Towing Setup Tips Anyone??
10-04-2016, 05:29 PM
#21
Senior Member
10-04-2016, 07:03 PM
#22
Grumpy Old Man
Okay, let's try again. I spent an hour composing my reply, then F150forum lost it.
Almost all 2016 F-150s have the 7050 GVWR pkg. That simply means you have the standard GVWR at 7,050 pounds.
That's the GVWR of the trailer, not the actual weight. The actual weight of a wet and loaded trailer in the middle of a camping trip will probably be around 7,000 pounds, with about 1,000 pounds hitch weight.
Too heavy a trailer for your F-150. You'll be overloaded with that trailer.
No, you don't want a weight-carrying drawbar of any kind. Ford says any hitch weight more than 500 pounds requires a weight-distributing (WD) hitch. WD hitches don't have drawbars/ball mounts with rise or drop. Instead they have an adjustable shank to which the ball mount bolts. The ball mount can be bolted on the adjustable shank to result in the rise or fall you need, up to several inches, to have a level trailer. If you need more drop than the adjustable shank provides, you can buy an adjustable shank with more drop.
Standard for your F-150
Don't be concerned with the stance of the truck. Instead be concerned with the GVWR and payload capacity of the truck, and properly adjusting the WD hitch to have a level floor of the trailer and the correct percent of weight distribution. Adjust the WD hitch so you have about 20 to 25% of gross hitch weight distributed to the trailer axles, and another 20 to 25% of gross hitch weight distributed to the front axle of the F-150. That should leave 50% to 60% of gross hitch weight on the rear axle of the F-150. Gross hitch weight is wet and loaded tongue weight plus the shipping weight of the WD hitch. Good WD hitches weigh around 100 to 120 pounds.
A WD hitch is required for that trailer, and anyone with at least one brain cell also wants an excellent sway control system designed into the WD hitch. The electronic sway control built into your F-150 is mainly for lighter weight trailers with hitch weight less than 500 pounds. They work okay for those light trailers, but do not replace the requirement for a good WD hitch with built-in sway control.
That's the GCWR, the max combined weight of truck and trailer. GCWR with the 5.0L engine varies from 12,000 to over 14,000, depending on axle ratio, wheelbase and cab. Your 2016 5.0L 4x4 SuperCab with 145" wheelbase with 3.31 axle ratio has GCWR of 14,300, with max tow rating of 9,000 pounds. But the 9,000 tow rating assumes your wet and loaded F-150 will weigh only 5,300 pounds. If your wet and loaded F-150 with driver, passenger(s), tools, campfire wood, options and any other weight in the truck weighs more than 5,300 pounds, then you have less than 9,000 pounds max trailer weight capacity.
Then the gotcha! GCWR is not your limiter as to max trailer weight you can tow. GVWR (and payload capacity) are your limiters. Your F-150 can PULL a lot heavier trailer than it can carry the hitch weight of that trailer.
Not much number crunching required if you follow the following instructions:
Load the F-150 with all the people, pets, tools, cooler, options and whatever other weight that might be in the pickup when towing. Go to a truck stop that has a CAT scale and fill up with gas. Then weigh the wet and loaded F-150.
Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded F-150 from the GVWR of the F-150. The answer is the max hitch weight you can have without being overloaded.
Your max hitch weight will probably be less than the 1,000 pounds required to tow a 7,000-pound TT.
Now for the simple number crunching: divide that max hitch weight by 0.13 and the answer is the maximum GVWR of any travel trailer you want to consider.
DO NOT buy a cheap hitch. The good WD hitches with excellent sway control list for around $1,000. Almost that good will list for over $700. You can buy the good ones for about $500 to $600,and the almost good ones for less than $400 from discount online sources such as etrailer.com and amazon,com.
Here are the good ones:
Blue Ox SwayPro
Equal-I-Zer
Reese Strait-Line trunnion bar with shank
Husky CenterLine (not the new Centerline TS)
Not as good as the ones above, but probably okay for most conditions if you don't want to pay for the good ones:
Husky CenterLine TS
Curt TruTrack
For example:
https://www.etrailer.com/Weight-Dist...rt/C17500.html
Or if you demand absolutely no trailer sway under the most grueling sway-causing conditions, then you can pay 4 times as much and get a ProPride. I have a ProPride, and consider it money well spent. But I paid a bit less than half the list price, plus having to drive about 600 miles round trio to get it, by buying it barely used from a seller on Craig's List in Waco.
Almost all 2016 F-150s have the 7050 GVWR pkg. That simply means you have the standard GVWR at 7,050 pounds.
Trailer weighs 7746# as it is....
That's the GVWR of the trailer, not the actual weight. The actual weight of a wet and loaded trailer in the middle of a camping trip will probably be around 7,000 pounds, with about 1,000 pounds hitch weight.
Trailer 2015 Zinger-Crossroads-trailer info....GVWR 7746 LB.
Too heavy a trailer for your F-150. You'll be overloaded with that trailer.
hitch info... (2" drop, should I have a straight bar?)
No, you don't want a weight-carrying drawbar of any kind. Ford says any hitch weight more than 500 pounds requires a weight-distributing (WD) hitch. WD hitches don't have drawbars/ball mounts with rise or drop. Instead they have an adjustable shank to which the ball mount bolts. The ball mount can be bolted on the adjustable shank to result in the rise or fall you need, up to several inches, to have a level trailer. If you need more drop than the adjustable shank provides, you can buy an adjustable shank with more drop.
sticker on inside of door... GVWR = 7,050
Standard for your F-150
Truck sits nose high with the trailer on....
I do NOT have a weight distribution bar on her, BUT there is a factory "sway control"? on the truck.
A WD hitch is required for that trailer, and anyone with at least one brain cell also wants an excellent sway control system designed into the WD hitch. The electronic sway control built into your F-150 is mainly for lighter weight trailers with hitch weight less than 500 pounds. They work okay for those light trailers, but do not replace the requirement for a good WD hitch with built-in sway control.
From what I could muster up in the owners manual I'm good for -+12,000lbs.
That's the GCWR, the max combined weight of truck and trailer. GCWR with the 5.0L engine varies from 12,000 to over 14,000, depending on axle ratio, wheelbase and cab. Your 2016 5.0L 4x4 SuperCab with 145" wheelbase with 3.31 axle ratio has GCWR of 14,300, with max tow rating of 9,000 pounds. But the 9,000 tow rating assumes your wet and loaded F-150 will weigh only 5,300 pounds. If your wet and loaded F-150 with driver, passenger(s), tools, campfire wood, options and any other weight in the truck weighs more than 5,300 pounds, then you have less than 9,000 pounds max trailer weight capacity.
Then the gotcha! GCWR is not your limiter as to max trailer weight you can tow. GVWR (and payload capacity) are your limiters. Your F-150 can PULL a lot heavier trailer than it can carry the hitch weight of that trailer.
Crunching numbers was never my strong point, .....
Not much number crunching required if you follow the following instructions:
Load the F-150 with all the people, pets, tools, cooler, options and whatever other weight that might be in the pickup when towing. Go to a truck stop that has a CAT scale and fill up with gas. Then weigh the wet and loaded F-150.
Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded F-150 from the GVWR of the F-150. The answer is the max hitch weight you can have without being overloaded.
Your max hitch weight will probably be less than the 1,000 pounds required to tow a 7,000-pound TT.
Now for the simple number crunching: divide that max hitch weight by 0.13 and the answer is the maximum GVWR of any travel trailer you want to consider.
...and I at least know I'm off to the camper the store for a weight distribution set up.
DO NOT buy a cheap hitch. The good WD hitches with excellent sway control list for around $1,000. Almost that good will list for over $700. You can buy the good ones for about $500 to $600,and the almost good ones for less than $400 from discount online sources such as etrailer.com and amazon,com.
Here are the good ones:
Blue Ox SwayPro
Equal-I-Zer
Reese Strait-Line trunnion bar with shank
Husky CenterLine (not the new Centerline TS)
Not as good as the ones above, but probably okay for most conditions if you don't want to pay for the good ones:
Husky CenterLine TS
Curt TruTrack
For example:
https://www.etrailer.com/Weight-Dist...rt/C17500.html
Or if you demand absolutely no trailer sway under the most grueling sway-causing conditions, then you can pay 4 times as much and get a ProPride. I have a ProPride, and consider it money well spent. But I paid a bit less than half the list price, plus having to drive about 600 miles round trio to get it, by buying it barely used from a seller on Craig's List in Waco.
Last edited by smokeywren; 10-04-2016 at 07:42 PM. Reason: fix typos
The following 3 users liked this post by smokeywren:
10-04-2016, 09:26 PM
#23
Appreciate the quick answer..... We're using two cars.... one for her and the two dogs, and the F150 for me and the trailer. So the weight on the loaded truck will be a full tank and my 180lb. ***. If that railer is too heavy... I either sell her and get something smaller or sell the F150 and get something bigger
10-04-2016, 09:43 PM
#24
towing setup
I changed from friction to dual cam anti sway and it was like night and day works great in all conditions .I put on 2000lb adjustable air levelers to level it out after loading and a set of rancho 9000 9 way adjustable shocks and a helliwig heavy duty rear sway bar kit, this setup works pretty good .I am towing a 29ft trailer at about 6500lb
10-05-2016, 04:14 AM
#26
Senior Member
Appreciate the quick answer..... We're using two cars.... one for her and the two dogs, and the F150 for me and the trailer. So the weight on the loaded truck will be a full tank and my 180lb. ***. If that railer is too heavy... I either sell her and get something smaller or sell the F150 and get something bigger
Still have not said what your yellow payload sticker says.
10-05-2016, 04:22 PM
#27
Grumpy Old Man
Thanx for the flowers, Samy. I'm retired, and I don't play golf or chase women, so I spend my spare time doing "honey do" and attempting to help folks understand towing capacities.
10-06-2016, 01:05 PM
#29
Senior Member
