I have a 2023 ram 2500 hemi. With 410s I'm looking at a 11000 lb gross fifth wheel. Pin weight 1630. The truck empty is 7000 lbs.per the scales. 10000 lb gvw and 3800 payload depends on what chart you look at . With the pin weight mostly 2 humans and my furry friend 100 lb lab, some cargo, 2 propane bottles .a 200 lb fifth wheel hitch I'm a couple of hundred pounds below gvw, and payload. And good on cgvw. 17500 towing . I know the truck is capable . My question is I'm just looking for people who have towed a simular set up with that simular truck, on your experience towing it. Going across the country with it. I can go smaller if I choose thanks for your reply s
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Towing
- Thread starter drb
- Start date
Grateful Dad
Well-Known Member
I’ve got 3:73’s and my 5ver tops out at 10,195 lbs, max pin weight sniffs 1,700 lbs. so I’m in the same ball park. My setup works great, sits damn near perfectly level on the stock suspension and I’m traveling with the wife and 3 teenage girls (no one but me packs light!). I’m old school in some regards and would love to have the 4.10’s but I surely don’t NEED them. Only thing that really stinks, especially if going cross county will be fuel range, you’ll be lucky to get 200 miles per tank.
EDIT: rereading your post, is that pin weight the listed dry weight? If so, it will undoubtedly be a bit higher once you get loaded.
EDIT: rereading your post, is that pin weight the listed dry weight? If so, it will undoubtedly be a bit higher once you get loaded.
Ritchie_Rich
Active Member
More likely you will be around 2k pin weight when loaded , maybe more.
Might be okay as long as you don’t encounter any hills or mountains.
Might be okay as long as you don’t encounter any hills or mountains.
Thanks guys for the replies. The listed pin weight for th 5ver is 1650. I know it will be fine . But it's allways good to check around for other opines. And I don't mind stopping every 200 miles to stretch the old dogs legs. After all I'm not going to be in any hurry. Thanks again
Airtim
Member
It will do an excellent job. Keep in mind what Ritchie Rich said. If you are up in the mountains 5000 feet or higher you will notice a loss in power.
I haven been higher than about 2800. the steepest i have ever done was a 12% grade bit it was short and it was a winding road so even if i had more power i wouldn't have been able to use it. Pictured here is a combined weight of 23,200 and a pin weight of 3100. I am almost always pin limited hence the truck in the back.
No i didn't climb Mt Evans, I am sure it would have sucked. but regular New England driving there was never a point it couldn’t maintain 65-70.
I haven been higher than about 2800. the steepest i have ever done was a 12% grade bit it was short and it was a winding road so even if i had more power i wouldn't have been able to use it. Pictured here is a combined weight of 23,200 and a pin weight of 3100. I am almost always pin limited hence the truck in the back.
No i didn't climb Mt Evans, I am sure it would have sucked. but regular New England driving there was never a point it couldn’t maintain 65-70.
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Limey
Active Member
I have similar setup and have been towing all over the country, with it, since 2020. Even went up to Canada and over to west Texas from Florida. The combo rides just great and we have never had any issues other than one flat tire. In mountain areas going up north the Canada it pulled like a dream. A few more revs, but just fine.
Thanks , everyone. Been across the country a few times now . There are several big mountain passes, but it should do fine from what you guys said. I find it interesting that they call these 5vers half ton towable, I pitty the guys that don't do the research, and most rv dealerships don't care. I had guys tell me I would be ok with a camper that had a pin weight of 2000 and 15000 lb gross. I'm not saying it wouldn't work,but I won't do it. Thanks again.
Grateful Dad
Well-Known Member
Limey
Active Member
He has a RAM 2500 not a half ton. He was referring to the fifth wheels that manufacturers call 'half ton towable' - like mine. No way you could tow it with a half ton truck!!
When you add propane tanks and batteries to your model 5th wheel (front) and load it up with your stuff (mostly front), your loaded pin weight will be around 2,200 lb. If you spend any time on RV forums, the consensus is 20% of GVWR for loaded pin weight. Some are more; very few are less and these are almost always toy haulers with the rear garage. Ours is right on 20% and most of our storage is behind the RV axles(not a toy hauler). It you travel with your fresh water tank (usually front) full and your waste tanks (usually rear) empty, it will likely be more than 20%.
If your truck has a 10,000 lb GVWR and weighs 7,000 lbs empty, your available payload is 3,000 lbs, not 3,800 lbs. The real number is shown on the placard on the driver’s door pillar. The “charts” are generally useless for real life data. You might still be OK. You might consider the Anderson 5th wheel hitch. It will reduce your 200 lb hitch estimate to about 50 lbs.
Yes thanks dodgeman, I am aware of these weights. Truck is 7000 lbs with me in it empty at the scales. Add my wife which she is not 200 lbs, just being conservative, a 100 lb soaking wet yellow lab, 60 pounds of propane, 50 lbs of batteries and a 200 lb slider hitch for the short bed, and 1650 pin weight. = 3000-2260= 740. If the math is right.not much room for anything else lol. Maybe in the back of the camper.
Looks OK. I didn’t know about the short bed, in which case the Anderson hitch doesn’t help. Some people say they don’t need a slider in their short bed but I’m not willing to risk a blown out cab or RV damage from a moment’s inattention in what is likely to be a stressed situation anyway. If you would like to get away from the heavy slider hitch, have you checked out the REESE Sidewinder pinbox?
Ritchie_Rich
Active Member
Grateful Dad
Well-Known Member
I’m well aware he has a 2500 . My 150 series is labeled “half ton towable” as well, my comment was directed towards the fact I wouldn’t tow my 5ver with a half ton, RV manufacturers’ labeling is woefully misguided.He has a RAM 2500 not a half ton. He was referring to the fifth wheels that manufacturers call 'half ton towable' - like mine. No way you could tow it with a half ton truck!!
Which one you got?
Grateful Dad
Well-Known Member
For those that don’t have one, a lot of the “half ton towable” 5vers tend to have pin weights that are less than the usual 20%, the manufacturers go out of there way to keep them lighter on the pin(hence the delusion of using a half ton as a tow rig). My listed dry weight was 1,380 lbs or something close, fully loaded to the max it sniffs 1,700 lbs (roughly 16.67%).
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johnmyster
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We used an Andersen in our short bed. Andersen has 4" of rear offset and I typically used an offset ball to add an additional 5". The offset ball wasn't really necessary for turning clearance but it was nice to have additional space to walk between the bumper and the camper. Lots of hitches out there with the ability to do rear offset for all the folks pulling with short beds.
My experience was that the "lightweight" 5w campers...typically also have shortish wheelbase and if you pull far enough forward and let the turn develop gradually, you don't need extreme angles to get into spots.
Likewise with our LW 5w camper. I would front load as much as possible and could only get to 17% pin weight. Rear fresh tank would've only removed pin weight.
Contrast that, our present bumper pull is 14% empty and 17% loaded.
Limey
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Cougar 27SGS as in signature below \/
Seadoorxpguy
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I have a 32 Rli cougar