Advice? Looking for the best 5th wheel to full time using a 3/4 ton trucl

[Adnama]

The truck is an F250 with a tow package and we have put a chip that gives extra torque, K&N air filter, synthetic oil in transmission and engine. We are going to add a transmission/oil cooler with a gage you can see while at the wheel.
We are full timing and use the RV as our office with 3 Bostons - 1 tea cup. We want a 3 or 4 slide out and with quality manufacturing. Need auto leveling and things you usually find on the class A but not heavy in weight. Any ideas - yes I am looking for the ideal.

[Adnama]

The truck is an F250 with a tow package and we have put a chip that gives extra torque, K&N air filter, synthetic oil in transmission and engine. We are going to add a transmission/oil cooler with a gage you can see while at the wheel.
We are full timing and use the RV as our office with 3 Bostons - 1 tea cup. We want a 3 or 4 slide out and with quality manufacturing. Need auto leveling and things you usually find on the class A but not heavy in weight. Any ideas - yes I am looking for the ideal.

[Ray,IN]

I seriously doubt you will find any 5th wheel RV meeting your conditions, at least within the weight ratings of your 3/4T pickup. You may begin your search with the RV comparison guide. Keep in mind your present pickup will have a pin weight capability of around 1,800-1,900 lbs. max. after you load everything in it, ready to travel.
Your first task should be to load your pickup(including humans), as ready to tow, then obtain actual axle weights. Otherwise everything else is useless.

[John66]

Are you sure it really has the tow package? I would think that the tow package would always include the transmission cooler, but I could be wrong.

A 3/4 ton pickup is great for towing a small or light weight medium trailer. But for full timing, you will probably want a BIG, heavy duty trailer and the poor 3/4 ton just won't cut it.

Not sure you can get auto leveling in a trailer. Something about the frame not being strong enough for it?

[RustyJC]

Most of the full-timer 5th wheels will max out a 1-ton dually. To stay within GVWR and GCWR ratings, some of these beasts require an F-450 - or larger!!

The problem with any single rear wheel (SRW) truck such as your F-250 is the limited GVWR that cannot accommodate the ~20% pin weight of a heavy 5th wheel that must be carried by the truck. In other words, a 16,000 lb 5th wheel would put 3,200 lbs of pin weight on the truck.

Rusty

[LindaH]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ray,IN:
Keep in mind your present pickup will have a pin weight capability of around 1,800-1,900 lbs. max. after you load everything in it, ready to travel. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Which would mean the GVWR of the fiver would be around 9,000# to 9,500#...you'll simply not get a 3-4 slide fifth wheel in that GVWR range let alone with auto leveling.

I have seen fifth wheels with auto leveling jacks, but they're the top-of-the-line big, heavy, fifth wheels like Teton...not something you'd pull with a 1-ton let alone a 3/4-ton.

[Hitchhiker]

NuWa offers the BigFoot automatic levelers on their Champagnes and Discover America series and I think it may also be offered on a few of the larger HH LS (Light Series). It's listed as a factory installed option on their website. Not sure you'd really want to pull one of these with an F250, but there are literally thousands of people towing some of these behemoth's with 3/4 ton short bed trucks.

Towing grossly overloaded probably isn't the smartest or the safest thing to do, but if you choose that route you'll certainly have plenty of company. Good luck and have safe journeys.

[TXiceman]

I certainly hope that we did not run you off, but you are not going to find a 3 or 4 slide 5er that can be pulled within the ratings of a 3/4 ton truck. Adding power is not the problem as it has the same engine as the larger rated trucks. The problem is the chassis and rating on the chassis.

You will see lots of folks merrily pulling larger 5ers with 3/4 ton trucks. On some of the sites, you will get a lot of folks jumping in that they are towing a larger rig than you are with the same truck, but you get to looking and they are fairly new to the towing game. With experience, a lot of then will migrate to a larger tow vehicle of get out of RVing.

For real full timing, you will need to be a in a well equipped 1 ton dually as a minimum or up to a 450/4500 or larger truck to safely handle the trailer.

Ken

[K-Star]

I recently saw some Sundance models by Heartland. Depending on the model they weigh about 7K to 9K dry. They seemed to be very well built & nice craftmenship while providing impressive R values. Don't know much more about them. And no this is not an advertisement. These seemed like units that may match up nicely to a 3/4 ton P/U, albeit putting the GVWR at the max.

[Ray,IN]

I forgot to include thistowing weight calculator in my first reply. This tool will help properly and safely match your pickup to a trailer.
You will note it only uses the trailer's GVW in the calculations. UVW is only useful if you plan to tow your trailer completely empty all the time.

[K-Star]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">UVW is only useful if you plan to tow your trailer completely empty all the time. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

but is sure a good starting point for one's calculations!

[RustyJC]

With all respect, most calculation algorithms use the 5th wheel's GVWR as their basis. This is closer to the actual weight that will be experienced after the 5th wheel is fully equipped and loaded with gear. Using the manufacturer's dry weight to size a tow vehicle can result in significant overloading as the actual weight will be thousands of pounds higher.

Rusty

[LindaH]

What Rusty said!

[450Donn]

In response to your original question, for your "3/4 ton" truck you will need to stick under 10,000 GVWR which will lead you to a max trailer length of around 28 feet with if you are lucky one slide. Alpenlite made several units that would mostly fill the bill. The catch is they are no longer in business and you would have to find a older used unit. Might want to rethink the truck/trailer thing a bit.
Sorry?