Travel Trailer F150 2013 Hitch Question
07-23-2015, 11:30 AM
#1
Travel Trailer F150 2013 Hitch Question
My husband and I are looking to purchase a new travel trailer. here are our numbers:
Truck 2013 F150 SuperCrew 4x4
7700 max tow capacity
1582 Payload capacity
trailer specs:
31BHPR
Ship/dry weight 6457
carrying capacity 1543
Dry hitch weight 795
people and 'stuff' in cab, will probably be 700 to 750 which technically leaves about 50 lbs leeway to put into the bed of the truck. not much leeway to stay under the 1582 payload capacity.
i just spoke with the salesman at the trailer place, and he said that having a weight distribution hitch cuts the tongue weight in half, and that it throws the weight on all the axles of the truck and trailer, therefore increasing the ability of the hitch. We do have a weight distribution hitch which i think is rated to 10,000 lbs so i think we are good with that. my question is, is the salesperson correct? will we be as tight as it looks on our payload, or will we be ok with the addition of the weight distribution hitch to put SOME cargo in the bed of the truck. Thinking of camping chairs, and some misc supplies, etc.
Input is greatly appreciated!
by the way - we did by the extended warranty on the truck so don't want to do anything to risk that, so have no intention of blowing off the specs, just wandering if the setup we have will work for us.
thank you very much!!
(P.S. we were towing a trailer that was like 4,000 lbs, so this is obviously heavier so we don't know what we are getting into. THANK YOU!)
Truck 2013 F150 SuperCrew 4x4
7700 max tow capacity
1582 Payload capacity
trailer specs:
31BHPR
Ship/dry weight 6457
carrying capacity 1543
Dry hitch weight 795
people and 'stuff' in cab, will probably be 700 to 750 which technically leaves about 50 lbs leeway to put into the bed of the truck. not much leeway to stay under the 1582 payload capacity.
i just spoke with the salesman at the trailer place, and he said that having a weight distribution hitch cuts the tongue weight in half, and that it throws the weight on all the axles of the truck and trailer, therefore increasing the ability of the hitch. We do have a weight distribution hitch which i think is rated to 10,000 lbs so i think we are good with that. my question is, is the salesperson correct? will we be as tight as it looks on our payload, or will we be ok with the addition of the weight distribution hitch to put SOME cargo in the bed of the truck. Thinking of camping chairs, and some misc supplies, etc.
Input is greatly appreciated!
by the way - we did by the extended warranty on the truck so don't want to do anything to risk that, so have no intention of blowing off the specs, just wandering if the setup we have will work for us.
thank you very much!!
(P.S. we were towing a trailer that was like 4,000 lbs, so this is obviously heavier so we don't know what we are getting into. THANK YOU!)
07-23-2015, 12:10 PM
#2
Senior Member
A couple things to keep in mind. The tongue weight listed is generally a dry tongue weight with no options. Throw a couple LP cylinders and a battery up front and it adds quite a bit of weight. Looks like gross trailer weight is 8,000 so, figure 12-13% of that as tongue weight and you are up near 1,000 lb.
What the salesman said about shifting half the weight off the hitch is not true. It may shift nearly half the weight off the rear axle but roughly half of that goes onto the front axle of the truck. A better number is probably 20% back to the trailer axles. And don't forget to add about 100lb for the WDH itself...
I would look for something a little smaller (although I was looking at one a few weeks ago that was about the same size as what I have, weighed 1000lb less overall but had a dry tongue weight 300lb higher than what I have now...)
What the salesman said about shifting half the weight off the hitch is not true. It may shift nearly half the weight off the rear axle but roughly half of that goes onto the front axle of the truck. A better number is probably 20% back to the trailer axles. And don't forget to add about 100lb for the WDH itself...
I would look for something a little smaller (although I was looking at one a few weeks ago that was about the same size as what I have, weighed 1000lb less overall but had a dry tongue weight 300lb higher than what I have now...)
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HappyCamper123 (07-25-2015)
07-23-2015, 02:00 PM
#3
I guess you have a 5.0L engine with a 3.55 rear end - that's the only truck I see in the 2013 brochure with a max towing capacity of 7700 lbs. It also lists the GVWR as 7350 lbs, and the GCWR for that truck at 13,500 lbs.
If your truck's max weight is 7350 and you have a payload capacity of 1582, that means the empty truck is 5768 lbs - that's completely empty except for a full tank of gas. Do you have a bed liner, tonneau, or other stuff added after it came off the assembly line? If so, subtract them from the published payload capacity.
If your empty truck weighs 5768 and you're gonna load it up with 750 lbs of people and stuff when you get ready to tow, the truck will weigh 6518 lbs.
And, as 11screw50 says, your WDH head can weigh as much as 100 lbs. Let's use a 50 lb WDH head, which when mounted on your hitch will give the truck a weight of 6568 lbs.
Subtract that weight from the GCWR and you have a max weight of a trailer you can tow without exceeding that limit of 6932 lbs - at least that's one possible limit. Let's see if payload capacity may be more restrictive.
Subtract the weight of people/stuff in the truck from your payload capacity, and what you have is the weight remaining for tongue weight and the weight of your WDH head.
Let's say you have 750 lbs of people and stuff in the truck, and a WDH head that weighs only 50 lbs - that's a total of 800 lbs of payload already, and it leaves 782 lbs for tongue weight.
A TT should have a tongue weight of 10% to 15% of the wet&loaded trailer weight - let's use a realistic minimum of 12%
You have 782 lbs available for tongue weight. Divide that by 12% (0.12) and you have the max weight of a trailer you can tow and stay within the limits of your payload capacity.
782/.12=6516.6667lbs
Uh-Oh!!!! That's barely more than the EMPTY weight of the trailer you're looking at!!! And, as 11screw50 also said: " The tongue weight listed is generally a dry tongue weight with no options. Throw a couple LP cylinders and a battery up front and it adds quite a bit of weight." And I bet the empty weight of the trailer you're looking at will be a couple hundred lbs heavier than what is listed.
I think you're looking at waaaayyyy too much trailer for your truck!!
However, what are you doing with the TT? Are you gonna tow it 40 miles to a campsite 2 each summer? If so, you can stretch the limits of your truck a bit - maybe a 7000 lb max weight wet&loaded trailer.
Butt....if you'll be towing x-country and up/down mountains you'll want to stay conservatively below the truck's limits for nice, safe, comfortable towing experience - 6500 lb absolute max wet&loaded.
.
If your truck's max weight is 7350 and you have a payload capacity of 1582, that means the empty truck is 5768 lbs - that's completely empty except for a full tank of gas. Do you have a bed liner, tonneau, or other stuff added after it came off the assembly line? If so, subtract them from the published payload capacity.
If your empty truck weighs 5768 and you're gonna load it up with 750 lbs of people and stuff when you get ready to tow, the truck will weigh 6518 lbs.
And, as 11screw50 says, your WDH head can weigh as much as 100 lbs. Let's use a 50 lb WDH head, which when mounted on your hitch will give the truck a weight of 6568 lbs.
Subtract that weight from the GCWR and you have a max weight of a trailer you can tow without exceeding that limit of 6932 lbs - at least that's one possible limit. Let's see if payload capacity may be more restrictive.
Subtract the weight of people/stuff in the truck from your payload capacity, and what you have is the weight remaining for tongue weight and the weight of your WDH head.
Let's say you have 750 lbs of people and stuff in the truck, and a WDH head that weighs only 50 lbs - that's a total of 800 lbs of payload already, and it leaves 782 lbs for tongue weight.
A TT should have a tongue weight of 10% to 15% of the wet&loaded trailer weight - let's use a realistic minimum of 12%
You have 782 lbs available for tongue weight. Divide that by 12% (0.12) and you have the max weight of a trailer you can tow and stay within the limits of your payload capacity.
782/.12=6516.6667lbs
Uh-Oh!!!! That's barely more than the EMPTY weight of the trailer you're looking at!!! And, as 11screw50 also said: " The tongue weight listed is generally a dry tongue weight with no options. Throw a couple LP cylinders and a battery up front and it adds quite a bit of weight." And I bet the empty weight of the trailer you're looking at will be a couple hundred lbs heavier than what is listed.
I think you're looking at waaaayyyy too much trailer for your truck!!
However, what are you doing with the TT? Are you gonna tow it 40 miles to a campsite 2 each summer? If so, you can stretch the limits of your truck a bit - maybe a 7000 lb max weight wet&loaded trailer.
Butt....if you'll be towing x-country and up/down mountains you'll want to stay conservatively below the truck's limits for nice, safe, comfortable towing experience - 6500 lb absolute max wet&loaded.
.
Last edited by KR Kodi; 07-23-2015 at 02:12 PM.
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HappyCamper123 (07-25-2015)
07-23-2015, 02:17 PM
#4
Thank you both very much. I am afraid I am devastated yet again.
we HAD a trailer - a 1991 in good shape that we had only had for 2 months and decided we wanted to go bigger. We bought that trailer for $3000, and invested nearly $3,000 into a new roof and other options, before deciding we needed larger.
we found a trailer we liked, and I called our dealership, asked to talk to service, as our manual only listed the 13,500 tow weight - yes it had GCWR but I didn't know what that meant, so I called the dealer. The service guy didn't have an immediate answer, when I asked "Does the 13,500 include the truck or is that what we can tow?" he went to check, came back, and said "it's what you can tow". I said "GREAT!" Husband and I discussed, and we listed our trailer for $5,000 - $1,000 less than we invested as we thought we wouldn't get it back. we sold this trailer, and put a down payment down on a dutchmen bunkhouse that was around 9,000 lbs dry weight.
by accident, a few days later, I came across this site:
http://www.ford.com/resources/ford/g...rv&tt_f150.pdf
which has the towing information for our 2013 (which actually lists it as 7700 total tow weight not including truck, not 7350) doing further research, we ended up contacting the trailer place and cancelling the sale. They said they would refund our deposit but i haven't seen it hit the CC yet. so then we start looking at under 7700 lbs, and talk to the same dealer. they all tout these trailers as half ton towable, and even potentially SUV towable. We finally land on a light weight one, and find that it's hitch weight is nearly 800 lbs. to say I am sick over this is an understatement. we sold a decent trailer, at a loss, and now are apparently stuck, as we can't get anything bigger than we had it seems.
even if we go very very light, and have LESS sleeping capacity than we did, we can't tow it with the new trailer because the new ones have slides and they are too heavy.
I appreciate the replies, I just couldn't be more heartbroken at the information. We had our hopes up and dashed multiple times, and my daughter had her 'bed' picked out in the trailers - each one we looked at (I only mentioned 2 here, but there were at least 3 we looked at and considered seriously).
we HAD a trailer - a 1991 in good shape that we had only had for 2 months and decided we wanted to go bigger. We bought that trailer for $3000, and invested nearly $3,000 into a new roof and other options, before deciding we needed larger.
we found a trailer we liked, and I called our dealership, asked to talk to service, as our manual only listed the 13,500 tow weight - yes it had GCWR but I didn't know what that meant, so I called the dealer. The service guy didn't have an immediate answer, when I asked "Does the 13,500 include the truck or is that what we can tow?" he went to check, came back, and said "it's what you can tow". I said "GREAT!" Husband and I discussed, and we listed our trailer for $5,000 - $1,000 less than we invested as we thought we wouldn't get it back. we sold this trailer, and put a down payment down on a dutchmen bunkhouse that was around 9,000 lbs dry weight.
by accident, a few days later, I came across this site:
http://www.ford.com/resources/ford/g...rv&tt_f150.pdf
which has the towing information for our 2013 (which actually lists it as 7700 total tow weight not including truck, not 7350) doing further research, we ended up contacting the trailer place and cancelling the sale. They said they would refund our deposit but i haven't seen it hit the CC yet. so then we start looking at under 7700 lbs, and talk to the same dealer. they all tout these trailers as half ton towable, and even potentially SUV towable. We finally land on a light weight one, and find that it's hitch weight is nearly 800 lbs. to say I am sick over this is an understatement. we sold a decent trailer, at a loss, and now are apparently stuck, as we can't get anything bigger than we had it seems.
even if we go very very light, and have LESS sleeping capacity than we did, we can't tow it with the new trailer because the new ones have slides and they are too heavy.
I appreciate the replies, I just couldn't be more heartbroken at the information. We had our hopes up and dashed multiple times, and my daughter had her 'bed' picked out in the trailers - each one we looked at (I only mentioned 2 here, but there were at least 3 we looked at and considered seriously).
07-23-2015, 02:36 PM
#6
ok i stand corrected - I just now see the GVWR - 7350 - this stuff is SO confusing, and man, today is one of those days I just wish I was one of those people that went with the first answer and ran with it. There has to be a ton of people out there towing way out of range, and not thinking twice. The sales people at the trailer places are telling everyone they can tow ultralite with a half ton or a SUV. So NOT true. Even the smallest ones are questionable. I don't even know if we can find one out there we can use. maybe an old used one without slides. thanks again
07-23-2015, 02:56 PM
#7
Travel Trailer F150 2013 Hitch Question
I have the same truck. The dry weight on my TT is 6900. With a full tank of gas, supplies etc, I pull it with ease. I do have a Curtis WDH. My last trip was 800 miles round trip. This was traveling to hills and pretty steep bridges. I used the tow haul button. It did down shift into 4th gear when needed. On flat ground I pulled between 65 and 70 mph.
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HappyCamper123 (07-25-2015)
Trending Topics
07-23-2015, 03:29 PM
#8
One thing you could do to increase the weight you can tow is to get the tongue weight down to closer to 10% of the max trailer weight.
The problem is that, even if the payload isn't the limiting factor, the GCWR limit is only about 400 lbs greater. And if the GCWR is the limiting weight the only way to increase trailer weight is to reduce the weight of stuff in the truck - if you could reduce from 750 lbs of people/stuff down to 550 lbs you'd have a max trailer weight of almost 7150 lbs.
As you can see from the other posts where I did some simple math, the GVWR and GCWR are often NOT the limiting weight restriction.
The PAYLOAD CAPACITY is most often the most restrictive weight limit - and that's what appears to be what will limit the size of trailer you can pull, if you want to stay within the weight limits of your truck.
There are a bunch of limiting weights - and the LOWEST one will be what actually limits YOUR truck and what you plan to put in it when towing.
Even when I did the example using GCWR it came out that the max weight of a trailer you can tow without exceeding the GCWR was 6932 lbs. Then when I did the computation based on payload capacity it came out to more than 400 lbs less - and the lowest weight limit is what will restrict the max trailer weight.
Another limit that you may run up against is the rear GAWR - the max weight you can put on the rear axle. You'll have to take the rig to your local CAT scales to see what that is.
Those weights in the "SALES" brochures and towing guides are "sales" numbers!!!!!! They are made to look as good as possible so that when you compare the Ford brochure numbers to a Ram or Silverdoodah brochure the Ford will look good.
The max trailer towing weight numbers are determined using the lowest model, lowest trim level, NO options, and nobody/nothing in the truck but a 150 lb driver. With some nice comfort/convenience options the payload capacity (and max trailer weight) go down rapidly.
Also, a 3.5L EcoBoost has a couple thousand lbs more GCWR than your 5.0L. There's been a lot of discussion on the forum that the only reason may be to sell more EB engined trucks. However, the payload capacity is your limiting weight, and for an EB truck with similar options the payload would be similar, thus similar max trailer weights.
I just was reading the specs for the 2015 F150 and the same thing still is present - the 3.5L EB truck I looked at has a GCWR of 17,000 and a max trailer weight (which we already know is a BS #) of 11,900; the same configuration 5.0L truck has a GCWR of 15,200 and a max trailer weight of 10,100. That's 1800 lbs less for the 5.0L.
That doesn't help much if they both have the similar payload capacities - unless you can carry a lot less than 750 lbs in the truck when you're towing. The less weight of people and stuff in the truck, the more payload capacity for trailer tongue weight.
Bottom line - generally the PAYLOAD CAPACITY will usually limit the amount of tongue weight you can put onto your hitch, and the less tongue weight the less the trailer needs to weigh.
.
The problem is that, even if the payload isn't the limiting factor, the GCWR limit is only about 400 lbs greater. And if the GCWR is the limiting weight the only way to increase trailer weight is to reduce the weight of stuff in the truck - if you could reduce from 750 lbs of people/stuff down to 550 lbs you'd have a max trailer weight of almost 7150 lbs.
As you can see from the other posts where I did some simple math, the GVWR and GCWR are often NOT the limiting weight restriction.
The PAYLOAD CAPACITY is most often the most restrictive weight limit - and that's what appears to be what will limit the size of trailer you can pull, if you want to stay within the weight limits of your truck.
There are a bunch of limiting weights - and the LOWEST one will be what actually limits YOUR truck and what you plan to put in it when towing.
Even when I did the example using GCWR it came out that the max weight of a trailer you can tow without exceeding the GCWR was 6932 lbs. Then when I did the computation based on payload capacity it came out to more than 400 lbs less - and the lowest weight limit is what will restrict the max trailer weight.
Another limit that you may run up against is the rear GAWR - the max weight you can put on the rear axle. You'll have to take the rig to your local CAT scales to see what that is.
Those weights in the "SALES" brochures and towing guides are "sales" numbers!!!!!! They are made to look as good as possible so that when you compare the Ford brochure numbers to a Ram or Silverdoodah brochure the Ford will look good.
The max trailer towing weight numbers are determined using the lowest model, lowest trim level, NO options, and nobody/nothing in the truck but a 150 lb driver. With some nice comfort/convenience options the payload capacity (and max trailer weight) go down rapidly.
Also, a 3.5L EcoBoost has a couple thousand lbs more GCWR than your 5.0L. There's been a lot of discussion on the forum that the only reason may be to sell more EB engined trucks. However, the payload capacity is your limiting weight, and for an EB truck with similar options the payload would be similar, thus similar max trailer weights.
I just was reading the specs for the 2015 F150 and the same thing still is present - the 3.5L EB truck I looked at has a GCWR of 17,000 and a max trailer weight (which we already know is a BS #) of 11,900; the same configuration 5.0L truck has a GCWR of 15,200 and a max trailer weight of 10,100. That's 1800 lbs less for the 5.0L.
That doesn't help much if they both have the similar payload capacities - unless you can carry a lot less than 750 lbs in the truck when you're towing. The less weight of people and stuff in the truck, the more payload capacity for trailer tongue weight.
Bottom line - generally the PAYLOAD CAPACITY will usually limit the amount of tongue weight you can put onto your hitch, and the less tongue weight the less the trailer needs to weigh.
.
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HappyCamper123 (07-25-2015)
07-23-2015, 07:58 PM
#9
Member
ok i stand corrected - I just now see the GVWR - 7350 - this stuff is SO confusing, and man, today is one of those days I just wish I was one of those people that went with the first answer and ran with it. There has to be a ton of people out there towing way out of range, and not thinking twice. The sales people at the trailer places are telling everyone they can tow ultralite with a half ton or a SUV. So NOT true. Even the smallest ones are questionable. I don't even know if we can find one out there we can use. maybe an old used one without slides. thanks again
http://www.keystonerv.com/passport/
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HappyCamper123 (07-25-2015)
07-25-2015, 11:09 AM
#10
So I think we have landed on our trailer 
. Was worried about the dry hitch weight because when I looked at the ford documentation it said max tongue weight was 500 lbs. But I was looking at it again and saw where it is up to 1130 lbs. It appeared to be 10% of the max tow weight. I called ford directly and I was right. The max tongue weight is 10-15 % of the max tow capacity which means our 7700 tow capacity gives us a max range of 770 to 1155 lbs for tongue weight. The trailer has a 785 dry hitch weight so even with the distribution hitch and propane and cargo we have plenty of wiggle room. We have over 1000 lbs of leeway to max weight so even loaded tanks won't be a problem. Finally have a comfort level and know that this is going to work for us. I asked ford if the trailer specs we are looking at is ok and they said yes. Thanks for all of your help!!!
. Was worried about the dry hitch weight because when I looked at the ford documentation it said max tongue weight was 500 lbs. But I was looking at it again and saw where it is up to 1130 lbs. It appeared to be 10% of the max tow weight. I called ford directly and I was right. The max tongue weight is 10-15 % of the max tow capacity which means our 7700 tow capacity gives us a max range of 770 to 1155 lbs for tongue weight. The trailer has a 785 dry hitch weight so even with the distribution hitch and propane and cargo we have plenty of wiggle room. We have over 1000 lbs of leeway to max weight so even loaded tanks won't be a problem. Finally have a comfort level and know that this is going to work for us. I asked ford if the trailer specs we are looking at is ok and they said yes. Thanks for all of your help!!!