Quote:
Originally Posted by glendaembree
DH and I are looking at a Palamino Columbus 320RS
GVWR 14636
Hitch Weight. 2422
UVW. 11636
OFF. 3000
37' 7"
We are total novices and looking forward to full-timing at retirement in a couple years. We have done lots of research on the RVs and are pretty set on the Palamino or a Montana. What we have zero confidence about is selecting an appropriate truck for the tow vehicle. We've been told Ford F350 DWR. Also, that we need a long bed. We're having trouble finding the long bed in that model, with duallys. Is it necessary to special order a truck for a fifth wheel or will it be possible to find them used?
Thanks for any help you can offer and putting up with what are probably obvious questions from newbies.
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First, the part that I've put in BOLD. If I remember correctly, Ford only made the shorter bed Dually trucks for a couple of years....maybe around the 2008-2009 time period. There should literally be lots and lots of long bed Duallys out there, and in fact, if you find the short bed Dually, it actually pretty unusual.
Let's take a look at your numbers....
GVWR 14636
Hitch Weight. 2422
UVW. 11636
OFF. 3000
37' 7"
First, UVW is a pretty useless number.....no one goes camping with an empty trailer. It will be loaded except maybe the day you bring it home. The hitch weight, which is actually called pin weight on a 5ver also reflects the empty weight of the trailer most likely....and again, you are not going to be hauling around an empty trailer for your camping/living in it.
So let's look at some realistic, real world numbers. GVWR....that is the maximum amount of weight the trailer should ever be loaded to....in other words, the weight of the trailer plus your cargo (3000 lbs) for a total of 14,636. Most folks, when trying to figure out what size tow vehicle they are going to need use a formula that is.....take the GVWR (14,636 lbs) and multiply that number times 20%....which would give you 2927 lbs of pin weight. It sometimes is a bit higher and once in a while a bit lower, but the 20% calculation will get you pretty close. Now you are going to add in the weight of the 5ver hitch...175-200 lbs and we are at say 3100 lbs. Next up on the list is passenger(s) weight, tools, toolbox, firewood, grill, etc, etc. You would be able to answer that part of the equation better than I, as I don't know what all you are going to bring along either in the bed or in the cab of the truck. Just for round numbers, let's say an additional 500 lbs. That puts you up to 3600 lbs of weight that you are expecting your truck to be able to handle as far as payload capacity. Now the question of which truck is up to the task. You mentioned Ford, but they all work the same way so I'll just give you some general info. Every modern day car/truck/etc will have a sticker on the vehicle (usually on the driver side door post area) that will many times be white with yellow highlighting. That sticker/decal will tell you the payload capacity of THAT truck, as it was built and came off of the assembly line You need to have a truck that has the payload capacity at a somewhat higher number of available payload than the actual weight that you are going to put in it.
Now a bit about the truck's payloads and how it works. Take a basic 1Ton Single Rear Wheel truck....regular cab, 2WD, gas engine instead of Diesel, and let's say it's an XL trim and not a Lariat or King Ranch. The second truck we want to look at is a 1Ton Single Rear Wheel, CrewCab, 4WD, Diesel engine and lets say a Lariat or Platinum or King Ranch. There will most likely be a 1000 lbs difference in payload between those two trucks and the plain Jane regular cab, 2WD truck will have more payload. The more stuff on the truck equipment wise, the less payload you are going to have.
So the 5ver that you are looking at could quite possibly be, with the hitch...3100-3200 lbs and that's before you add all the other stuff up that I mentioned. That weight is getting to the upper limits of a Single Rear Wheel (SRW) 1 Ton truck.....and remember, you haven't allow for the rest of the stuff
My suggestion to you is to take the numbers that I've given you in regard to the trailer and hitch, then work at trying to figure out how much extra stuff you will be hauling, and total it up and start looking for the truck that will have a payload sticker on the door that will give you some margin of safety over the numbers that you came up with. My guess is that unless you want a regular cab, 2WD, XL work type truck, you are going to be hard pressed to find a SRW truck that will handle 3800-3900 lbs of payload.
Hopefully this will give you some direction to start your search, and remember this. You may think that you will NEVER load up 3000 lbs of cargo in your trailer, but if you are going full time in a couple of years, I would bet that the trailer will be running at GVWR most of the time. Buy a truck that will easily handle that weight on a regular basis.
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