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Originally Posted by sheetmusic
For example the Everest 344J weighs 12,000 lbs. empty. The Ford F250 has a tow capacity of 12,500 lbs. There appears to be no margin.
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Not only is there no margin, you'd be considerably overweight.
As wingnut60 pointed out, don't go by the dry weight. For one thing, dry weight is a meaningless number since it does not include any factory-installed options and certainly doesn't include any dealer-installed options or owner-installed (if used) options. That means that in *real life* the dry weight of any RV is going to be more than its published dry weight. And, even if the dry weight was, in fact, exactly the same as the published dry weight, are you going to be pulling an empty rig? No water, no propane, no batteries, no food, no clothing, no pots & pans, no dishes, no bedding, no _____ (you fill in the blank)?
So, as wingnut60 said, use ONLY the RV's GVWR for calculation purposes.
There's something else to take into consideration: That 12,500# tow rating. Published tow ratings are for a basic truck with no options, no gear, a partial tank of fuel, and only one 150# driver. So, just like the dry weight of RVs, the tow rating for trucks is a meaningless number because once you add options, fill the fuel tank, and load passengers and gear into your truck (including the weight of the fifth wheel hitch), that 12,500# towing capacity will be something less...perhaps as low as 12,000# OR LESS.
Most people advise not pulling in excess of 80% of a truck's tow rating. In the case of a truck with a published tow rating of 12,500#, that would mean that you should be looking at fifth wheel with GVWR's not more than 10,000# (12,500# x .80).
Here's a
Fifth Wheel Weight Calculator that will help you through the "what can I tow with my truck" question.