5th wheel towing with 2007 Dakota quad cab

What short & light 5th wheel do (did) you intend to tow?

FMB (North Mexico)

i tow lots of trailers and campers. in my experience most fifth wheel campers are actually pretty big. my question is what size camper do you have and does it have slide outs etc. my next question is what engine and transmission package does your truck have?

i own two dakota's and i wouldn't even consider towing any camper over 18 ft. with them. in fact that would only be in an emergency and no more than far enough to get the camper across town. the crux is not whether or not the truck will pull the camper but will it stop it or keep it stable in a big cross wind. i have seen a good cross wind flip more than one camper that was tied to 3/4 ton and bigger trucks. michael

For the OP...

Did you get that in writing from the dealer?

As FMB says, what (make and model) trailer are you thinking?

Though I'm not recommending this:

(Personally, I don't think a Dakota is up to the task of pulling a 5th wheel trailer...)

The hell with pulling a fiver. I'd be more concerned with stopping it.

I hear that! We have a 2001 Dakota with 4.7, auto & 3:55 gears... When we were shopping for a travel trailer, several dealers "looked up" our truck and said that the max tow weight was 6,400 pounds..

We ordered a 4,800 (dry) pound trailer and thought we were good to go... A bunch of folks here said "you're going to tow with a Dakota?" and one referred me to Trailer life magazine's web site for their towing guide..

Yep.. our truck does have a 6,400# max weight, IF it had a 4:10 rear end! In the stock setup, it's 5,200#, minus cargo and people, of course..

The next issue was that it would be "the tail wagging the dog"... Even if it could pull the trailer, could it stop it safely or handle it in wind, etc.?

We decided that we liked the Dak too much to tear it up doing the job of a bigger truck and found a good deal on a 99 Ram with the 5.9 gas engine.. A truck that was built to tow.. YMWV

mac

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There is no way i personally would consider pulling a 5th with a dakota. IMHO a good 3/4 ton is the MINIMUM for this job.

The truck is a 318 with an auto, The trailer is 19' with a dry weight of 4800lbs. Not as small as I was thinking.

I was pulling a trailer on my 2500 hitting speeds of 90 on I-10. I later broke down and had my brother-in-law come and get the trailer in his '05 Surburban. He would hit 65 and the trailer would start swaying very badly.