Treehorn

Good afternoon. Im starting the search for a travel trailer for my family. Before going to the dealer and getting excited about something I can't reasonably tow, I ended up here and have read a lot of posts. Payload seems to be a big factor.

I have the following vehicle...

2015 F150 Lariat SuperCrew 4x4 short bed
3.5L ecoboost
max towing package

Based on all the posts, payload seems to be a big limiting factor.
Payload sticker on my truck says 1615lbs

I calculate the following:


Payload 1615
Family -445
WDH Hitch -70
Tonneau -70
Tongue Wt -758
Remaining 272


That tongue weight is based on a trailer I saw at the races this past weekend. Not set on buying it but it seems to be a good example at 26' and 6620 dry weight.


For clothes, food, etc. does it not make sense to keep thoses items in the trailer? That would only put around 15% of the weight of these items to the hitch, right? Is my thinking correct on this?


Assuming I get the top of the line WDH, what size trailers should I be looking at?


Thanks for helping out a newbie.

Boulevard

I currently have a 25' and if I were to start again I would not go any smaller than 30' which should put you pretty much at your limit for payload. Do yourself a favor and ignore any weekend lawyer that tells you that exceeding your GVR will result in crippling fines, the sudden death of your family and the total destruction of your truck.

Steve Osborne

something is not adding up on your max tow and payload sticker for the 15 compared to my heavier 13......


should be 700lbs lighter----you should be over 2000lbs payload...limited with your lariat...more options take away payload...but still????....and able to tow 12200lbs....




my 13
payload 1680lbs
towing 11200lbs...

brulaz

15% tongue weight for a loaded trailer is a good start.
Many people put 1000-1500# in their trailer, then take 15% of the loaded weight as tongue weight. So in your example, the loaded trailer might end up at 8000#, and 15% of that is 1200#.

Which is pretty much what I'm running, but my truck (4x2, SCab) has over 2000# payload. With only 1615# payload you could well be loading the truck right to it's limits even without adding a bunch of extra stuff in the bed like we do.

We run our truck at its max weight ratings, 2% over the rear GAWR, and it works fine. But I also switched to LT tires, beefed up the suspension, and spend a fair amount of time at the CAT scale to check things. I have no doubt that it's harder on the truck than running empty, but it is a truck, after all.