bowditch

Have a '94 F150 standard cab short bed 4X4 with the 4.9 six cylinder. 3.55 gears and 5 speed manual. I've been trying to get an idea of my towing capacity for a travel trailer. It won't be merely for weekend stuff but long distance towing. The GVWR on the door pillar is 6100#. Truck is in very good condition with newer crate engine, rebuilt tranny etc. All stock stuff.

One web site I went to (Edmunds) said 7500 # towing capacity but that seems like an awful lot for that truck.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

smokeywren

That's a relatively "old" pickup. Nobody back in the USA in 1994 called it a 4.9L - it was the extremely reliable and durable 300-six. (300 CID = 4.9L).


I don't have the specs on an F-150 that old. The oldest I have is the 1997 F-150 shorty with V-six and hand-shaker tranny. With 3.55 axle, the GCWR is 7,800 pounds.

I owned an E-150 wheelchair van with the 300-six for a while. Decent reliable and durable engine, but with no better MPG than the V8s of the time. My handicapped wife died a few months after I bought the van for her, so I sold it to a girlfriend whose mother needed it.


I suspect you mis-read the specs. Since the '97 with V-six has max GCWR of 7,800, it's reasonable that the '94 with 300-six could have GCWR of 7,500. The "tow rating" of the '97 is 3,400. That means that with nothing in the truck but a skinny driver, the max trailer weight you can tow with the '97 without exceeding the GCWR is 3,400 pounds.


If the GCWR is 7,500, then minus tow rating of 3,400 means the wet and loaded pickup cannot weigh more than 4,100 pounds. If your wet and loaded F-150 weighs more than 4,100 pounds (per CAT scale with driver, hitch, and full tank of gas), then your tow rating is reduced pound for pound by the extra weight of the truck.


GCWR tells you the max gross weight the combo of pickup and trailer can weigh without overheating anything in the drivetrain (including the clutch). It also tells you the max your rig can weigh without you being the slowpoke holding up traffic on hills and mountain passes.

But there are two parts to determining your real-world tow rating. GCWR minus the actual wet and loaded weight of the truck is part one. That tells you the gross weight of a trailer your drivetrain can pull up a steep grade without overheating or busting or being the slowpoke holding up traffic.


Part two is the amount of payload (including hitch weight) you can haul without exceeding any of the weight limits of your pickup. GVWR of the truck minus the wet and loaded weight of the truck gives you the max hitch weight you can haul without exceeding the GVWR of the pickup. And if you don't exceed the GVWR, then you likely won't exceed any other weight limit, such as GAWR (axles), hitch, tires and wheels, suspension, etc.

So step 1 is to load the F-150 with all the people, pets, tools, jack(s), trailer hitch, and anything else that might be in it when towing. Campfire wood? Toys? Lawn furniture? Drive to a truck stop that has a calibrated automated truck (CAT) scale and fill up with gas. Then weigh the wet and loaded truck (including driver).

Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded truck from the GVWR of the truck, and the answer is the max hitch weight you can have. Divide that max hitch weight by 0.15 and the answer is the max GVWR of any travel trailer (TT) you want to consider towing.


Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded truck from the GCWR and the answer is another max GVWR of any travel trailer (TT) you want to consider towing. (Your GCWR is in your '94 Owner's Guide. If you don't still have your Owner's Guide, then maybe you can still download one from Ford Customer Service.)


Use the smaller of the two max trailer GVWRs you calculated as your actual limiter as to the heaviest TT you want to try to tow. On most Ford pickups, the GVWR, not the GCWR, is your limiter.


Don't be surprised that nobody makes a normal TT as light as you need to tow with that truck. The 300-six stick shifter (hand shaker) is simply not a heavy-duty enough truck to be towing a TT, even a small TT such as my Skyline Nomad Joey 196S. If you want to go camping with that pickup as your tow vehicle, then you probably need to reset your sights on a lighter type of camper trailer - perhaps a fold-out tent trailer? Pop-ups now come in all sizes and with all sorts of options. You probably need GVWR less than 3,000 pounds, and there are several to choose from. Here's one:
http://www.forestriverinc.com/produc...delID=780#Main

raisin

My '89 sales brochure calls it 4.9l efi/5-speed manual od.

Max 6,450 GCWR rated could pull up to 2000 lbs.

Max 7,800 GCWR rated to pull 4,000 lbs. with 3.55 axle. The manual transmission really limits the towing rating. This would require trailer towing package and heavy duty cooling package. I-6 has more low speed torgue than 5.0l. I have never drove the I-6. I have 5.0l with auto, 3.55 rear. I pulled 5K trailer very slowly up hill for 10 years/20k miles.

From owners manual: super cooling required over 2K. Super cooler and Handling package required over 3,500 lb.

'94 may have a little more towing cap.

sdmartin65

The book makes no distinction between RC with longbed or shortbed, which in your case is short. You'd probably want to reduce numbers by 10% ? or more for that alone. I have close to the same configuration and would not want to tow long distances with it.

brulaz

Wow, trucks sure have come along way since then.

raisin

He also has the 4X4 which would make it lower than the 4X2. It's the manual trans that kills it. My '89 4X4 5.0 3.55 with auto, HD package, super cooling has GCWR of 11,500 lbs. I ran 9,500lbs and that was too much in mountains. 10 mph over 10,000 ft pass.

I still have same trailer. I went to F250Ld in '99, then '14 5.0 3.73. I'm doing ok now lol. I still have all 3 trucks...

sdmartin65

Here's the 4x4 ratings.

sdmartin65

The auto trans adds a lot of capacity.

raisin

WOW, sure improved owners manual '89 to '94. Better than my '14.

macotak

Here is a good website to calculate your towing capacity with vehicle payload factored in:
http://rvtowcheck.com/index.html


Many folks do not factor in actual vehicle payload and payload capacity and blindly go by the towing capacity listed in an owner's manual.... the towing capacity is always further limited by vehicle payload.