Gee, maybe I should have got a dually!

[klenger]

SChen: Does the Mini fit in the bed of the truck? Now, that would be car pooling. :-laf :-laf

 

[Jaysyl]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who has gone through this... I had a Dodge 1500 and wanted a small trailer to go camping with, choices were very limited, so we started looking at the 2500, but my wife was the one who decided that the truck would not be the limiting factor in whatever we wanted to tow, so we went with a dually and absolutely love it. No second guessing on what we should have done.

My wife is in the army and normally drives a MINI Cooper S to work. She had to take the dually in one day and the First Sergeant pulled in next to her in his Duramax 2500 and couldn't believe it when she got out of the dually, especially after all the grief he gives her for driving the MINI.



Scott

Just like my wife, not in the Army just runs the house like she is a drill Sargent. As I posted before she said dually and that is what we got. Our trailer now is a 21ft toybox, bumper pull. If we move up in size we should not have any trouble.

 

[Jaysyl]

SChen: Does the Mini fit in the bed of the truck? Now, that would be car pooling. :-laf :-laf

Klenger always the smart one :-laf :-laf



SCHEN welcome to TDR

 

[SChen]

SChen: Does the Mini fit in the bed of the truck? Now, that would be car pooling. :-laf :-laf

Not quite, but don't think I didn't measure.



The MINI is usually in the garage, but we do get quite a few comments from the neighbors when they're parked together in the driveway. The top of the roof on the MINI barely reaches the windowsill of the CTD. Side by side with thier noses even the rear of the MINI doesn't reach the back of the rear door on the quadcab.



Sorry for the threadjack! To add input to the discussion, we eventually bought a 29' fifth wheel toyhauler.



Scott

 

[PatrickCampbell]

You can tow a lot with the 2500. Your rear axle GAWR is 6000 with the tires being the weakest link. Figure 3000 lbs on the rear axle loaded up. Leaves 3000 pin weight which is a pretty conservative 12,000 lbs 5th wheel. This will be over the GVWR but under the GAWRs and under the tire ratings which is what is most important. Oo.

 

[GFrance]

No regrets here, from trading my 2500 in for the 3500 dually we have now. The pin wt on my 32' tripple slide everest is 2350 which put me about 900 over gvwr & 3000 over gcwr with the 2500. With the dually we have room to grow.

 

[kelly4463]

Welcome to TDR alot of opinions here :-laf i'm glad i got 6 wheels to tow my 5er safely

 

[AMink]

I think the hardest part of trailer shopping is being honest with your needs. How long are you going to be staying? How many times per year do you go? How big is your parking area? With two of you, there are tons of good floor plans. Biggest thing my wife looks for is a walk around bed and lots of storage. We have a tt, and I have never towed a 5er, so I can't comment there, but I do know that a tt has a lot less tongue weight for the same size rig. Downfall is longer overall length; some parks/campgrounds have limits. Upside is I can use my bed with shell to put all kinds of stuff in and I don't have the 5er hitch mounts in my bed when I'm not using it.



You can also lessen tongue weight/pin weight by carefull loading. If you're a little heavy, move stuff from the front to back. Moving 100 pounds from the front of the axles to the rear can make a big difference. Look for units with the tanks behind the axles, rear kitchens, slides that are over or behind the axles, etc.



Best advice, though, is get what your wife likes. :-laf

 

[KSears]

Had an 03 2500 quad 4x4 6 speed 3:73 geared H. O. CTD , prior to deciding to buy a new trailer ( 37' fifth wheel toyhauler ) , I think it would have been ok, but I would have needed a sliding hitch and decided I would feel more comfortable with a little more capacity ( load ) of the one ton, I went with SRW for I don't tow constantly, only a dozen or so times a year, It is easier to deal with parking ,buying tires and such, I have no issues hauling the trailer I have ,weighs about 14k when loaded up with bike and all, never had a scary moment so to say where I wished I had a dually,

 

[RVTRKN]

My 5ver is under my GCWR and is easy to tow, but I would not think twice about maxing out and going slightly over, the figures are always conservative for liability reasons. The CTD combined with a NV5600 can withstand well over the ratings. The 48RE auto is another story.

 

[CumminsPower98]

I tow all the time with my '98 2500 (RV transporter) and the ratings dodge gives on these things is pretty limp and limiting if followed to the letter (I think mine is only 16k GCWR). When I have a full load of fuel (150 gal. ) and all my stuff and hitches and 5th wheel tool box on back I'm pretty much at the GVWR of 8,800 so I have no room for pin/tongue weight. I'm over the GCWR many times too by as much as 4,700 now and then (not often). I try to stay away from the bigger trailers most of the time but there's not always a good option especially if I'm trying to get home or something. I run air bags also and the truck handles just fine.

 

[Grizzly]

We have a tt, and I have never towed a 5er, so I can't comment there, but I do know that a tt has a lot less tongue weight for the same size rig. Downfall is longer overall length; some parks/campgrounds have limits. Upside is I can use my bed with shell to put all kinds of stuff in and I don't have the 5er hitch mounts in my bed when I'm not using it.

:-laf

The advantages of a 5th wheel far out weigh the convenience of having storage in the bed with a shell.

 

[Ol'TrailDog]

To answer the question, yes.

 

[sarj]

The advantages of a 5th wheel far out weigh the convenience of have storage in the bed with a shell.

It depends where you go and what you do. For sitting in RV parks... maybe.

 

[Grizzly]

It depends where you go and what you do. For sitting in RV parks... maybe.

I'm not talking about sitting, I'm talking about towing.

 

[Texas Diesel]

And herein lies the problem with the small print. Along with the tow ratings, buried at the bottom is the admonition that none of the truck's other ratings should be exceeded - including the GVWR. With heavy 5th wheels that typically carry 20% or more of their loaded weight on the kingpin, a SRW truck will always exceed its GVWR before it reaches the tow rating - the significantly higher GVWR is the advantage of the dually insofar as ratings are concerned when towing a 5th wheel.



Rusty

This statement haunted me since I first heard it a couple of years ago. I fianlly dumped the SRW and got a DRW. Best decision I ever made, no regrets.



Much improved stability and peace of mind about a rear tire blowing. I heard a trucker once talking about SRW's carrying campers or high COG FW's. He said he ALWAYS saw body bags at the accident scene after a tire failure. With a tire blowout & DRW's, just saw people walking around pointing at the shredded tire on the rim ( the other tire was holding the weight ).



Once a drove a company truck with DRW's. On the way home one day I heard a bang. Looked in the mirrors and saw nothing, truck handled ok so I kept going. To my surprise, back at the shop I discovered that the passenger side inboard tire was nothing but two beads on the wheel.



Yes you can carry heavy loads on a SRW, but how much is your life worth?

 

[Ol'TrailDog]

A couple of years ago I had an outside rear go flat whilst cruising the two tracks around Wild Iris on South Pass. Thats when I found out the OEM jack was, shall we say, junk, to be polite in mixed company. Fortunately I could drive back to town on the inside dually.



Needless to say I have an aftermarket hydraulic jack now.

 

[Blu-meanie]

I got the truck with "training wheels" after weighing my '01 2500 with trailer attached. It was over by about 600lbs and that was without my 14' boat and all the stuff that goes with it.

 

[Bertram65]

This statement haunted me since I first heard it a couple of years ago. I fianlly dumped the SRW and got a DRW. Best decision I ever made, no regrets.



Much improved stability and peace of mind about a rear tire blowing. I heard a trucker once talking about SRW's carrying campers or high COG FW's. He said he ALWAYS saw body bags at the accident scene after a tire failure. With a tire blowout & DRW's, just saw people walking around pointing at the shredded tire on the rim ( the other tire was holding the weight ).



Once a drove a company truck with DRW's. On the way home one day I heard a bang. Looked in the mirrors and saw nothing, truck handled ok so I kept going. To my surprise, back at the shop I discovered that the passenger side inboard tire was nothing but two beads on the wheel.



Yes you can carry heavy loads on a SRW, but how much is your life worth?

Your truck is still single wheel in the front right?

What do you think would happen if you have a blowout on one of the front wheels?

Buying a DRW truck for safety in case of blowout does not seem to be a good reason when the front still only has one wheel per side.

As long as the SRW truck is not loaded above the truck's rating I think it is just as safe as a DRW.

 

[tractorseller]

I'm not much of a number cruncher like RustyJC, but after hauling gooseneck trailers and a fifth wheel for many thousands of miles with both a 3/4 ton SRW and my 1 ton DRW I'm confident in saying that it's much more comfortable with the DRW. I don't get the white-knuckle syndrome anymore with heavy crosswinds either. The SRW did the job, but I always felt like I was "pushing" things with heavy loads.



They can call them training wheels or whatever they want, I don't care, just call me relaxed and happy when I'm pulling big loads now. This DRW is a pulling champ as far as I'm concerned .