holy crap guys!!

I went to a RV show not to long ago and walked throught the sweets 5th wheel I had ever seen. It had two couches up top (above the bed of the truck area) that where pointing towards each other. There was little railing like a balcony looking down from that area down to the kitchen dining area, and then the bed was in the back. Does anybody know which one I am talkin about, I've been looking for a long time and can't find it anywhere. I don't know the name or brand (obviously)[:@].

 

I'm going to disagree with everyone that says your truck will handle it. It won't - period.
I'm assuming you have a 2500 - you didn't say. Your limitation is going to be the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR).
Consider the weight of the truck plus the pin weight of the 5th wheel, the weight of the hitch itself, weight of passengers, full tank of fuel, and anything you intend carrying in the bed of thetruck. If the propane tank of the 5th wheel is up front, add weight for that. If any of the fresh water or grey/black tanks are forward of the trailer axle and you intend towing with any liquid , add that weight as well.
The Montana is a great 5th wheel, but is heavy. You'll want a 3500 minimum.
By the way, the Megacab is a very short bed so you'll want a full time slider hitch like the superglide with any 5th wheel you decide on.

By the way, this is more than just technical capability, its legal as well. If your in an accident while towing and its determined you've exceeded any of the trucks weight limitations, you can be cited.

Regards, Glenn

 

OK lets play with the numbers here
you said the trailer weighs 11500 I presume that is a Dry weight? (Which is really not a good number to use, because it leaves out so much, but we have that number so we will use it).
OK so the curb weight of the truck is 7323 and GCWR is 20k that leaves 12677lbs
so now you have room for 1177 lbs more.
now lets put 40 gallons of water in the trailer (approx 320 lbs) now we are down to 857.
add 20gals. of propane (approx 80lbs)so we are down to 758lbs total available weight before we hit the MAX. did you add the weight of the hitch? that could be as much as a couple hundred pounds. SO now we have 558lbs to work with. Does your family of four weight less than 558lbs? what about food? dishes? etc.

Based on your numbers I would sayNOyou cannot tow that trailer safely.

NOW if your trailer is 11500 GVWR now that changes things a bit, but lets just look at the GVWR of the truck...9000lbs with a curb weight of 7323 it leaves 1677 lbs, add 200 pounds for the hitch 1477 left. 12-15% hitch weight (1380-1725lbs) UH OH!!! over the limit again, plus you dont have the family in the truck yet either.

I would reccomend you find a smaller trailer...Of course you can do whatever you want cause I see some crazy **** runnin up and down the freeway all the time, but is the life of your family or someone elses family worth it? Cause that is what we are really talking about here, is the ability to PULL andSTOP this trailer SAFELY. I have no doubt you could actually pull it, but you may need to actually come to a stop at some point in an emergency, could you???? Is it really worth the risk?

Up to you, but for me...I just had to make the same kind of decisions and chose a smaller trailer.

 

My question still has not been answered on what is the largest size 5th wheel my truck can handle. I can find one that will meet my specs.I never said I wanted to go over so calm down.

 

Also, what is the diffence between the 2500 and 3500 single wheel? What would I need to do in order to make my truck meet those standerds?

 

No need to calm down, I was already calm, just trying to express the dangers in getting too large of a trailer, my apologies if I sounded like I was getting out of hand.

As far as how large of a trailer you can handle, I would say that is kinda up to you, just keep in mind the limits of the truck, as think about if you really want that truck towing the MAXIMUM recommended trailer and what you want to do with the trailer.

Let me give you some things to think about and then tell you what I did. What are you going to use it for? Are you going to LIVE in it or just basically use it to sleep and shower in when out on the road? You mentioned someplace to get out of the rain if needed, is this a normal occurance where you live? do the storms last for days, or maybe just a few hours, or perhaps just a few minutes?
Obviously if you think about these questions you are going to figure out what exactly youNEED in a trailer, or perhaps it boils down to what you just WANT (That is cool too).

I would reccommend you not limit yourself on that one brand of trailer, and maybe go look at everything you can within a reasonable drive from home, you may find features in other trailers, that you like more, and maybe a better price as well.

NOW if you have allready done all the shopping and have boiled it down to one of those floorplans listed, then I guess the next step would be look at all the weights of the trailers in question and figure to add maybe another 1000 pounds worth of stuff (water, propane, clothes, food, dishes, etc.). OR just use the GVWR of the trailer as a worst case scenario (this is what I did) then figure you are going to put 12-15% of that weight on the truck plus the hitch, and family and whatever else you are going to haul in the truck and see if you re over the limit. Or pile the family into the truck, and go to the scale, with a full tank of fuel and see what it weighs and what room you have left.

I just went throught the same process as you...the trailer we ended up with (also a family of 4) is a 27' fifth wheel, actually considered an ultralite with a GVWR of around 8k lbs., however with a worst case scenario of 1200lbs pin weight ,and passenger weight, and fuel, I am fairly close to the gvwr of the vehicle (9000lbs) while still being over 3,000lbs under the GCWR of truck and trailer (20,000lbs).

So to make a short story longer, pretty much it is going to be up to you to decide how much of a load you want to load your truck with. Supposedly the capacity of my truck is a 13,100 lb trailer, yet at 8,000 I am almost 40% under that number yet have almost reached the max gvwr of the truck....go figure.

We have very similiar trucks, although mine is a Quad cab instead of a Mega cab, thus I have a little more payload capacity.I dont see how you are going to tow a 35 footer and be under your limits.

 

I hope my PM I sent explains what you need to do to find the largest tailer you can pull.

 

Well the trailer would be used as a lakehouse. There is a family lake house but it has seen better days are my family seems to be the only one willing to take care of it. Instead of purchasing a lakehouse, we were looking at getting a fiver. It would stay at the lake the enitire summer, which is around 2.5 hours from my house. We go there often so we want somethign to be comfortable in. If we had it I am sure we would begin to travel, so it looks like I need to find a lite trailer that is still around 35' and has everything we want. Or just purchase a new truck , hmmm.

 

Not sure if you are absolutely sold on a fifth wheel, BUT

You might even consider a travel trailer, for a few reasons.
#1 more liveable space for the length (I guess not always necessarily true nowadays)
#2 less weight on the truck
#3 usually cost less

Just a thought.

 

I have this one and love it.$23,500 pulled it with a ford 250 with no problem.