Grigg how do you define 'heavy hauling'?
I'm thinking heavy is close to the max weight on the door tag, so a 1 ton pickup that weighs about 4,400 lb leaves room for about 4,400 lb in the bed. With the 235 this is about all you want, and with the 4BT Cummins or 3-53T Detroit I think that much weight will be plenty. Then a trailer weight that gives the same feel would be plenty as well.
For bigger stuff I figure my 2 ton which has replacement axles rated for about 14,000 lb combined, with a truck weight of guessing 7,000-8,000 lb should haul the difference in the bed and have the power and gears for it. The frame/truck was rated 16,000 lb before I started, the frame should hold up, and a well designed goose neck hitch will help too.
As far as towing, any normal size tag along trailer should be fine, and a medium size goose neck trailer with it's load is my goal. Speculating I can handle about 15,000 lb total for a loaded goose neck trailer, may find out more is OK, or less is better??
The deciding factor will be how does it handle the load, stopping mostly, but don't want to be to slow on the highway either.
Grigg
