3500 DRW or SRW?

Kicking around the idea of buying a 3500 for pulling a 5th wheel that I am thinking about living out of and working remotely. Question for those who have DRW or SRW 3500. What would be the recommendation for this type of setup? I have my eye on a 5th wheel that is sitting right about 16k lbs dry. Most of the SRW 3500s I've seen have a pull limit of around 20k lbs with about 4k-5k of payload which seems a little light for what I'm trying to do. I haven't seen any DRWs on any dealers sites to pull the VIN yet but I would imagine that it would be higher for both payload and overall weight. I would prefer SRW if possible just because it's going to be enough of a pain to park it in places when I'm driving it around without having to deal with the width of dual rears.

The stability of a DRW is hard to beat. The toy hauler we had put almost 4,800 lbs on the hitch, and with the rear air suspension it was perfect. I daily drove my '19 for nearly 68K miles, and I didn't find it bothersome at all, but have been around trucks my whole life, YMMV. The one real downside to DRW is the cost and PIA of tire rotations.

Hmm. Never thought about tire rotations, how does that work with DRWs? In any case, I am not new to towing but new to 5th wheels. Towed a travel trailer for years and loved it but I figured if I'm going to be living in this thing and moving it every couple months I probably want something that isn't going to be stressed by the work. I would love to go SRW for the reasons I mentioned in my post but I just don't know if I'll be able to find a SRW configured to handle the payload and weight limit I need

I just bought my SRW in August of this year and it has a payload capacity of 4057#. I did not want the "hips" that come with the DRW. My 5er has a GVWR of 12,200#. From what i have learned from a RV forum i am a member of, for safety take 23% of the GVWR for a pin weight.

Now i have actually weighed my 5er at a CAT scale loaded for camping with just myself. The pin weight then was 2220#. At the time i weighed this i had a 2020 Ram 2500 CTD with only 2097# of payload.

I love the Rams with the Cummins, but the weight of that diesel engine really cuts into your payload.

The only question should be, what are you towing and what is the weight and pin weight. That will dictate what you Need.

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mtnrider said:

The only question should be, what are you towing and what is the weight and pin weight. That will dictate what you Need.

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To answer the question, I'm not towing anything yet but the 5th wheel I'm looking at has a dry weight of approx. 16k lbs. I figure that living in it full time, I'm going to add quite a bit of weight to it with just my normal everyday stuff. If I could find a 3500 SRW with 5k of payload and probably 25k of available towing, I think that would work but so far I only saw DRWs able to get there.

I vote drw and be done. Much more stable. Buy it once.

For as much as you are going to be moving around I would say drw. If you were just camping 3 or 4 times a year you might be able to get by with srw but for this drw is my vote. The price tag is only about $1,200-$1,500 difference & from what I have heard, you get used to the width pretty quickly.

Is the rated GVWR on the RV 16k, or is the actual weight 16K? Several of the fivers that I have owned were 16.5 GVWR, but only actually weighed like 12k empty. As a member of the oops, I need a bigger truck club cause I went to an RV show and saw a new unit that I think I wanted. I ended up with a DRW HO version and never regretted it. Both the DRW, and the SRW versions are the same length, so the parking isnt great for either in a tight area. In my experience, towing anything weighing over 12k, needs a DRW if you are towing all the time which it sounds like you are going to.

I am also a member of the bigger is not always better RV thought these days. Having a 40 plus foot fiver is great, till you have to put in some of the campgrounds you might encounter. I recently down sized and went to a 33 foot version now and its so much easier to maneuver this unit.

You have been given good advice. I have owned both SRW and DRW. The SRW are far superior on muddy or other non-paved roads. They are also a tad easier to drive around town, you see busted rear panels on many DRWs for a good reason, they are REALLY wide. That said, if you pull often, large weight and always on pavement, the DRWs would easily be my first choice.

JoshsRam said:

the 5th wheel I'm looking at has a dry weight of approx. 16k lbs. I figure that living in it full time, I'm going to add quite a bit of weight to it with just my normal everyday stuff. If I could find a 3500 SRW with 5k of payload and probably 25k of available towing, I think that would work but so far I only saw DRWs able to get there.

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Once you decide on the exact fifth-wheel RV you are going to purchase, get its maximum wet weight and size a tow vehicle to the number. You are not going to find an SRW with the payload and tow numbers you stated.

When I was in your position I did a lot of thinking and research. My wife and I spent a summer visiting campgrounds and talking to campers about campers and tow vehicles, it was quite an education. You want to know what you are getting into before you buy because once you buy, you are stuck with your decisions.

For me, it came down to SRW versus DRWs. I took the time to understand the benefits of a dually as well as the not-so-good. Our desire for camping was traveling our country and seeing the sites. Having done this by car travel I realized site-seeing venues can be very difficult to park in with a car let alone a big-hipped vehicle.

I took the payload and towing numbers for a RAM 3500 Longhorn Cummins and my wife and I looked for a fifth wheel that would fit the tow vehicle. A 3500 SRW is very generous with payload and towing numbers and we had no trouble finding an all-season 40-foot camper. We bought a Montana 3790RD.

Everyone's situation is different, what are you willing to give up versus what can you live with. In our research, we found very few DRW in the campgrounds, and when we did, they were pulling tri-axle toy haulers, something most don't opt for. DRWs are popular with the big horse trailers and the construction/hotshot crowd.

Thank you all for the replies. Still torn but some good thoughts here. I definitely am going to lock in which trailer I want specifically before I buy the truck. The one I was looking very closely at is 16k dry weight, not GVWR. However, having towed my travel trailer all over and visited my share of campgrounds, I get what you all are saying about length possibly being a problem. Here's the issue for me. I'm planning on living in it and as such, one of the requirements is that it has a built-in office for me since I will be there most of the time. I can't find an under 40' 5th wheel with that setup. At least not one that I think would work for a full-time live-in situation. Choices, choices. I think I need to just drive a dually to see how it feels when parking and around town.

If you have never driven a Dually then for sure you need to take one for a few days and live with it. Dealer may help if you guarantee you will buy one or the oterh from him but even a rental, would be money well spent before you drop 90 grand and then regret it.

As far as driving the dually versus the SRW, I didnt think they really drove much differently. Obviously the 3500s ride , well like a tank unloaded. Mine was a 8 foot bed, its total length was like 22 feet long. So turning radius was kinda big. Thats what will get you is the turning radius in a parking lot situation, but its a truck not a small sedan.

stevenP said:

As far as driving the dually versus the SRW, I didnt think they really drove much differently. Obviously the 3500s ride , well like a tank unloaded. Mine was a 8 foot bed, its total length was like 22 feet long. So turning radius was kinda big. Thats what will get you is the turning radius in a parking lot situation, but its a truck not a small sedan.

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That's something I didn't even think about. I know my 1500's turning radius isn't amazing but I imagine the HD trucks are probably worse. I was definitely leaning towards the 8' bed as I don't want to have to worry about a slider hitch and the possibility of the 5er hitting my cab.

I just down sized this last summer. Went from a 8 foot bed (3500) to a 6 footer (2500). Ended up, almost all new fivers these days, have the 88 degree radiused front caps on them. So accordingly I did not require a slider hitch. So the crew cab truck with a 6 footish bed is 2 feet shorter in length...its 20 feet long.

stevenP said:

I just down sized this last summer. Went from a 8 foot bed (3500) to a 6 footer (2500). Ended up, almost all new fivers these days, have the 88 degree radiused front caps on them. So accordingly I did not require a slider hitch. So the crew cab truck with a 6 footish bed is 2 feet shorter in length...its 20 feet long.

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Wow you can tow that beast with a 2500??? How long is it?

JoshsRam said:

Thank you all for the replies. Still torn but some good thoughts here. I definitely am going to lock in which trailer I want specifically before I buy the truck. The one I was looking very closely at is 16k dry weight, not GVWR. However, having towed my travel trailer all over and visited my share of campgrounds, I get what you all are saying about length possibly being a problem. Here's the issue for me. I'm planning on living in it and as such, one of the requirements is that it has a built-in office for me since I will be there most of the time. I can't find an under 40' 5th wheel with that setup. At least not one that I think would work for a full-time live-in situation. Choices, choices. I think I need to just drive a dually to see how it feels when parking and around town.

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Here's something else to consider. When looking at spec'd weights on RV's take those numbers with a grain of salt at least until you can confirm actual numbers. Some manufactures are pretty accurate with their listed weights and some aren't close. For example the Jayco Pinnacle 37MDQS has a listed pin weight of about 2900 lbs. Actual pin weight on this unit recorded by numerous on the Jayco forum and on YouTube show it right at 4500 lbs. Pin weights will vary. If this was the 5th wheel you were looking at the SRW would be fine for the listed pin weight but not for the actual pin weight.

If you'll be pulling a 5th wheel a lot or just for 100's of miles at a time for me it would be a DRW no question.

JoshsRam said:

I know my 1500's turning radius isn't amazing but I imagine the HD trucks are probably worse.

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Drive a Chevy HD...You'll appreciate the turning radius the RAM has. Chevy's suck to make uturns in...

PS: I love my SRW 3500. But, I'm not pulling what you intend to pull.