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Not sure which trailer you are looking at, but I just bought a 41' 5th wheel that has a dry weight around 13k, GVWR of 16,900, and comes with a office and built in desk. It has been working pretty great for me. Montana 3855BR. There is a Montana High Country with a very similar plan that we looked at as well, 384BR or 385BR I think.
To answer your question, no have not considered a 4500 or 5500. I would think the 3500 would be enough for what I'm trying to pull. Definitely not wanting a drivable RV because I don't want to have to pull a car with me everywhere I go. It's nice to detach the truck from the trailer and be able to go anywhere. I honestly don't know where I'll be going yet. Planning on traveling everywhere I can go and working from the trailer for 3-4 months at a time and then up and moving to a new location.
Some 450's do not have any more payload than a 350. I've seen a side by side comparison between a F350 and F450 DRW trucks and both had the same leaf springs, same engine, same rear axle, and same interior package. About the only difference was the front end was beefier on the 450 and yet the 450 has LESS payload than the 350 did by just a few pounds. In some cases a 450 can give you more payload but it's not automatic. Lots of folks have made that unfortunate assumption. Agree you don't need a 450 for that rig. The downhill stopping advice with a DRW is also something I've heard from others on this forum.
There's a great spreadsheet at this link to help calculate the numbers. GVWR & Payload Calc.
Yes, my bad. Here is what I actually have. Payload of 4130 lbs, and Max Trailer of 24,070 lbs. In that chart below, anything with a GVWR of 13,500 and above is a DRW:
My son just had to deal with an inside tire problem on his motor home. Just to let you know that I did not teach my son to use such ****** language while pulling off those tires!
Right, don't trust the chart! Get the VIN number and plug it in here: https://www.ramtrucks.com/towing/towing-guide.html#/landing/bytowing . This will give the numbers for the specific truck in question. I used this a lot when I was shopping because most dealers seem to provide the VIN number in the listings on their web sites. When I got to the dealership to look at the truck I was interested in, the first thing I did was to open the door and look at the sticker to confirm it was the same as I got from Ram's look up tool. On the 2500's in particular its amazing how much variation there can be. My 6.4L Bighorn has a payload of 2974 but an identical truck with the diesel is only about 2200. There are some configurations like a Limited, Megacab, diesel that actually had less payload than the Sierra 1500 I was trading in.
I thought that one of the benefits of an F450 is a tighter turning radius than the F350 due to the way the front end is set up. Is that still the case? Even if the rest of the truck is pretty similar to the F350, this could be something that makes the DRW palatable over the SRW. I know this is a RAM forum, so not stumping for the F450, but based on OPs concerns, it's only fair to get all the info out there to make an informed decision. For the record, I love my RAM. But I too am thinking about a large TH 5er in the future and had/have similar concerns as OP, so this thread spoke to me....Good luck, whatever decision you make.
That's better than mine. I have a stripped out 3500 Tradesman SRW 4dr, Cummins HO, 3.73 rear and the door sticker lists the GVWR as 11,800.
I know this is a Ram forum but a few of the biggest rigs I've seen are using F-450s and those supposedly have an amazing turn radius with the wider front axle.
Because they have to continuously make u-turns to go back to the dealer for repairs.
