12,000 lbs of 5 th wheel trailer

[Willie Two]

10,000 lbs on the dual axles, 2600 lbs on the pin. Thats the house trailer weight. Am I going to be overworking my 91 dually in my sig on a slow 3,000 mile ride in the foothills of Alberta and one 6 degree climb before we get to our destination.

 

[Exekiel69]

With no turbo and a e4od I would make sure I get a cooler with an electric fan and a thermo switch like the one I posted a couple weeks ago, at least You won't cook the tranny by the time You get to Your destination. Just take it nice and obviously slow.

 

[Darrin Tosh]

He does have a Turbo,..

Is this the first time you have pulled this trailer? My only concern is motor cooling, I have a feeling you will be driving by the temp gauge. When I really worked my Turbo IDI, as most here, it would get too warm pulling hills with the 5ver. Travis took care of that with a custom built $500.00 radiator.

I think it will handle the load, but you won't set any land speed records.

 

[Exekiel69]

I missed that one, then no worries this engines will handle that and more but as I mentioned and also Darrin said You need the means to keep it cool.

 

[argve]

Just keep an eye on the gauges and you'll do fine. If she starts warming up then back off it some and if need be pull over and let her idle until she cools down. Again you ain't gonna break any land speed records.

 

[towtruckdave]

I would not try that without a big tranny cooler w/fan and a trans temp gauge. All that wind resistance will have your atf sizzling.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

She'll move that trailer, just take it easy on her. In my experience keeping the engine speed at around 2000-2200 rpms seems to yield best pulling power without generating too much heat, this will probably mean that you should keep her out of OD until you've picked up at least 55 mph. When you hit that grade downshift and wind her up, but not against the governor, really just be cautious of how she reacts to the load and keep an eye on the engine temp and pyro gauges.

May be a good idea to flush the trans fluid a week or more before the trip, also do an oil change and check your coolant and axle oil levels. And obviously check your tires and brakes, same with tires and brakes on the trailer.

 

[Willie Two]

Thanks to everyone, I have yet to pull this trailer, just on a test run to the scales to weigh the load distribution. It is twice the weight of my other trailer but I do have a 10,000 lb rated hitch. I have a pyro, yes it's a first test for my new hypermax turbo, tranny has a temp gauge and a large cooler. The trailer will get new tires (4) before we leave. I will also do the fluids etc. on the truck , load up on coffee and take our time to get there.

 

[gandalf]

Everyone seems to have pretty well covered the moving and the overheating concerns. That's a lot of weight to pull, but you seem to have a handle on the problem.

The other half of the problem is that once you get it moving down the road, you'll have to be able to stop it. The brakes on these trucks are not great. In fact, if not carefully maintained, they suck. Go over your brakes very carefully. Adjust them, and then check them periodically along the way. That's a large load to have to stop in a hurry.

 

[NCheek]

I would be very wary of a 10,000 lb rated hitch if the entire trailer weighs in at 12,600...

Even if the hitch is built with some fudge factor for impacts, road jarring or even just hard braking, using 125% of the 10K rating doesn't sit too well with me.

You will probably get away with it, but get in an accident and you might be lucky not to have it in the backseat with you. Not to mention DOT will likely crucify you for hauling above component ratings.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, I am just thinking out loud here.

 

[RLDSL]

If your hitch is only 10k and your trailer is 12k then this conversation is moot. There's a lot of things you can go over on and fudge a bit but hitch ratings are not one of them. Oficially,, since you have a slushbox, your truck is rated for that 5er ( why they rate a truck with a shushbox for a 12k 5er and handshaker only a 11k 5er , I'll never know , Kind of seems backwards, probably has to do with the dual mass flywheels
but you're playing with fire running 2k over on hitch capacity on a 5er and if you drop that sucker in the middle of a mountain, those mounties are going to want to have a serious talk with you

Now get your hitch situation straightened out and she'll pull it fine. Flush out the tranny and change it out to some kind of synthetic tranny fluid and as mentioned, have the biggest honkin cooler you can get, one of those remote coolers with its own fan so its not heating up your coolant more is a great thing.

If you are going to be towing heavy on a regular basis , a Rodney Red radiator is a worthwhile investment

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Ken brings up a good point - how are you doing on trailer brake controller? A good controller can make all the difference between coming to stop safely, and wiping out or worse creaming someone who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...

 

[LCAM-01XA]

You will probably get away with it, but get in an accident and you might be lucky not to have it in the backseat with you. Not to mention DOT will likely crucify you for hauling above component ratings.

Oficially,, since you have a slushbox, your truck is rated for that 5er

Actually guys, even with the correct hitch (I personally would go 15k or 16k) he's still over his GCVW - assuming 4.10 rear gears his truck is rated at 17k, which means with 12k trailer his truck can only be 5k, which a CC diesel dually don't come even close to. So he's overweight anyways and in case of an accident the Canadian version of the DOT would have a cow regardless, however having the proper hitch greatly reduces chances of such development of things...

 

[NCheek]

Actually guys, even with the correct hitch (I personally would go 15k or 16k) he's still over his GCVW - assuming 4.10 rear gears his truck is rated at 17k, which means with 12k trailer his truck can only be 5k, which a CC diesel dually don't come even close to. So he's overweight anyways and in case of an accident the Canadian version of the DOT would have a cow regardless, however having the proper hitch greatly reduces chances of such development of things...

Very true on the GCWR. If I remember right, GCWR has to do with:

1) Vehicle Weight
2) Transmission
3) Axle Ratio
4) Brakes
5) Cooling System

As far as the auto vs manual rating goes, I can only assume that the auto is higher because of the torque multiplication in the torque converter...

We have collectively covered all of the basics, but with an improper coupling of the two vehicles, transport is hazardous at best. With all of the upgrades that we have done to our own trucks, we have all likely "increased" the stock rating by improving the shortcomings, but unfortunately the law doesn't see it the same way, especially if there is an accident.

Get a sturdier hitch, drive slow and cautiously and try to stay under the radar...

 

[Willie Two]

It's a Reese hitch and a projedy (spl?) controller. I am not sure about the hitch rating method, it's labelled 10k vertical lbs and 18k pulling. I'll confirm that tomorrow morning in the daylite. I am concerned about the combined GVW figures which I agree have been exceeded. This is why I was looking for some real life experiences. This trailer stands only 10 feet tall from the ground and I see so many people pulling these massively high and heavy travel trailers with single axle trucks. Like it was said, easy to get it moving but can you "control " it. Safety is my # 1 concern, that why I have a dually, 6/8 ply tires Load E @ 80 PSI . I keep a complete set of front & back shoes in the truck tool box and never drive at night. All that being said I still don't have the real life experience with this set up, so I ask the forum members.