Bigfoot 5er tow vehicle

[Bobby Kirk]

Just got a new to me bigfoot 1988 5er.
Found out looking through my TV manual that my 1999 4.8 litre Silverado with rear axel ratio of 3.23 is not recommended for 5th wheel towing where as the rear axel ratio of the 4.8 litre with the 3.73 rear end is fine with a towing capacity of 6,700 lbs.
Question is , anyone ever swapped out rear axel gears to modify towing ability?
Cost?

[Jon in AZ]

The first thought that comes to mind is that typical fifth wheels are much larger and heavier than your Bigfoot. Small, lightweight, molded fiberglass fifth wheels are a bit of an anomaly.

What is your pickup rated to tow with its current rear end, and how heavy is your Bigfoot? If you are comfortably within that tow rating, I really don't see a problem. If you later change your mind, I'm sure a rear end swap is possible. Don't know about cost.

[Paul O.]

The manual for my Tacoma also says they do not recommend towing a 5th wheel trailer. I was not successful finding out why and also assumed that the Toyota technical writers expect every 5th wheel to weigh 10 thousand pounds at least, not 3000, or so. If you are within the towing capacity with some margin, it should not be a problem. Even the air drag with your Bigfoot should be much less than with a typical big 5th wheel.

[Franswa]

your TV manual assumes run of the mill 5th wheels....look around at how big/heavy those things can get....

you don't supply I picture....I'll bet that 88 is a single axle even.....

go by weight....of trailer and TV tow capacity....unless something "jumps off the page" you should be jsut fine

[Bobby Kirk]

Thanks for all the information.
My 19 foot bigfoot 5er has two axels and the GVW will be around 4500 lbs.
My Silverado manual says 4700 lbs max. with that 3.23 rear end, so close to the allowable.
Just wondered why they recommend no 5th wheel . I hope you are all correct that they think the fifth wheel is one of those giant land yachts.
I am going to try it out as is ,and see what happens.
Too far from North Carolina for some big hills to test it on.
Bobby

[sokhapkin]

WHAT??? 4700# max on Silverado??? Do you have a moped engine in the truck?

[ZachO]

If the only limiting factor is the gear ratio and you're not looking to upgrade your truck, I think swapping gears is a reasonable thing to do, depending on the cost.

I don't know as much about modern vehicles, but with older trucks, swapping gears on domestic vehicles was a bigger job. I think you need to remove the entire rear axle. On Toyotas it's much more simple. I put different gears in my old Toyota and it took me about 4 hours. It was my first time doing that kind of job and had I done again it would probably only be 2 or 3 hours at the most.

But if you still need to remove the entire axle housing on a Chevy, and especially if you aren't doing the work yourself...I'd have a hard time believing you're looking at any less than $1,000. Don't quote me on that though...

I'll be interested to hear what you do.

I'm jealous of your camper! Bigfoot 5th wheel seems like a really great camper. Just like mine except with a devoted, out-of-the-way bed with no added length to the trailer.