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Old 01-30-2009, 02:39 AM   #15
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The TechnoTwins have done an excellent job of giving you all the facts and how to calculate how much truck you need.
I really like the piece of advice one of them provided....
"Quiet frankly, a full time trailer will be 35' plus for most folks and this will be pushing the limits of most 1 ton duallies (F-35, 3500 series trucks). The preferred way to approach this is to decide on the trailer that suites your needs, then look for the truck to pull it safely. Do not limit your selection by getting the horse first."

Almost any truck will pull whatever trailer you choose, the key is which truck will stop your trailer safely. You you would do well to consider all options. Take a look at this site for some mind expanding information....
http://www.rvnetwork.com/index...96afe6f&showforum=32

Not suggesting this is for you but just saying that there is a lot of information for you to consider. A lot of reading may save you from making the wrong choices.
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Old 01-30-2009, 03:32 AM   #16
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The TechnoTwins.....
TechnoTwins?? See, mom, all that money y'all spent for schoolin' really did count for something.

Rusty
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Old 01-30-2009, 05:03 AM   #17
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Been there and just finished our search. So, we've been where you are and plan to go where others have been on this forum. Well, we actually did get the "horse" first (OK, I know - it was only by 6 weeks), but we struggled with this subject, too. We have not hitched "horse" & "trailer" yet.

We're new to duallies, but have really come to enjoy our truck. We have a backup camera and rear mirrors so big that they're almost speed brakes (hmm...maybe that's what's driving the low fuel mileage...) Anway, we've taken it on a trip of 750 miles one-way solo, and we're real comfortable in it. Ride wasn't bad.

Anyway, here's what we've learned so far as we're newbies to this dual wheel - 5th wheel thing:

For fulltiming the general thought was that you'd probably end up with a trailer that's about two feet longer than what you thought you needed. (We're at 3 ft. We started looking at 32 -34 ft in actual lenght when we first started looking at 5th wheels. The trailer in our sig is 37 ft 8 inches.)

Now as you plan your potential truck and trailer and using all the advice above from everyone else, estimate the actually weight you think you'll be towing (for the trailer I always used GVW for the trailer in question and took 20% of that as my tongue weight.) I used that to back into what the tow vehcile would probably need to carry and potential GVW we'd need for the tow vehicle. I followed the truck forums, asked questions, PM'd people to get realistic tow vehicle weights. This help us decided what truck we needed and ensure it would carry us, our stuff, our toys, etc. Side note - from the New Horizons website, it was estimated that fulltimers would put over a 1,000 lbs (or more) per person in a full time unit. BTW - how about the weight of all those options you want in the trailer? Are you considering extra stuff that we've done to the tow vehicle? Things like: Transfer flow fuel tank in the bed of the truck, weight of the 5th wheel hitch, bed cover, etc? It'a all weight that the truck has to carry in addition to the trailer hitch weight, so don't for get them. Our trailer gross weight is 18,750 lbs - that's a potential tongue weight of 3,750 lbs by the rules I followed. I routinely told truck salemen that I needed 4,500 cargo capacity in the truck. We got 5,190 with our F450.

Last calculation was the GCW of the tow vehicle and trailer. If your total GCW is at or over 25,000 lbs, the feedback from www.thedieselstop.com is that you'll want to considering something similar or larger than a F450 or equivalent. And I know the frustration when the results for GCW on the spreadsheet are 24,957 lbs!

We've moved up from a F250 to a F450. Our particular F450 has a real nice turning radius. At the dual wheels we are 100 inches in width, but it's tighter turn than our old F250. We're paying attention to that since we can (and have) put the rear wheels a little closer to the inside of the turn than we planned. (We're finding that we watch the rear wheels via the outside rearview mirrors when we turn, now.)

We have a backup camera. I don't how we did without it. We now back into parking spaces as often as possible so we don't hang out in the parking lot lanes as much. I do commute wth this truck, and I've found nice parking spaces further from the train station that the truck fits in nicely. (Spent a Sunday afternoon practicing at the commuter lot listening over satellite radio to my favorite football team lose.) The extra walk doesn't hurt. I do find that to leave the commuter lot, I may have to pull out, back up, and pull out again to get out of the commuter lot. I'm 22 ft long.

Other things: Insurance? People don't know what to do with the F450. My insurance company wouldn't touch it. (We ended up with Progressive, but shop around if you're going th F450/550/MDT route and see what others on this forum have done.) How do you plan to monitor the tire pressure of the dual rear tires and refill with air? How about rotation of the dual wheels? It doesn't go though an automated car wash. (Blue Beacon works fine, though.) Takes an extra two towels to dry. It can get tight at a fuel stop if the fuel stop is busy.

Finally, our process was as follows and came from a RV salesman in 1988: "You want a trailer, let momma pick the floorplan." We modified that process to one that said to "momma", here's the trailers that I believe will serve us well as we full time. Which floor plan do you want? Her first question (after setting in the trailer in our sig for almost an hour) was, "will this trailer do what you want?" "Yep", I said, "it has the axles we need, it has the water capacity we need, it has the carrying capacity we need. It's got most of the options we wanted. You want this one or do we order?"

So enjoy your hunt - we did!

David
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Old 01-30-2009, 10:36 AM   #18
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Our background (slender!) in camping is here in Cameroon, Africa. We have been here since 1976, off and on. We live in a 7 foot slide-in Skamper pop-up when we go out to do our Christian service. We have a Toyota Hilux 4WD. It gets us into the rainforest where we do linguistic analysis, Bible translation and literacy development work in the local languages. We are looking down the road at moving permanently back to the USA. The fulltiming life seems to suit us as we don't know where our home would be. There are some interesting things we have never done as a couple and having a "stick 'n' brick" house doesn't begin to interest us.
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Old 01-30-2009, 12:48 PM   #19
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KHB
interesting background you have,
it would be interesting to see pics of your Skamper, the Hilux, and the terrain where you have traveled with those,
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Old 01-30-2009, 02:06 PM   #20
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My avatar (?) shows me with the pickup and camper crossing a river (the Dja) on a ferry. Not a bad picture of the forest in the background.
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Old 01-30-2009, 07:27 PM   #21
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Folks,

You are awesome
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Old 01-31-2009, 01:10 AM   #22
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Thanks. My wife and I serve an awesome God and His presence in our life sustains us!
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Old 01-31-2009, 04:02 AM   #23
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Thanks. My wife and I serve an awesome God and His presence in our life sustains us!
Yep - ya do! David
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Old 02-03-2009, 07:18 AM   #24
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David - I agree too

Back to the OP.

I have towed a 5er with both a SRW and DRW pickups. Personally I would never tow a 5er again with a SRW. Just my personal preferance. A dually is much more stable. You barely feel the crosswinds or trucks passing.
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Old 02-03-2009, 08:28 AM   #25
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For those who prefer DRW ... is there any room for consideration for single rear wheels pulling heavy 5'rs or TT's if the tow vehicle has big-truck 22 1/2" wheels and 'real' tires mounted on them?

"... A 22.5" truck tire has as much weight capacity as two of the 19.5" dually tires on the F-450. So you'd retain the weight capacity of the dually while having one big tire instead of two smaller tires on each end of the rear axle. ..."

Big rigs can carry lot of weight with single tires on axles, so using similar wheels and appropriate tires, i think that there are a lot of benefits to using only one tire per side of axle. They are easier to fill with air, easier to pull thru tight spots, ..., ..

Anyone else at least give SRW's some consideration on the heavy-duty pickups that we own when towing 10-20K pounds ??
( some F450 GCWR = 33K )
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Old 02-03-2009, 09:37 AM   #26
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Its not just the tires. It is the axle rating that can get overloaded as well.
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Old 02-03-2009, 09:51 AM   #27
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Its not just the tires. It is the axle rating that can get overloaded as well.
Probably not with a 450 unless it's one H--- of a big 5er.
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Old 02-04-2009, 12:27 PM   #28
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I've seen tractors that have 4 single tires on the rear axles. I often wondered if I could get a similar tire for my truck when the time comes to replace them, for the reasons you pointed out. However, the single tire seems to be almost as wide as the dual tires. For those of us who can, GM uses a one piece molded fender, would there be enough clearance to actually be able to remove the "bubble" on the rear fender?

Secondly, with 19.5" my trailer rides level. So I'm not sure I want 22.5 tires, thus raising the front of the trailer.
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