Cws752

I'm in the process of picking out a travel trailer for my 2011 with 5.0 and 3.55 gears. It is a screw with the towing package. According to the manual I can tow #7700. I have added a 2 inch level on the front and an AAL in the rear from Autospring. Also went up in tire size to 275/70/18. I am wondering if the beefier tires and AAL help me or hurt me in towing capacity. Some campers I am considering are very close to the #7700 in the manual and I don't want to buy too much trailer and regret it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

mike243

I would keep it 1000lbs less than what your rated for,you will need to add supply's ect and the weight will quickly climb past your limit,mine weighs 4850 dry ,its 28' with aluminum build

H-60 Electrician

Here's the towing guide. It gives a lot of info. I don't think your tires or level would affect your towing limit very much.


http://www.fleet.ford.com/towing-guides/

sonicblaze

What do you have? Been looking around myself, don't remember seeing a 28' one that light before

sonicblaze

Id read up on the threads related to towing capacity and how to calculate it to prevent any issues, I just started learning it myself. And if you already know all this, ignore me =). Although the f150 can tow 7700#, your max payload rating may limit you, which is located on your driver door on a sticker.

For example, I can pull 7700# according to the guide, but my max payload is 1545. So, 1545-driver-passenger-dog-gear-any accessories added like a bedliner=700lbs for me. That means at most I can have a 700lb tongue weight, and since for a travel trailer it should be around 12% of trailer weight, I should only get a 6000lb camper.

zx12-iowa

It will tow it ok. But your engine is designed to make power in the mid to upper Rpms so with the bigger heavier tired yourctrNsmission will be shifting down to get the power needed to move the load. If you don't mind lots of shifting or needed to be in 5th or 4th gear, then you will be fine. A wd hitch will help as may some airbags. I do r follow payload as close as some on this site. If you check other truck sites you will see a different perspective and realize those here are extremely conservative.

So imo, you are good to go with just the tweaks I memtioned above.

sonicblaze

I'd be interested in what other perspectives you've seen. I don't suppose you could point me to a few of them you found of good quality?

zx12-iowa

Head to a Dodge Ram site, a super duty site, a Honda ridgeline site, etc. many of these folks tow over limits for thousands of miles and no explosions or deaths... Lol. They are the other end of the reasonableness range for me and may push my comfort limits. But for those of us who grew up in or around farm country, towing or hauling over what a little sticker says is commonplace. It's the urban or suburban folks who pull out books to quote versus real world experience.

Here's an unrelated example... Take a look at some owners manuals from a few years ago showing Manual transmission Shift points. They were all extremely conservative and would require one to lug an engine. NOBODY followed that extreme conservative manufacturer guideline or limit and vehicles were fine and no lives were lost. I see towing and payload limits to be similar and extremely subjective by the manufacturers...

This is of course my personal opinion and you can tell by reading through the towing section, many site members have a different perspective. I have towed and hauled what people here would seem to be extreme weights and my trucks have survived Unscathed.

So to your original question - can you tow up to your trucks sticker limit. My answer is a resounding YES. To make it a better experience, I offered some suggestions based on my experiences.

As they say YMMV

Cws752

So I got to tow my new camper this weekend. Everything went ok, but I don't know if it is normal to spend so much time in low gears. I am debating whether or not to do a gear swap. It seems to work the truck vey hard during towing.

motodmast

well whats the weight? you could do a regear or a tuner would help a lot