smokeywren

I don't agree with the others. You're going to be overloaded, period.

There's your limiter - the GVWR of the tow vehicle.

My 2012 SuperCrew 4x2 has GVWR of 7,100, and it's 200 to 300 pounds lighter than your 4x4. With just Darling Wife and a Border Collie plus a Leer cap, my TT that grosses 4,780 pounds (560 tongue weight plus 4,220 on the trailer axles) overloads my F-150 over the GVWR of the truck. Your 4x4 without a cap probably weighs more than my 4x2 with the cap, and you have only 100 pounds more GVWR than I do. So your truck would be overloaded with my trailer that grosses less than 5,000 pounds. Add another 3,000 pounds to make it an 8,000 pound TT and your tongue weight will be about 300 to 400 pounds more than mine. Load it down to 9,000 pounds gross weight, and your hitch weight is going to be 450 to 550 pounds more than mine.

So I'm overloaded. You will be severely overloaded with a trailer that grosses 9,000 pounds when wet and loaded on the road.

That V-5 is not a hitch type or a hitch weight rating. It is an engineering standard which all quality hitches sold in North America must meet. V-5 is a minimum testing/rating system of trailer hitches established by the Trailer Hitch Manufacturers Association.

Don't confuse that V-5 standard with a Class 5 hitch. A Class 5 hitch has a weight rating of at least 1,000 pounds tongue weight, and some have several hundred pounds more tongue weight capacity. A hitch with the V-5 rating could have a weight rating of anywhere from class 1 through class 5.

Yes, but that's not much of a TT. Mine is a Skyline Joey 196S with GVWR of 5,600 pounds. As mentioned earlier, on the road for a long trip, the CAT scale said 4,220 on the trailer axles, and my tongue weight scale said 560 pounds on the ball, for a total GVW of 4,780.



Darling Wife likes it because of the walk-around bed, roomy closet, and nice-size shower/bath. We drug it over 7,000 miles last year in one trip to Lake Huron in Canada and another trip to Oregon. It meets our needs, but we much preferred the much roomier 25' fifth wheel with one big slide we used until last year. That extra 5.5' and slide gave us a lot more wiggle room inside the camper. But it weighs 8,000 pounds and severely overloads our F-150. It even slightly overloaded our '99.5 F-250.

zx12-iowa

A few hundred overloaded on payload isn't a big deal a thousand over can be..... But I doubt that would be the case. Add a leaf if she sags or air bags....

CFH

Expected weight of payload (cargo plus passengers) will be 650#. Add tongue weight of 767# for a total of 1417# which will put me over 267# over the 1150# payload capacity. Add another 100# for extra cargo put in the trailer for trips and I estimate to be over 367#.

I don't want to go with a smaller trailer, because with kids, I need the extra room. But I also want for them to be safe.

Forgive me if I sound naive, but I ask all these questions because I've never towed anything with my truck before. Wouldn't most people towing out on the road be overloaded with the large trailers they tow? Just today I saw a 2008 Ford Supercrew towing a 26' with an ATV on top of his tonneau cover. I'm sure he must have been overweight.

Why would they build such a badass truck if you're restricted to towing only 20 footers?

smokeywren

Half tons with the "big" engine have plenty of power to drag a 30' TT over a mountain. But they don't have the suspension and braking to haul the hitch weight plus the normal payload of people, pets, toolbox full of tools, extra jacks and fluids, campfire wood, etc., that most campers haul.

That's why Ford, Ram and GM all make heavier duty trucks. Using Ford for example, most F-150 4x4s have GVWR of 7,200 pounds. Add the max tow pkg and the GVWR goes up to 7,650. Add the HD Payload pkg and the GVWR goes up to 8,200. But most F-150s don't have the max tow pkg, and almost none have the HD Payload pkg. So if you want to buy an F-150 with fancy trim off the lot, you cannot tow much of a trailer without exceeding the GVWR. You can order exactly the truck you need, but most people demand instant gratification and don't want to wait two months for their new truck to be delivered.

But Ford makes the SuperDuty F-250 with 10,000 GVWR, and there are a bunch of them in stock at any Ford dealer. The F-250 can tow a 30' TT without being overloaded, but they cannot tow a 30' 5er or gooseneck trailer without exceeding the GVWR either, so Ford makes the F-350 with single rear wheels (SRW) that has 11,500 GVWR.

And that's not enough for the big toy haulers, 5ers, LQ horse trailers and race trailers that require an F-350 or F-450 dually with over 13,000 GVWR.

And for really heavy trailers, you might need an F-450 chassis cab with 16,000 GVWR fitted with a tow body, or an F-550 with 17,500 GVWR.

And Ford still makes the F-650 and F-750 medium-duty trucks (MDT) with even more GVWR up to 26,000 pounds.

So you're not stuck with a half-ton pickup. Buy enough truck for your expected max load. Ford and Ram and GM all make them.

zx12-iowa

The answer is yes, many area technically overloaded. Also those dieseals towing huge 5th wheels..... Also overloaded. Go to a diesel truck forum and you will see these same discussions. Like I said above, overloaded by a little, no biggie, by 1k lbs on a half tone? Too much. Your set up, I would personally be ok with, but maybe add a spring or air bags. But in also have a lot of towing experience. Ymmv.

smurfs_of_war

I would wager the number of overloaded half tons would alarm you if you started to check. This goes for 3/4 and 1 tons too. It's surprisingly easy to run way overloaded and not even know it unless you hit a scale. My F150 ran on average 4-600lbs+ overloaded with our travel trailer on, and it was only 5600lbs, but I always had the bed full of junk too- but you'd never know it. It wasn't the trailer that was too big- it's my family

Like mentioned, I wouldn't sweat a few hundred pounds over GVWR too much from a mechanical standpoint as long as you drive with your head screwed on straight- it's the axle ratings that I would watch the closest. We run with either 2 vehicles depending on the length of the trip now, or we play weight police on the trip to try to keep our weight as little overloaded as we can to take one vehicle- nothing in the bed. It will be this way until the oldest two leave the nest in a couple years. Keeping in mind that with my truck I will overload my GVWR long before my axles- even a single axle- but the F150s are closer in relation to combined axle rating than the Rams.

Ideally though, not exceeding any ratings is preferred. And, keep looking. TTs with the right balance of room and weight/ length are available. My Jayfeather sleeps all 5 of us (that includes my monster of a son) plus a friend and is only 5900lbs GVWR (5600 or so loaded and ready) and we are thrilled with it for what it is. That is 4 6+ foot people plus my 10 year old! It's a balancing act of need vs. want. If you find the right balanced trailer and get out there with the family, you won't even notice the "wants" that you may be missing after a while because you will be too occupied having fun

On a side note- I had a 2010 F150 with the 5.4. Mine was 3.55, not 3.73. Even with 3.73- I wouldn't want to try to tug that much trailer with it. Sure it can be done, but it wouldn't be a heck of a lot of fun.

PerryB

Too much tail, not enough dog. When a panic stop/swerve situation arises, you may find yourself the first one to the scene of the crash.