hi i have a 2006 ford f350 dually 6.0 turbo diesel rear wheel drive. im wondering if a 30k reese 5th wheel hitch is legal on my truck or not? im going to be hauling kaufman 4 carhauler trailer that is 9000 lb so if any one could help or give some advice thanks in advance daniel

 

I dont see why it would be illegal. Id figure if it holds more weight its better off. I have a hitch thats rated at 16k and its all I need to hual a 30 ft 5th wheel.

 

The hitch weight rating does not matter for legal purposes as long as it is equal to or greater than the load that is attached. Check your manual for toatal pulling weight and that will be the max in most states (remember to add truck weight to railer weight). Just for a heads up this will be different from GVW as that is for the weight of the truck and cargo in the bed. After moving to North Carolina I found that a few states require you to buy weight rated plates that only allow the truck and trailer to weigh so much depending on how much you want to pay . For the hitch you are putting in the total pulling weight would be around 38000 pounds if maxed out ( 8,000 for the truck + 30,000 for the trailer) which if I remember correctly would require an F550.

 

Isn't 26k GCWR the max for the road without a CDL anyways?

 

For any thing other than RV's and camping trailers that is correct. I had a sheriff show me in Texas law where those are listed as exemptions and he said that it was because you are not adding a large load to the trailer but instead it is built that way and you are adding a small load. Conventional ball type camping trailers are already limited due to the max hitch capacity and tongue weight a.k.a type 1,2,3,4 or 5 class hitch. fifth wheel trailers were limited to a total of 28,000 pounds last I had checked to keep total below 36,000 or 38,000 pounds but that was eight or ten years ago since very few trucks had the ability or rating to tow that much. With what is out there now I don't know if they changed the max or not but I hae seen some new trailers pushing the limit and a lot of motor coaches beyond if you were to load them to the max.