Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post - Considering New Montana 3400 w/F250 Truck

Art-n-Marge · 08-05-2011, 07:45 AM

Air bags DO NOT increase weight ratings! Look at the fine print. RV and Suspension dealers and sales people say this all the time and from personal conversations with Firestone (my air bag solution) DO NOT LIKE that this is constantly being said. They only facilitate and improve the load and ride, not fix it.

What year is your truck? You may be able to have the F-350 leaf spring set installed in your truck (or just the overload spring and brackets if not already there) to improve the GVWR and RAWR. Then check the wheels and tires that they can support the increased weight rating the extra overload spring provides. For me I upgraded the wheels and tires to support the new ratings (was 17", changed to 18") because tires that support the new weight rating are not available in a 17" tire. Even though tires are available for that rating in 16", my '06 cannot use 16" wheels since the brake assembly is too big for them.

In my year truck ('06) doing this increased the RAWR from 6,100lbs to 7,000lbs and the GVWR from 10,000 to 11,500 for an F-250 with a 6.0 long bed with a 3.73 differential, Crew Cab, 4x4. It's important to know your configuration so a proper comparison can be evaluated.

Note, this is a legal change, however, you can only use this for personal use (not commercial). If you want to be fully compliant, tow with those ratings for friends or for pay, you must have your truck certified to obtain a new VIN and new label for the door pillar. I did not do this step since I use strictly for private use. If you really want to complete the "look" you'll need new emblems that say F-350 too, but only do that if you have the new VIN label to match.

FYI - in my case I wanted to do this as inexpensively as possible. I bought official Ford parts for about $500 and then purchased some "Take-off" wheels from Ebay for another $500. Since I had 50 something thousand miles on my truck and it was due for tires, I purchased five tires and got a new spare 18" wheel from the tire dealer. Finally, the five tires were about $1,300 (Michelin LT275/70R18 LR E). They needed replacing anyway, I just went with the larger size.

While I regret not buying an F-350 in the first place, I am quite happy with these modifications. I now have an F-350, with air bags for an awesome ride and am weight compliant. This is done more often that is admitted. Many other mods are not "legal" by themselves, but over two months of investigation and study and my solution is sound.

Then there's the year of the 3400. If you're looking at brand new ones their 15,000+ GTWR will surpass an F-350's CGVWR and you'll need a dually. Racerjoe and RichFaa say it best when they mention to KNOW the weight ratings everywhere! If you are over anywhere, then you are over!

08-05-2011, 07:45 AM	#6
Art-n-Marge Montana Master Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Murrieta Posts: 5,816 M.O.C. #9257	Air bags DO NOT increase weight ratings! Look at the fine print. RV and Suspension dealers and sales people say this all the time and from personal conversations with Firestone (my air bag solution) DO NOT LIKE that this is constantly being said. They only facilitate and improve the load and ride, not fix it. What year is your truck? You may be able to have the F-350 leaf spring set installed in your truck (or just the overload spring and brackets if not already there) to improve the GVWR and RAWR. Then check the wheels and tires that they can support the increased weight rating the extra overload spring provides. For me I upgraded the wheels and tires to support the new ratings (was 17", changed to 18") because tires that support the new weight rating are not available in a 17" tire. Even though tires are available for that rating in 16", my '06 cannot use 16" wheels since the brake assembly is too big for them. In my year truck ('06) doing this increased the RAWR from 6,100lbs to 7,000lbs and the GVWR from 10,000 to 11,500 for an F-250 with a 6.0 long bed with a 3.73 differential, Crew Cab, 4x4. It's important to know your configuration so a proper comparison can be evaluated. Note, this is a legal change, however, you can only use this for personal use (not commercial). If you want to be fully compliant, tow with those ratings for friends or for pay, you must have your truck certified to obtain a new VIN and new label for the door pillar. I did not do this step since I use strictly for private use. If you really want to complete the "look" you'll need new emblems that say F-350 too, but only do that if you have the new VIN label to match. FYI - in my case I wanted to do this as inexpensively as possible. I bought official Ford parts for about $500 and then purchased some "Take-off" wheels from Ebay for another $500. Since I had 50 something thousand miles on my truck and it was due for tires, I purchased five tires and got a new spare 18" wheel from the tire dealer. Finally, the five tires were about $1,300 (Michelin LT275/70R18 LR E). They needed replacing anyway, I just went with the larger size. While I regret not buying an F-350 in the first place, I am quite happy with these modifications. I now have an F-350, with air bags for an awesome ride and am weight compliant. This is done more often that is admitted. Many other mods are not "legal" by themselves, but over two months of investigation and study and my solution is sound. Then there's the year of the 3400. If you're looking at brand new ones their 15,000+ GTWR will surpass an F-350's CGVWR and you'll need a dually. Racerjoe and RichFaa say it best when they mention to KNOW the weight ratings everywhere! If you are over anywhere, then you are over!