Opinion on Truck with Duel Rear Tires

[lone_star_dsl]

Having far more than "enough" is a long way from optimal.  For example, it's good to have a few extra potatoes on hand when making dinner, but having an extra bushel of them probably doesn't yield much advantage and creates problems of its own self, e.g. room for storage, spoilage, up front cost, etc.

If you can't have too much truck, why aren't all you guys scrapping your F350's in favor of a Freightliner FL60, or better yet, a Peterbuilt?  ???

I actually have quite a few friends that pulled their trailers with class 8 trucks.  They were all having issues with pin boxes and trailer frames cracking. There just isn't enough tongue weight to make a class 8 suspension function the way it should.

But I suppose since you're taking the term literally, we could amend our posts with "light duty", "pickup", or "class 3".

 

[garyb1st]

Buy the largest truck you can afford and park as far from the store entrance as possible.  It's great exercise and you won't be feeble at the end of your day. 

 

[OKBecky]

Buy the largest truck you can afford and park as far from the store entrance as possible.  It's great exercise and you won't be feeble at the end of your day.

Good way to sum it all up!  I totally loved the comments from everyone.  BTW, my husband bought the truck.  It's a Dodge Ram 2005 Cummins Diesel 3500 truck (I was mistaken on the year when I first asked my question).  He is getting more excited in planning our future retirement and dreams of workamping.  Thank you all for your opinions!  ;D

 

[motojavaphil]

I am by no means an expert on towing a fith wheel but do feel having enough truck is important.  I have pulled with a dually and with a SRW and can appreciate both.  When it comes to purpose beyond pulling you do enter a different world.  The dually is just not a town truck, it is not easy to park, limits drive throughs and generally is at its best working.  The SRW is not at its best towing compared to the dually although it does an adequate job when matched to the rig.  My problem is off road touring, going over roads around Ouray, exploring ghost towns on long forgotten roads and that sort of thing.  Nothing wrong with a SRW as long as you know towing will not be dually level.  In my book it is about safety, being within the limits, compromise and getting into a car wash or McDonalds.

 

[prfcdoc]

I am by no means an expert on towing a fith wheel but do feel having enough truck is important.  I have pulled with a dually and with a SRW and can appreciate both.  When it comes to purpose beyond pulling you do enter a different world.  The dually is just not a town truck, it is not easy to park, limits drive throughs and generally is at its best working.  The SRW is not at its best towing compared to the dually although it does an adequate job when matched to the rig.  My problem is off road touring, going over roads around Ouray, exploring ghost towns on long forgotten roads and that sort of thing.  Nothing wrong with a SRW as long as you know towing will not be dually level.  In my book it is about safety, being within the limits, compromise and getting into a car wash or McDonalds.

X2+

 

[Ernie n Tara]

Reading these discussions I never read anything about tire pressure. If I adjust my tires to be appropriate for the load, the ride improves significantly.  I realize there is a minimum (I suspect it's a lot lower than the tire manufacturer would admit), but it would theoretically allow a similar ride (insofar as the tires are concerned) to the single tire. Traction should also be comparable. Not trying to intensify the argument, just help out a little.

Ernie

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

BTW, my husband bought the truck.  It's a Dodge Ram 2005 Cummins Diesel 3500 truck (I was mistaken on the year when I first asked my question).

OK! Every journey begins with a single step, and you've just taken it.  Now learn the tow ratings for that truck so you can figure out how to safely take the next steps. A Ram 3500 diesel dually can do a lot, but it's still possible to overtax it. The Trailer Life Towing Guide for 2005 will give you the tow rating, but you need to learn the payload capacity as well. It is quite possible to run out of payload for the phitch pin weight before running out of pulling power (max trailer tow weight).

www.trailerlife.com/towing-guide/2005-towing-guide

 

[1carguy]

Dually trucks are the ultimate tow vehicle but are not good for much of anything else. Especially the crew cabs, they are hard to park, not very maneuverable and usually not economical to operate. Lastly, there isn't much of a market for duallies when it comes time to sell. On the other hand, most 3/4 ton regular pick ups (especially crew cabs) are hard to find and the resale values are strong, especially diesels.

 

[steveblonde]

Dually trucks are the ultimate tow vehicle but are not good for much of anything else. Especially the crew cabs, they are hard to park, not very maneuverable and usually not economical to operate. Lastly, there isn't much of a market for duallies when it comes time to sell. On the other hand, most 3/4 ton regular pick ups (especially crew cabs) are hard to find and the resale values are strong, especially diesels.

thats so very very very wrong maybe where you live but not here my last dually sold in a day and here you can get a 3/4 ton everyday of the week my local chev, ford or ram dealers have hundreds of them try finding a 3500 srw - thats a tougher challanger, and they are no harder than anything else to park you just have to get used to it, i used one as my daily driver and im an area sale manager visiting automotive shop and car dealers.

 

[grashley]

thats so very very very wrong maybe where you live but not here my last dually sold in a day and here you can get a 3/4 ton everyday of the week my local chev, ford or ram dealers have hundreds of them try finding a 3500 srw - thats a tougher challanger, and they are no harder than anything else to park you just have to get used to it, i used one as my daily driver and im an area sale manager visiting automotive shop and car dealers.

X2

In my RECENT research before buying my truck, this was very true.  Over the past year, my local dealers had one used 1 ton SRW on their lot.  It was gone in 3 days.  There were a few 1 ton DRW, which did not last long.  They always have a few ? ton units on their lots.

 

[RVRAC]

I think you need to keep in mind how many days a year you are going to pull the FW.  We tend to stay for weeks or a month in places, and actually pull the FW about 40 days a year.  For the rest of the year, over 300 days, moving in towns, malls, and airports I prefer my 3500 SRW. It can handles 4,100# payload and 17,000 FW.  Plenty for us. 

 

[Rancher Will]

It appears to me that many comment about what they believe without the experience to match.

I am a cattle rancher and have owned and used a fair number of trucks over the past 50+ years. At present on our ranches we have six PU trucks. Three are Duallies. The three RAM Duallies that I own now are the latest of 13 RAM Duallies that I have owned.

We use the SRW trucks for general Ranch work and they are fine for their use. For all trailer pulling, we always use the Duallies, Horse, Stock, Flatbed, and RV trailers. Due to our experiences over the decades, we do not even have a trailer hitch on our SRW trucks.

Concerning the comments about snow. Our ranches are in the Mountains of Colorado and Duallies go through snow just as easy as SRW trucks with the correct tires under the same conditions. When snow is up to or over the front bumper, chains are required on any truck going up an incline, especially pulling a trailer. Chains on a Dually give more traction than chains on a SRW truck since there are double chains on the rear of a Dually rather than just single on a SRW. Installing chains is the same for either truck so that is no consideration.

Parking in parking lots, etc. Consider that the rear wheels, actually rear fenders of Dualy are no wider than the mirrors on a SRW truck. Parking is no problem with either in our experience. The one place where a Dually cannot go is through most auto, self service, car washes at gas stations, or through many restaurant Drive-Up lanes. However, we never use those places anyway. Many SRW trucks cannot go there either.

We have learned to always use a Dualy to pull our trailers for the reasons that some have mentioned above, especially safety. There is never too much safety.