Troublemakers

I will start with the fact I purchased a new camper yesterday. It has an unloaded weight of 7785, dry hitch weight of 700, GVWR of 10,500. This will tow about 2% of its life, 98% is kid hauling! grocery getting.

I am looking to stay away from the 250/350 as I would like to avoid the 6.2 and after owning an 05 Diesel Excursion( worst vehicle I ever owned) I don't want to deal with a Diesel ever again.

We have a whole fleet of Fords at work and I have become a huge fan of the Ecoboost motors. We put these things through all kinds of jobs that I'm sure would have the engineers cringing and they have proven themselves up to the task.

What I am looking for is some advice as to whether a half ton can be configured to do what I need it to do or am I being delusional and need to step up to a 3/4 ton truck?

DieselDawg

If you decide to try an Ecoboost (3.5L)...you will want one with the Max Tow Package. You are going to be every close to the real world maximum with that size TT. Definitely get a good WD Hitch too.

Steve Osborne

my 2013 eco max tow has 1680lbs payload and tow rating of 11200lbs.


the 2015's get a better rating..in both...
http://www.ford.ca/trucks/f150/specifications/towing/

tomb1269

The basics is to add hitch weight, passenger weight, non-factory add ons (tonnue cover, etc.) luggage and anything else in the truck and subtract it from the payload weight marked on the door sticker. So for instance your dry trailer has slight less than 10% tongue weight (most TTs are at 13%) so using 10% as a best case most TT owners eventually end up adding enough stuff to increase the TT's weight by 1000 to 1500. In your case lets say your loaded TT is 10000 then your tongue weight will be between 1000 an 1300 (i.e. 10 to 13%) So if you purchase an F150 with a payload of 1700 (which is a common setup) you have only 400 to 700lbs for you the wife and the kids plus any add ons (i.e. tonnue cover). Which means that most likely you will be overweight. In most cases you need to plan to have 600 to 800 lbs on people cargo and ad ons and the remainder of your payload would be hitch weight. You may want to look for a 2wheel drive with Max Payload and Max tow (Max Payload setups have 7 lug rim vs 6 lug), as they tend to have the highest payload capacity.
Happy hunting and enjoy the new TT

atwowheelguy

You're familiar with the Ecoboost F150. The engine is quite capable. You just have to be careful to not overload the truck. Here's some figures from my experience.

Truck: '13 Supercrew XLT EB 3.55
GVWR 7100
GVW 5493
Payload 1607
Weight of 2 passengers, riding gear, tools, spare parts, etc. 707
Remaining payload for trailer tongue 900

Camper: '10 Fun Finder XT-245 toy hauler
Brochure weight 4650
Yellow sticker weight 5025
Loaded weight with no water 6740
Tongue weight 780

On the scales, connected to the camper
Steer axle 3120, Limit 3450
Drive axle 3800, Limit 3850, only 50 under the limit
Total 6920, Limit 7100

Truck and trailer GCVW: 12920, Limit 15300

Your camper could easily weigh 9000 lbs. loaded, probably more if you carry water. For a tongue weight of 12.5%, that would be 1125 lbs. If you have 700 lbs. in the truck, you would need 1825 lbs. of payload. I was at 99% of the rear axle limit and at 98% of the truck limit.

Since you already have the camper, load it up and weigh the tongue. Then you could estimate your load in the truck and determine how much payload and rear axle capacity you need.

Cover Dog

I think you would be in good shape if you went with an F150 with the max tow and heavy duty payload packages. Max tow should put your payload somewhere in the 1700 to 1800 pound range depending on the truck and heavy duty payload will put you into 2200 pounds plus.

The truck in my signature has a payload of 2162#.

atwowheelguy

The Max Tow option added payload prior to the 2015 models. For the 2015 trucks, the Max Tow option does not add any payload. For 2015, the HD payload option increases the payload anywhere from 320 lbs. to 680 lbs., depending on engine and chassis. Payloads for 2015 are here: http://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/specifications/payload/
Note that the listed "Maximum Payload" assumes no options beyond the basic truck for each one listed. Higher trim levels and options will reduce the maximum payload listed on that page.

brulaz

You will *definitely* want the HD Payload package (with 7 lug wheels 2011-2014, and 18" HD wheels in 2015) along with the 3.5L EcoBoost. Max Tow comes with it.

The fewer options the better in terms of payload.
(Especially in 2015 the MoonRoof is very heavy.)

SkiSmuggs

Max Tow package and you will be fine. HD Payload if you want to leave room for growth.

Jeriko

Gonna chime in as well. So long as you have the Max Tow with Eco, you'll be fine. Getting the HD payload package will give you wiggle room, but the 15's aren't building the HD payload pack until later in the year, probably June or so. If there's any doubt, F250 it up.