2008 Titan vs Fifth wheel travel trailer

mrairportjunke · 02-08-2008, 09:10 PM

Hey guys, great site. New here. First post as you can see. Thanks for having the site. Well down to business, I am in the market for a new fifth wheel travel trailer. Well I will do either a fifth or a bumper pull. Ive hada bumper pull and hated hookin it up. LoL. So the fift wheel seems to be the ease option. I have been browsing the forum and reading alot but cant seem to find a thread that askeds what i wanna know. I know the towing capacity of this truck is 9300 lbs and the max payload is 1762. On the trailers I know i gotta have a GVWR that is around 9300 lbs but I konw everyone overloads there trucks no matter what brand and they will pull fine. I wanna know who has a fifth that is over the 9300 pound rating and how heavy it is. how does it pull and all that. The trailer Im lookin at is a hitch weight of 1580, GVWR of 11600. The dry weight is 8400 with a carrying capacity of about 3200 pounds.

**Carbeaux** · 02-08-2008, 09:14 PM

Just my .02, armchair quarterback opinion....that's too much trailer for the truck.

**Arachnid** · 02-08-2008, 09:30 PM

Sounds like that is a bit too much of a load for the Titan, your not leaving much room for error.

mrairportjunke · 02-08-2008, 09:47 PM

well that was one of a couple we looked at. the dealer told me to go for a trailer that had a dry weight of around 8000 pounds no more and figure that ur never gonna haul full water tanks, which I wouldnt, never did with my last trailer. i dont live in the mountains, so thats not an issue, i live in houston. but i dont wanna over work the truck or over load but if i had a trailer with say a GVWR or 10500 is that still way to much or what? i know its rated at 9300 but the sales man for the truck convinced me that thats underrated. the tundra is 10300 so if my titans suppose to be better than a tundra then i should be able to no problem. IN THEORY. this is my first titan and so far i been impressed. really impressed. just havent towed much over 3000 pounds yet.

*Troll Crap* · 02-08-2008, 10:13 PM

Well I love my titan too but I wouldnt say better than tundra. The new tundra motor has another 15 to 20 lbs of torque and at least 50 more horse which is why I think it can tow more. Dont get me wrong I like my titan better than a tundra but im not going to try to tow what a duramax can. I would look for a lighter trailer. Your call good luck with the trailer

mrairportjunke · 02-08-2008, 10:16 PM

im still lookin. probably gona end up goin with a bumper pull cause you can get more floorspace for lighter weights. plus u cna throw small crap in bed of truck. i was curiuos though who does haul fifths with the 08 and how does it pull, what do they pull and all that. thanks.

*Troll Crap* · 02-08-2008, 10:24 PM

I would keep askin around cause ther are people on here that tow fifth wheels and love towing them with their titans. I would rather a fifth wheel myself but have a tongue trailer already paid for and my titan tows it fine so I guess Im stuck. Look online at trailers cause they have light fifth wheel trailers I know they tow better.

mrairportjunke · 02-08-2008, 10:36 PM

yeah i hit this dealer today. the one i really like in the weight wasnt on the lot. sold out. but its GVWR was still 10300 but the dry weight was 8000. Im lookin around for light though. but yeah hopefully some Fifth pullers on here will chime in on there weights and experience with it. especially for the 08' crew cab.

racefan92307 · 02-09-2008, 06:27 AM

i'm looking at a bumper pull and plan to stay as close to 6000lbs as possible. there are some nice light ones on the market. the 5th wheel weight you are talking about is too much for a Titan. i would test pull any trailer before purchase to see how the truck pulls and stops with it.

**loufish** · 02-09-2008, 09:50 AM

Very old news here...

ALL trailers 5th wheel or pull have their advertized empty weight low beacuse that's a trailer with NO options, by the time you add the popular options (A/C, awning, TV, propane tanks & propane, microwave, etc...) you can add another 500 lbs!
Off that 500, 200 will be at the hitch!

When shopping for trailers you should be looking at the GVW rating, this will keep you out of much trouble.
Also, watch your payload because that includes all passengers and tongue weight cargo, wood in the bed...

mrairportjunke · 02-09-2008, 09:51 AM

yea i plan on test pulling. what weight on the trailer is what you wanna look at to make sure its ok. the dry or the gvwr?

mrairportjunke · 02-09-2008, 09:52 AM

i thought the payload was full people plus cargo in the bed of the truck?
and the dry weight on the trailer already counts all that. it just doesnt count the water, propane, and cargo.

desertruner09 · 02-09-2008, 12:01 PM

Just because your truck can pull it doesn't mean it can pull it safely. I would definitely look into a lighter trailer, probably around 7000 lbs dry weight max. Fifth wheels are suppose to pull much better than a conventional trailer, however they have a lot more weight on the truck which takes away from the payload. If I remember right, its somewhere between 15 to 25 % of a fifth wheel's weight is on the truck.

On a side note, all manufacturers have the payload capacity with just a driver and gas I think. So its not just a Nissan thing. Ford has a 3,000 lbs payload capacity, but the actual capacity of a crew cab is only 1,600 lbs. So paylod is the limiting factor of pretty much all half tons.

BuckyBadger · 02-09-2008, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrairportjunke

i thought the payload was full people plus cargo in the bed of the truck?
and the dry weight on the trailer already counts all that. it just doesnt count the water, propane, and cargo.

The pin weight or the toung weight takes away from your payload

mrairportjunke · 02-09-2008, 01:20 PM

right but what maybe i meant to ask is with full people and gas, your cargo or weight you can carry in the bed of the truck is the payload right. so for my truck thats like 1762