Pulling a Cyclone 3950 with a Ford PS F-250??

Is anyone pulling a 5th wheel trailer as big as the Cyclone 3950 with a 3/4 ton Pickup?? I have a 2011 King Ranch F-250 w/ air bags. Will that be big enough to pull the 3950 around safely?? THX for any information..
Perry Hearne
 

jimtoo

Moderator
Hi Perry,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.

You will get lots of opinions on towing. I think towing a Cyclone 3950 with F250 will be pushing it a little. But you see people doing it all the time.

Enjoy the forum.

Jim M
 

GOTTOYS

Well-known member
The airbags are not designed to do anything to increase your load capacity. As it states on the instructions that come with them. They are only designed to level your truck when loaded. If you look at the trailer towing specifications as well as the load carrying specifications and compare them to the actual gross weight of the trailer as well as the pin weight you will probably find you will be overloaded by a significant amount. Will it pull it? Yes, depending on what shade of white you prefer your knuckles to be. I'm thinking you' would be much happier and safer with a one-ton dually. JMHO...Don
 

Urban350

Well-known member
I would think that it would pull it but not legally. You will be over on both GCWR and GVWR.
 

tgreening

Active Member
Is anyone pulling a 5th wheel trailer as big as the Cyclone 3950 with a 3/4 ton Pickup?? I have a 2011 King Ranch F-250 w/ air bags. Will that be big enough to pull the 3950 around safely?? THX for any information..
Perry Hearne


That 3950 is going have a pin weight somewhere north of 4,000 lbs. Is there anyone pulling one with a 250? I'm SURE there is, and the stock answer is "my F-sumthin50 pulls my 17,000 lb, 4,000+ lb pin weighted camper juuuuust fine".

There are some things that fall into the just because you can, doesn't mean you should category and a 250 pulling that much weight, distributed the way it is, is one of those times.
 

stryder

Member
I have a 2011 F-250 FX4 6.7 diesel 6-3/4 bed with the 10000 GVWR package and 3.55 gears. With it loaded traveling on the interstate I had to consciously monitor my speed, to keep it below 70. Hills did not seem to be a problem either, went up 4% grade and had plenty of power to go faster. If you already have the truck, I wouldn't run out and trade it to pull a 3950, the 2011 and later F250 w/10000 GVWR will do the job.
 

Bob&Patty

Founders of SoCal Chapter
A 2011 F250 may have a TV rating of 10K, but what is the GCVW rating? A 3950 by itself has a GVW of about 18K. I hope a 250 has GCVW rating of 28K.
 

MTPockets

Well-known member
I have a 2011 F-250 FX4 6.7 diesel 6-3/4 bed with the 10000 GVWR package and 3.55 gears. With it loaded traveling on the interstate I had to consciously monitor my speed, to keep it below 70. Hills did not seem to be a problem either, went up 4% grade and had plenty of power to go faster. If you already have the truck, I wouldn't run out and trade it to pull a 3950, the 2011 and later F250 w/10000 GVWR will do the job.

This is absolutely correct - plenty of power to pull ................................ But, there is no stock 250 with or without airbags that is going to be close to legal; and to me that equates to safe - not to mention smart.
 

zigzag3337

Member
Hello folks.....We are looking to purchase a 2012 Cyclone 3950 and one of the things that the dealer has asked me is what is my tow vehicle. I have a 2010 Dodge Ram 3500 dually 2WD, LWB with the Cummins engine and a 3.73 gear in rear end. Now I know in my mind that there shouldn't be any concerns at pulling this camper, but when looking up the towing capacity online, it states with the auto trans and the 3.73 gear, the towing capacity is only 13,400 pounds. Really?.....Is this bumper hitch capacity or total capacity, that I don't know, but I was under the impression that the truck was around the 18k range.

I know I have to upgrade my 16k Reese hitch and I'm looking at the 20K Reese Select plus #30081 (as it's on sale at my local hitch shop for $570).

Any thoughts and comments will be appreciated. Thanks.
 

porthole

Retired
You usually have to dig in the specs to find the 5th wheel towing capacities. The number you posted sounds like the "bumper tow" rating (under chassis class 5 hitch)
 

boatto5er

Founding VA Chap Ldr (Ret)
I pulled our Landmark (less weight than the 3950) for a while with an F250 with helper springs that gave it a theoretical payload of 13, 500 pounds. I say theoretical, because I could feel the sway, I could see the impact of the pin weight on my truck (dropped several inches when hooked up), and it moved a lot under heavy wind and large passing vehicle conditions. The difference I have with my current F350 DRW is enormous. I could never go back to the 3/4 ton. Just my facts and humble opinion.
 

zigzag3337

Member
You usually have to dig in the specs to find the 5th wheel towing capacities. The number you posted sounds like the "bumper tow" rating (under chassis class 5 hitch)

Thanks. After digging a little deeper, the FW rating for this truck is 13650 lbs. with the 4.10 gear, it's 18K lbs.
 
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