Just on a side note sddunn2, thanks for your advice, and this is from pulling lots of horse/stock trailers. keep the tow/haul engaged when you pulling. Not doing it wreaks havaoc on your two prime..

 

You can tow a lot with a 1/2 ton, the question is expense. initial investment is less however gas mileage, wear on breaks, suspension and all around heavy duty frame etc..... Go with the Cummins. you will not be sorry. on top of that you can get a lot more power for a lot less money. and when you smoke a lot of 1/2 tons you can roll the window down and let them know they got smoked by a 6 cylinder. that is the best part.

 

That, and i helped my buddy rebuild is cummins, had about 300k on it. Man was that easy. Bought a kit for around 1500,2k with all new cyl. sleeves, everything. I love my hemi. But will never put 300k on it.

 

I love the keystone campers. It is my second one. 2 bdrms one super slide.

quality built

 

i have towed my 29' camper that has the superslide( thats 12' long)that weighs in at 6700lbs empty. i have 45k on my ram now and finally had to replace the front rotors. the pads were fine but the rotors needed to be turned so i just replacedpads and rotors.my point is that if your worried about braking with a trailer behind you make sure you have a good quality brake controller and make sure its adjusted properly. i took the family camping around 30 weekends of the year and it was always different landscapes as far as hills, etc. the hemi pulls it no problem,but a 3/4 ton with a cummins would be much better.

 

For work this week I had to pull an extremely heavy trailer from Boise to Sun Valley. VERY hilly, and very steep (a few different 6% grades with alot of switch backs). The trailer full weighed close to 15000 lbs. The truck was a 3500 Ram dually with a CTD, 6 speed standard. We have a flat bed on the truck with welder and tool boxes. I could not beleive how well that truck pulled the trailer. I had to drive back with an empy trailer approx 4000lbs, I could set the trucks cruise at 65 and in sixth gear it would pull the hills with ease. Moral of the story is if your gonna be towing alot definatly get the Cummins you will not be dissapointed.

 

Yeah, looked at RV's today. There is no way we can live in one for a 1/2 ton. Looks like we may get a coachmen Wyoming. 34ft.

So, i will be converting, in the summer probably. Drove a 2007 Cummins, dually, manual, exhaust break. LOVED IT. If i could afford it now, it would be in the driveway. I love that exhause break. We have a really steep hill here, turned on the break, kept me at 60=68 the whole time, never touched the breaks.

I hate being upside down, trucks only a year old though. I knew i would be [&:]

 

We'd love to get into the RV thing someday. Will be awhile before we're in a position to purchase. Which is fine since we want the kids to be old enough to remember the trips so with the baby not a month old yet we have at least 5 years.

 

I pull a 29' HOLIDAY RAMBLER ALUMALITE XL with my 2003 DODGE RAM 2500 QC SB HD 5.7l HEMI 5spd... all summer long. It has plenty of power to pass on grades, or just cruise along at highway speeds. I seldom get passed, that's for sure! Mileage drops off a little, but still in the teens.
Mines bonestock, except for an airbox.

Hope this gives you some help. At least as far as the engine is concerned!