Well, the family was having lunch today, after church, and I noticed a smaller (mid 80's 1/2 ton Chev) truck pulling a fifth wheel down the road, and the thought came to me, heck my Dakota can do that! Yeah, it was a small fifth wheel but still just cruising along...

So, the question is, since I've done some mods to the truck, how much can I pull with it now? I'd like to pull a fifth wheel just because it'll be easier for me to park.

Oh, you want to know the mods, right? Okay.

K&N Cone Airfilter
Flowmaster 40 series one in and two out exhaust
Bored out throttle body.

Future mods.
Electric fan
Program chip.
If I can pull a fifth wheel, I may put in rear airbags to keep the truck level.

So, thoughts?

 

That sounds like an incredibly bad idea to me. Do they even make 5th wheel trailers light enough to be within the Dak's tow rating? Do they even make 5th wheel hitches that have a chance of attaching to the Dak's chassis?

I've see halftons pulling fifth wheels, and big bed-campers, and they looked like sh*t. Not safe, not sensible. And if you wreck it, pulling a 9,000# trailer, you could be in trouble deep.

At best, you'll be taxing your truck to the limit. The engine will be straining, the transmission will be cooking, and the suspension and brakes will take a beating. Your LT tires probably aren't safe at those weights.

Why try to make a midsize truck into something it's not? Why endanger yourself, and more importantly, other people, with an illegally loaded vehicle?

 

I think finding a fifth wheel that the Dak could safely pull within it's limitations wouldn't be that hard at all. Not all fifth wheels are the slide out equipped, portable condo, 35'+ behemoths you see all the time. I've seen what appear to be reasonbly light stuff in the 26-28' range? Something with an extended hitch? From there, it would be to confirm the truck was properly equipped (cooling/gears/bags a good idea likely) and the hitch properly installed at the frame. I'd want to talk with whoever was going to be installing the hitch, and ask them for their thoughts as well? Maybe give them a chance to crawl around under the truck beforehand? Get a couple of opinions to see if they agree?
Just me, FWIW.

 

Yeah, I'm talking about a 5-6,000 pound fifth wheel. Not a home on wheels. Just a little something that's better than a tent. Not really interested in a tent trailer. Not self contained enough for what I want.

 

You could always get a pull-behind ultralight. Leaves room in the bed for gear/dirtbike.

 

If I remember correctly...With a regular trailer and a 5th wheel trailer of the same length, you will have more living space with the regular trailer. Besides the trailer hitch in the bed is not an item you can remove in minutes.

 

Its sounds like a fun idea, but not practical by any means. It'd be fun finding a 5th wheel that light, but anything that light probably wont have many great features.

I have been looking at some of the bumper pull toy haulers and even those GVWR are pushing our max. Once loaded w/ ATV, dirtbike, gas, water, gear, etc, etc, the trailer will be heavy enough.

but...let me know what you find. I think 5th wheel would be fun to manuever around :-).

 

If your towing a 5th wheel make sure it is equipped with there own brake and you can get it set up where when you hit the brake it brake the trailer to

 

So I did do some checking. Came up with a couple of tid bits. First, rule of thumb says that 20% of a 5th wheels weight should be on the pin. So a 5000 lb trailer should have about 1000 lb? Now, I go out and check my tow package equipped 4x4 '05, and the tag on my driver's door says I have a GVWR of just a little over 6000 lbs.? That just doesn't seem right, as I remember the truck weighs something like 5000 empty? Some simple math not only rules out any chance of pulling much in the way of a 5th wheel, but leaves me wondering about the trucks ability to carry a couple of passengers, a full tank of gas, and a quad or sled - leaving about nothing left over for a trailer of any kind - or anything else? This is a club cab. Figure the extra weight that might be involved with a "all seats occupied" quad cab...... and a dirt bike in the bed would leave you with no capacity to pull a trailer?

 

The Dakota's GVWR is 6,010#, meaning that the truck + gas + passengers + cargo has to be within that limit. It's the weight pushing down on the 4 tires.

The max GCWR is 11,700#, which is the total of truck + gas + passengers + cargo + total weight of loaded trailer. The GCWR depends on how the truck is equipped...engine, gears, transmission, tow package, etc. It's the total weight the engine has to pull.

You can be over your GVWR but under your GCWR, if you had 2,000# of soil in the bed and a lawnmower on the trailer. You could be under your GVWR but over the GCWR with an overloaded but improperly distributed trailer. As I understand, you have to be within both at the same time.

My 4x2 short cab is 4,400 without me in it. Add a tank of gas, and when I hop in it's up around 4,750. That gives me about #1,250 to throw in the bed.

A QC 4x4 might be 4,800 empty. Gas and 4 average people, you're looking at 5,600#. Not nearly as much headroom as I have. You'd over the GVWR with 1,000# in the bed.