Biggles

Why are you buying a trailer if you only camp a few times a year ?
Your payload will be over weight with the kids . Wife , dog, tool box , fire wood , and TT hooked up.
It's not your fault. Ford's sales people will tell you "sure, you can tow that" , as will the RV sales person.

The truck will handle it. But it will be a handfull to drive in a headwind or crosswind and the engine will be working quite hard.

russellsawatsky

Your truck should pull a 6000 lbs tt with a property adjusted WDHitch very well. Our tt is about 8500# loaded and redey for camping and pulls great. LT tires make a big difference . My truck has a ecoboost max tow and it's been great no big problems with the truck at all but your 5.0 should be good just shift more (my ecoboost in tow / haul in Saskatchewan runs in 6th most of the time 5th on most hills and gets 11 to 12 us mpg towing our tt) I found the biggest thing is to get the WDHitch adjusted property happy camping

smokeywren

Ignore the tow ratings. You cannot tow a trailer anywhere close to the tow ratings without exceeding the GVWR of the F-150. So whether your F-150 has a tow rating of 7,700 or 9,500 makes no difference. You cannot tow a trailer that weighs over about 6,000 pounds without being overloaded.


To determine the max trailer weight you can tow without being overloaded,
1] load the family and dog in the F-150,
2] take your normal tools and stuff with you, including the weight-distributing hitch you will use for a TT, and
3] drive to a truck stop that has a CAT scale.
4] Fill up with gas, then weigh the wet and loaded F-150 with all the folks - including you - inside the cab.
5] Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded F-150 from the GVWR of the F-150, and the answer is the max tongue weight your TT can have without your F-150 being overloaded.
6] Divide that max hitch weight by 0.125 and the answer is the max GVWR of any TT you should consider buying.

That trailer you want has GVWR of 6,058 and it will probably have tongue weight of about 750 to 800 pounds. Does the scale say you have enough payload capacity available for that much tongue weight?

But don't think you're the only one that didn't buy enough truck for the TT you really want. I have the wonderful EcoBoost engine you're leery of, but with my SuperCrew Lariat 4x2, I'm overloaded with my small TT that has GVWR of 5,600 pounds and an actual wet and loaded weight of 4,780 pounds on a cross-country RV trip.

smurfs_of_war

A fellow flatlander! Your biggest enemies here are wind, shoddy highways (think "surface of the moon") and those damn oil trucks that hammer by at 130. All of which will be amplified with your trailer. I dragged my 5600lbs trailer all over here with no issues with a 5.4 3.55s and less payload/ lighter GVWR. Were we overweight? Yup- now that I think back and do the math. 900lbs of family, 750lbs tongue weight, 300lbs of junk in the bed. Did I notice? No. I should have scaled it- but didn't. My payload sticker was only slightly higher than yours, but likely way less after I added 3/16th steel skid plates, subs, tonneau, larger rubber, etc. Never really crossed my mind. Anyways, moral of the story- use common sense. If the trailer is *within reason* and suits your needs for your family, don't sweat a few pounds too much. You won't instantly explode.

This isn't the popular answer, but it's my opinion.

pfflyer55

I've researched many T.T.'s and found a 26' rear bunk front Queen with center sofa and a standard dinette that I intend to buy. It is a Salem Cruise Lite 261BHXL that has an advertised dry weight of 4314#'s. Realistically after options about 4800#s. After you add all your passengers and gear you would be at or about payload capacity. hitch weight is about 450#s. The salem cruise lite is a forest river product.

Biggles

Pfflyer55, your actual hitch weight will be closer to 650lbs. (12-15 % of actual TT weight. )

mrash

I was researching Bunkhouse trailers earlier this year. A house purchase reshifted our focus and we didn't end up buying one, but the model we were looking at was the Apex 235BHS. It is one of the smallest BH models that has a queen bed with divider and slideout dinnette. It has a dry weight of 4300 lbs but the GVWR is 6500lbs. That gives you 2200lbs for options, liquids and camping stuff. You could probably keep the weight under 6k. It's only 7.5' wide compared to 8', so there should be a little less wind resistance.

http://www.coachmenrv.com/products/a...oorplanid=4359

It's another option, but like you my FX4 SCrew was very near it's limits with even the lightest BH model. I'm in Calgary and towing through the mountains was my big concern.

Another option might be the Mini Lite 2306.

astraelraen

You will be over payload or GVWR on a lot of trailers. My 2013 lariat max tow has ~1600lbs of payload and a GVWR of 7700lbs.

I just bought a Nash 27E that has a DRY weight on the weight sticker in the trailer of ~6000lbs. I took it to the scales, moderately loaded with stuff and family I'm within 150lbs of my GVWR.

I've come to the realization that optioned up half tons are not good tow vehicles.

acadianbob

Your 1,300 payload is going to seriously affect the upper limit of your trailer choices. After family, dog, hitch, items in the bed (coolers, generator, etc) you are going to have limited payload. And remember not to buy into the dry weights listed for trailers. They do not include options, LP tanks, battery, etc. IMO, you should limited yourself to around 5,500 pounds; WET; with options and loaded.

Wannafbody

Ford has some screwy ratings. The EB with 3.55 is 7200 GVWR and the 5.0 with 3.55 is 7350 GVWR. Both have a tow rating of 9700ish. Ford tested the F150 towing 11,000# so the issue isn't what the truck can safely tow, it's an issue of what the lawyers told Ford to write that the truck can safely tow.