Camper/travel trailer brands:

Well, that escalated quickly, haha!

@xrated I appreciate the advice. I'm pulling a ~7,000lb bumper pull trailer with a diesel right now (used to do it with a 1500 just fine), but I like having more than enough truck for the trailer. Lots of mountains and wind here in Southern California, and upgrading to the diesel has made my frequent trips way less stressful. I'll definitely keep an eye out on all of the numbers when we get a little closer to upgrading; we're still about 1 year out from that. GVWR on my truck is 10,000lbs. I can't find the exact curb weight right now, but I should have 3,000+ payload pretty easily looking at info on Chevy's site for the weight range for my model.

 

You're welcome, and just holler if you need to. With a 10K GVWR and the truck probably coming in at 7500 to maybe 7700 lbs, I'm thinking you'll have maybe 2300 + on the truck. The easiest way to find out is just look at the door sticker on your truck. The brochures and website numbers are generic, the sticker on your door post is for your truck....as it was built. Good luck man.

 

When you get closer to upgrading and start doing serious homework, you can look back on these posts and they'll make a lot more sense. So you already see the 3/4 ton GVWR limitation of 10k, so a few options:

- State depending, registration/property tax difference between a 3/4 ton and a 1 ton can be astronomically different (and then it'll all make sense why manufactures skirt the payload number to meet the 10k GVWR)
- If it makes you sleep better at night you can get a 1 ton with or without training wheels to be sure your 100% within payload capacity, which means fuck-all if you're worried about getting sued but drive over the speed limit.
- In my mind, if you know you don't need a dually, there's no point getting a 1 ton SRW for the reasons already discussed in the thread.
- I think most of us would probably opt for a dually if we had a perfect world, but most of us (myself included) have to consider parking, normal driving, and storing the truck, and there's a substantial difference between a short bed and a dually.
- Separate from the truck, but bigger trailer isn't always better. The smallest possible trailer that's just big enough to hit all your requirements is the size to have. I know too many track friends that end up having two setups, the monster 5th wheel but get tired of lugging it everywhere, and get an enclosed trailer for either the longer or shorter trips. Doesn't make much sense to me to pay that much $ for a trailer/toy hauler and not use it for what you bought it for.

 

Xrated you've got to be one of the few people in the world that buy a vehicle based on the fear that they might get in a bad wreck and get sued.

 

what kind of range do you have now with both tanks? Im assuming somewhere around 75 gallons to fill up?

 

I don't have that truck or tank any longer, but about the most you could get was about 65 gallons. The 3/4 ton diesel only had a 26 gallon tank and the aux could only get about 95 percent on fill or it would expand too much in the heat of the day and leak diesel fuel.

The truck I have now is a Ford Dually and it has a 37 1/2 gallon tank, and I bought a brand new Aluminum 60 gallon "L" shaped tank. Now, when I leave the house for a trip, I've right around 95 gallons onboard. When towing my Toy Hauler, I'm usually around 9 to 9.5 miles per gallon....so approx. 775 mile range before refuelling. I never run the truck tank down any lower than 1/4 of a tank left.....so about 9 gallons in there.

60 gallon RDS Aluminum....


12 Volt fuel pump on top...

And gravity fill at the bottom....


And in case anyone is wondering why I have two ways to fill the main truck tank, I wanted gravity fill for the times that I didn't want to stop while travelling....and since I already had the 12V pump from my old tank and all the wiring already there, I just put it in the new tank and wired it up.

 

@xrated

Yeah, whats the deal with that thinking? Is there a specific civil case that makes you that skittish that maybe we should know about?

Not that you havent given good advice; I actually checked my truck for the payload rate the other day but Im curious why youre petrified about those numbers.

 

My buddy has a standard toolbox sized auxillary tank on his 2012 Duramax Dually and its 100 gallons. Same gravity feed as you... think the standard tank is 28 gallons? We drove from Portland to Laguna... he asked if I wanted to drive the first tank...lol. 2 meal stops and 13 hours later I asked how large is the fuel tank as the needle hasnt moved. When we drove back to portland without having to pay CA diesel prices... it was under $400 at a truck stop in OR. Not having to stop really knocks the time down.

 

The system is fueling the DPF all the time. That’s what keeps the soot burned out of it and why an emissions truck consistently gets worse fuel mileage, all the time. It’s only when the idling, city driving, light use, etc, which causes the DPF to clog faster than it can be burned out, will put the system into a regen. Unfortunately, the engine still dumps particulates into the atmosphere. It’s just that, now, it does it in massive dumps, at intervals, while burning more fuel per mile travelled. Way better for the environment.

 

Appreciate the advice! I totally agree on the trailer size as well. For the last 9 years, 95%+ of my trailer use has been solo at the track. Now that the kiddo is getting a little older, we're using it more for camping, and we are realizing we need something a little bit bigger. Looking at 35 ft to 38 ft for the fifth wheel. Specifically looking at the units that have the dedicated garage; that'll double as the kiddo's bedroom during camping trips. The bigger the trailer, the more potential headaches. Needs to be just big enough to be comfortable for everyone.

 

The fear of getting sued is a smaller part of it than what you are likely thinking. The biggest factor is simply having enough truck to tow a 20,000 lb GVWR trailer, and do it safely (read...NO WHITE KNUCKLES while towing) and stay within the trucks limits. Following that criteria, obviously will/should make the towing experience much less stressful, and hopefully keep the truck from being on the ragged edge of it's listed limits. The opposite would be having a truck that struggles on every uphill grade, engine revving to the redline and still not being able to pull a grade easily, then testing your brakes to the max on the downhill side of the mountain. And if you think that I'm one of the few people in the world that think like I do, you obviously haven't spent any...or much time on a lot of the RV forums that I'm on. There are many, many folks just like myself that put safety and staying within the limits of the truck as their first priority...vs. the other approach of balls to the wall and stressing the truck to the point of premature failure.

 

Thanks for the kudos on the advice part of it. You know how you see lawyers ads on TV advertising that they specialize in some particular area and are the experts at that....well, there are lawyers that specialize is lawsuits that deal with the RV accident cases. And now, since the pandemic thing and the huge upswing of totally new RV buyer that don't have a clue what they are doing and have like never even towed a trailer of any kind, they are just adding to the issues on the road and the lawyers are capitalizing on it.

As as far as my previous truck and trailer (the F250 and towing an almost 35' Toy Hauler, I wasn't petrified with that setup, but it was definitely more stressful than it should have been. So knowing that a heavier truck would certainly make the towing part much easier and less stressful...AND...the fact that I was looking to upgrade to a large 5th wheel camping trailer in the near future, it was just the smart thing to do....to get the Dually. I did all the number for the trailer that I was wanting and knew I needed something that had at a very minimum..5000+ lbs of payload capacity, so I started doing my searching to find a nice Dually that would do the job for me....in all the ways I previously mentioned.

 

Knocking off refuelling time, and being able to refuel where I want to refuel is the two biggest reasons for adding the aux. tank. With combo like mine, it is almost impossible sometimes to find a fuel station that 61' of truck/trailer can fit into and not have to back out of when done. So, to do the fuel thing, many times your choices are the truck stops and the big truck fuelling lanes in order to have the room you need to negotiate the truck/trailer in and out. With my setup, I won't need to stop for refuelling for the entire day of travel (average of 350 - 400 miles a day on our trip out west). I can wait until we arrive at the campground, unhook the trailer from the truck and then go refuel at any place that sells diesel fuel. Then next morning when we are ready to roll out for the next day's worth of driving....no fuel stops till the next campground and after i unhook the trailer. That obviously saves time and you can pick and choose where you want to refuel and get better pricing on the diesel fuel....than at a truckstop along a highway.

 

No way I'd want to pull a 20k trailer with any SRW...regardless of what class it's categorized as. Dually all the way for sure.

That said...I still have to point out there is no engine differences between the big 3 in regards to their 3/4 tons and 1 tons (dually or not)...nor do the exhaust brakes work any better or worse between em.

But I know Ram at least, probably the other brands as well, the axle gearing between their 3/4 ton and SRW 1 tons are often the same, so in regards to your power argument, again, no real advantage. You gotta get the training wheels to typically get the option to have lower axle ratios for more towing capacity.

 

From a power/torque/braking standpoint, you are mostly correct. But the thing to remember with towing a "Fifth Wheel Camping type trailer" is this very important fact. You may (will have) the HP and Torque to do the job, but....and this is the important part....you will run out of payload capacity long before you ever reach the towing capacity of the truck. Towing capacity is a "useless" number when towing a 5ver camping trailer because of the amount of pin weight that type of trailer will put on the truck. I guarantee that you will run out of payload before you reach the truck's rated towing numbers. Those towing capacity numbers come into play when you are towing something like a flat bed 5ver or gooseneck type trailer. With those trailers, you can essentially load up the trailer with the load being placed anywhere you want on the trailer bed and of course that will affect the pin weight of the trailer a lot, depending on where you place the load on it. Put a alot of the load up front on the trailer = a lot of pin weight on the truck. Place the load on the rear part of the trailer = a lot less pin weight on the truck. Place the load over the centerline of the trailer's axles and the pin weight on the truck is somewhere in between the first two examples. So the point is, you can vary the pin weight on the truck based on where you load the trailer. With a 5th Wheel Camping type trailer, you simply do not have those options.....the trailer gets loaded where the storage areas are. You can't move the fresh water tanks to affect the pin weight, you can't move the black or grey tanks to affect the pin weight, and you can't put your motorcycle/RZR/golf cart anywhere except in the garage area of the trailer......which BTW, will lighten the pin weight on the truck to some degree, based on the weight of the toy, the geometry of the trailer axles and their location (foward or behind the center of gravity of the trailer) So the 3/4 ton trucks do have the same power and torque as their bigger brothers of a SRW and DRW truck, but the payload number is the determining factor that comes into play when towing/hauling a 5ver camping trailer.

 

So basically you need a semi to tow anything...
Screw 1 ton DRW Diesels. They can only pull a popup camper.

 

@xrated you would have a coronary at the stuff I used to tow with my 2006 2wd F-150. Used to tow a 27' enclosed to Willow Springs with 9 bikes and all the gear in it for my racebike rental company. It was especially fun when the I-5 was wet: lock up the brakes and the whole thing just kept going without even slowing down. WHITE KNUCKLE!!!

 

Unfortunately, yes there are people that think like that. Then there are people that are on the exact opposite end will try to tow a 20,000 lb 5th Wheel camping trailer with a 3/4 ton truck....and then they will tell you.."It tows just fine....no problem". Be aware and concerned with those types....They simply do not HAVE A CLUE about towing dynamics and what it takes to tow a trailer and stay within the truck's ratings and load capacities....I've seen it way more times than I would like. And then there is me...and literally thousands and thousands of RVers that fall into the category of doing the calculations based on factual numbers and using those numbers to determine a truck/trailer combo that is both safe and within the limits.....ALL the limits.

 

Well, hopefully you've learned the error of your ways....either before I started posting some of this info, or because of my posted info. Either way....try and stay safe. And here is the bottom line, at least for me. All I can do is try to put the facts out there based on what I've learned about towing trailers, and try to educate those who do not know. I'm not trying enforce anything or tell anyone they are going to die or go to hell if they don't follow the towing dynamics.....just trying to educate those who choose to learn and realize how to figure out what they are buying or about to buy before they make a mistake and have to go back and punt ....or worse....using a combo that is really overloaded and/or unsafe. You know the old saying about leading a horse to the water but not being able to make it drink!

 

I take my chances pulling my 7200# tow hauler with my F350 Diesel DRW...
And my 16.2K# 5th wheel when I get it.