What Truck Will Tow a 15,500 lb. 5th Wheel Trailer?
by Lisa Harris
(Tallahassee, FL, )
Can I tow a 15,500 lb. 5th wheel with a Ford 350 diesel or do I need to get a F450? Are there any other truck choices or is Ford the only one to tow with?
I went to a Ford dealership and one salesman said I could tow with a F350 that could pull a max of 15,200 lbs. and another salesman said I'd need to buy a F450 because my 5th wheel is 300 lbs. over the weight limit of the F350.
I'll be driving from Florida to Alaska and want to be able to go up and down hills. My hitch
on the truck is 16K. I sure hope this is OK.
ANSWER: Greetings Lisa thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.
I am going to assume that the 5th Wheel weight of 15,500 lbs is the weight of the trailer fully loaded, not just the empty weight of the 5th wheel. If this is the case your 16,000 lb. rated 5th Wheel Trailer Hitch
should be fine.
Now to your questions on tow vehicles. All of the information I am about to give you is based on the manufacturers towing capacities for the current model year.
Based on Ford's ratings a properly equipped Ford F-350 has a maximum towing capacity of 15,000 lbs. A properly equipped Ford F-450 has a maximum towing capacity of 16,000 lbs. So based on your trailer weight a Ford F-350 will not do the job.
Here are some other trucks that you can consider for towing your 5th Wheel. A properly equipped Dodge Ram 3500 pickup can tow up to 17,000 lbs. A Properly equipped GMC 3500HD pickup can tow a maximum weight of 16,500 lbs.
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Even if you get one of the trucks mentioned above do not get your hopes up that you will be able to speed up or down hills. You are going to pulling quite a load and depending how much weight you put in the truck, you could be spending some time in the slow lane when climbing steeper hills.
I hope that this information has been helpful to you.
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