Is Our Truck Enough For A Landmark

[Delaine and Lindy]

Truck size is and has been a major issure on ever forum I have ever read. I have owned 2500HD's, 3500HD's and a 4500 Chevy Kodiak. I pulled the same trailer a Cambridge by Keystone and had the Mor/Ryde disk brakes. The Kodiak had all options including the exhaust brake. I pulled the Cambridge in almost every State and all thru the Colorado Rockies and all across I-70 thru Denver with the 3500HD. Never had a brake issue at anytime. Had brakes checked on the 3500 after one year and still had 90% wear left. The Gross weight on the 3500HD was 24,600 over about 1,100 lbs. Then went and had a Chevy Kodiak upfitted with the Chariot Hauler bed and all options, Link air ride suspension, air ride seat, 98 gal in bed fuel tank, total weight of the Kodiak 10,900 lbs with driver and passenger. Towing weight of kodiak was 17,500 gross and 26,000 towing. Total weight of Truck and 5er 27,600. So I actually weight was more because of the Truck. Don't believe people when they say Trucks are the same. The Kodiak had much larger tires and larger brakes. I'm not saying you can tow this or that. I just saying what ever you do make sure you do a lot of research. If it was up to me I would be pulling my Landmark with a Class 8 truck whats really a HDT. And I know most want do that. I will pull my Landmark with my 2008 Chevy 3500 4x4 DRW's. I had the Chevy Silverado and the Landmark weight within 1 mile from the Dealership, Landmark was as it came from the factory. The Cat Scale weight wa 22,160. My Truck weight is 8,160 so it looks as if the Landmarks weight was 14,000. Oh yes the two 40 propane tanks were full. So sometime weights will fool you. I never travel with water in the tanks , just enough to flush the John. We were full timing and were hauling a lot more then than now. I don't take any more clothes than possible, two bikes, sewer hoses and water lines and very few tools including the HDTV dish and don't have a Onan generator. So hope this gives you some idea. I recomend Mor/Ryde brakes, however the new model Trucks with the IBC work great with the electric brakes, but there have been some issues with the Disk brakes, I'm sure Mor/Ryde has a fix for that. GBY...


P.S. I do have a CDL Class A Lic....

 

[truknutt]

Well now, this is what I enjoy about this group; as long as you don't take replies to postings as a personal attack, you (ney, I) can learn a good piece of info every now and then!

Mr. Ken, You made me look at the Ford stats and darn if the 250 & 350 Rotors aren't the same diameter on the '08s. I have an '01 & '03. When I uttered those fateful words "...there is a B-i-i-i-i-g difference in brake rotor mass!", I was referring more to thickness in regards to heat dissipation than diameter. I should have elaborated or just zipped it shut!!!

OLN (Mr. Fred) & OLNG (Mrs. Lizzy), Do you know what I learned from the two of you? You are 2 different people sharing a rig!! I honestly did not put it together until your postings were back-to-back. When I stated I was confused by OLNG's statement, I really was. It made me go to the GMC website and research. I should have kept quiet about brakes though! Got off the topic of pin weights in a quick New York minute, didn't we?!

Anyway, Mrs. Lizzy, what's new in the kitchen..anything good for chow? BTW, I've also learned that all that salt is not good for me..DW switched me to ketchup to help me get my words down!! I wouldn't worry about adding to the confusion...look at the banter it generated and the knowledge that I have gained!

All of you, enjoy the rest of your day & hope you have a beautiful weekend..we'll be getting rain.

Dave

 

[creeper]

Here is my take on it.

I'm a Ford owner, currently a 2008 F350.
I also had a 2003 and 2006 F250.

I SO WANTED a GM product to tow our fifth wheel.

We have a Bighorn 3400RL and looked at the landmarks.

What we quickly learned is the Landmark would exceed all the weights , except axle weights.

Now many people will say axle weights is the only weight that matters. Well not exactly true. It may be true in some states, but I found some states use GVWR to determine tickets.

My big concern was not whether or not the diesel truck could pull it as any of the big three diesel motors can pull nearly any fifth wheel out there. My big concern was so idiot doing something and causing us to crash. Crashing is bad enough, but I certainly don't want my retirement saving sucked out with a lawsuit or a criminal manslaughter charge be cause someone tragically dies in a crash. We'd be subject to those if we exceed , GVWR, GCVWR. Second concern was voiding truck warranty. Exceeding the tow rating for the truck and they can void your warranty on the entire truck.

The pin on our 3400RL is about 2400lbs, the landmark is more then that.

With this in mind we looked at the following trucks.

GMC/Chevy Crew cab 2500SB, 3500 SRW LB... I found that the GVW is so low on these trucks it didn't take long to exceed that rating, BUT A REAL LOT. I had the dealer weight a Short bed, crew cab with a full tank of fuel and driver. 7500lbs. WHich left only 2400lbs for hitch, bed liner, wife and stuff.

So that left us with only the Crew cab, 3500 LB, dually with a gross vehicle weight of 11,400lbs. But, the truck is HUGE and weighed in at 8500lbs before adding anything and could easily exceed the GCVWR.

That forced us to look at the Ford Crew cab, F350SB since it has a GVWR of 11,400lbs.

Fully loaded with Me, wife, bedliner, hitch, full aux tanks and all our junk is 8800lbs. That's leaves up 2600lbs for pin.. This set up puts us a couple hundred pounds under GVWR and nearly 2000lbs under GCVWR. This makes me comfortable.

A landmark would exceed the ratings of my F350. For a Landmark the BARE minimum truck would be a 350/3500 dually. I'm not saying people don't do otherwise, but that's on them. I cringe when I see some 250 or 2500 pulling a Landmark.

What ever you do, think it through and were you comfort level is.

 

[Pulltab]

Good post creeper!

 

[jmgratz]

Acording to various brochures the dually can actually have a LOWER tow rating than the SRW due to the fact of the additional weight of the 2nd set of wheels, tires and other related hardware. So what ends up by happening is there is a lower towing rating with the DRW versus the SRW.

 

[jmgratz]

tankless water heater

Good post creeper!

A couple of questions on your tankless water heater....

1. How do you like it?
2. How effective is it?
3. Did you remove the regular (tank) water heater?
4. Were did you get it?
5. What is the ballpark cost of it?

I have long thought that a tankless water heater would be a great assest for an RV due to less weight and greater effiency.

Jim & Sheila
99 Ford F350 with Banks system and exhaust brake
07 Landmark Golden Gate with Mor-Ryde IS and disc brakes
None

 

[jpmorgan37]

Jim;

Check out this thread and look at post #6 Here for a little more information.

John

 

[big bird]

Just ordered our 2009 PINEHURST, having the right truck for this size of FW all loaded to full-time is of upmost importance to us so i got a real truck, what do you think.

 

[jbeletti]

That ought to get it done!

I like your choice in floor plans