Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post

Phil P · 07-05-2011, 11:32 PM

Hi

The engineers that configure these trucks are pretty good.

The charts I have with our Duramax 3500 DRW truck do show a higher GCVWR with 5th wheel than for a bumper pull.

Our trailer has a GVWR 15,905 Lb. We have pulled it at 15,380. When we weighed the truck and trailer we were within about 100 Lbs. of maximum weight on the TV front axel. I guess that if we loaded trailer to reach the GCVWR of 23,500 Lbs. the TV front axel would be very close to maximum and the rear axel would still be several 100 Lbs below maximum weight.

While the late model Silverado ¾ and 1-ton truck have the same brakes I am not overly impressed with the performance of the braking system on our Duramax. At the same time I have many years experience with the Hydro boost brake booster system used on these trucks and medium duty GM trucks and have never liked them. I have always felt that the vacuum boost Ford used on their 1-ton trucks performed better. I have replaced many more Hydro boost units than the Vacuum units but I have also changed a lot of the vacuum pumps on the Ford truck as well.

My experience with these units was while maintaining a very large fleet of rental trucks

Phil P

07-05-2011, 11:32 PM	#20
Phil P Montana Master Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Okeechobee Posts: 2,150 M.O.C. #11206	Hi The engineers that configure these trucks are pretty good. The charts I have with our Duramax 3500 DRW truck do show a higher GCVWR with 5th wheel than for a bumper pull. Our trailer has a GVWR 15,905 Lb. We have pulled it at 15,380. When we weighed the truck and trailer we were within about 100 Lbs. of maximum weight on the TV front axel. I guess that if we loaded trailer to reach the GCVWR of 23,500 Lbs. the TV front axel would be very close to maximum and the rear axel would still be several 100 Lbs below maximum weight. While the late model Silverado ¾ and 1-ton truck have the same brakes I am not overly impressed with the performance of the braking system on our Duramax. At the same time I have many years experience with the Hydro boost brake booster system used on these trucks and medium duty GM trucks and have never liked them. I have always felt that the vacuum boost Ford used on their 1-ton trucks performed better. I have replaced many more Hydro boost units than the Vacuum units but I have also changed a lot of the vacuum pumps on the Ford truck as well. My experience with these units was while maintaining a very large fleet of rental trucks Phil P __________________ 2009 Montana 3665RE 2009 Duramax 3500 DRW quad cab personal web page https://www.sallyscoffees.com If you get a page not available then remove the "s" after HTTP