missionman

I have a 2011 F150 5.0/3.55 SCAB and am in the market for a travel trailer.

GVWR is 7200lbs per owners manual
GCWR is 13,500lbs per owners manual
Max trailer weight is 7800lbs per owners manual

Payload capacity of the truck is 1502lbs per door placard, lets subtract passengers plus cargo in the cab (500lbs)... so my REMAINING payload is 1002lbs

That means I have 1002lbs left for hitch tongue weight and other misc. cargo in the bed.

I also subtract the 500lbs from the trailer so that leaves 7300lbs.

This is where I get confused...

with the above in mind, how do i know how much trailer I can tow?

Lets say I wanted a 7000lb TT (ready to travel weight), The tongue weight (total weight of trailer x .10 or .15) would be between 700-1050lbs WITHOUT a WD hitch. If I got a WD hitch could I assume the tongue weight to be 700lbs?

So tongue weight (700) MINUS passengers & cargo in cab (500), (700+500=1200lbs) leaves me with 300lbs remaining cargo capacity in the cab and/or bed. Correct?

Do I subtract the tongue weight from the total trailer weight too? im lost

missionman

I just want to find a safe and legal weight to tow.

gerrys

I'm getting dizzy just trying to follow your calculations. Unless you're carrying gold or lead in the bed of your truck, the only things I would worry about is tongue weight and combined gross weight. Even combined gross weight can go over if you're an experienced hauler. The issue for the law is your combined "licensed weight" not to be confused with the mfgr's weights.

missionman

Im not trying to be complicated, Im just trying to make sure I dont make a mistake buying a TT. I cant seem to find the max tongue weight for the 2011 F150? I remember seeing 500lbs no WD hitch and 1000lbs with a WD hitch

willieboy

The max tongue weight will be listed on the hitch. Figure 10-15% of gross trailer weight when trying to determine REAL world tongue weights. There are exceptions to that rule, but they are few.

Rated tow rating will be GCWR - Actual truck weight loaded and rolling. That includes people, cargo, accessories, tools, other junk, etc.

By your numbers:

Maximum Trailer Weight
GCWR: 13500
Curb Weight of truck (GVWR - payload) = 5698 lbs
Actual weight with stuff = 5698 + 500 (cargo and people) + 100 (WDH hitch head) = 6128lbs

Thus Maximum towed weight (that is the trailer as it rolls): 13500 - 6218 = 7282lbs

Maximum Tongue Weight:
7282 * 10% = 728 lbs
7282 * 15% = 1092 lbs

Both of those numbers are really close to the payload maximum listed in your first post, but leaves you no room for additional cargo in the truck. I would take the trailer number * 85% and look for trailers that have GVWR at ~6200lbs. That should keep you in a good range for tongue weight and give you a little "wiggle room".

A7B2FX4

Trailer weight includes a 150lb driver while payload doesn't. As mentioned don't forget the weight of the WDH. Finally with a trailer and your truck a limiting factor is frequently the rear Gross Axle Weight rating.

missionman

willie, thank you much for your input. I have been looking at 6000lb GVWR trailers so it looks like im in good shape.

xcntrk

You could always use my "Trailer Weight Calculations & Load Estimator Utility" to crunch these numbers. Specifically the Load Estimator, which you can plug in a prospective trailer weights and it will calculate the payload and tow rating required to support it.

Here's what I came up with using a 7k lb trailer (6k empty + 1k of gear). This is using WD hitch and 15% tongue weight:

Norotso

Another safe way to calculate is to take your max trailer weight, 7800# and multiply by 75-85%
So your loaded TT could range from 5850# to 6630#