Greetings

[SmilinJack]

Newbie here. Just beginning the search for a 5th wheel, and of course the Montana line keeps coming up. Don't have a tow vehicle yet. I want to match the vehicle towing capacity to the weight of the unit we purchase. Looking forward to it!

[HOOK]

Welcome! Great forum, full of knowledge! We love our Montes!

[Art-n-Marge]

Look at the gross weight ratings of the trailer and ensure the trailer can pull that weight and that potentially 15-20% of that weight will be on the rear axle of the TV. I hope you don't mind a dually because the weights of these trailer are increasing due to all the equipment being put in them and there's a good chance a truck with single rear wheels may not give you the margin to be comfortable with the TV tow and carry ratings. Don't forget to calculate that all the cargo you put in the truck prior to hitching up must be considered, like passengers and their gear. Everything you carry adds to the cargo carrying weight that is carried by the truck or trailer.

I think what you mean is you want the truck's towing capacity to exceed your need so that you have some margin between the weight ratings and what everything does actually weigh. You may not want it to match. That's near impossible to get that close and you actually don't want to be overweight ANYWHERE. Gross, axle, wheels, tires on either trailer AND truck are what you need to estimate. If you are overweight at ANY point you are considered overweight. Then it's your decision where to go from there.

[DQDick]

Welcome. You're a head of the game matching the truck to the need. You'll find a lot of us here committed to our Monty's.

[MDL]

Welcome to the forum, Jack. You can use the search option to find threads on tow vehicles (TV) and all the info related to towing. There's really a lot of info on the site already, but everyone will help answer your questions and help you navigate the site.

This was a helpful page for me too as it has all the acronyms that everyone uses (almost all of them anyway). http://montanaowners.com/Acronyms.html. I had to look at this when everyone kept saying SOB this and that, but it wasn't what I thought, it was actually "Some Other Brand". The link above will help decode the posts.

Anyway, welcome!!!

Mark

[dunrovin1955]

You meet alot of nice people with a Monte, welcome.

[NCFischers]

Welcome to the forum. Feel free to jump right in.

[bncinwv]

Welcome to the forum and it sounds like you are taking a similar approach to what we did years ago. We bought the truck first with the knowledge that it would pull practically every fifth wheel model available at the time that we were interested in, then we narrowed the fifth wheel selection down and ended up with the first of our Montana's. Good luck with your search and keep us posted!! If you manage to complete all of the purchases before the summer and it includes a Montana, hope you consider joining a few of us near the Smoky Mountains (Seveirville) for a regional rally at the end of July. Information can be found under the Regional Rally topic.
Bingo