Question Understanding what 07 Tunda can pull

[fmboland]

OK her goes. I am a newbie when it comes to trailers (5th Wheel). Have towed a lot of boats but not heavy weights. I know the truck is set up to tow but really unsure of heavy trailers and I want to be safe.
Wife and I are looking into buying a 5th wheel to mostly run around Florida. We have an:
2007 Tundra w/towing package 5.7 V8.
SR5 w/ standard bed.
I have 36,000 miles of highway driving (no towing). Nicest truck ever owned.
Looking at a Heartland Sundance. Dry weight is 9100 w/options installed. This is under 10,600 cap.and I cant imagine carrying any more than 700-1000 lbs extra. Would mostly run empty or little water and empty grey/black. This part looks good. Confusion comes with all the other #'s. Hitch weight is 1740. Is this the pin weight? With the weight of myself and wife being apx. 450 lbs is is safe to tow this 5th wheel? I really do not understand how to calculate GVWR And GVAW and what is payload. OK I know you cant excede this with a load. I assume that this means you have to stay under this with your hitch weight + pin weight. If that is the case the book says that for a standard bed 2wd, sr5 only has CWR of 575 lbs. This does not sound right. If this will work what type hitch and brake controler should we get?

Really need an honest answer so I know if this 5th wheel is OK or if we should smaller.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Fred (fmboland@embarqmail.com)

[quarque]

I don't have the exact payload spec for your truck but it is somewhere around 1700. The payload rating is how much *extra* weight you can put in the truck without exceeding the other weight limits. So you are already over the payload limit before you even get in the truck. Payload is anything and everything you add to the truck: people, gear, hitch, trailer pin weight etc.

You need a lighter 5er. Check out the ultra lights at KZ, Northwood, Forest River etc. Look for a pin weight below 1200 so you have some headroom to play with. Most anything with that low of a pin will not exceed the towing limit of around 10k. I started a thread on this topic - look for "more small 5ers" in this forum. There are many out there that fill the bill. My current favorite is the KZ 295BHS (2 bedrooms + 2 baths!).

[Only Toyota for me]

Originally Posted by fmboland

OK her goes. I am a newbie when it comes to trailers (5th Wheel). Have towed a lot of boats but not heavy weights. I know the truck is set up to tow but really unsure of heavy trailers and I want to be safe.
Wife and I are looking into buying a 5th wheel to mostly run around Florida. We have an:
2007 Tundra w/towing package 5.7 V8.
SR5 w/ standard bed.
I have 36,000 miles of highway driving (no towing). Nicest truck ever owned.
Looking at a Heartland Sundance. Dry weight is 9100 w/options installed. This is under 10,600 cap.and I cant imagine carrying any more than 700-1000 lbs extra. Would mostly run empty or little water and empty grey/black. This part looks good. Confusion comes with all the other #'s. Hitch weight is 1740. Is this the pin weight? With the weight of myself and wife being apx. 450 lbs is is safe to tow this 5th wheel? I really do not understand how to calculate GVWR And GVAW and what is payload. OK I know you cant excede this with a load. I assume that this means you have to stay under this with your hitch weight + pin weight. If that is the case the book says that for a standard bed 2wd, sr5 only has CWR of 575 lbs. This does not sound right. If this will work what type hitch and brake controler should we get?

Really need an honest answer so I know if this 5th wheel is OK or if we should smaller.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Fred (fmboland@embarqmail.com)

That trailer is way too heavy for the truck. You want a trailer that has a ULVW rating of 7500 or less and 1300 hitch (tongue) weight. These will be dry listed weights and will not include a/c, microwave, etc.. most of the time.
Trust me, you will have more than 700-1000lbs worth of weight in the trailer once you load your stuff. Mine has a listed dry weight of 6250, and after i weighed it on the scales it was 7500.
GVWR is on the tag on the drivers door jam and on my truck it's 7100lbs. This is what toyota places on the truck. They beleive this to be the SAFE area of weight the truck itself can handle without jeopordizing handling, braking, etc...GVWR minus dry weight of truck (5600lb approx.) equals payload.
GAWR however, is what you need to look at when you consider a 5er. It's listed in the camper section of your owners manual and it should be 4150 rear, and 4100 front. 8250lbs total which gives you about 2650lbs of capacity TOTAL. This is the weight the truck can actually handle, and should be followed closely. You don't want to exceed the GAWR. Exceeding the 1700lb payload rating is fine with a 5er, but stay under the axle rating.

I would recomend you go smaller if i were you. Try to keep within the weights i listed of 7500/1300 and you'll be completely safe and within axle ratings of the truck.
Prodigy p-3 brake controller from pplmotorhomes.com, and the B&W underbed gooseneck hitch is my recomendation.

Let us know what you decide.

[fmboland]

OK Im am understanding this better now when it comes to payload but the #s do not add up. 6900 GVWR - 5145 Truck Weight= 1755 Payload. This seems OK untill you carry 2 guys and 2 ladies. 750 lbs people weight and 200 hitch weight. This leaves you 805lbs of payload so I could only have a 800 pin weight. What the heck size 5er are you going to get. I have a truck that says it will pull 10,600. The #s are not making sense. I called Toyota headquarters in California and 3 dealers and they are clueless.

My concern comes in safety, but every owner on this site swears that it will tow 9-10k with no problem.
More confused than ever. I am thinking that I am putting to much thought into this. Any other comments or answers?

Fred

[quarque]

Fred - that is one reason why it is a "1/2 ton" pickup. After you add people you have about 1000 lbs left. Many people on TS and elsewhere overload it and say it feels and handles fine. As for lightweight 5ers, check out KZ-rv.com under Spree models. The small 5er model 265RLS has a dry hitch of 879. So if you don't carry a lot of water and keep the gear towards the back you'd only be over the limit by 150-200 lbs. Your other choices are to go with a tow-trailer where you have many many choices that would keep you under the limit. Personally I wouldn't worry about being 200 lbs. over since that is what I plan to do. Or you could get smaller friends!

[fivecodys]

Yep. Too heavy. Look at this trailer and see if it will work for you.
Flagstaff 8528RKSS at Cheyenne Camping Center
We pull it just fine with our 07 DC.

You might want to use a trailers GVWR as a guide . Dry weights are not very reliable. The trailer we have has the axels moved slightly forward to help keep the pin weight down. Even with that I am 400 to 500 lbs over Cargo capacity when we are all loaded up. My hitch alone is close to 200 lbs.

Keep looking. There are light weight fivers out there.

Bill