If thats the real deal weight I may have to consider one of these.That is the first I have seen under 1k.

seen it several times, myself included... if ya really like tha rv thing and intend ta USE IT, ya need a truck that will haul most anything ya might buy and able ta tow any terrain, ie: mountains and such.. over-kill is much easier on you and tha equipment than what ya may end up with with something border line ya keep ina strain all tha time towin'...... jmo

To me it all depends on how you plan to or will use it. We towed a 30' travel trailer for years with a 1/2 ton pickup. We never went or wanted to go more than 100-150 miles from home and there was no mountainous terrain and it did fine. I would never dream of doing it cross country though with that pickup. Some folks travel the US in a tt some like us have oned one for close to 20 years and its never been more than 2 hours from home.

Never gone more than 600 miles one way towing with my half ton.

drug a 25 foot bumper pull with 1/2 ton chevy truck or gas suburban (all Z71's) all over tha country (work) by myself for years with no problems but when "wife" retired (i was already on tha dole) tha travel changed, along with tha size, ina hurry....but will add our first extended trip out together was two years long!

Our plans would likely be short trips (150 miles or less round trip) two or three times a year with one long trip (1000-2000 miles round trip) once a year. Definitely could go through mountainous terrain on the long trip, but none of that on the short trip. With the long trips being relatively infrequent, it's not a big deal to me to have to slow down and lug around a bit on hills. I just don't want it to be straining on a normal, flat highway. Looking at double cab Tundras with towing capacity around 10,400 lbs and payload capacity around 1,600 lbs.

Follow-up question - the next model up in that line has a hitch weight of 1,100 lbs and a total max weight of 9,500 lbs. Is that definitely too much for a Tundra?

According to specs on the truck its going to be getting close on your payload capacity. In real life ditch the factory P tires and give it hell you should be fine and the 5.7 should have more than enough umph to take it wherever you want to go.

thanks!

First time towing with my 1/2 ton was coming back from Mesquite Nevada where the TT was purchased.The closest it has been to the house travel wise was Concan Texas.

My experience and just my opinion,I doubt I would want to be towing much over 8500 on flat areas and no way would I tow with that weight in mountain regions with my Tundra.Could it do it,I believe so but I ran into 6 + degree grades on the highway taking ours home and it was never out of 4th gear and sometimes dropping to 3rd...but it did it.

I can guarantee the pin weight will be at least 20% or more of the loaded out weight of the trailer. It's just how they are built. They won't tell you that but it's the truth. I have had 2 5ers, and then there is my dads and all my buddies that have 5ers will give you a pin weight between 20-28% of their loaded out weight. If you load a camper like most people do you will be well over 1200 pounds on the pin weight. A regular travel trailer is usually 10-15% and that's with weight distributing hitches. Go over to RV.net and you get very similar responses.
A trailer may say 1/2 ton towable on them but very rarely are they really. An RV of any significant size which is usually 30' or more isn't really 1/2 ton towable, most of the time. Sure you may fall in under the max tow rating of the truck but what ALWAYS get them is the hitch/pin weight. 1/2 ton payload has and will always suck. With a full truck ready to go you usually will only have between 600-800 pounds left for hitch weight. It's the hard facts. Load up your truck with EVERYTHING you would normally have on a trip with you in the truck: wife, kids, dogs, food for snacks, ice chest, whatever, fill it up with fuel and go weigh it at a CAT scale and you will see where you stand.
Can you put LT tires on it and tow a fifth wheel of the original size you were thinking? Probably, but when you start looking at real world numbers you might end up rethinking it. Just my take on it all.

If you are going to tow in the hills or mountains you are going to wish you had a 3/4 ton truck with a diesel. If the weight of the trailer and tongue weight are anywhere near the limits of your tow vehicle you are putting yourself and your family at risk. Buy more truck that you need, in the long run you will be glad you did. Some people will connect anything to a truck and tow it, add air shocks, airbags etc to make it sit level. If you have to do that not only is your tow vehicle not the right one but its dangerous.

Good luck and enjoy the new trailer.

Thanks for your response. Reason I started looking at this one was the low hitch weight. I hear what you're saying, but I can't believe that Winnebago would lie about the hitch weight. I think they tried to make these short ones truly half ton towable and designed it for a half ton to handle the hitch weight and the trailer weight.

I agree that most 5th wheels look un-towable for half tons due to hitch weight. Next lowest one I've seen is about 1,100 lbs, and that's totally dry. Not really feasible for a half ton with any extra cargo at all.

But we'll see - the warden hasn't even looked at this one yet and if she doesn't love it, then we'll probably end up buying a bumper pull anyway.

They don't really "lie" about the pin weight, but they aren't telling the whole truth either. The pin weight is and always should be calculated off of the MAX GVWR of the trailer. Like I stated above, by design, a 5th wheel will put 20% or more weight on the pin. Anything less than that makes them unstable. At 1100lbs of pin weight that means a lot of weight is on the back end of the trailer or they moved the axles towards the center of the camper. Neither of which are inherently good. You WANT more weight on the truck, it makes the whole rig more stable.
There is no standardization in the RV industry. If you look through 10 brochures from various manufacturers, each will report different weights for their campers. Some report, GVWR, some report max cargo capacity, some only dryweight. You really have to know how this stuff works real world in order to make the best choice out there.
I don't really ever recommend any 5th wheel behind a 1/2 ton truck. Only the very smallest of them will in all honesty stay around the left over payload capacity of a 1/2 ton truck ready to travel. People do it all the time, but it just wears and tears a truck that just isn't made for stuff like that.
You almost would be better off finding the same floorplan or similar in a tongue pull or getting a different truck if you want to do the 5th wheel thing. Go on the RV forums, most people have weighed their rigs and you can start seeing real world numbers for 5th wheels. It's eye opening.