are proposing however 18K combined becomes a lot of weight for the SRW to stop....Especially a panic stop.
In the end the main reason to get a dually is for the additional braking power.

Additional braking power?
Maybe you can expound on how a srw vs a dually (same truck/model, apples to apples) has different braking power. And don't go down the less tires = less braking power. I'd challenge the ability to lock up the wheels on a srw with a big load in the back.

That said, I'm the antithesis of the weight cops on here and could or would tow virtually anything able to be towed with a dually, with a srw provided it wasn't seriously overloading the truck chassis.

BUT, if there was ever a case for having training wheels on a pickup truck, towing a significant set of doubles is it.

Yes the two extra tires on the ground makes a huge difference when braking. BTDT. The dually will have significant more braking power that you will notice from the drivers seat.
In the OP's scenario the only significant reason to go dually would be for better braking. A SRW will have adequate payload.
Since he's double towing installing disc brakes on the trailer would not be a bad idea either.
You don't realize/feel how bad the electro magnetic brakes perform until you compare them to disc brakes.

[LanceRKeys]

2nd gear is hardly a road block, I say drop that 5.9 into second and let er eat. Buy a new truck after prices go down. When you do just get a SRW.

[Lwiddis]

Call the dealership? You’d be lucky if any of the dealer”s salespeople knew what “payload” was.

[Grit_dog]

pressure_welder wrote:
In reply to the question about distance, Per year i would say we would be in that 1500KM to 2000KM max range total. We pull two decent hills on the way... were on the prairies so certainly not mountains! but there is one hill that gets me down to 3rd or 2nd gear with the 5.9. WHen i had the 15 - 6.7 with aisin it completely anihilated that hill with the same load.

Its always nice to chat with you guys/gals about this sort of info, you could call the dealership but you would get the "pamhplet answer" i consider myself experienced when it comes to towing, ive always been an overkill kinda mentality. However if an SRW would fit the bill i think that would be my next move.

So you have a stock 3rd Gen that you need to stripe the tires to see if it's moving when pulling hills and you're worried about srw vs drw? Sounds like you're a rolling road block as it is. SRW = no problem if you're holding up traffic every time you hit the road.

[Grit_dog]

Lantley wrote:
Your right that is a little different scenario.
I'm more or less OK with the SRW for what you are proposing however 18K combined becomes a lot of weight for the SRW to stop....Especially a panic stop.
In the end the main reason to get a dually is for the additional braking power.

Additional braking power?
Maybe you can expound on how a srw vs a dually (same truck/model, apples to apples) has different braking power. And don't go down the less tires = less braking power. I'd challenge the ability to lock up the wheels on a srw with a big load in the back.

That said, I'm the antithesis of the weight cops on here and could or would tow virtually anything able to be towed with a dually, with a srw provided it wasn't seriously overloading the truck chassis.

BUT, if there was ever a case for having training wheels on a pickup truck, towing a significant set of doubles is it.

[pressure_welder]

In reply to the question about distance, Per year i would say we would be in that 1500KM to 2000KM max range total. We pull two decent hills on the way... were on the prairies so certainly not mountains! but there is one hill that gets me down to 3rd or 2nd gear with the 5.9. WHen i had the 15 - 6.7 with aisin it completely anihilated that hill with the same load.

Its always nice to chat with you guys/gals about this sort of info, you could call the dealership but you would get the "pamhplet answer" i consider myself experienced when it comes to towing, ive always been an overkill kinda mentality. However if an SRW would fit the bill i think that would be my next move.

[4x4ord]

I'll settle for a SRW until I need a dually .... for me that means overloading my truck on occasion but I'm ok with that.

[Lwiddis]

"Yea me and a friend did some numbers last night of what we might be looking at for instance:

2018 ram 3500 SRW mega cab with aisin
payload: 4,060LBs if i remember right
Max tow: 16,600LBS"

Remember the payload depends on truck options.

[mkirsch]

90% of the braking is done with the FRONT wheels. The front brakes are for all intents and purposes the same between SRW and DRW models.

I'm not at all convinced that braking should be your primary concern here. I'm not at all convinced that ANYTHING should be of concern here.

[fj12ryder]

I may have missed it, but how far are you pulling this combination? That would be part of the criteria for me.

[pressure_welder]

Only reason i am considering this is ive driven duallies as daily drivers for well over a decade now, just recently got the 1/2 ton eco diesel. In reality the dually is no big deal to drive around, but is absolutely over kill for 95% of the year and i suppose really a 3500 srw would be as well, but it would be i think a far more reasonable vehicle to daily drive in comfort and still have somthing to pull our camper around... kind of a compensation on either side of the scale. And really, i love my 5.9 but the old dodge cabs arent terribly family friendly especially the quad cab.

and in all honesty the braking cant be any worse on a 18 and up 3500 SRW compared to my 07 5.9, thank god that thing has a super agressive engine brake and a standard trans.

as for the boat yep it has garbage hydraulic brakes, i think they worked for about the first month of ownership.

[ford_truck_guy]

I agree that the " NUMBERS" look to be good for a SRW, BUT . . . The Braking would/Could be an issue...

Upgrade the RV to Disc Brakes and I think that would be a great insurance policy...

[pressure_welder]

Yea me and a friend did some numbers last night of what we might be looking at for instance:

2018 ram 3500 SRW mega cab with aisin
payload: 4,060LBs if i remember right
Max tow: 16,600LBS

so to me that would be tons of payload even with two adults, two kids. And would sufficiently handle the camper itself. Also have a buddy that owns a high end diesel performance shop, if i remember him telling me correctly a 2018 ram 3500 srw and drw have same brake package and axle, the only difference is the two extra wheels, and spring pack