Best pick-up truck/5 car trailer combination?

I guess we can all agree a dually and five car is a bad idea, and a dually and wedge is a good place to start.

 

I'm with semperfi, get a tractor not a pickup, the guy already has his cdl and knows he wants a bigger trailer down the road, so just get the right power unit now.

 

First off your math is wrong....

5 cars at 3 ton each = 30,000 lbs or 15 tons (I see how you got 24,000 pounds. Hint: a ton is 2k pounds )
Add the 9,000 lb trailer and you are at 39,000 lbs

If the cars are only 2 tons each then you are looking at 29,000 pounds with the trailer.

Look on the door at the axle ratings. Who cares how much it would pull. Pulling is not the issue at all, you can take as long as you want to get up to speed. It is the stopping that is the issue and you do not always have the option of time when you have to stop.

You can get one hell of a rig for the price of that new pickup.

I have seen new equipment break and I have seen old stuff last for ever. My grandpa had a 56 ford that only had the clutch, plugs, points and oil changed. He had that truck for over 20 years.

We have a Dodge 5500 and have had that truck in the shop twice already and it has barely over 80k miles on it.

My personal truck is an 83 F250 and the only thing I have done to it is change the fuel filters, new batteries and a new master cylinder.

The truck does not have to be old to break down but the older stuff is much easier to work on yourself instead of taking to a shop.

If you crawl under the truck and grease it every 2-4 weeks and do all the other preventative maintenance stuff then it should last alot longer. We had a driver that when we went to check the oil in the Western Star, we had to put 3 gallons in it to bring it up to the safe level. Not checking your fluids will kill your engine and in his case differential quicker than anything else. Before you buy that semi, get an oil analysis done. This will tell you more than a mechanic.

Another thing to consider is that with some engines, the ones painted yellow, they seem to think there is gold in the paint. A Detroit turbo will cost nearly half what a CAT turbo will run you. I do love to hear that CAT purrrr though. We have a C15 in ours.

You will not have any mountains to contend with on your run so HP is not as much a consideration as it is out here where a 6-7% grade will rise 3500 feet or more before you get to the top of the pass.

 

There ain't a pick up made, dually or otherwise, to SAFELY haul a trailer loaded with 5 cars. Sure, you can modify them, (reflashing the computer, bigger turbo, trans coolers, etc) but they just aren't capable of continuous heavy duty hauling. I've seen more duallys that I can count with 3 or 4 cars loaded on a trailer broken down on the side of the road.

There's lots of good advice here from experienced truckers that I hope you listen to.

 

Dont listen to these idiots on here. You seem to be the most intelligent person in this thread. Do what your gonna do. Ill hold your beer. You got this!

 

Thanks D, I needed that, LOL

 

Basically it comes down to this....

Short hauls a pickup works. Long hauls you have to get a semi so that you can carry more vehicles. Personally I would skip the 5 and go straight for a 7 or 8 car.

Heck I found a truck and 7 car trailer last night that they are asking 79k for.

 

And you will be so much more comfortable- you will sleep better at night, your nerves won't be all frazzled worried about stopping, you won't have to worry about how long the truck will hold out vs. pushing a dually all the time. You will be happy! Good luck on picking your new rig.