Please Help - Half Ton Pickup Towing

I really appreciate how Heartland built this trailer.  Many years ago I sold another brand that is very popular...I wont name them..but well known.  They built a 5th wheel that weighed just over 7K.  Claimed it was under....customer kept burning up bearings on his trips to FL.  After a trip to the scales and figuring out he was overweight for the axles, we put 5,200 axles under it.  No more problem.  Of course the manufacture would not do anything for him.

Scales never lie.

Gary -- thanks.  Good to know I've got my thinking on this straight.  Our Tundra is this one:
http://www.edmunds.com/toyota/tundra/2009/features-specs.html?style=101123757 ,

... so it's rated to tow 10,300 with a 1655 payload -- a bit more than I thought, and less than you did.  Honestly, we're happy for now with what we've got (that truck + a Jayco 27BH TT).  I've towed horsetrailers and "get" the advantage of the 5er (gooseneck) versus a tag-a-long.  It seemed to me, though, like (short of getting a different truck, and we love the Tundra!) we had to choose between getting a 5er and limiting our plans (routes, companions) or having the TT and having a lot more flexibility in who we bring along and where we go, and I preferred the latter -- though I realize others might make the opposite choice (or buy a bigger truck).

bogart,
A few years ago we put a 5th wheel hitch in a Tundra..the man drove down from Ohio to buy a trailer from us.  We put his hitch in and he hooked up to a 30' 5th wheel with 2 slides.  He called after he got home and he said the only gauge that moved from him driving empty was his GAS gauge!!  After that, we learned he went to the West Coast and back.

The Tundra is a tough truck, I bet it will do just about anything you want it to do.

Marc L said:

Scales never lie.

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That's not what my DW says.

Thanks so much for all the info received regarding  use of a half ton pick up with an ultra lite 5th wheel in the mountains.  Clarifying questions  you asked of me, and other recommendations led me to think more clearly about what made the best sense given our situation.

So, a combo of fear, anxiety, and your common sense and technical responses led to the purchase of a 2500 Dodge Ram diesel....... now we can drag that baby

Now we will just take out a loan for fuel .......

The help made all the difference.

I would not recommend using a half ton to pull anything other than a boat, or some other light trailer.  1/2 tons have smaller brakes, less power, different springs and rear ends that just don't cut it.  I towed a 4200lb travel trailer through the Canadian Rockies with a Chevrolet 5.3 and it was scary.  I thought the engine was going to pop out of the hood.  I dumped the 1/2 ton and bought a 8.1 liter gas Chevy with the Allison transmission, a tranny cooler and a 4.10 rear end.  Although it's rated for 15,800 pounds, the most I have pulled is about 11000.  Like anything, when you hit the max capacity or rating, bad things happen.  It has 455 foot pounds of torque (much higher than a half ton) and there are still times when it works really hard.    The reality is if you're going to tow, you need torque and half tons don't have it.  With diesel or a big block gas, you're going to pay for fuel but that's
what you need to be safe.  My buddy towed a 5500 pound tag trailer with a brand new F-150 and fried the tranny in a year.  Also, although the 8.1 gets about 11 miles per gallon, a half ton only gets about 14-15 anyhow (realistically) so you might save 500-1000 on fuel per year. Hope this helps. 

GTS said:

bogart,

The Tundra is a tough truck, I bet it will do just about anything you want it to do.

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You may have been watching too many commercials... Like the one of a Tundra pulling the space shuttle.

Because of the much higher payload on Asian sourced 3 Litre Diesel Pickups, we can tow smallish 26-28ft 8,200lb  to 9,900lb  5th Wheelers without any problems up steep hills or down.  These vehicles have the advantage of being very good off road and getting 18-19 MPG US towing and roughly 35mpg + not towing.

Altoona said:

Thanks so much for all the info received regarding  use of a half ton pick up with an ultra lite 5th wheel in the mountains.  Clarifying questions  you asked of me, and other recommendations led me to think more clearly about what made the best sense given our situation.

So, a combo of fear, anxiety, and your common sense and technical responses led to the purchase of a 2500 Dodge Ram diesel....... now we can drag that baby

Now we will just take out a loan for fuel .......

The help made all the difference.

Click to expand...

Congrats on the tow beast. What year model ??

You will need less bucks for the Cummins (depending on year and engine configuration) than any comparable gas engine out here.  My "03 HO Cummins breakeven point is 60 cents a gallon difference. Diesel fuel around my neck of the woods runs 15 to 40 cents higher than gas so I'm way ahead of the gas vs diesel games.

Half ton trucks vary in GVWRs and GAWR more than any LDT out here. Much depends on the year modelks. I'll give some examples for those that may be interested. Most std duty 1/2 ton trucks may have 6k to 7k GVWR with small 3800-4000 RAWR/P tires and wheels  with 7k to 9k tow rating and 1200 to 1800 lb load capacity.

The new F150 HD has a 8200 GVWR/4800 RAWR/load range E tires and wheels/11xxx lb tow rating. Very capable truck in fact it has more capacity in every way than our older 3/4 ton trucks.

The '00-'06 GM 1500 HD has a 8600 GVWR/6000 RAWR/load rane E tires/14 bolt corporte rear axle with over a 10xxx lb tow rating. This truck is actually the 2500  from a few years back.

The 1500 Dodge Mega Cab has a 8610 GVWR/6000 RAWR with the 10.5" AAM axle/sits on a 3/4 ton chassis/E tires and wheels with close to 10k tow rating.

All above trucks will have no problems carrying or pulling their rated capacities as evident of the many satified owners we see on the different brand websites. As other members mentioned its all according to which 1/2 ton truck is being discussed.

I just sold my 2011 Toyota Tundra and bought a Chevy D-MAX. The Tundra is a great tow rig and towed my nearly 8K lb travel trailer with ease.

We wanted to step up to a larger 5th wheel. Towing was not the problem with the Tundra. Carrying the pin weight of the 5th wheel was where the Tundra fell short.

The running gear and brakes of the new generation ?-ton PUs are way ahead of ?-ton PUs of the past and are really tuff stuff, but the suspension and frame are still ?-ton.

If you want to stay with a ?-ton truck then stay with a travel trailer. There are some really nice ones out there and some of the ?-ton trucks will do a great job. If you want to go with a 5th wheel I think you are better off stepping up to a bigger truck IMHO.