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Can I tow this trailer

2K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  bfife 
#1 ·
I am looking at a Teton trailer 40', 24K GWR, Pin weight 4500 lbs. I have a 2000 F350 DRW CC 4x4 auto. I'm not sure how far overweight this combo would be.

Any opinions?

thanks,
 
#2 ·
Ouch lol, you can probably but they are HEAVY SOB's Probably weighs about 18k or so empty.

We had a 94 Teton 40' Atlanta III Royal, and towed it with a 92 F350 crew cab dually. So it can be done, however we nearly destroyed the truck doing it. 6 sets of brakes 4 trannies and a motor. The power was there to get it moving though, not quickly but wasn't too bad (truck had a banks turbo kit on it, loved the whistle.) Oh and that stuff went out over the course of 40,000 miles maybe. Brakes didn't just wear out but the rotors cracked from over heating. Oh and bit more about the truck, no air bags, had a 90 gallon transfer tank and 4:10 rear gears. Suspension seemed to handle it just fine and we towed this trailer just about every weekend for 5 years or so.

After putting all that work into the truck (about $15k) we got an International 4900 with a DT530 to tow it around. Truck was white before to match the trailer


They are REALLY nice trailers, we ended up actually living in ours for 16 months straight. Through New England winter and all and it was fine. Very well constructed trailer. If you aren't going to be towing it all the time and just on occasional trips you will probably be fine, suspension will be fine and power should be fine (just not gonna win any races) but your braking power will be seriously lacking. Heck our International would still slow down on some hills tugging the trailer around, but it would sure stop it safely.

If you do pick up the trailer check into the Teton Club, in our region it was a pretty good group of people. Usually have one regional and one national meeting each year and newsletters and all the other goodies.

Hope this gave ya some help.
 
#4 ·
Negative, my friend...............

I have an F-350 (2006) and the heaviest 5er that I can tow, and still be within the limits of what I can tow safely, is 15,600 lbs. If you want to pull that kinda weight, the F-450 would be a much better choice. That may or may not be an option in your case, but I wouldn't want to risk it with your current truck.

I'm curious to know what the unloaded weight of the Teton Homes trailer is..........if it's around 14k or 15k, then you might be able to "gently" load the trailer up to the point that it does not exceed the GCVWR of your 2000 F-350.
If you load the Teton to capacity, the GVWR of the trailer (24k) already exceeds the GCVWR of your truck which is about 23,000lbs, give or take.

Sometimes, people miss the point on issues such as these, because I'm sure others will chime in and report that the engine and tranny combo will have no problems pulling that load. My concern is-- can it pull that load SAFELY. Furthermore, if a panic stop becomes necessary, can it slow down that load safely. If the primary regions that you would be pulling the 5er are on long flat roads, some might tell you that you could pull it just fine. I just happen to be of a differing opinion that it is not safe, given the current configuration of your truck.

So much for my 2 cents.............
 
#5 ·
Sometimes, people miss the point on issues such as these, because I'm sure others will chime in and report that the engine and tranny combo will have no problems pulling that load. My concern is-- can it pull that load SAFELY. Furthermore, if a panic stop becomes necessary, can it slow down that load safely. If the primary regions that you would be pulling the 5er are on long flat roads, some might tell you that you could pull it just fine. I just happen to be of a differing opinion that it is not safe, given the current configuration of your truck.

So much for my 2 cents.............
This is what I was trying to get at. Even our old turbo'd IDI would get the weight moving and could even pull some of the "big" New England hills :pointlaugh: BUT, stopping power most certainly was not there, like I said 6 sets of brakes over the course of 5 seasons and not due to simply wearing out but cracking rotors from heat. Most certainly not safe to stop. We had to stop it once without trailer brakes and nearly ripped the streering wheel off trying to come to a stop.

Little hunting on the teton homes website and the lightest 40 footer with a GVWR of 24k is 17,980 and a few of them are up over 20k dry weight. Oh and that weight doesn't include adding any optional equipment in, or having full tanks (fresh water, propane, septic.) When we sold ours and got out of the club around 2003 I think, I would say about 50% of the people towing these trailers had medium duty trucks to go with them. The rest were mostly F350's and some F550's (just when these haulers were becoming popular, ie fontaine ect)

I'd suggest finding a medium duty truck if your dead set on towing this camper more than a few times a season. Might be able to find a used one for a decent prices, something like a Cabriolet (what we have, now defunct company) or a Western Hauler, or find/build your own setup. Hope you enjoy the trailer if you get it, and certainly post some pics of it :) Them some top of the line campers.
 
#6 ·
Yea, It looks like I will have to change the trailer. Too bad, they are NICE.

The second choice is a Holiday Rambler Presidential Suite. 16,950 GVW, 13,300 dry weight, pin 2500 lbs. I would guess to be about 2000lbs over GCVRW when propane, clothes, etc. is loaded.
 
#7 ·
Nother good choice with that though. Nice trailers indeed, and without all the extra weight the Teton's got. Your truck will probably be much happier lugging around the Holiday Rambler instead of the Teton
 
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