New To Cougar Forum

[Hballer21]

New Forum Member here! Just moved over from the Crossroads RV site.
Just sold our Sunset Trail 250RB. We are about to purchase a 2019 Cougar 1/2 Ton 29RKS. It’s our first time with a 5th wheel. It is coming with a slider hitch. I imagine that I’m going to need to air up the rear of my truck to level the pin weight. In 2003, Ford did not offer that as an option. I imagine my F-250 should be able to handle this as it did our Sunset Trail. Hopefully towing with the 5th wheel will be a bit easier, too.

Looking forward to becoming active in the Forum and maybe meeting some of you folks on the road.

[flybouy]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the new trailer. As for 2003 F250 being "up to the task iot's payload and age that needs to be looked at. Visit a scale with the truck loaded as usual for camping. If your truck has a GVW of 10,000 lbs then subtract the scale weight from that. The remaining is your payload. The trailer you are buying has a 10K GVW as well. Most pin weights on typical fiver's are about 23% of the GVW of the trailer, or in your case about 2,300 lbs. That 1/2 tonn trailer may be pushing it for your 3/4 ton truck.

[Hballer21]

8800 lbs is what the owners manual said for this model of Cougar. With all our “stuff” sitting in my truck (not the 5er), I weighed in at 7250. Gross weight towing on my model appears (from Ford) to be 20,000 lbs. I don’t know pin weight. However, I plan to get air bags in the rear to level the rig when loaded.

You know what’s so frustrating, you can’t get a straight answer from the RV dealer. They just want to sell units. Ford is clueless. Their chart is inaccurate. I met a guy pulling a 13,000 lb 5er with an ‘02 Ford 7.3.

I’m sure insurance carriers will deny coverage for overweight towing. However, they won’t give me a straight answer how much the actual limit is. They referred me to Ford for an answer.

[Camping family]

I have the same 5th wheel only mine is a 2020 29 rks. I’m pulling it with a 2019 f250 king ranch. Have had no issues and when I did the calculations it was fine.

[sourdough]

Does your truck have a gray? sticker inside the driver door that states gvwr? Ford is terrible about giving any stats to dispute their advertising claims but just perusing around I found one site that said that the GVW of that year 250 w/7.3 was 8800. Another had an owner complaining of only having a 1300lb. payload. If your truck weighed 7250 and had a gvw of 8800 = 1550 payload.

[flybouy]

That 8,800 pounds is the shipping weight. You'll never see that weight, ever. The gvw is 10,400 and you will be closer to that number when you load it up with all your "stuff*. The max combined or towing number on the truck is useless as well. That number is calculated pulling a flabed with bricks where the majority of the weight is on tha trailer axles with very little pin weight. You're spot on with the salesman not knowing or only caring about making a sale.

[Hballer21]

So the 1550 would be my pin weight, correct? 23% of 8800 is 2024 which would conceivably put me over by 474 lbs. Are there exact specs on pin weight? I imagine every degree off from parallel will either increase or decrease pin weight.

This, to me, is clear as mud.

[Hballer21]

No gray sticker on my truck. Only a white one with wheel and tire capacities.

[Canonman]

Welcome! We really like our 279RKS, roughly the same unit only about 1,000 pounds lighter and 3 feet shorter. The dry pin weight for your unit is about 1600#. It doesn't take much to get to 2,000# by the time you are loaded. We are really close to our max payload number with our configuration with plenty of headroom on the GCVW and Max towing numbers.
Your Ford will pull the new Cougar all day, but you will likely be over your payload limit and air bags will not change that limit number. They will get your truck level, but will not add anything to your payload number.
That said, you'll love the difference towing a 5th wheel.
Load wisely, drive carefully and enjoy your new 5er.

[Hballer21]

Thank you. I’m aware about the bags only leveling the ride. That would be my goal. My bumper pull trailer without my load equalizing hitch put me up about 3” in the front. I didn’t care for driving like I was going up a hill in San Francisco. I like seeing the road too, lol.

With the 7.3, I’m not planning on setting any speed records either. (Wave when you go by).

[flybouy]

The only difinitive way to know where your at and what you've got is to scale it. Looking at numebers, expecially published sales numbers are just guessing. Weight your rig with everything and everyone in it to go camping. Then drop the trailer in the parking lot and weight just the truck. If you go to weightmytruck.com you can download the Cat Scales App and make it a simple proceedure.

Your truck will have a sticker with the max truck weight (GVW) and max axel weights. So if the placard states gvw on the truck is 8,800 lbs and the truck weights 7,200 lbs then yes the rameaining payload is 1,550 Lbs. The pin weight of the loaded trailer will likely be north of 2,000 lbs. "Most likely" closer to 2,400 lbs. IF that's the case then you would be close to 1,000 lbs over your truck's payload capacity. Then you most likely be exceeding the rear axle weight as well.

The other "elephant in the room" is the age of the truck. That "published weights amd maximums was calculated on a brand new, factory fresh truck. With a 17-18 byear old truck you have to consider the condition of the entire suspension and drivelinme. Years and milage will weaken springs, wear suspension bushings, steering componets, differential gears, axle bearings, even the bed and body mount bushings when worn can have an efeect. A truck driven over rough roads could have frame issues as well.

Again, the only way to know is to scale it. Even if your'e at or slightly over load capacity I would have the truck looked over by someone who knows Ford trucks and knows where and what to look at. Not trying to rain on your parade or scare you but rather giving you some "food for thought" so you can make an informed decision. At the end of the day if things go bad it won't be the salesman that's held accountable but the owner.

Travel safe and I hope it works out for you.

[spicercars]

Welcome from northern MN.