Wow, a 5er!!

[JRTJH]

Steve's advice is very sound. We looked long and hard at fifth wheels before buying ours. We tow with a F150, and although we have managed to keep the weight within truck specs, it's not always an easy task. Our reasoning for the 150 was storage (garage parking) options on the truck, pricing, fuel mileage, not wanting a diesel again, etc. At any rate, we compromised and bought the F150 and a lightweight small fifth wheel. Our pin weight loaded is about 1200-1300 lbs, but that is achieved by making a packing list and then removing those things we "really don't need" (but would be nice to have) and leave them at home... Sometimes, that means we get where we're going wishing we'd have brought along something.

It's not really "that bad" but it is always a challenge to stay within our weight limits, for example, do we take the extra 6 water jugs (240 lbs) for the dry camping weekend, or do we take the generator? Would be nice to have both, but there's just not enough weight capacity to do that...

Don't get me wrong, the F150 tows our fifth wheel as well as any truck I've owned would have towed, but when it comes down to staying underweight, it's a challenge... It is very easy to face the same dilemma with most any truck if you buy too large a trailer.

I'd strongly suspect from what I've seen on the highway and in campgrounds/rest areas, that there are a LOT of 250/2500 series and some 350/3500 series trucks that could use some weight reduction. We saw an enormous toy hauler in West Virginia this past summer being towed by a 3/4 ton truck, the bed was almost touching the rear wheels and the front was so far up in the air I really wonder if he could steer. He was going down the mountain passes over 70MPH and climbing them in the truck lane at 20-30MPH. The sad part was he had at least 4 (maybe more) kids in the back seat. Now that was unsafe and overweight towing if I've ever seen it. The reason I bring this up is that some people think that the answer to towing a fifth wheel is that you need a 3/4 ton truck. Just owning one of those critters doesn't mean that you can walk onto an RV lot and pick out any fifth wheel there and expect your truck to tow it. There are some fifth wheels on the market that would challenge F450 and F550 load ratings.

Keep your expectations realistic, watch your truck specs and compare trailers that are within those specs. Essentially, on larger fifth wheels, plan to add between 500 and 1500 lbs to the empty pin weight depending on how you load. And, remember, you still need to keep a certain percentage of trailer weight on the pin just as in travel trailers to get a good tow. That is usually about 15 - 20% from all the info I've seen. That means you can't just put all the heavy stuff in the back of the trailer and make a heavy pin weight go away....