mac

thinking about buying an 03 f150 4.6l to pull my boat. how much weight
can a crew cab xlt handle ? boat is 23ft on dual axle trailer aprox
4000 to4800lbs. willthis size engine pull it up the ramp?towing capacity

BonScott

Keep in mind what kind of ramp. You could have a low incline or huge inlcline. Once your tires are soaked or if the ramp is green they'll spin obvioulsy. Put on the e-bar too while you are hooking up the boat Is that the total for boat and trailer? Dual axle for a 23' boat is probably a very heavy trailer.

wde3477

Take a look at this site, made the assumption that you have 4WD, if not, you can back up and reenter the info -
http://www.trailerboats.com/towratin...it=&max_tlimit=

I always prefer to lock in the 4WD in low range when pulling a big boat up a steep ramp.

Good old Bill

Can't and don't want to compete with WDE3477 response. My 02, 4.2 does just fine with my 21 foot Sea Ray 1981. Of course, the wrong time of day, and I have alot of pretty unhappy people behind me as I can't get out of their way. Just make sure the brakes work properly on that tandem trailer. These Fords can pull all day long, the brakes are designed to handle the truck not the extra trailer and boat. By the way, what type of boat is it?

KJoe

When it comes to towing, not only do you need to include the weight of the trailer with the weight of the boat, you also need to consider the weight of the contents of the boat, including gas. If you have a 70 gallon gas tank on your boat and it is full, then add appx 560lbs (70gal x 8lbs) to your boat and trailer weight figure. If you have a fresh water holding tank, you will need to perform that calculation as well.

Not only do you need to consider the info above for your gross towing weight, but you also should consider the contents of your tow vehicle. How many people are in your truck? Are you carrying a load in the bed of your truck? Etc...

Pay close attention to what the manufacturer's ratings are. Many people think that if they can pull it, "No problem,” and neglect to realize how their breaking power is affected.

duckhunter

Retired class A driver here have to agree with above,truck will tow any thing,but stopping it is the real deal..

good luck

gil57usa

I have a 2003 F-150 4WD with the 4.6 motor. I use it regularly to pull a Penn Yan Tournament 212 boat. The boat is 21' long on a tandem axle trailer. 60 gal. of fuel and gear for an approx. total weight of 4800 pounds. I pull all over the NY finger lakes area, up to the St. Lawrence river and the Adirondacks. Never had a problem.

ducksandfish23

It will pull it fine, my 4.6L has been runnin on 7 cylinders(until today)(i had a bad coil) and it has pulled it all over. Im in Louisiana and we have some pretty steep launches and i've never had a problem, I also have a 23' sea chaser(carolina skiff) with a dual axle magic trail trailer. If it can do it with 7 cylinders it can deffinately do it with all 8. i also might add that my truck is only a 2wd and i still have no problem with it, I pull it EVERY weekend as well and might I add its an hour+ trip to the launch.

jdbiz

I am new to this forum, but I wanted to tell for those who dont know, the difference between half and three quarter ton rear axles. In short of being a machinist for nearly thirty years here is what I have seen: There is a REASON that wood haulers do not use half ton trucks. All the weight is on the rear flanges of the car style axles. If overloaded, they will snap off and shove the wheel and tire up into your wheel well and you will have an instant 'dually' rear fender added to your pickup bed. This could result in injury or death of yourself or others especially at freeway speeds. On earlier trucks, say from the 70's and 80's a 3/4 ton had a full floater rearend where you could actually pull your axles out of the rear end and the wheels are still on the rig. A half ton cannot do this. Half tons have one rear axle bearing per wheel, 3/4 tons with full float rearends like a Dana 60, have two bearings per rear wheel. To save money, some manufacturers used a beefed up 1/2 ton single bearing style rearend and call it a 3/4 ton. You can tell if you have a full float rearend if the rear hub extends atleast four inches thru the rear rim. I offer this as a benefit to those who still think the difference is springs and ratings as I once did. In my opinion, half ton trucks with excessive springs are a deadly combo. I once loaded 5500 lbs in the back of a half ton and drove it sucessfully to the job site. I was also only 22 years old then, now 48. Dolphin mini motorhomes had a recall on their rigs due to this problem. they actually made dually rear ends on motorhomes and people were breaking flanges on the freeway and crashing. Multimillion dollar recall was the result and a 6000.00 full float rear end was the fix. FYI to those buying trucks. Get a strong rear end with bigger gears= much more truck for the money, or put a 3/4 ton rear end in your half ton as many do.

11rangerZ520

My truck is a 2006 crew cab with the 4.6l and it pulls my 21 foot bass boat fine. It weighs about 3,500 pounds on a dual axle trailer with brakes.