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Old 07-11-2013, 02:07 PM
 
3,549 posts, read 5,350,674 times
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So this year I decided to become a full timer at 25 years old as I do contract work and travel. Boy have I been in for a treat lol.

In January, I purchased a 2013 F250 Lariat with the 6.7L as well as a 42' Crossroads elevation toy hauler.

The max 5th wheel towing capacity for my f250 is 15,900.

My 5th wheel dry is about 12,500ish and the loaded capacity is 15,500. As I'm a full timer, I have a lot of "stuff" and it's probably at it's max on both ends.

I don't tow it often. In fact, since buying, have towed it twice. I imagine I will generally move it maybe 3-4x a year. That's part of the reason I didn't get a dually. I've already put 11000 miles on the truck, and for how little I move the trailer, I couldn't justify the f350 dually at the time. If they made a short bed one, I would have been more open to it, but the 250 size is already quite a bit for my city-type driving.

So, other than air bags bags which I recently installed and haven't used yet, is there anything else I can do to get it to tow better and safer? I've already done two 3+ hour drives with it, one empty, one full and it wasn't "terrible" but I think there is definitely some improvement to be made. The airbags should help it out to stop it from squatting and level the ride.


Any suggestions to help out would be greatly appreciated. I think if I move a lot of stuff from the front storage to the rear toy hauler section that will help on the "tongue" weight as well to balance the load.
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Old 07-12-2013, 06:57 AM
 
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Sorry, but there are no accessories to fix an overloaded truck. You bought too much trailer for your truck. Your salesman should be ashamed to sell you a 42ft toy hauler with an F250 tow vehicle. Probably the best thing for you to do is swap the rear springs to F350 springs or start shopping for a smaller trailer or more truck.
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Old 07-12-2013, 06:51 PM
 
Location: On the brink of WWIII
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Sell the 42 foot monster and buy a 34 footer? Don't think a dually would solve your problem. Dually adds some stability, but towing capacity is close to the same..Too much trailer for your F250. You really need a F450 or F550 for that 5er.
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Old 07-12-2013, 09:25 PM
 
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My truck is equipped to tow 15900. My trailer max capacity is 15500.

For how rarely I tow im failing to see whats wrong with me towing a trailer within its capacity.

I can understand if I had a non toy hauler or the 18500lb cyclone, or even if I towed regularly. A few times a year is a minor issue.

I live in probably the nicest rv park in Texas. I see many less equipped vehicles towing heavier trailers.


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Old 07-12-2013, 09:29 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zthatzmanz28 View Post
Sell the 42 foot monster and buy a 34 footer? Don't think a dually would solve your problem. Dually adds some stability, but towing capacity is close to the same..Too much trailer for your F250. You really need a F450 or F550 for that 5er.
No, its not. The drw can tow almost 7000 more. Try a little research.



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Last edited by houstan-dan; 09-25-2014 at 02:26 PM..
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Old 07-12-2013, 10:29 PM
 
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Your problem is pin weight. A 5er should have 20-25% of it's weight on the pin. So loaded up to 15K on the trailer your pin weight will easily exceed 3K and be overloading the GCWR of the 250.
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Old 07-12-2013, 10:37 PM
 
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A typical F250 diesel will have a GVWR of 10K pounds and a curb weight of around 7800 pounds. Before you add the weight of the driver, passengers, and any other items you place in that truck, you are looking at maybe 2200 pounds of payload. you load a pin weight over 2200 pounds and you are over weight and exceeding the capabilities of your truck. Now matter how shiny your RV park an F250 is not designed to tow that heavy of a 5er. Sorry.
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Old 07-12-2013, 11:37 PM
 
Location: Wyoming
9,724 posts, read 21,130,734 times
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I agree with the other posters. It's not how much towing capability your truck has, it's how much payload it can carry. The newest F250s are far more capable than the old ones, but you're still way over your limits. I would urge you to buy a new dually, but I doubt that's going to happen. Please consider it when you do trade, however. A SRW F350 would be a better choice if you absolutely don't want a dually. I think it would still be overloaded, but not as much.

The weakest link on your truck is probably the tires, particularly the rear ones. You absolutely, positively do NOT want to be overloaded on your axles -- not for one trip per year nor two, three nor four.

The first thing I'd do is get real figures -- hook up your trailer as you tow it, full of fuel, and take it to the weigh station. Get each axle weight and go from there. Find out what tires you need, then what wheels you need for those tires to carry the actual weight. Chances are you'll need new wheels capable of bigger tires and higher air pressure.

I think that'll take care of most of it and shouldn't cost too much. I'd also consider a lower gear ratio for your drive train, but that's more for transmission issues than safety. Talk to a Ford expert and ask him/her what you can do at this point.

There's not a lot of difference between an F250 and an F350, but the differences may change a bit from year to year. I think you can "change" your F250 to an F350 SRW without too much cost. I know a guy who modified his 2000 F250 to an F350 dually for $2K-3K, but he got the parts (including bed) from a wrecked F350.

Air bags will lift the rear and make it look better, probably make it ride better too, but it won't make it carry any more weight. Again, check your tires. They're rated to carry X weight and no more.
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Old 07-13-2013, 07:16 AM
 
3,549 posts, read 5,350,674 times
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Thank you everyone for the good posts. I'll look into possibly trading for a 350 dually and see what the options are. Also, I will look for some higher rated wheels and tires. Giving some reasoning and such makes your advice much more reasonable than the previous posts.

I do have another question. What if I was to load everything in the 5th wheel to BEHIND the axles of the trailer? Wouldnt that severely reduce the pin weight? On account it is a toy hauler, the whole rear is like an open garage. I could move all the storage and such from the front to the rear.

My main reasoning for not wanting to upgrade is because I only plan on keeping this trailer around 3-4 years. I plan on keeping the truck 10. I will have zero need or desire for a dually after getting rid of the trailer, and I would really prefer not to switch vehicles at that time as well. I may be accepting a permanent job soon in which case I would only tow it one more time until I sell it probably as opposed to a few times a year.

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Old 07-13-2013, 07:27 AM
 
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
3,999 posts, read 4,117,288 times
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I also don't know if your pulling hills... but a big part of the problem usually isn't pull... it's stopping. I also agree with WyoNewk. It wouldn't surprise me if you don't start having tire issues. Have you had it actually weighed? You said you full-time... well we got the shock of our life when we were full-timing in our fiver and actually put it on the scales! And we were pulling with a 1 ton dually. Ours was 13000 dry supposed to have 16000 loaded. We were at 18500!!! Please, for your safety and the safety of others take it and have it weighed. I'm not one who believes you have to have more truck than necessary, but a 250 is just plain unsafe with a rig that big....
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