found a used truck...need advice - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Melstar · RV-Dreams Family Member

found a used truck...need advice

Mallo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Sounds almost like the truck we tow with ony two years newer.

2000 XL King Ranch 7.3 liter not as frequent with the oil changes and over 200,000 miles plan to get at least another 100,000 out of it before starting to look for another truck.

Mallo

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Melanie,

From what I am seeing (and will show you), that truck will be right at its maximum weight. I found a link online to a 2002 Ford Superduty (for F250/F350) brochure. According to it, an F250 4X4 crew cab truck will tow 12,500 lbs. That would not give you much leeway with a 12,000 lb trailer.

Payload capacity for the same would be 2,930 lbs, so you might would have to be careful of how much you carried in the truck, depending upon how heavy the fifth wheels "pin weight" is. I couldn't find a rating for the Gross Combined Vehicular Weight rating, so to find out that information, you may need to go to a dealer with the information off of the "door tag" so they can give you the full numbers.

You want to see weight ratings IN WRITING. Don't take the word of anyone as to the capability of the truck without seeing for yourself. On another forum, there was a gentleman that posted that he was trading trucks because on a somewhat wet road they tried to stop and couldn't. Fortunately, no one was injured but he had to swap lanes to avoid an accident. He was pulling a Mobile Suites with a Ford F350.

See the link below to the website with the brochure. It is in a pdf file, so you need Adobe Acrobat, but you can also save a copy to your hard drive.

http://www.meadowlandford.com/2002%20F250-F350_brochure.pdf

Otherwise, it sounds pretty good as far as the truck goes. The 7.3 engine is better than the "early" 6.0 diesel that Ford put out later. If it has been taken care of, then 200,000 miles doesn't seem to me to be excessive. However, perhaps someone with experience with the 7.3L will chime in.

Terry

Edit: Just found a 2002 Ford Towing Guide as well. Here is a link to that document. Again, it is a pdf file.

http://www.meadowlandford.com/2002%20towing%20guide.pdf

-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Saturday 25th of September 2010 08:48:26 PM

Melstar · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you Mallo and thanks to Terry for always being right on with the detailed info from Ford. I love the brochures you linked....I've saved them to my desktop!

As best as I can figure out...the truck we're looking at has a capacity to pull a fifth wheel of 12,500#.

Since the 5er we are looking at weighs 9,700# dry....is there any way we'd have more than 2,800# of cargo in the 5er, along with passengers and gear in the truck/

The salesman said most people don't carry over 800 lbs. of stuff in their camper. I don't understand how to measure the truck with passengers, etc. however, I would imagine that the brochure showing 12,800# capacity would take all into consideration.

Whew....this stuff gets complicated.

Mel

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Melanie,

The truck you are looking at is rated at 12,500 lbs towing, but I'm not certain as to what GCVW it has. That is where a Ford dealership needs to help out. Sometimes, the towing guides have information about weights as well. In addition to NOT going over the gross vehicular weight of the trailer, you also don't want to go over the GCVW of the truck either. Whatever GCVW is on the truck, you don't want to exceed that weight.

GCVW is total weight of truck with full fuel, passengers (and pets), and whatever else one puts in the bed of the truck, PLUS the weight of the fifth wheel including whatever fluids are in the holding tanks, stuff in the fridge, propane, and all the other stuff that we manage to accumulate in our homes.

Do not take the word of a salesman as to how much people are carrying in their campers. While we are looking at full-timing but haven't yet, there is NO WAY we will get by with just 800 pounds of stuff in the camper.

You need to see if you can get a camper dealer to find out the GVWR (gross vehicular weight rating) of the camper you are interested in. Then, when packing, you may need to weigh everything so you will KNOW how much you are putting into the unit. Whatever you add in weight needs to be added to the dry weight of the fifth wheel.

So, if the camper's GVWR is 12,500, you would be at the limit of the towing capability of the truck. You would also need to know what the "pin weight" of the fifth wheel would be when the fifth wheel is loaded.

That pin weight is the weight that would be supported by the pickup, so that pin weight is added to the weight of the truck with passengers, fuel, etc to get the total weight of the truck. Whatever the pin weight would be, it would be subtracted from the 2930 lbs to see how much you could have in the truck in the way of passengers, fuel, tools, etc.

Some have stated that they would like to have a 15% to 20% "cushion" in their weight capabilities so as to NOT overload the truck. So, if your truck can "tow" 12,500 lbs, then your fifth wheel would need to weigh at about 10,000 lbs to give you a 20% cushion. So, if the camper is 9700 lbs dry weight and you wanted a 20% cushion, you would only have room for 300 lbs of stuff to go in the camper. And, that would include the weight of the propane and any water in a holding tank. If you tried to get by with a 15% cushion, that would only allow you another 625 lbs which would only allow a total GVWR on the trailer of 10,625 lbs.

Also, regarding dry weight, see if the seller of the fifth wheel will weigh it so you will know for sure what the dry weight actually is. Our Mobile Suites had a dry weight of "X" when it left the factory, but we added a washer and dryer. So, our dry weight increased, thus reducing what else we can haul, as soon as it got to the dealer.

I don't know if I am explaining this clearly for you. I think you have my e-mail address, so feel free to send me an e-mail if you need more information.

Terry

Edit: While all the above is important, IF you are only going to be camping and NOT full-timing, then you may not add as much as I think. In our case, when we went "camping" I would imagine that we had more than a lot of people did. So, if you think you would only be adding 800 lbs, you would probably be just fine. However, when you do go more full-timing, then the F250 would be lacking.

Looking at a 2010 F250, the payload is the same at 2930 and they are showing the current F250's at a GVWR of 16,300 lbs and a GCWR of 23,000 lbs. That is based on the 6.4L diesel. So current models may be close to what the 2002 shows.

-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Sunday 26th of September 2010 07:33:29 AM

flyone · RV-Dreams Family Member

Melstar, my brother in law has the exact truck you ask about. His truck weight with 2 adults (avg size) full fuel, firewood, bikes is 7,600 lbs. His GCVWR is, 20,000 lb which leaves 12, 400 lb trailer weight. Your trailer @ 9,700 could hold up to 2,700 lb, in theory. Your truck (loaded weight) and your trailer dry weight need to be confirmed. The 7.3 diesel is a fine machine, that will pull quite a load. I would think, after you load the trailer you will still be nearly 1,000 lb below GCVWR. Of course all of this needs to be checked out but IMO you should be fine.

Flyone

53 Merc · RV-Dreams Family Member

Mel, don't let the weight police make you shy away from a towing machine. If you like the price, the truck is as clean as you say, and you want it, do it.

The 7.3 is built like an anvil and should give you no problems. However, you must be ready to spend some money, if not now, in the future.

Take the truck to an independent diesel mechanic and pay his rate to assess the truck.

Then be aware the transmission is not the new Torqueshift. I would also go to a transmission shop and have it assessed. You willl probably want a Pacbrake installed to assist in braking. Ahain, spending now may keep you from spending later. Good luck in whatever you decide.