What is your opinion on a 1/2ton truck pulling a fith wheel camper trailer?

 

i see it all the time i was actually quite shocked but i saw a toyota tocoma in maine with a 5th wheel camper in tow.they make those trailer/campers so light and so evenly balanced you should have no trouble.i think you might have to manage your truck a bit better as far as pushing it to hard on hills or mountains.and maybe an after market tranny cooler

 

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well ive got the tow pkg factory. would i still need another external cooler?

 

noyou do not need another trans cooler if you already got one... bigger cooler maybe...or this (electronic brake controls for trailers with electric brakes apply the trailer's brakes electronically as soon as the brake pedal is engaged) it all depends if the towing you do is for pleasure or bussiness ?

 

Been towing a 22 ft. Fiver since '91.

-First with a '87 S-10 2.8 litre V-6 with a hypertech chip and transmission cooler. The trailer was a '91 Prowler Lynx. It did the job for short runs and never hurt the truck.

- Second was a '91 Dakota Extended CabV-8 with a 3.91 axle and trans cooler with a '91Prowler Lynx and then later a '96 Terry.

- Third is a '98 Ram Quad Cab 1500 5.9 litre ( notice the trucks are getting bigger, my son kept growing -6'2" - needed more room lol) with tow package and 3.55 axle. Towing the '96 Terry.

- All trailers weighed in around 5000 lbs. fully equiped to go camping with tanks dry.

 

this would be living while moving job to job and pleasure in between. Not everyday towing. What about the fith wheel part? would it help or hurt using a 1/2ton truck? im going to try to keep it less than 30ft and less than6500lbs total wieght. And yes no matter what a trailer brake would be a must!

 

I pull a 7800 lb 28foot fifth wheel without any real problems. I have a 360 with a lot of bells and whistles along with the 3.55 gears. I've added coil over shocks on all 4 corners and am looking at an air suspension package for the added capacity. Not sure how it would take big hills as I haven't tried any of them yet, but I believe manually downshifting it to 2nd would allow it to climb just fine.

 

No problem with the 1/2 ton. Just make sure the trailer specs/weight is compatable.

Also, depending how your truck is set up, make sure there is enough clearance between the top of bed and bottom of trailer. Some rams, even stock ones depending on suspension, are too tall to slide under the standard height fifth wheels.

 

Here is a very good site.

http://www.rv.net/index.cfm