New Raptor 352

[Tiko433]

Hello! We’ll going to pick up a Raptor 352 in a few weeks. Me and my wife plan on being full timers in it for a year. While taking it on trips. Looking for any advice on doing this.

[chuckster57]

Welcome to the forum

Congrats on your purchase and new life style. We have lots of full timers here that can help, what are you going to use to drag your home around?

[Tiko433]

Thanks Chuck. The plan is to hit the road till the first of the year. What to see parts of the country we have never seen before. Then end up in FL where I have a job lined up, we will continue to stay in the Raptor but just move it to local parks. Do that until we find a house. I have a 2016 F250 SuperDuty 6.7 diesel SWR . I have air bags already. Going to use a autosider hitch. If I find the truck is not up to the task I will look for a dually.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Tiko433

Thanks Chuck. The plan is to hit the road till the first of the year. What to see parts of the country we have never seen before. Then end up in FL where I have a job lined up, we will continue to stay in the Raptor but just move it to local parks. Do that until we find a house. I have a 2016 F250 SuperDuty 6.7 diesel SWR . I have air bags already. Going to use a autosider hitch. If I find the truck is not up to the task I will look for a dually.

Welcome to the forum. I think you'll find at 17,000 lbs GVW that 39' trailer will be too much for any 3/4 ton truck. If you use the "accepted estimate" of 23% of trsiler weight for the pin weight that would be 3,900 lbs. Add the hitch and you're going to plop 4,000 lbs in the bed. That's seriously overloading any 3/4 ton truck.

[notanlines]

Tico, "If I find the truck is not up to the task"at risk of hurting your feelings, your six year old F-250 is not up to the task. When that RV is loaded your pin weight will be 4,000 pounds. Add in all your other passengers, equipment, tools, stuff, pets, 'air bags,' slider hitch (HEAVY) and anything else you have in the truck and now you're hitting 5,000 pounds.
Do yourself a favor (and us) and post a picture of the yellow sticker on the door frame showing "Cargo weight should not exceed----" and we can go from there.
And welcome to the forum by the way.

[wiredgeorge]

Tico, Welcome to the forum. You had some good advice because your 3/4 ton is very over-matched by that very heavy camper... your instinct to look for a dually is a good one. I suspect your will enjoy your camper but will enjoy a lot more if you are dragging it down the highway safely. Good luck!

[jasin1]

Yep sounds like a nice trailer…not to pile on but …. It can be tempting to think your not going to be towing it that much so won’t be that bad.

It’s like going out on the open ocean without a lifeboat or enough life preservers…
Bad things can happen on the first trip or 100th trip if your not equipped properly.

I just switched to a dually from a 3/4 ton 3 months after buying my much much lighter fifth wheel as I was way overloaded unknowingly

[Tiko433]

Here is my my sticker, thanks for the information guys. I been considering a dually, I have not bought the 352 yet , only have a deposit on it. Maybe I will consider another model or another truck. Not sure if y’all have noticed but the new car lots are empty due to some chip shortage, crazy times we are in.

[chuckster57]

See where it says combined weight of passengers and cargo shall not exceed 1946 pounds? What’s the pin weight of the trailer?

I’ll let you figure out where this is going.

[Tiko433]

Pin weight…? Is that the same as hitch weight? It’s 3400 .., ouch .. I see where this going. Different TH or truck with more capability. Thanks again guys.

[Gary R.]

Hello Tico, welcome to you and your DW to the forum!

Really good advice from the folks concerning the towing weight.

Good luck in your search for a new TV!

Cheers!

[wiredgeorge]

Wow.... about the lowest payload of any 3/4 truck I have heard of. We generally use 23 percent of a fifth wheels gross weight to get an idea of pin weight. That is north of 3900 lbs in this case so when you add your stuff in the truck, passengers and hitch, your actual pin weight is close to 4500-4700 lbs. Air bags will help you from sagging but actually decrease your payload capability as they are weight. You are in dually territory and as you may have guessed, while you can get premium bucks for your 2016, whoever sells to you will want premium bucks. You may want to full time in one park until the price gouging subsides and then shop for a new dually when there will be a glut of trucks out there as the computer chips start flowing from Taiwan again. Don't know for sure but I think what comes up (like insane prices) will likely come down.

[spicercars]

Welcome from Northern MN.