Is my truck enough?

I am new to the 5th wheel world and just recently purchased both my truck and Cyclone 300C. The truck I bought months ago. It is a 1997 Ford F350 full bed four door 7.3 turbo diesel two wheel drive dualie. I thought that truck could pull anything. Bought the Cyclone about 2 weeks ago and just pulling it home my exhaust temp was pegged and my tranny temp was at 210. Although there were multiple visits to the Cyclone dealer including fitting my gooseneck, there was never even the slightest mention of my vehicle capacity to tow the rig. Since the 300C is one of the "smaller" toy haulers, once again, I just assumed I was good. After digging in to the extremely confusing world of all of the various things that need to be factored in in pulling a trailer like this, I find I may be over my limit. Good thing I didn't buy the 3010 they were trying to sell me. Anyway, can someone help me out? I called Ford and although the max tow weight is 10,000 lbs, they said my max 5th wheel weight is 13,800. Still with a dry weight of 11,950, that doesn't give me much room. I dont want to blow up my truck but I have $12,500 into it now just getting new tires and front end. Have I screwed up? Also, don't know about legal limits, fines, braking etc. Nothing ever mentioned in the sale even though I was clear that this was our first experience. Looking at tow weight rating of even the new trucks they are about 13,000 lbs. How are we supposed to tow these things? With a Peterbuilt?

Kent

Hi Kent, welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Heartland Family.
I am not a Ford guy, but those temps seem awful high.
You should not be having any problems towing that rig with that truck.
Is it chipped?
I don't think you have screwed up. Although if you didn't get a 'Goose Box', using a gooseneck hitch could void your frame warranty.
Ford people will chime in shortly and voice their opinion.

Peace
Dave

There are no "legal limits" when pulling an RV. You do not have to go through weigh stations. As far as brakes go the trailer has brakes also. Not to worry about fines. I would try it and see how it feels...Don

You have a great diesel. Not sure who told you at Ford that you can tow a 5th wheel trailer with a weight of 13800, you actually only have a 5th wheel rating of 12900. With a GCWR of 20000 lbs combined regardless of gear ratio. So if your trailer is 11950 dry and your truck probably has a curb weight of at least 6000 lbs, most likely a little more. You have a combined weight of 17950 empty now. Which leaves you 2050 lbs for everything you need to put in it including fuel. A new 2012 F350 DRW 4X2 has a fifth wheel tow rating of 21900, with a GCWR of 30000. Hope this helps somewhat.

Here is a great place to start: http://fifthwheelst.com/

One of our forum members has developed this site to help folks decipher the towing mystery. It may help to pull your rig to a truck stop with CAT scales, so you can get some real weights of your truck and trailer.

Good luck! I know once you get it worked out you will enjoy your 300c.

Erika

Don, I dont know about your state....but alot of states DO have weight ratings and driver licensing by the weight of your trailer.

I would think your truck has plenty of hauling ability for your Cyclone... but...

I thought our 1995 F250 V8 (gas) would also be able to pull our "little" ElkRidge - it was well within all our published limits. And, it did... for a little while... but the more research we did, the less likely we were going to be able to tow our RV our of town (if we go more than 15 miles east, we have a 3,000 ft pass to get over).
Our '95 also did not have enough braking power - but as newbies, we probably didn't have the trailer brakes dialed up enough, either.
After we blew the transmission in the '95 trying to back the RV up a little hill into a parking place, we started looking for a newer diesel.
When they rebuilt the transmission (so we could sell it), they found it had been wearing for a long time - not just due to the 200+ miles we'd pulled the RV. The truck only had 75k miles on it at the time.

So, I would ask: How many miles do you have on your current transmission?

We ended up with a new-to-us 2010 F350 Diesel, and love it. Especially love the integral trailer brake controller and tow-haul mode.

Wow, this is cool. Thanks everyone for your response. Yes, the truck is chipped and unfortunately didn't come with the tuning. The guy that sold it to me told me to put it on setting 3 for towing. I have had folks tell me today that I was giving it way too much fuel and that I should either be at the stock setting of 1 or 2 at the most. The tranny has been recently rebuilt and a very serious cooler has been added with it. I know about Fords and transmissions just from the cars I have owned and 75k miles to twist one up doesn't surprise me at all. The engine has about 250k on it but everything else has been rebuilt including the front end and all new tires that I dropped $1,800 on the day before I picked up the rig. I specificially asked about the gooseneck voiding the warranty and the dealer that sold me the rig sold me the gooseneck. They said they had never heard of such a thing. That what they were putting on would be fine. Since they were the dealer, it trusted them. Hope I was right in doing so but it seems clear to me that all they wanted to do was sell me the coach. Wino2, your numbers seem pretty close to what I figured. Looks like I can't throw my Harley Ultra in the back until I get a new truck. The guy at Ford looked it up in the book for the dualie and showed it to me, the 5th wheel rating was 13,800 and the GCWR was 20,000. At 100 gallons on water and just our crap we are probably pretty close to the limit. I also had them upgrade the brake controller at the dealer. They took a bunch of my $. Hope they gave me the right stuff. Thanks for all the help. Will let you know once I tow it in the lower chip setting.

2 things

1. You do have an exhaust problem and you might be conjested, or the wrong program is on your truck. I had a 98 GM 6.5L and it was way underrated compared to the 7.3 and never had any exhaust temperature problem with a modified exhaust, but the Fords 7.3L are great haulers and the exhaust usualy is not a problem.

2. Most 7.3 5R100 Automatic transmissions need additional cooling.

I am surprised that your truck have to work so hard to pull your unit, I can haul mine with 40-50% load and can keep it under 90% in the hills, and programed, so overheating has never been a problem. My Previous unit hauled with the GM 6.5L, the load was 75-85 % and 100% in every hill, and I ran all day without overheating. You sure your brakes were not dragging, there is something making you unit haul so hard.

Type in 1997 Trailer Tow Selector and you can pull the actual page from the 1997 Trailer Tow Guide that Ford published.

I'd suggest try the truck out on a short 200mi trip and go from there before spending more money on a 15+ year old truck. You might not like going 25mph up longer grades. A 97 7.3 is about 225hp, 425Tq. (187 rwhp-375tq rear wheel torque) The 4r100 4 speed trans were ok at the time.

Ok, I just took my rig down to the local quarry and weighed it. I had no water or fuel in the Cyclone and with me and my buddy in the truck we came in at 21,654 lbs! I don't know what my truck weighs but that rig doesn't have much in it other than dishes etc. Hard to belive it was over 14,000 and I don't think my truck is over 6,000. Something is wierd. Still my GCVWR is 20,000 on that truck. I have been told it is still one of the best trucks Ford ever made. I stopped at our local truck dealer and they had a 2004 F-350 6.0 on the lot. I asked about it and he told me he wouldn't tow a motorcycle trailer with that. He said my truck is much better. Son anyway, If I put my Harley in and 100 gallons of water, I could easily be at 25,000. What the **** are we supposed to pull these things with? Do I need to get an F-450?!!! It seems like everyone is probably over their GCVWR when pulling a rig like this.

Kuhlkent said:

Ok, I just took my rig down to the local quarry and weighed it. I had no water or fuel in the Cyclone and with me and my buddy in the truck we came in at 21,654 lbs! I don't know what my truck weighs but that rig doesn't have much in it other than dishes etc. Hard to belive it was over 14,000 and I don't think my truck is over 6,000. Something is wierd. Still my GCVWR is 20,000 on that truck. I have been told it is still one of the best trucks Ford ever made. I stopped at our local truck dealer and they had a 2004 F-350 6.0 on the lot. I asked about it and he told me he wouldn't tow a motorcycle trailer with that. He said my truck is much better. Son anyway, If I put my Harley in and 100 gallons of water, I could easily be at 25,000. What the **** are we supposed to pull these things with? Do I need to get an F-450?!!! It seems like everyone is probably over their GCVWR when pulling a rig like this.

Click to expand...

Your truck is over 6K or you have to small of a TV.