2013 Ecoboost Towing Question
10-13-2015, 01:15 PM
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
2013 Ecoboost Towing Question
Hi all,
I'm in the middle of purchasing a 2013 3.5l Ecoboost, XLT Super Crew with 3.31 gears. I was originally told the truck had 3.73 gears so I had no worries. Now I've found that it doesn't.
My question is, will this be an issue for a 5400lb horse trailer (that's weight with both horses) with bumper hitch?
I see the disclaimer says max towing is rated for a gooseneck trailer, but I see videos of guys doing reviews and they're pulling 10,000lb trailers on a bumper hitch. Ford says the hitch is only good for 5000lbs. Am I missing something?
I really don't want to get into this truck if it can't do what I need. We may end up purchasing cattle next year, so we'd likely move up to a gooseneck trailer at that time. For now we're stuck with the bumper pull horse trailer.
I'm in the middle of purchasing a 2013 3.5l Ecoboost, XLT Super Crew with 3.31 gears. I was originally told the truck had 3.73 gears so I had no worries. Now I've found that it doesn't.
My question is, will this be an issue for a 5400lb horse trailer (that's weight with both horses) with bumper hitch?
I see the disclaimer says max towing is rated for a gooseneck trailer, but I see videos of guys doing reviews and they're pulling 10,000lb trailers on a bumper hitch. Ford says the hitch is only good for 5000lbs. Am I missing something?
I really don't want to get into this truck if it can't do what I need. We may end up purchasing cattle next year, so we'd likely move up to a gooseneck trailer at that time. For now we're stuck with the bumper pull horse trailer.
10-13-2015, 01:38 PM
#2
Your receiver is good for more than than if you use a weight distribution hitch. Realistically, it's the tongue weight that is the limiter. In all truth, the class IV receiver (if you have it) will be able to handle that trailer just fine provided you have it installed. I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. I personally would not tie that onto a bumper hitch though, use the receiver. If it doesn't have one- get one.
The ratings are stamped onto the receiver (or stickered) and are with/without weight distribution hitch. Max ratings are achieved with a weight distribution hitch. To be honest, you're so close I don't think I would worry about it.
3.31s won't perform as well as 3.73 with that same load, but again- with the eb torque I don't think you have a thing to worry about.
The ratings are stamped onto the receiver (or stickered) and are with/without weight distribution hitch. Max ratings are achieved with a weight distribution hitch. To be honest, you're so close I don't think I would worry about it.
3.31s won't perform as well as 3.73 with that same load, but again- with the eb torque I don't think you have a thing to worry about.
10-13-2015, 01:55 PM
#3
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Your receiver is good for more than than if you use a weight distribution hitch. Realistically, it's the tongue weight that is the limiter. In all truth, the class IV receiver (if you have it) will be able to handle that trailer just fine provided you have it installed. I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. I personally would not tie that onto a bumper hitch though, use the receiver. If it doesn't have one- get one.
The ratings are stamped onto the receiver (or stickered) and are with/without weight distribution hitch. Max ratings are achieved with a weight distribution hitch. To be honest, you're so close I don't think I would worry about it.
3.31s won't perform as well as 3.73 with that same load, but again- with the eb torque I don't think you have a thing to worry about.
The ratings are stamped onto the receiver (or stickered) and are with/without weight distribution hitch. Max ratings are achieved with a weight distribution hitch. To be honest, you're so close I don't think I would worry about it.
3.31s won't perform as well as 3.73 with that same load, but again- with the eb torque I don't think you have a thing to worry about.
So with the installed factory tow package I should be all set?
http://researchmaniacs.com/VIN-Numbe...FW1ET1DFB25626 Here's the link to the window sticker.
10-13-2015, 02:11 PM
#4
It does have a hitch installed, I've always just called it a bumper pull (instead of actually towing on the bumper of the truck).
So with the installed factory tow package I should be all set?
http://researchmaniacs.com/VIN-Numbe...FW1ET1DFB25626 Here's the link to the window sticker.
So with the installed factory tow package I should be all set?
http://researchmaniacs.com/VIN-Numbe...FW1ET1DFB25626 Here's the link to the window sticker.
10-13-2015, 02:15 PM
#5
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Then I assume, with something like this
I can go up to the max capacity of the truck (9200lbs)?
I'm not new to towing, but I am new to towing with a V6 and a half ton truck. I learned how to tow with Humvee's in the Army and from there I've towed with F250's and 2500's. Though they were always setup with the correct equipment beforehand. I'll be putting a large sum down on the F150 so I wanted to be sure it will actually do what I need.
Again, thank you for the super fast responses!
10-13-2015, 04:02 PM
#6
Grumpy Old Man
No. The 9,200 pounds tow rating is only half your towing computation. The other half is the GVWR of your tow vehicle, minus the weight of your wet and loaded tow vehicle, which tells you the max hitch weight you can have without being overloaded.
99% of the time, hitch weight and not total trailer weight is your limiter on an F-150 tow vehicle.
Your EcoBoost engine/drivetrain will have no problem pulling a 9,000 pound trailer up the hills and down the dales. But your pickup will be overloaded with any trailer that weighs more than about 6,000 pounds. Payload capacity is your limiter, not drivetrain power.
If you don't load anything into the pickup except driver, then you'll have no problem hauling the hitch weight of your 5.400 pounds trailer without being overloaded. But if you're like me, you have a sweetheart and a puppydog or two, a toolbox full of tools, and some other stuff in the pickup. In my case, with similar payload capacity as yours, I'm overloaded with my trailer that grosses only 4,870 pounds when on the road.
So ignore that 9,200 pounds tow rating and compute your own actual tow rating as follows:
1. Load the F-150 with everything that will be in it when towing, including the weight-distributing hitch, toolbox, etc.
2. Drive to a truck stop tht has a certified automated truck (CAT) scale, fill up with gas, then weigh the wet and loaded F-150 (with driver and passengers in the truck).
3.Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded truck from the GVWR of the truck, and the answer is the max hitch weight you can have without being overloaded.
4. Divide that max hitch weight by 0.125 and the answer is the max weight of any "bumper-pull" tandem-axle trailer with average tongue weight you can tow without being overloaded. The answer will be a lot less than 9,000 pounds,
Ford says the hitch is only good for 5000lbs. Am I missing something?
Yes. 5,000 pounds is the limit with the ball mounted in the step bumper, or when towing a trailer with the receiver hitch and an ordinary weight-carrying ball mount. But when towing a trailer with a weight-distributing hitch in the receiver, the max trailer weight about doubles.
Crawl under your truck and look for a sticker on the frame of the receiver. That sticker will say 5,000/500 WC, and about 10,000/1,000 WD. WC = weight carrying, and WD = weight distributing. The big number is max trailer weight, but the real limit is the little number, which is the max tongue weight of the trailer.
With your 5,400 pounds trailer and with the average of 12.5% hitch weight, your tongue weight will be about 675 pounds, or well over the 500 pounds maximum for a WC hitch. So you need a WD hitch. And with WD hitch, your tongue weight will be nowhere near the 1,000 pounds limit of your receiver, and the 5,400 pounds trailer weight will be nowhere near the 10,000 pounds max trailer weight. With your Eco-Boost drivetrain you'll have plenty of power and torque to drag that 5,400 pound trailer anywhere you need to go and any speed you decide to cruise at.
Last edited by smokeywren; 10-13-2015 at 04:15 PM.
10-13-2015, 04:25 PM
#7
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
No. The 9,200 pounds tow rating is only half your towing computation. The other half is the GVWR of your tow vehicle, minus the weight of your wet and loaded tow vehicle, which tells you the max hitch weight you can have without being overloaded.
99% of the time, hitch weight and not total trailer weight is your limiter on an F-150 tow vehicle.
Your EcoBoost engine/drivetrain will have no problem pulling a 9,000 pound trailer up the hills and down the dales. But your pickup will be overloaded with any trailer that weighs more than about 6,000 pounds. Payload capacity is your limiter, not drivetrain power.
If you don't load anything into the pickup except driver, then you'll have no problem hauling the hitch weight of your 5.400 pounds trailer without being overloaded. But if you're like me, you have a sweetheart and a puppydog or two, a toolbox full of tools, and some other stuff in the pickup. In my case, with similar payload capacity as yours, I'm overloaded with my trailer that grosses only 4,870 pounds when on the road.
So ignore that 9,200 pounds tow rating and compute your own actual tow rating as follows:
1. Load the F-150 with everything that will be in it when towing, including the weight-distributing hitch, toolbox, etc.
2. Drive to a truck stop tht has a certified automated truck (CAT) scale, fill up with gas, then weigh the wet and loaded F-150 (with driver and passengers in the truck).
3.Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded truck from the GVWR of the truck, and the answer is the max hitch weight you can have without being overloaded.
4. Divide that max hitch weight by 0.125 and the answer is the max weight of any "bumper-pull" tandem-axle trailer with average tongue weight you can tow without being overloaded. The answer will be a lot less than 9,000 pounds,
Yes. 5,000 pounds is the limit with the ball mounted in the step bumper, or when towing a trailer with the receiver hitch and an ordinary weight-carrying ball mount. But when towing a trailer with a weight-distributing hitch in the receiver, the max trailer weight about doubles.
Crawl under your truck and look for a sticker on the frame of the receiver. That sticker will say 5,000/500 WC, and about 10,000/1,000 WD. WC = weight carrying, and WD = weight distributing. The big number is max trailer weight, but the real limit is the little number, which is the max tongue weight of the trailer.
With your 5,400 pounds trailer and with the average of 12.5% hitch weight, your tongue weight will be about 675 pounds, or well over the 500 pounds maximum for a WC hitch. So you need a WD hitch. And with WD hitch, your tongue weight will be nowhere near the 1,000 pounds limit of your receiver, and the 5,400 pounds trailer weight will be nowhere near the 10,000 pounds max trailer weight. With your Eco-Boost drivetrain you'll have plenty of power and torque to drag that 5,400 pound trailer anywhere you need to go and any speed you decide to cruise at.
99% of the time, hitch weight and not total trailer weight is your limiter on an F-150 tow vehicle.
Your EcoBoost engine/drivetrain will have no problem pulling a 9,000 pound trailer up the hills and down the dales. But your pickup will be overloaded with any trailer that weighs more than about 6,000 pounds. Payload capacity is your limiter, not drivetrain power.
If you don't load anything into the pickup except driver, then you'll have no problem hauling the hitch weight of your 5.400 pounds trailer without being overloaded. But if you're like me, you have a sweetheart and a puppydog or two, a toolbox full of tools, and some other stuff in the pickup. In my case, with similar payload capacity as yours, I'm overloaded with my trailer that grosses only 4,870 pounds when on the road.
So ignore that 9,200 pounds tow rating and compute your own actual tow rating as follows:
1. Load the F-150 with everything that will be in it when towing, including the weight-distributing hitch, toolbox, etc.
2. Drive to a truck stop tht has a certified automated truck (CAT) scale, fill up with gas, then weigh the wet and loaded F-150 (with driver and passengers in the truck).
3.Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded truck from the GVWR of the truck, and the answer is the max hitch weight you can have without being overloaded.
4. Divide that max hitch weight by 0.125 and the answer is the max weight of any "bumper-pull" tandem-axle trailer with average tongue weight you can tow without being overloaded. The answer will be a lot less than 9,000 pounds,
Yes. 5,000 pounds is the limit with the ball mounted in the step bumper, or when towing a trailer with the receiver hitch and an ordinary weight-carrying ball mount. But when towing a trailer with a weight-distributing hitch in the receiver, the max trailer weight about doubles.
Crawl under your truck and look for a sticker on the frame of the receiver. That sticker will say 5,000/500 WC, and about 10,000/1,000 WD. WC = weight carrying, and WD = weight distributing. The big number is max trailer weight, but the real limit is the little number, which is the max tongue weight of the trailer.
With your 5,400 pounds trailer and with the average of 12.5% hitch weight, your tongue weight will be about 675 pounds, or well over the 500 pounds maximum for a WC hitch. So you need a WD hitch. And with WD hitch, your tongue weight will be nowhere near the 1,000 pounds limit of your receiver, and the 5,400 pounds trailer weight will be nowhere near the 10,000 pounds max trailer weight. With your Eco-Boost drivetrain you'll have plenty of power and torque to drag that 5,400 pound trailer anywhere you need to go and any speed you decide to cruise at.
You lost me at the underlined section.
So the truck can tow 9,000lbs but only a trailer weight of around 6,000?
And correct, it's me the wife and 3 crib monsters. We'll have about 400lbs of horse tack either in the bed or in the trailer. Never any more than that.
Trending Topics
10-13-2015, 05:58 PM
#8
Grumpy Old Man
There are two important weight limitations, GCWR and GVWR. Ford cautions you to NEVER exceed either the GCWR or GVWR of your F-150.
Tow rating is based on GCWR. Payload rating is based on GVWR. Total trailer weight comes out of your GCWR (tow rating). Tongue weight comes out of your GVWR (payload rating).
GCWR limits how much weight you can PULL without overheating anything in the drivetrain, and without being the slowpoke holding up traffic on hills and mountain passes. So it's mostly based on engine power and the leverage of your axle ratio.
GVWR limits how much weight you can HAUL on the 4 tires of the pickup, including all the people, pets, tools, options, etc., plus the weight of the hitch and tongue weight of the trailer.
Almost always, you can pull a lot heavier trailer than you can haul the hitch and trailer tongue weight.
Your F-150 with EcoBoost drivetrain can easily pull a 9,000-pound trailer without breathing hard, but the suspension will be severely overloaded with any trailer that grosses more than about 6,000 pounds if you haul anything in the pickup but a skinny driver. My F-150 is overloaded with my tiny 19' TT that weighs only 4,870 on the road. But I have towed a trailer that weighed well over 9,000 pounds and had plenty of power and torque to pull that trailer over the hills with no sweat. However, I was severely overloaded over the GVWR and rear GAWR of my poor little F-150.
Recap: So your truck can pull 9,000 lbs, but with normal load of people and stuff in the pickup a trailer weight of around 6,000 pounds will have tongue weight that will overload the suspension of your pickup. And depending on how much stuff you haul, even a trailer weight of 5,000 pounds might have tongue weight that will overload the suspension of your pickup. I'm the prime example - gross trailer weight of 4.870, including tongue weight of 650, overloads my F-150 by 100 pounds over the GVWR of the pickup.
10-13-2015, 09:39 PM
#9
It all depends on your truck and how it's set up. The truck Smokey has is a heavily optioned truck so he has a low payload. Your truck seems to be better set up to have a bit more usable payload. I think you will be fine but put as much of your load in the trailer as possible where you can keep it off the truck.
I pull a 3 horse GN with my 13 Supercab STX. It's a lesser optioned truck with a high available payload. I am under GVWR and at max tow limit with 2 horses, tack, hay, and gear for a long show. It pulls great and I have the 5.0. I have also pulled a 2 horse bumper pull and it pulled well with little to no sag, but I have a slightly higher GVWR than you at 7350 vs 7200.
I pull a 3 horse GN with my 13 Supercab STX. It's a lesser optioned truck with a high available payload. I am under GVWR and at max tow limit with 2 horses, tack, hay, and gear for a long show. It pulls great and I have the 5.0. I have also pulled a 2 horse bumper pull and it pulled well with little to no sag, but I have a slightly higher GVWR than you at 7350 vs 7200.
10-14-2015, 08:17 AM
#10
Senior Member
Very good, clear explanation Smokeywren.
One of the best yet.
Sure would be nice as a sticky.
But I'll complicate things bit by adding: If you are lucky enough to have a truck with higher payload, you might run up against another of the truck's weight limitations before the GVWR or GCWR. That would be the rear axle's GAWR.
As an example, I have about 2023# payload but have a trailer with a high tongue weight (over 15%, over 1200#). So I'm about 2% under my truck's GVWR, way under my GCWR, but 1-2% *over* my rear GAWR.
But wait, there's more! If you're pulling a bumper-pull trailer, the truck's hitch receiver also has weight limitations, separate ones for weight distribution hitches and weight carrying hitches. You probably don't want to exceed those either.
One of the best yet.
Sure would be nice as a sticky.
But I'll complicate things bit by adding: If you are lucky enough to have a truck with higher payload, you might run up against another of the truck's weight limitations before the GVWR or GCWR. That would be the rear axle's GAWR.
As an example, I have about 2023# payload but have a trailer with a high tongue weight (over 15%, over 1200#). So I'm about 2% under my truck's GVWR, way under my GCWR, but 1-2% *over* my rear GAWR.
But wait, there's more! If you're pulling a bumper-pull trailer, the truck's hitch receiver also has weight limitations, separate ones for weight distribution hitches and weight carrying hitches. You probably don't want to exceed those either.
