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lathe11

What size truck?

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You will have a loaded pin weight of 3200# (20% of the trailer GVWR) so make sure the trucks rated payload is over 3200#.  The payload will consist of passengers, cargo, hitch and pin weight.  A newer 1 ton single rear wheel may carry the load, but I'd personally go ahead and get a 1 ton dual rear wheel.  A 3/4 ton  (F250 or 2500 series) will not have sufficient payload capacity.

You will see lots of unknowledgeable people or those that do not care pulling big 5ers with 3/4 ton trucks/  My advice is do not do it.  If you want to play with the big boys, you need big toys.

Ken

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We have had both class As and 5ers and for full time living, the 5er is more comfortable, more residential feel, more storage and can set in moths in one place without being driven.  We have been full time for 5 years now and the dually is our daily driver.

Ken

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Make sure it's a "true one ton"!  Not a wana be 3/4.  Between 3 working ranches, my SO, Linda and I have several of both...all long beds, except for a 1984 Dodge one ton, it's short bed with a built in welding generator.  :D

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12 hours ago, TXiceman said:

We have had both class As and 5ers and for full time living, the 5er is more comfortable, more residential feel, more storage and can set in moths in one place without being driven.  We have been full time for 5 years now and the dually is our daily driver.

Ken

We also were full time in a fiver, now in a DP.  I am just the opposite as Ken.  Our DP is more comfortable and has tons more storage than our 39' fiver had.  I suppose if you are sitting in one place for 6 or 7 months it wouldn't be good on a DP, but we don't do that anyway.

We were very close on our weights when we had our fiver.  My TV (truck - tow vehicle) was a 2012 F350 single rear wheel.  After loading for full time living and weighing we were within a few hundred pounds of being over.  I weighed twice a year and it was always a battle to keep my weights down.  Even though IMHO it would have been harder to use a dually for a daily driver, if my F350 would have been a dually I would have had some wiggle room.   I had Firestone air bags on the rear which helped keep me level but didn't mean I could load heavier.

Don't have to worry about all that now though.

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That’s where I am at now! Have a DP and looking at the pros and cons of a 5th wheel! We use the DP for long weekends about 4-6 times during the summer than stay 3-4 months in Florida for the winters! Another DP or go with the 5th.  

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lathe11, listen to the posters here.  I'm still on a 5th wheel forum for the RV we had before changing to MHs.  All sorts of folks will tell you (especially your salesman trying to sell you a 5th wheel)  how a 3/4 ton will pull it fine.  It might pull it fine but it will be way over the cargo capacity.  At 16k you are in dually country, and it should be a diesel.  Yes, it will be expensive...but well worth it.  Here is a quick check you can make....check the Cargo and Loading Information sticker on the door jam of a 3/4 ton diesel and a dually diesel....be sure they are diesels, because a gasser, with the light gas engine, will have a higher cargo capacity.   The sticker will tell you the cargo capacity of that vehicle to the nearest one pound.  To compute the approximate pin weight of your RV use 20% of the GVWR....that 3,200 lbs for the RV you are checking is over the cargo capacity of all 3/4 ton diesel pickups.  That's only the PW...add the weight of the hitch itself, extra fuel, passengers, cargo, etc.

As for the comments on storage of MHs vs 5th wheels, no comparison for us.  This MH has 14 basement storage compartments, as well as over head bins throughout the coach.  Our 38' 5th wheel had storage under the front, that was it.

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I would never go back to a fiver.  Full time in a fiver for 13 years before going to current MH.  So much easier to get on the road after a day or a month stay.  Sure, it sits for months in some places but have not had any issues yet.  I did have more storage with the fiver IF I consider the storage on my MDT (International 4400 with a toter body).

Lenp

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i had a Keystone Montana 3400 rl 37 ft long i towed with a chevy 2500 i was right at her max.  I would go with a 3500 dually.  When i was in flordia the guy next to me had a Ford 450 Dually crew cab loaded it was a nice truck but i was afraid to ask how much.  You will spend a lot of time in the truck make it comfortable.  With the 5er make sure you have the auto leveling system as you get older it will make all the difference one of the reasons i went to a motorhome. 

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I'm not saying when we downsize and go back to part time RVing I would not go back to a fiver.  Actually I probably would, simply because the truck would serve a dual purpose for us, it would pull the RV plus be utilized as our second vehicle while not RVing.   Another consideration is drivability.  I loved pulling my fivers down the road in almost any conditions.  My DP is the same, a joy to drive.  Smaller gas MH.......yikes!  We didn't enjoy that experience at all.

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The guy down from us has a Cedar Creek and asked him and he said he runs about 23% pin weight. We normally load about 1500 pounds over UVW so that would be 3335 pin weight and our 1 ton Diesel had the payload of 3722 with the hitch, my wife and me we had 3220 left over for pin weight that would put us over.  At 16,000 GVWR that would 3680 well over our max payload.   I would say you probably be over the trucks GVWR with SRW truck.  I would have to recommend a DRW. 

 

That is the exact reason I sold my 5er and bought a motorhome.  The last weighting I was 3300 under my max payload with my coach and we are carrying more in coach then we every carried in the 5er.

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That’s where I am at now! Have a DP and looking at the pros and cons of a 5th wheel! We use the DP for long weekends about 4-6 times during the summer than stay 3-4 months in Florida for the winters! Another DP or go with the 5th.  

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On ‎4‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 1:19 PM, lathe11 said:

That’s where I am at now! Have a DP and looking at the pros and cons of a 5th wheel! We use the DP for long weekends about 4-6 times during the summer than stay 3-4 months in Florida for the winters! Another DP or go with the 5th.  

I think you will discover, after looking at different fiver floor plans, there may be slightly more storage inside some fiver than some DPs.  On the other hand, there will always be more storage under the DP than in any fiver I have looked at.  As far as livability while sitting in Florida for 3 - 4 months, you can find really open floor plans in both fivers and DPs given enough large slides that will accomplish this.  

We also camp stationary in Florida for about 4 months.  We are active down here and are on the go a lot.  It is much more enjoyable to run around in a small vehicle as compared to a 1-ton diesel.  

I guess you are also considering the other obvious advantages and disadvantages of both types of RVs.  A couple advantages I enjoyed with the fiver was that if something went wrong with my engine or tranny we still had a place to live.  

Good luck with sorting it all out.

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Joe S.

Now, when you run across bad weather, you just find a place to safely park the DP, turn on generator and stay nice and dry!  With the 5'er you got real wet getting from truck to RV and most don't have a generator, slosh, slosh or your stuck in truck.  With a 350 it's a pain, with a Peterbuilt it's doable! 

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14 hours ago, manholt said:

Joe S.

Now, when you run across bad weather, you just find a place to safely park the DP, turn on generator and stay nice and dry!  With the 5'er you got real wet getting from truck to RV and most don't have a generator, slosh, slosh or your stuck in truck.  With a 350 it's a pain, with a Peterbuilt it's doable! 

Carl, that is all true.  Another check mark in the "advantages of having a DP" list.  Another slight advantage I will experience today is driving in storms/rain.  We are leaving St. Augustine around 8am and it looks like we will not get out of rain until after lunch.  For me visibility is much better sitting up in my DP as compared to my F350 cab.  

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The biggest advantage a 5'er have over me, is the original cost and cost per year to operate.  Most of the ones I know that has one, they already had the trucks!  The only one is my Attorney, he has a MB AMG 63 roadster and his DW has a Infinity SUV, they drive both to their place in Colorado & the Trailer is delivered by Freightliner!  $2.18 a mile from Houston, TX. to Eagle, CO. He bought a 53 foot OTR Trailer and had it converted to a Custom built RV...$1,8 million, 6 years ago!  Nope, it's not one of a kind.

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On 3/31/2018 at 9:54 AM, lathe11 said:

Looking at a cedar creek 40’ 13000 dry, 16000 gross, what size truck can handle it? 3/4 ton or one ton? What is others towing with?? 

So just to answer your question, I have a Spartan toy hauler 5er with almost the exact same weight and pull it with a 2015 2500 RAM diesel. 

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IMHO, I would go with a true one ton!  Ease of hauling, better economy and less wear & tear.  Also, more flexibility now and the future! 

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On 5/1/2018 at 7:41 PM, trikeflyer said:

So just to answer your question, I have a Spartan toy hauler 5er with almost the exact same weight and pull it with a 2015 2500 RAM diesel. 

trikeflyer, and have you weighed the truck and trailer to see where you are on rear axle GAWR?  What does your Spartan weigh?

Ken

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On 5/2/2018 at 10:24 PM, TXiceman said:

trikeflyer, and have you weighed the truck and trailer to see where you are on rear axle GAWR?  What does your Spartan weigh?

Ken

Ken,

I have not weighed.  The door sticker dry is just over 13k.  Unless I need it, I don't fill the tanks when going down the road and I estimate about 1k weight in stuff plus whatever I put in the garage.  All that being said, when I hook it up the pin weight actually just levels my truck out and it pulls great even in the mountains.

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