I have a 2023 Solitude 380FLR. GD states that the king pin weight is 3052. I am in the process of purchasing a new RAM 3500 Limited with the Turbo Diesel and the Aisin transmission. The unit I am looking at is a SRW. I know that a dually would be the best choice but I would really rather not have dually. Also, since I live in Northern Illinois, a state which regularly get a fair amount of snow and I have heard from many sources that duallys don't do well in the snow. My question is will this truck be able to safely pull my Solitude?
First off, welcome to the forum, it looks like that is your first post. So, there's obviously not enough information in your post to say yes or no, but I'll try to bring out some things that will help you to come to a conclusion about this.
Starting with the trailer...it has a GVWR of 18,000 lbs, and the published pin weight of 3052 is for an unloaded trailer, as it came off of the assembly line. It may actually weigh a little more than that, depending maybe on what, if any, options that it has. 5th Wheel camping trailers will normally put down AT LEAST 20% of their weight as pin weight, but many times, that percentage is higher. Think 21...22...23 percent of what the trailer weighs. So the pin weight will do nothing but go up from the 3052 number after it arrives at the dealer (they will add propane to the tanks and a battery or two). Then, after you purchase it you will obviously be loading "stuff" into it for your camping adventures. All of that added Stuff will contribute to the weight of the camper going up and up. So with a GVWR of 18,000 lbs, and calculated at 20%, your pin weight is now at 3600 lbs. Let's use the 23% number that I mentioned above and then calculate that...18,000 lbs x 23% = 4140 lbs. So you can see, that there is a pretty wide range of pin weight "could be" numbers. Only you will know how much stuff you are going to load into it...AND...where it gets loaded/placed in the trailer. More weight in the front = heavier pin weight. More weight in the rear = less pin weight.
Now the truck question part of the answer. The truck that you are looking at or buying will have a sticker on the driver side door post or maybe on the edge of the driver's door that will clearly state what the payload or Cargo Carrying Capacity (CCC) is for that particular truck. That Payload number should never be exceeded, and if it is, the GVWR of the truck will automatically be overload too. So the thing you need to do is to make sure that any truck you buy will have enough Payload capacity for all the possible scenarios that you will encounter with the Solitude 380 you have. Part of the problem is, that unless you have previously weighed the trailer, loaded up and ready to camp, you will not know exactly how much pin weight it is actually putting down on the truck. So, what many folks do, and I agree, is to buy a truck for the "worst case" scenario. And what that means is that you get a truck that has enough payload capacity for a fully loaded trailer (in your case 18,000 lbs GVWR) and using the 22 or 23% factor for calculation of the possible pin weight.
And here is a bit more to think about....regarding the loading of the truck. Remember, Anything and Everything that goes IN/ON the truck will take away from the payload number that you see on the sticker. In other words, the weight of the 5ver hitch, a toolbox in the bed of the truck with tools, etc in it. Firewood that you carry for camping, an aux. fuel tank maybe, passengers you bring along......anything and everything.
So now that you see that the trailer could be putting down a pin weight in the upper 3000 range to right at possibly 4000 lbs, what is the payload capacity of the SRW truck you are looking to buy. In my opinion, you are a pretty good candidate for a Dually, especially since you are talking about a "Limited" version of the RAM truck. That one will be loaded with options/equipment, and the more stuff that is on it, the lower the payload will be, when compared to a moderately equipped truck of the same brand/engine etc. It all comes down to the payload numbers of the truck basically, and what the pin weight of the trailer can/will be if loaded up to, or near to the GVWR of the trailer.
