Newby towing

[Dogrich1]

I am new at towing and know nothing about it. I am looking to tow a 2017 COUGAR X-LITE 28SGS Fifth Wheel. We have a 2009 F150 With towing pkg. All the stuff I read is confusing...can someone explain this to me...in plain english! lol

[jsb5717]

First, welcome aboard. You'll find a lot of experience and knowledgeable help here.

There are a lot of threads here discussing towing weights, etc. The place to start is the yellow sticker in the door jamb of your truck. That will tell you the payload capacity of your truck. Basic tow ratings are irrelevant. It's mostly about how much weight you can put ON your truck, not how much weight your truck can pull

You will also need to know the GVWR of your trailer. It appears that yours is 10,000 lbs (empty weights mean nothing, use loaded weights only). 20% of your GVWR is 2000 lbs. That's approximately how much pin weight you will load onto the back of your truck. Add in total people, pets, gear, hitch...anything else you are loading into the truck. 2000 lbs plus everything else is the approximate weight you will be carrying. Does your truck give you that much payload weight allowance?

Typically your trailer will need a minimum of a 3/4 ton truck to pull safely and comfortably. You don't want to experience the white knuckle driving that many here have experienced.

[Northofu1]

What Jeff said.
I have just purchased a Cougar Xlite as well, the 29 RET, it too has a GVWR of 10,000 lbs.
I wouldn't have considered it in my GMC 1500. I think the 2500 will tow it nicely.

[Dogrich1]

GCWR is 15500 on my truck. GVWR for truck is 7200 How do I get the Load capacity? Curb weight is 3291 would Load Capacity be the dif between curb and GVWR?

[sourdough]

You need to look at the sticker inside the driver door. It will give you payload and gross axle weight ratings. Post those. You need to recheck that curb weight; don't know I've ever seen an F150 that only weighed 3291....maybe a Ford Ranger?? My last 1/2 ton was 5300 lbs. +/-

[Dogrich1]

Yep...I messed up on that...curb weight is 5670......payload...1530...

[Eastham]

Carrying capacity is on the driver's door jam on a yellow sticker.

[travelin texans]

Don't take offense by comments from us "weight freaks" or feel "pounced on" with our suggestions, but all the info mentioned equals only one thing TOO MUCH RV or NOT ENOUGH TRUCK.

[skids]

Originally Posted by travelin texans

Don't take offense by comments from us "weight freaks" or feel "pounced on" with our suggestions, but all the info mentioned equals only one thing TOO MUCH RV or NOT ENOUGH TRUCK.

And, he says that with EMPHASIS! Yuk yuk.

[Hamlej]

Here is some advise after taking several HUGE hits to the wallet. If you can, go buy that 1 ton dually long bed pickup. Then go shopping for the trailer of your choice. No matter what you say or think now eventually you will decided to upgrade that fifth wheel to bigger, better and heavier.

[theasphaltrv'er]

Dogrich your getting some great advise. Please let me give you my thoughts..
We drive a '13 F150 XLT Ecoboost HD with a payload capacity of 2172 lbs. When we was looking to up grade or downgrade, we we're towing a 31 ft. TT. When looking, researching & calculating what 5th wheel our truck could handle, a sales lady really, I mean really tried to get us into a 28sgs. She gave the ole your truck will have no problem pulling it, bah, bah, bah. Right it would have "no problem pulling it" but it would have a problem with the pin weight of it. I knew it was to much for our truck. Pin weight was bout 300 lbs more than the one we got. We finally decided on a '14 26sab. We are within our trucks limits and 6 years and over 10,000 miles of towing it, it was the best decision we could have made.

[JimJan]

We had a 3/4 ton chevy and were unsure we wanted to get back into camping so we bought an older small 5th wheel to see. After a season we decided to get a better - bigger 5th wheel. Found a nice used 38 footer. Went on a few short weekends and noticed the sag in the truck. Air bags helped but the suspension was over loaded.
Got on line here and learned what you are hearing now, that the truck did not have the capacity. We ended up getting the 1 ton dually long bed which is a little over-kill but it sure handles nice.
Moral of the story is get more truck than you need for the camper the you want now because a bigger - better one is most likely in your future.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by JimJan

...
Moral of the story is get more truck than you need for the camper the you want now because a bigger - better one is most likely in your future.

And then we read the new thread: Hi, I'm new to travel trailers and just bought a 37' Hideout travel trailer for my DW, our teacup poodle and me. When we towed it home from the dealership, we realized we're going to need one of those "weight hitch transfer systems" and the truck seemed to run a little hotter than usual, but it towed just fine. Do you think our 2005 Ranger will have any trouble towing it? We don't have any plans to tow any further than about 200 miles from home and only short trips of 2 or 3 days. Our Ranger is a 4x4, FX4, so it's "fully equipped with a towing package"....

[ctbruce]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

And then we read the new thread: Hi, I'm new to travel trailers and just bought a 37' Hideout travel trailer for my DW, our teacup poodle and me. When we towed it home from the dealership, we realized we're going to need one of those "weight hitch transfer systems" and the truck seemed to run a little hotter than usual, but it towed just fine. Do you think our 2005 Ranger will have any trouble towing it? We don't have any plans to tow any further than about 200 miles from home and only short trips of 2 or 3 days. Our Ranger is a 4x4, FX4, so it's "fully equipped with a towing package"....

Yep, this here is a "full spectrum" RV Forum.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

And then we read the new thread: Hi, I'm new to travel trailers and just bought a 37' Hideout travel trailer for my DW, our teacup poodle and me. When we towed it home from the dealership, we realized we're going to need one of those "weight hitch transfer systems" and the truck seemed to run a little hotter than usual, but it towed just fine. Do you think our 2005 Ranger will have any trouble towing it? We don't have any plans to tow any further than about 200 miles from home and only short trips of 2 or 3 days. Our Ranger is a 4x4, FX4, so it's "fully equipped with a towing package"....

And he doesn't even know it's back there. Oh yeah, almost forgot, he gets 35 m.p.g. towing.

[Gegrad]

Originally Posted by flybouy

And he doesn't even know it's back there. Oh yeah, almost forgot, he gets 35 m.p.g. towing.

You forgot to mention that the dealer assured him it would tow just fine, but he might see a small fuel economy decrease.

[LewisB]

To the OP:
In post #1 you state you are "new to towing"; then in post #10 you state you "have a 30 foot TT you have used close to home". It sounds like you have already landed at that stage where a major upgrade is in store. You were thinking trailer and from the advice offered here you are realizing correctly that it also means tow vehicle.

Post #17 is the best advice of all when JimJan states "... get more truck than you need for the camper the you want now because a bigger - better one is most likely in your future." I'm guessing that a large percentage of the members of the forum would add an "amen" to that statement! We have all been where you are at now - wanting a bigger trailer and realizing we need a bigger truck. For many of us (including me), we've sung this tune multiple times - purchased ever increasing sized rigs.

So, if you already know that "camping/RVing" is in your future, you will already know that you are going to ultimately want bigger stuff. Take JimJan's advice! Buy TWICE the truck you think you will need. Otherwise, two or three years from now, when the DW decides she wants a king bed and you want to bring the boat or haul the kids or...etc., you may be in exactly the same spot. JMHO

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by LewisB

To the OP:
In post #1 you state you are "new to towing"; then in post #10 you state you "have a 30 foot TT you have used close to home". It sounds like you have already landed at that stage where a major upgrade is in store. You were thinking trailer and from the advice offered here you are realizing correctly that it also means tow vehicle.

Post #17 is the best advice of all when JimJan states "... get more truck than you need for the camper the you want now because a bigger - better one is most likely in your future." I'm guessing that a large percentage of the members of the forum would add an "amen" to that statement! We have all been where you are at now - wanting a bigger trailer and realizing we need a bigger truck. For many of us (including me), we've sung this tune multiple times - purchased ever increasing sized rigs.

So, if you already know that "camping/RVing" is in your future, you will already know that you are going to ultimately want bigger stuff. Take JimJan's advice! Buy TWICE the truck you think you will need. Otherwise, two or three years from now, when the DW decides she wants a king bed and you want to bring the boat or haul the kids or...etc., you may be in exactly the same spot. JMHO

I think this is probably correct for most folks, but some, like myself, really enjoy (seemingly ) going in to buy a new truck every 3 mos./3 yr. just to hear the sales guy tell you how much less your vehicle is worth than what you paid. The jolt! That sickening feeling of knowing - here we are again, and I'm going to get yet another slightly different truck....THIS time it will be different....THIS time I'm not going to get something larger/different/with a "washer and dryer" etc. And, like a gambling addict, you sign on the dotted line, take that new, incrementally larger vehicle home hoping THIS time you're going to "win it all", "beat the house"....yet knowing deep inside that the value of that new truck dropped by thousands when you walked out the door and as soon as you talk to the next sales guy he will confirm that for you....plus, DW was just talking about wishing we had a 4 seat UTV to go in a toy hauler as you were walking out. Ahhh, what's that? That sickening feeling returning? The knowledge that you will yet again prove that you can't beat the house operating in this manner. WHY oh WHY didn't you just buy way more truck than you needed? What!!?? And deprive oneself of this self inflicted misery?

[jtharding]

I used to tow that trailer with a Ram 2500 6.4 with ease. Dont think a 1/2 ton will be sufficient..

[Huntme]

if the poster get offended that easy,maybe He or She should not get on these sites.