Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire When you try to tow a large 5th wheel with a 1/2 ton truck

I used to tow a 27ft travel trailer with a Dodge Dakota. it's all about setup, I put Cam Lock load equalizers on it as I knew any amount of sway would be a bad ride. I also did not run over 65 with it either.

The group I camp with and ride SxS's with plus my neighbor uses them. That is about 9 of them. They all swear by them. I know unhooking and hooking up in the mountains is a piece of cake for them.

These work GREAT!!!!

Used one to pull my 33 foot three slide up to our campground. I sold it with the trailer and got a 29 foot bumper tow, which I prefer for my purposes.

A half-ton truck pulling an oversized RV or toy trailer? No way!!!!! Except it's the norm here in Colorado. Bunch of urban cowboy's that got convinced by their RV/toy dealer that their tow rating was actually accurate. See it all the time, some older model half-ton or SUV trying to pull a brand new $80,0000 camper and they can barely go 50 in a 65 - and that's on flat land. On a mountain pass they'll go 40. And worse, they refuse to pull over and let traffic by. They could have 100 cars behind them and seriously don't care. I honestly don't care if it's within the law, and they're right, it's 100% the definition of being a dick.

simply put

Right tool for the job

Carry on

And just when you think you got 'er whipped with your dually, the frame breaks.

For many years I wore out a new 1 ton and a 6 horse trailer every year.most anything will pull a trailer but most anything won't stop it.Rio7

I bought a gmc 3500 for hauling the boats. Night and day difference between the 1 ton and the f150.

My 2018 Ram 1/2 ton was rated for towing a fairly heavy load. 10-12k maybe? I had a trailer with some large and heavy 56mm bolts for a project that with the trailer, weighed close 10k with it one time. All was well until half way across Nevada the trailer brakes decided to no longer work. The powertrain will write checks the brakes couldn’t cash. It wasn’t much fun coming down some of those mountain passes on I-80 with that much weight! Had to gear it way down so I didn’t burn the brake pads off the truck. I can easily see how someone could pile it up if they weren’t careful pulling a large camp trailer. Mine weighs about 7800# empty.

I use my CTD to pull my travel trailer. It’s a lot heavier than a half ton and doesn’t get thrown around much by cross winds either.

Old rules, use the same gear to go down the mountain as you used to go up the mountain. Rio7

Drive 70 MPH on I-20 and you'll get ya a ss run over! Even by the school buses and garbage trucks!!

I counted three posts that had the temerity to suggest (and one that sort of said) that people should not drive vehicles to the full speed of which they are capable. How can anyone be so un-American?!

He was overloaded before he added the motorcycle on the back.

That photo prompts a chuckle or three - comical circumstance - although no fun for the one trying to get it home. Probably more than one factor there, including the weight/strength of the frame rails - but sure looks like a high % of the load too far back on a shorter bed. Maybe a fat relative was in the rear bathroom when it went.

Thinking about that situation - do you suppose a resourceful fellow or two could jack that camper up and do other things to get the whole rig rather straight again and then weld some gussets onto the frame - at least enough to get home taking it easy?

If I recall correctly, that happened in Baja, you can bet the Mexicans welded, ratchet strapped and duct tape that thing together for 500 peso's and sent him down the road....

I see people pulling too much quite often too. But then there is the other side of the coin. Some people don't think you can tow at all without a big diesel truck. A 2800 lb boat can be pulled by most anything. Boats have less tongue weight, and most don't catch wind like a travel trailer.

The back story on the broken dually Dodge. The guy didn't read the specs carefully enough. His camper was well within the payload. Of an 8' regular cab. But the shorter bed combined with a crew cab had much less capability and he was way overloaded for that truck.

I see some lunker 5th wheel campers rolling down the highway. Huge suckers.


What do those big versions weigh?



A pretty heavy load of cows in a 5th wheel stock trailer would be around 22k pounds(gross trailer weight).

Enough of a load on flat highway where I wouldn't want to go over 65-70mph in good conditions.

I wish my 24 footer had a third axle.

I'm recently seeing ~30 ft or more camper trailers being pulled by SUV's.
That just flat out scares me.

That's what I was thinking.
If that didn't work, then maybe a couple of jacks on the ends of the frame would do it.
Then weld temporary gussets and repair anything else that got tweeked.