crash_ice

I have an F150 fx4 ecoboost 2012 whit tow max equippement.
I want to know something.they said 11300 lbs max for tow.
Can i have a fiftwheel o f9500 lbs or i have a calcul weight
In the bed ? I dont understand?
Thanks for explan to me

RedOne

You need to read up on the post in this forum and others. Know what your trucks limits are and then look for a trailer that will fit your needs/wants and still be under the limits of the truck you have. Smaller truck will not be able to haul a 5er made for 1 ton trucks. It is at the bottom of the 5th wheel camper scale which means smaller to begin with and probably not be of full timing size/accomidations. It will be perfectly fine for weekends and holiday traveling type camping. My truck/camper setup is perfect for us for just that, but I would not want to be full timing it in ours. Need one like my dads Montana or my brothers Raptor.

murf

9500 would put roughly 1900lbs on your hitch. You have a 7700 GVWR which means you roughly have 1800lbs of payload you can put on your truck. Short answer...no.

That's what we all have to worry about is hitch weight, stick around 1000-1150. Because your payload includes you, family, and any luggage you
have in your truck.

That being said I love my 5th wheel.

Have fun

MarineRecon

I'd love to know what folks are pulling with their F150 and EcoBoost. I really want to stay away from 3/4 tons.

Don't want or need a huge fella...brand recommendations? Dealers in Wisconsin or Iowa?

Thanks,
Nick

willieboy

I wouldn't necessarily look at brands. Go to the local dealers, RV shows, websites, etc, and check out floorplans.

Know the limitations of your truck before you start; the RV dealers don't care if they over sell you on a trailer. The easiest way to look at it is payload minus 1000 lbs = allowable tongue weight/pin weight when considering an average family + gear + misc weight extras. Payload is listed on the drivers side door jamb on the truck and is calculates as it left the factory + a full fuel tank. People, extra options (dealer installed or your own after market), gear, hitch weight, etc. all take away from payload. As far as trailers go: 1. conventional trailers need 10-15% of the total trailer weight on the tongue in order to tow in a stable way, 2. Fifth wheel trailers need 15-20% of the total trailer weight on the pin. So figure GVWR of the trailer x 15% = actual tongue/pin weight, and you will be getting close. Advertised weights on the trailers mean nothing, as that assume no gear, water, battery, propane tanks, and accessory, AC unit, etc...

Disclaimer: the notes listed above are generalizations, and should be considered as such. There are plenty of exceptions to the rules listed above. I truth, you need to educate yourself on what makes a stable, legal towing setup and go from there. Because payload vary greatly depending on the individual, what works for one person, will not always work for another. Every situation is unique, be prepared to fully understand your particular situation.

murf

https://www.f150forum.com/f82/lets-s...-towed-146837/

Here's a good thread with some 5th wheels. There's about 10ish of us that pull them. IronJoyce, RedOne, Platinum Sean, myself and a couple others have been doing it for a while. They are all very knowledgable.

smokeywren

That tow rating is bogus. No, you cannot tow a trailer that weighs 11,300 without being overloaded. You can get close only if there is nothing in the truck but a skinny driver, and provided you have the HD payload pkg.

In your case, your GCWR is probably 17,100 and you GVWR is probably 7,700 pounds. If your wet and loaded truck weighs 6,300 pounds, then you can pull a total of 10,800 pounds and you can haul the hitch weight of up to 1,400 pounds without being overloaded.


A wet and properly-loaded 5er that weighs an actual 9,500 pounds is going to have a hitch weight of about 17% or 18%. Assume 18% for planning purposes. 18% of 9,500 = 1,710 pounds. If your wet and loaded truck weighs 6,300 pounds and your wet and loaded 5er weighs 9,500 pounds with 1,710 pounds of hitch weight, you're going to be overloaded by several hundred pounds.

There are two weight ratings you must worry about.

First is the GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating). You use the GVWR to calculate the max hitch weight you can haul. Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded pickup from the GVWR and the answer is your actual payload rating. There is also a max payload rating on the tire info sticker on your driver's door jamb, but it assumes nothing is in the truck. So that one is not very useful. On mine is says 1,366 max payload but that assumes my wet and loaded truck weighs only 5,737 pounds. My truck actually weighs 6040 before I load Darling Wife and the puppydogs, so my max hitch weight is a lot less than 1,366 pounds. In fact, my TT with only 650 pounds hitch weight overloads my truck over the GVWR of the truck. So use any "rating" with a grain of salt, and calculate your own - using GVWR, GCWR, and the actual weight of your wet and loaded truck.

Next weight rating to worry about is GCWR (gross combined weight rating). You use the GCWR to calculate the maximum weight you can pull without overheating, bending or breaking anything. Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded pickup from the GCWR and the answer is your truck's actual "tow rating".

The Ford's "tow rating" of 11,300 pounds for your truck assumes the wet and loaded truck weighs only 5,800 pounds (17,100 GCWR minus 11,300 tow rating = 5,800). As you'll see when you weigh the wet and loaded truck on a CAT scale, it weighs a lot more than 5,800 pounds with passenger(s), tools, jack(s), full tank of gas, and trailer hitch installed. (Mine weighs 6,040 without any passengers or tools).

What to do? Load the truck up with passengers, pets, trailer hitch, tools, jacks, and anything else that will be in the truck when towing. Go to a truckstop that has a CAT scale, fill up with gas, then weigh the wet and loaded truck. Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded truck from the GVWR of the truck and the answer is the max hitch weight of any trailer you can tow without exceeding he GVWR of your truck. For a medium-size 5er in the 9,000 to 10,000 pounds weight class, divide that max hitch weight by 0.18 to determine the max GVWR of any 5er you should consider.

If you cannot get the 5er you really want because of hitch weight, consider a TT. TTs have less percentage of hitch weight than 5ers, so you can usually tow a bigger TT than 5er without exceeding the GVWR of the truck. My TT has a 13% to 15% hitch weight when wet and loaded for the road. Many have about 12%, but I would use 15% when shopping for a new TT.

Lots of folks are misinformed about how TTs tow. They have heard that 5ers tow better than TTs. But with the right hitch, a TT can tow as good as any 5er. But the right hitch costs over $2,000. TTs cost less than comparable 5ers - if you don't include hitch cost. But figure $1,000 for a good 5er hitch such as the Reese select series dual cam, compared to $2,350 for a good TT hitch such as the ProPride. So add $1,350 to the cost of the TT when comparing it to the cost of a 5er.

byoungblood

In my recent research in buying a camper, I couldn't really find any 5th wheels in a floor plan I liked that were towable by a 1/2 ton truck. I think there was a 21-23 foot one out there that actually wouldn't put my truck over its payload limit, but it had nowhere for our son to sleep without having to re-make the bed every night.

In short, most of the manufacturer and RV dealer claims that you can tow a whole host of 5th wheels with a 1/2 ton truck is a bunch of BS once you start running the numbers. They look at nothing but your TOWING capacity, some may bring up the DRY pin weight, which if you look at most of them, doesn't leave you with a lot of wiggle room for cargo in the camper once you have calculated how much available payload you actually have.

To be frank, you don't NEED to spend upwards of $2000 on a hitch. I drove through some pretty gusty winds with my new trailer yesterday with an Equalizer, and there was some sway when the big gusts hit, but for the most part, it was pretty solid with the steady wind. Key is just to not get going to fast that the sway has the ability to whip the entire setup around. I just kept it down to about 50-55 when the wind picked up, and did about 60 otherwise. I can just get up and get on the road an hour earlier instead of trying to haul *** with 12k lbs of tow vehicle and trailer.

ecobeest

Really? Come now. I have thousands of miles towing under my belt in the hot seat with TT's and the 'right' hitch DOES NOT cost over $2000. I can only guess that you believe that the ONLY TT hitch is the Pro Pride or the Hensley, which is certainly the opinion of many who have sunk the cash into these products. The truth though is that with a properly adjusted and maintained WDH such as the equal-i-zer (or reese DC) you are absolutely safe and the towing experience is a pleasant one.

A deeper discussion of hitchs can easily be had and perhaps even should be in this area of the forum and I'd be more than happy to contribute to it. However, the blanket statement that the 'right' TT hitch has to cost over $2,000 is simply incorrect. I am not trying to start an argument nor discount your experience or opinion, but this sort of statement leads to mis-information and people making decisions based on incorrect assumptions.

EcoboostKev

I agree with Ecobeest. I have the Equal-i-zer with 4 point sway control that works great for my 32' 9" trailer and it was $700.00! To the OP, When choosing a trailer don't just go by your 11,300lb tow capacity. My truck is the same as yours and after getting my truck and trailer loaded up for a trip with the family aboard i hit my local Cat scale. My truck weighed 7560lbs with the trailer hooked up. I am only 140lbs under my trucks GVWR of 7700lbs and my rear axle weighed in at 3850lbs which is 200lbs under the axle rating.The sad thing is my trailer only weighed in at 7500lbs which is not even close to my max tow rating of 11,300lbs. The biggest down fall with any 1/2 ton truck when it comes to towing is its payload and axle ratings. Good luck, Kevin