Hey guys, I missed this thread apparently.
Will it pull it? A dually 3500 with 4.11's? Yep.
Are you going to REALLY feel it back there...hell yeah. Would I do it within the understanding that you're asking a lot of your truck? Yep.
Here's my horse trailer thread for those interested in reading up the followup from the one posted earlier:
http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/76.../665402-bringing-old-trailer-back-life-2.html
The trailer is around 10K empty, so not far off the empty weight DM. When I put 4 horses in it it easily surpasses 15K. My old 5th wheel was about 10-12K loaded (it had extra tank capacities and we often traveled long distances so we carried a LOT of weight) and my horse trailer pulls a lot harder than it ever did, hence why I know the horse trailer is way heavier.
Does the truck work hard? Yep. Do I worry about it? Not really. You already have all the gauges and necessary mods, so do like us truck drivers do -
work within the limits of the truck and roll.
Will it pull up grades without slowing down? Nope. Ever seen a tractor trailer that doesn't slow down on grades though? Nope! So why should people expect a pickup truck with a big trailer to not do the same?
Will it run on cruise control on anything other than the flattest roads without shifting up and down in/out of overdrive? Nope. You'll have to drive it manually 90% of the time, work the accelerator to keep it in OD as much as possible and force a downshift when necessary...keeping it in a sweet spot.
Will it heat up in the summer and cycle the fan on/off a lot? Yep. A long as it stays under 210...who cares? I *NEVER* had issues running over 210 for more than a minute or so, and it wasn't far over it - I backed out of the go-pedal, temps came down, no problem. 99% of the time I could pull any hill even in the peak summer months without overheating. Yes, sometimes the fan ran almost constantly, but again, who cares?
Will you have to keep an eye on EGT's? Yep. 1200 comes up fast and sometimes you need to back out of the go-pedal to either lower or maintain 1200. Downshifting helps as well. Again, this comes back to the realities of needing to drive the truck "manually" a lot when towing heavy. It's not like the new "put it on cruise and forget it" trucks.
So that's the key. You'll have to
actually drive your truck almost constantly, not just get on the highway, push the tow-haul button and then the cruise control button (like the big new high HP trucks) and then sit back and relax.
Can it be done? Yep. I did it. Coast to coast with our 5'er and many tens of thousands of kilometers. I have lots of pictures from our trip out west here showing us (and our old 5er) in lots of iteresting places.
Photos - Beginning to End
And in another 8 week or so I'll be waking my old girl from her winter slumber, loading up 5000 pounds of horses into the horsetank, and heading off to another horse show!