5k on 5k trailer..

[Fallon]

You might also consider updating your current trailer to 10k. Contact the mfg about what parts that would require.

If I wanted to update my 18 footer I would consider adding a couple of feet and up grade the axles, springs, and tires.

If considering a new one they may give some trade also. That would be the simple approach.

Around here that makes no sense. Used trailers in good shape go for about 75% of new. Your better off selling & buying a new (or lightly used) one that meets your needs than rebuilding the old one. Might be a different equation elsewhere in the country with different market conditions.

 

[4570Man]

I don't agree--I've been pulling 30+ foot "bumper pull" TT's for decades using 1/2 ton 4x4's and they do just fine. As with anything else, if you don't know what you're doing a Semi won't help.

No amount of knowing what you're doing can make up for heavy cross winds. 30 foot bumper pull tts with a 1/2 ton is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[4570Man]

Around here that makes no sense. Used trailers in good shape go for about 75% of new. Your better off selling & buying a new (or lightly used) one that meets your needs than rebuilding the old one. Might be a different equation elsewhere in the country with different market conditions.

Agreed with it being a bad idea. A pair of 7k axels are about $1000. You still need springs and possibly tires. Adding onto the back is a bad plan because then the axels are in the wrong spot. After all that you've still got a trailer that's built for 10k.

 

[aczlan]

The last time I looked, the truck plates have to be rated for the weight of the truck, passengers, cargo, trailer, and trailer load.

If you pull a 14,000 pound trailer with a 6,000 pound truck,, the truck plates have to be for 20,000 pounds,,,
The trailer plates are meaningless, typically they are not weight rated.

If I buy a Freightliner tractor for pleasure use, not hauling,, and it weighs 8,000, I do not need more than a 10,000 pound plate,,

If you hook a 40,000 pound trailer to a car,, the car better have plates for the gross weight, like 50,000 pounds.

The tow or haul rating of the car/pickup is different than the plates.

As has been said, it depends on the state. Our landscape trailer is plated for 3000#. Many semi trucks are registered based on GCWR as that way you can have 50 trailers that are each registered for 0# and they don't cost as much per year to run.

Aaron Z

 

[Peter 315]

Right my tractor was registered in all the state I traveled for 80k 6 states but even if don't go into that state it still cost money Then you have do the fuel tax for the miles traveled in each state

 

[Sysop]

No amount of knowing what you're doing can make up for heavy cross winds. 30 foot bumper pull tts with a 1/2 ton is a disaster waiting to happen.

I'm sorry, but these are the words of someone who doesn't know how to set it up properly and has never driven a properly setup half ton rig. There are hundreds of millions, likely even billions of successfully traveled miles by tons and tons of folk that prove what you say simply isn't true. If even half the TT wrecks involved half ton trucks, they wouldn't continue increasing the ratings on them as they build them up to be more capable; the lawyers simply wouldn't let them... People who refuse to learn the proper way of doing things is the disaster waiting to happen, no matter the truck you put them in. All it takes is a properly loaded trailer, with a proper hitch, with a proper sway control system, and cross winds aren't any more issue than anything else on the roads. You'll end up blown over on your side before swaying, same as anything else.

 

[Btown]

All the angles in the world can't overcome mathematics.

Not sure why you bought a 1/2T truck to do trailer towing work. May have to go back and correct that error.

I'll get flamed for this, but, I consider a 1/2T truck an SUV. Actually there are some SUVs that will out tow a 1/2T truck.

The new Ford Expedition tows the most for an SUV and it cannot tow more than a F-150

 

[Sysop]

Agreed, the mathematics need to be correct before making claims.

 

[ovrszd]

The new Ford Expedition tows the most for an SUV and it cannot tow more than a F-150

I stand corrected. Can it tow the same amount?

 

[timswi]

No amount of knowing what you're doing can make up for heavy cross winds. 30 foot bumper pull tts with a 1/2 ton is a disaster waiting to happen.

Pulled in heavy cross winds, not an issue if equipment is set up correctly and mine is.