Too much truck? New to me 3500HD

[TomHaycraft]

While a bit of humor in that subject line, I am wondering.

Knowing I was just under my rear GAWR and at 90% of GCWR towing the Springdale with my ’09 Silverado C1500, I had been saving for a bigger truck. My sights were set on about four more years, to have cash necessary to purchase the next truck around 2019. My fatal mistake was setting up a search in CarMax with e-mail notifications when ¾ or 1-ton trucks with diesels came available within a 300 mi radius of me. This was fine for almost 4 months, by description and cost, nothing piqued my interest. That all changed Friday.

2013 3500HD Duramax/Allison, crew cab, long wheelbase, 2WD, single rear wheels, 41,000 miles. All things I liked (pleasant color as well). Price was very tempting. Needless to say, Saturday morning I made the 3 hour drive to Garland, TX to check out the truck and see what they would offer for my ’09. Offer was acceptable, “out of pocket” over what we had saved, can be covered in a couple months, got wife’s blessing, decision and transaction complete in 3 hours, drove back south with it. Not much needs to be said about qualities of the 3500HD. With a trailer weight of only 7,700 lbs (45% of tow capacity) and 1,240 lb pin weight (30% of published cargo capacity), the truck shouldn’t break much of a sweat with this combo! Someday we’ll buy a bigger trailer, certainly won’t have limitations (we don’t plan on full timing) and getting into state and national parks is an important factor.

Prior owner had pulled a 5th wheel, took bedrails with him, will be easy for me to drop in new ones (already ordered from eTrailer.com). Challenge is higher bed height, 5+ inches higher than the C1500. I made up 3” moving pinbox to top, 5th wheel hitch had already been in lowest position. I was already a touch nose high in prior configuration since I could not mount the pinbox (Reese Sidewinder) higher and still allow the arm to swing. With LWB, no longer need pivot of the Sidewinder and have pinned it and removed the wedge.

Until I get the hitch secured in the bed, I can’t move the truck/trailer to level ground. With plywood in bed and hitch on it, I was able to set king pin into place, sag of truck was between ½ and ¾ inch. Clearance over bed rail hard to make sense of as pavement slopes down from covered storage. Because of angle, gap is from 6” to 3”. Once on level ground, I will likely need to raise hitch a bit, will have to see how high nose of trailer is and whether too much weight will be shifted to rear axle. Time to mod frame of trailer and lift? Leaf springs already on top of axles.

One last niggling thing … with LWB, I can’t back all the way to pinbox without closing tailgate. Suggestions on brands of notched (V) tailgates?

Once I can move the rig, I’ll send additional pictures with measurements.

New name for the rig might be “Odd Couple!”
https://picasaweb.google.com/1042270...eat=directlink

[summerhummer]

Congrats that is a sweet looking truck. Sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do..... Looks like you get a good deal and that truck will serve you well for years to come. I cant help with the pin box issues as I am not a fiver guy but happy trails !

[GaryWT]

I don't think I would pull much more than a popup with that bad boy, lol. Good luck with it.

[Javi]

Tom, the extra length of a long bed is normally in front of the wheel wells but the newer trucks have a deeper bed so that may be the problem. With my long bed I have about 4" with the tailgate down when I hit the pin so I haven't looked closely at the replacement tailgates although I may get one at some point just for the convenience if nothing else..


Congratulations on the new truck, you should really enjoy towing with it..


I still find it weird that a pickup with an 8 foot bed is considered an oddity nowadays, not that long ago the 6 1/2 foot bed was the oddity and now we got 5 1/2 foot beds as the norm... Dang... I'm old

[sw342]

You should be able to back in with the tailgate down. Since you are just guessing on the pin placement I wouldn't buy anything until you get the actual 5th wheel installed and see where it all shakes out. I had an 08 Chevy long bed and my current 2014 Ram which is a long bed and with both can back in and hitch up with the tailgate down.

[TomHaycraft]

Thank you everyone. Planets aligned nicely for me, life is good.

Javi, I'm with you on the changes in bed lengths and recognizing how many years have passed. I had, could have been an '82, long wheelbase Chevy and extended cab when those were first becoming popular. It was diesel, maybe a little Detroit Diesel, not GM's poor attempt to convert a 350 from gas to diesel without fully re-engineering the block. Remember those days?

sw3424, advise well taken, on waiting until the hitch is mounted to confirm tailgate clearance. Honestly, the thought hadn't occurred to me that I could have the issue of the tailgate touching the trailer. Although, with the C1500, there was only enough of a gap for me to squeeze between the down tailgate and trailer when side-stepping across ... and I don't have tree-trunks for thighs!

The eTrailer.com shipment with crossbars and attachment plates has made it to Dallas, likely to be delivered tomorrow ... can't wait for the weekend to mount them and get a better look at clearances and such.

More pictures later ... thanks again.

[bsmith0404]

I can't believe you can't back under it with the tailgate down. There is a little extra length in the real on the 8' box, but you should still be okay. I have hooked up to several different 5ers with my truck and always have had at least 6" to spare between tailgate and trailer. I always make sure I'm square with the trailer though since I don't have as much leeway as I did with the 6.5' bed.

[TomHaycraft]

UPDATE

Got hitch cross bars and 7-pin connector installed in bed.

Good news: tail gate clears with about 2". I'll see how things feel with the trips this summer before considering a v-notched tailgate.

Continued challenge: nose high. Thinking I was going to be closer to bedrails, I raised 5th wheel hitch 1", I will drop it back to lowest position. Pin box is all the way "up." As is now, I have 7" over bed rail at front of trailer, 6" at tailgate.

I added some more pictures. Some are decieving. One that shows it best has the Dell Diamon stadium logo in the background. There is also one close to wheels from driver's side. You can see the angle in the equalizer and the tire on the right (rear) a bit higher in wheel well.

Next trip, Memorial Day weekend is only 60 miles from home. I'll take a detour by a CAT Scale. Hopefully the size of the scale platforms will let me catch a split on the axles, see if or how much weight I'm transferring to the rear axle. I'll send one final update with that piece of information.

Oh, and by the way, the 3500HD with the Duramax? Pulls that little trailer like nothing! Couldn't be happier with my purchase.

Silverado 3500HD and Springdale 247FWRLLS

[bsmith0404]

Looks like you're pretty close, dropping the hitch a hole should be just about perfect by the looks of things.

I pulled a 26' TT once with my 3500 HD DRW Dmax, almost forgot it was there a few times. People must have been laughing at a dually pulling a trailer that small.

[theeyres]

Sorry to break it to you, but you really need a HDT to pull that trailer. Better start looking at Volvo's. Hear they are a good heavy duty truck.

[bsmith0404]

Originally Posted by theeyres

Sorry to break it to you, but you really need a HDT to pull that trailer. Better start looking at Volvo's. Hear they are a good heavy duty truck.

Now that would have been a site to see.

[TomHaycraft]

I know, I know. From one extreme of "weight police" discussions to the other! We'll see what the truckers have to say when I run by the local CAT Scales. If DW and I weren't so happy with the floor plan and layout of this Springdale, we'd be tempted to "up size."

For now, when towing, the name of "Odd Couple" fits this rig.