bucfan11

I have an 07 F-150 4.2. bumper and manual say 5000 lb MAX tow weight. The manual also has a chart showing GCWR (?) at 7200 and beside that it says max trailer weight 2400 lb.
My window sticker says 3.55 rear axle- 6650 GVWR package.


Which one is correct? I'm wanting to pull a 3000 lb camper. I have no "tow" button in my cab, should I turn off "over drive" while pulling this camper?


Thanks for any input.


Rob

zx12-iowa

3k lb weight is fine for that truck. I recall the 5k lb limit being accurate.

smokeywren

Per the 2007 Ford RV and Trailer Towing guide, your gross combined weight rating (GCWR) is 10,000 pounds. That means if the combined weight of your truck and trailer is less than 10,000 pounds, you should have no problems with overheating the drivetrain or with being the slowpoke holding up traffic on interstate mountain grades

The weight stamped on the rear step bumper is the max trailer weight the bumper can handle. If you wanted to tow a heavier trailer than 5,000 pounds, then you'd need to add a receiver hitch bolted to the frame of the truck. Receiver hitches are rated from less than 5,000 pounds to way over 10,000 pounds max trailer weight. But since you have other limits that say 5,000 pounds is the max trailer weight you can tow, then the bumper hitch with 5,000-pounds max trailer weight is probably okay.

Your "tow rating" is 5,000 pounds. That means that when your truck is almost empty except for a skinny driver and full tank of gas, you should be able to hook up to a 5,000-pound TT without being overloaded, without overheating anything in the drivetrain, and without being the slowpoke holding up traffic on hills and mountain passes.

I don't know where you got "GCWR (?) at 7200 ... max trailer weight 2400 lb", but those are not correct based on the 2007 Ford RV and Trailer Towing guide.

GCWR = 10,000
GVWR = 6,650
Tow rating = 5,000 = max trailer weight when your wet and loaded pickup weighs 5,000 or less.

The suspect number is the 5,000-pound tow rating, because it assumes your wet and loaded F-150 weighs 5,000 pounds before you tie onto the trailer. Any scale will prove that your wet and loaded truck weighs more than 5,000 pounds, so your real-world tow rating is less than 5,000 pounds.

The GVWR is the most weight you can have on the 4 tires of the pickup. 6650 GVWR minus 5,000 truck = 1,650 max payload. But if your wet and loaded F-150 weighs 6,000 pounds before you tie onto the trailer, that leaves 650 pounds for max hitch weight. Your 3,000-pound trailer should not have more than 450 pounds hitch weight, so you shouldn't have any problems with being overloaded over the GVWR of your F-150.

Probably no problem, if you use your head and do some prep before you hit the road.

Since your tow rating is 5,000 pounds, then you should be able to haul a normal load of people and stuff and still not be overloaded over either the GVWR or GCWR of your tow vehicle.

To double check, load the pickup with all the people, pets, tools, jacks, whatever will be in the pickup when towing. Go to a truckstop that has a certified automated truck scale and fill up with gas. Then weigh the wet and loaded F-150.

Subtract the weight of the F-150 from the GVWR of the F-150. The answer is unused payload capacity available for hitch weight. Assume your wet and loaded camper will have 15% tongue weight, which is 450 pounds. So if you have at least 450 pounds of unused payload capacity available for hitch weight, then you won't exceed the GVWR of the truck when towing.

Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded F-150 from the GCWR of the F-150. The answer is the max weight of any trailer you can tow without exceeding the GCWR of the tow vehicle. If your answer is at least 3,000 pounds, then you're golden.

Ford says you should NEVER exceed either the GCWR or GVWR of your tow vehicle.

No, your tranny is designed to tow in whichever gear the computer selects. So put in in D and drive.

The only exceptions are

--you should not allow the tranny to "hunt" between gears. But the computer is programmed to minimize hunting, so I wouldn't worry about hunting.

---When I see a grade coming up that I know from experience will cause a downshift, I kill cruise control then manually kill the OD, then drive with a manual go pedal until I get over the hill or pass.

---And when coming down the mountain with the trailer pushing on you, I kill OD and manually downshift to get some engine braking which minimizes use of the service brakes.

Although not necessary, I do manually kill overdrive under another condition: When in hill country with up one hill and down the other, then do it again and again causing frequent shifts, I kill the OD until I get out of the ups and downs. That's not "hunting", and the computer will handle it, but it does cause increased tranny temp, and I'm very concerned with tranny temp.

Towing only 3,000 pounds, you probably don't need to be concerned with tranny temp. But high tranny temp is the main killer of automatic trannys, so I prefer my tow vehicle to have a good tranny temp gauge. I added a tranny temp gauge to my previous F-250, and my current F-150 came with an excellent factory digital tranny temp gauge. But your 2007 may not have one.