King Ranch Owner

Hi Folks! I used this forum to decide which truck to buy. Thanks for all the help. I just joined the group and have a question on towing. We are getting ready to purchase a travel trailer which weighs about 8000 lbs with gear, the tongue weight will be about 820 lbs and the trailer will have electric brakes. We bought a 2009 F150 crewcab 4x4 with a max tow package and had the factory brake controller put in after purchase. The tow capability is 11,200 lbs. We want to buy a Blue Ox Sway Pro weight distribution hitch rated for 10,000 lbs pulling and 1000 lbs tongue. The trailer will be 34 feet from ball to bumper. I am a very conservative person and do not want to go into this blind. We are upgrading from a pop up trailer (2300 lbs). I think I am ok...Any issues I may not thought of? Thank you in advance.

Thunderslide

what does towing it mean to you? one hour to your favorite campground or I am retired and going to tour the country!!!!

option one you are fine. option two f-250/350 with a diesel.

King Ranch Owner

Good Question. Mostly within a hour or less. Sometimes 3-5 hours of driving.

Al Roberts

I tow a 26 foot Coachman that weighs 7k loaded. I have the XLT S-CREW 4X4 with the 5.4 3V engine, 6 speed auto, 3.55 posi diff. The truck and trailer cruises along at 70 mph with no strain. I pull from Rhode Island to southern Vermont quite often and no issues yet. The first week of october I'm pulling from R.I. down to the Shenandoah national park, 600 miles each way, that will be the test. Your truck should be fine with that load.
Good luck with the new camper,your gonna love it.

KC5-0

As long as you are not doing long hauls you will be fine. I would recomend a programming chip so you can optimize your truck for hauling.

Goomph

Does the Blue Ox hitch have builtin sway control ? I think for a trailer of that length, it is cheap insurance. Is 8,000 Lbs GVWR of the trailer or dry weight ? If it is the GVWR, you are just fine. If it is empty weight (excluding the stuff you will put into it) you are going to be cutting it close based on the net cargo capacity and how much stuff you put. You would get wealth of information if you visited one of the camping oriented forums, almost all of them have dedicated towing sections which are geared for questions like this.

Enjoy your trailer and camping !

lasttruck

Sounds like a good setup.

King Ranch Owner

Thanks for the advice! By the way, I also used this forum to have my factory brake controller installed after the sale. I works great. The advice you folks are giving is priceless.

FL150

I’m new to this Forum, new as a F150 owner but not new to Ford. Now to add to all the ‘New’ things for me is - I’m considering getting involved with RVing with a Travel Trailer. I would love to hear from Forum Members who have been RVing with TT and what Make/Model Travel Trailers you own/tow (GVW of trailer would be great) and how pleased you have been with your F150 as your Tow Vehicle.

I own a 09 F150 Platinum, 5.4L, 3.73, 6spd Auto with Max Tow and factory installed brake controller. I am in the process of researching TTs.

Russ -Yulee, FL

Platinum_Sean

Hi. I have a 2003.5 Coleman SunValley TT with furnace, 3-way fridge, hot water tank, add-a-room, sway bar, plus the standard features of 2 king beds, outdoor cooker, pop out kitchen window, electric brakes... The dry weight is about 2200 lbs. Loaded, I have had it at 2800 #'s with 4 bikes on the roof racks. I have pulled this for 5 seasons with a Chrysler AWD min-van with 3.8L. It did a fine job.

Recently, I towed it with my Platinum to the storage place. The difference between towing with this truck and the van are night and day! With the truck, you forget that its even there. Yah, not a fair fight! The van wins on with the German Shepard as she had more space with the van, but that is a small price to pay.

Soon, we will migrate to a 5th wheel, 30-35 ft to start.

If you are looking at a TT, I would recommend looking at a used one. These, like cars, do not hold their value long and depreciate very fast. I'd imagine that there are a lot of deals out there now. Make sure there are no water stains, no bumps in the floor, look at the tires and test the brakes, and look for holes in the tenting.

Good luck.