I fully agree with D&E Johnson above. About 14,000 pounds would be my limit too. I am comfortably under that. But we have had some white knuckle experiences anyway.
Never wanted a dually for a number of reasons. But when we recently hit some bad pavementat 55 MPH on an otherwise smooth four lane, the bouncing of the 13000# 5'r and the F350 SRW truck threw us into the left hand lane. Fortunately that lane was open. This is a rare occurence, but could have been catastophic. I still wouldn't be buying a dually. Can't live with it in snow here. But I sure can appreciate what others say about the stability factor.
If you don't need the 4X4, I might for-go that option. But in slippery going, such as gravel hills in slow going, the dually may compromise your ability for traction. I have needed my 4WD in some camprounds, when backing into campsites uphill on wet gravel roads. Also on slippery grass situations. The low range feature of 4wd is very handy. The added weight of pulling/backing a heavy 5'r makes traction a lot tougher sometimes. JMHO
2006 F350 V10 4X4 SC SB SRW 4.30 22,500 GCWR
Keystone Sprinter 33'9" 12,500 GVWR
Pullrite Super Glide 18K
Super Duty, Super Cab, SuperGlide
I too have a F350 and am looking at getting a new 2009 F350. But the towing guide has EXACTLY the same ratings for the F250 as an F350. Since the dually has smaller tires than the standard F250/350, it's tow ratings are the same(15,400#) for the 4x4 SRW vs the 4x4 dually. A 2WD is a little more (15,800#.) So when you blow out that inside dually tire you have a much worse situation with ratings and damage (pretty common?) The dually gets worse mileage and handles worse in rain and snow. My money's on the SRW unit. Now if you really need the towing capacity go with the F450. And it's only available in dually and the 172" wheelbase (another problem?) Oh, the numbers above are for the 6.4 diesel Supercab. Crew cab numbers are a 100# less due to the extra weight of the extra doors, etc.
camperguy99 wrote: But the towing guide has EXACTLY the same ratings for the F250 as an F350. Since the dually has smaller tires than the standard F250/350, it's tow ratings are the same(15,400#) for the 4x4 SRW vs the 4x4 dually.
It's not the tow ratings that are of concern. It's the maximum payload that the manufacturer advertises. There's a 900# difference between the 250 and 350SRW 4X4 and 1,600# more for the 350DRW 4X4 over the 350 SRW. If OP loaded his trailer to the max of 15,000# he should have a pin weight in the area of 3,000#. At 13,880# with judicious loading I had a pin weight of 2640# which when added to the truck loaded for travel (hitch, line-x, full fuel, 2 pax and 1 dog) exceeded the 9,800# vehicle GVWR by 320#. Another 360# would put a 250 right at the rear axle rating.
Again, I had no trouble towing. Went to the West Coast twice over the Rockies on I70 and pulled the Grapevine enroute to San Diego. It was the stopping and the feeling that the trailer was trying to push the truck when stopping because some yahoo decided he wanted the space I created or at a speed exceeding 45mph, especially on the curves on the downside of the hills.
Here's a few before and after picture's. I spent allot of money to learn a dually is the only way to go for any 5th wheel trailer over 13,000lbs. I pulled that trailer for a year with the Dodge 3500 SRW and it did the job OK. Our trailer weighs in empty at 12,900lbs and the SRW truck was a dream to drive and pulled great, but every pound I packed on took a little something away from that comfort zone. By the time we got all our goodies in place that we like to carry from place to place, we are now a whooping 15,000lbs+.
I tell ya what, I fought every guy on this forum about pulling heavy with a SRW truck. See where I am now............there's $90,000.00 worth of pickup's setting in my driveway right now. If I wouldn't have been such a hard head it would only be $50,000. Thank God the wife loved that SRW Dodge, she was ready for a new car and she wanted the Dodge so it all worked out.
Hands down the dually is the only way to go for anything pushing 13,000lbs IMO.
To me it's not about the best truck, it's the safest truck. Good Luck on your choice.
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I didn't consider MPG when I bought my dually, just power and safety. Had a
a tire sliced on the rear by piece of metal doing 65 and didn't know it until a truck pulled along side and got my attention. Looked in my mirror and suree thing the tire was wobbling reallt good. Didn't panic just took the next exit, parked, unhitched and went to a tire shop. Guess that says it all. By the way my rig weighs about 15,500 down the road.
2000 1T Ford PSD SC Dually 2WD
2005 Grand Junction 35TMS
Mor-Ryde Suspension & Pinbox
Movin View
Beagle-Maggie
Lifetime GoodSam Member
We have boondock camped in situations that our 4x4 dually was needed; and for that matter we needed the 4x4 with previous SRW trucks for the same reason.
It depends on what you do and where you go as to if you "need" 4x4. Don't buy it if you don't need it but to make blanket statement that 4x4 on a dually isn't needed
I was told before I got the dually how much greater it would be with respect to stability while towing; well my old F-250's were very stable but they did have camper package and rear stabilizer bar. I don't notice much difference stability wise with the dually as I had no problems with the SRW.
I was also told how terrible the dually would be in rain and on ice; I haven't had any problem with either.
My reason for dually had to do with exceeding the GAWR on the rear axle of the F-250. I wasn't exceeding the rating of the tires but I was exceeding Ford's GAWR for their vehicle; so with proper understanding of actual weights from scale weighings I did what I needed to do.
IMHO if you can't keep the thing in your own lane or can't check your tire pressure on the inner wheel (all the wheels for that matter) then you shouldn't be driving one.
The comment that if the inner wheel is low or goes flat and you loose the carrying capacity... The tires on my dually are the same tires that were on my SRW and rated the same at 80 psi; granted they are inflated to 60 psi on the rear duallys so I guess the one tire would be less of a rating at 60 psi vs. the SRW at 80 psi all else being equal. I think if I was going to have rear tire blow while pulling the fiver I would rather have it happen with a dually though.
07 K-Z Montego Bay 34RLB-3
08 F-350 Dually 4x4 Crewcab; 4.10LS; auto; 6.4 PSD; wide track front axle
N5BUJ
juzplanekrazy wrote: Here's a few before and after picture's. I spent allot of money to learn a dually is the only way to go for any 5th wheel trailer over 13,000lbs. I pulled that trailer for a year with the Dodge 3500 SRW and it did the job OK. Our trailer weighs in empty at 12,900lbs and the SRW truck was a dream to drive and pulled great, but every pound I packed on took a little something away from that comfort zone. By the time we got all our goodies in place that we like to carry from place to place, we are now a whooping 15,000lbs+.
I tell ya what, I fought every guy on this forum about pulling heavy with a SRW truck. See where I am now............there's $90,000.00 worth of pickup's setting in my driveway right now. If I wouldn't have been such a hard head it would only be $50,000. Thank God the wife loved that SRW Dodge, she was ready for a new car and she wanted the Dodge so it all worked out.
Hands down the dually is the only way to go for anything pushing 13,000lbs IMO.
To me it's not about the best truck, it's the safest truck. Good Luck on your choice.
Couldn't have said it any better. Been through three new trucks since 2003 and wish I would have bought the dually to begin with and pocketed the money I spent on all the other 1 ton SRW's. I find that most of the arguments against one ton DRW's come from those who have never owned one.
My 2 cents
F350 PSD CC DRW Tow Boss
Heartland Bighorn 3600RE
Airsafe Revolution
Our 08, 6.4L,Ford,LB,CC,4X4 Dually, 4:10 diff is rated to tow 15,200lbs. We pull 13K plus. Truck weighs 9212lbs so we are at about 22,500lbs total which is under the 23,500 GCWR and within all other OEM ratings and spec's..including pin weight. The specifications and ratings of the truck will tell you what truck you need. We don't have a dully because it is more stable we have it because we needed it for the pin weight of the camper.
richfaa wrote: Our 08, 6.4L,Ford,LB,CC,4X4 Dually, 4:10 diff is rated to tow 15,200lbs. ........We don't have a dully because it is more stable we have it because we needed it for the pin weight of the camper.
Same in our case too. With my 06 F-250 I was not exceeding the GVWR but I was exceeding the rear GAWR. It was all about pin weight.
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