carbinereloaded

I have a trailer for my quads currently, it doesn't even make the truck break a sweat.

I REALLY want a travel trailer, prefer something that I could load a quad into (or ideally a side by side), but I'm not hung-up on the toy-hauler aspect.

Did a lot of work on numbers, and I'm looking for people with experience to make sure that I shop smart/safe.

2014 Ecoboost SuperCrew 5.5 with 3.31 gears/4x4
-8200 GVWR
-1440 Cargo (?)
-15100 GCWR
-5760 GVW

Figure another 400ish in people and dogs in the truck. Add a little more for a cooler or whatever.

Ford's documentation said my max trailer weight is 9200# however, using a calculator I found online, it said I should be able to do 8790LB's at MAX. I am planning on staying at 24-26' TT, as anything longer has problems getting around some campgrounds out here.


What I'm looking at in trailers:
-"master bedroom" with a queen or king bed at the front of the trailer
-Twin or Queen at rear of trailer. MUST have a door between them (Kid snores something fierce).


Slides are not that important to me, and from what I see they add weight. 75+% of all camping will be "dry camping." For about a week or two. I figure this means I'll need good sized tanks.



Thoughts? Suggestions?

77Ranger460

I think your 1440 payload is gonna be the limiting factor on trailer selection. You need to total up the weight of people, pets, and cargo in the truck to see how much you have left over for tongue weight.

I have a 25' travel trailer. The wet tongue weight is 900-1000 lbs depending on what's in the holding tanks.

mike243

If dry camping your going to need a lot of xtra items,generator portable dump tank xtra water tank to haul fresh water back to camp,it adds up fast.I wont ever have a camper with out a slide imo it adds more space than weight/trade off.a smaller toy hauler with a garage separated by a wall best bet,a WDH will be a must, a lot of folks dont take into consideration how much weight it moves off of the hitch and thats what its for.I bought 1200lb set up and hauled my 28' with 50gal water tank on the front end full with no problems,dry weight 5250 so close to 7000 wet,

Ricktwuhk

If you read the existing threads on this section of the forum, you'll see that nearly every day someone asks this question. PAYLOAD is your ultimate restriction.

1,440
minus
- EVERYTHING YOU ADDED TO YOUR TRUCK (floor mats, tonneau cover, ...
- 500 people and dogs and cooler and anything you put in the bed
- 100 weigh distribution hitch

So with the numbers you provided, you're already down to 840. Assuming 13% tongue weight - 840/.13 = 6,461. That's a fully loaded and wet trailer.

Now, subtract at least 1,000 pounds from that for the loaded trailer, and you're down to no more than a 5,451 dry weight trailer.

In reality, you'll likely end up closer to 5,000, if not under that. Again, read some of the existing threads it's all the same calculations. You'll see time after time that people end up in the mid 4,000s.

smokeywren

Typo in your numbers. You don't have 8,200 GVWR and 3.31 axle ratio both. 8,200 is the GVWR of the heavy duty payload pkg (HDPP), and HDPP was available only with 3.73 axle ratio. So I suspect your GVWR is 7,200, same as 95% of all 2014 F-150 4x4s.


If your yellow sticker on the door jamb says your cargo capacity (max payload) is 1,440 pounds, then that is your limiter. My max payload on my 4x2 is 1566 and I'm overloaded with my small TT when wet and loaded to only 4,870 pounds. So 1440 max payload on your 4x4 with fewer heavy options than mine is about right.


In a nutshell, you cannot do what you want to do with a payload capacity of only 1,440 pounds. If you don't want to be overloaded, then continue to use the utility trailer to haul the toys, and haul a tent in the bed until you can trade for a heavier-duty truck.


When shopping for a tow vehicle, ignore the "tow ratings" or max trailer weight. Tow ratings are based on GCWR, but you cannot reach the GCWR without exceeding the GVWR of your tow vehicle. For all half-ton pickups and most three-quarter ton pickups, payload capacity is your limiter. Payload capacity available for tongue/hitch weight = GVWR of the truck minus the wet and loaded weight of the truck. And don't try to compute the weight of the truck. Load up with all the people, pets, tools, campfire wood, bedliner, bed rug, tonneau cover or shell, and the shank+head of your weight-distributing hitch. Go to a truckstop that has a CAT scale, fill up with gas, then weigh the wet and loaded tow vehicle (TV).


After you know the weight of your wet and loaded TV, then subtract that weight from the GVWR of the TV to get the max payload capacity available for hitch weight. Divide that max payload capacity available for hitch weight by 0.13 and the answer is the max GVWR of any travel trailer (TT) you want to buy. For your current TV, they probably don't make self-contained TTs with that little bit of GVWR.


Sorry for the bad news.

mike243

smokeywren where is your #s for the WDH ? I see folks posting the hitch weight but not what it is after it shifts weight to balance the load equally on the truck/trl

77Ranger460

Nevermind..

carbinereloaded

What about something like this?

http://www.jayco.com/products/travel...eather/26bhsw/

WEIGHTS
Unloaded Vehicle Weight (lbs) View Definition 4815
Dry Hitch Weight (lbs) View Definition 580
Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (lbs) View Definition 6250
Cargo Carrying Capacity (lbs) View Definition 1435

Tank capacity is a bit low, but there are ways to haul more fluids with.

smokeywren

The properly setup WDH does not balance the load equally on the truck. It shifts some weight off the rear axle and onto the trailer axles, and it shifts some weight off the rear axle and onto the front axle.


WDH has very little impact on the weight that remains on the truck axles. Ideal is around 20% to 25% of tongue weight will be distributed back to the trailer axles and 75% to 80% remains on the truck axles and requires payload capacity to haul the hitch weight. For my 650 pounds hitch weight (wet and loaded tongue weight plus the weight of the WD hitch), ideally only about 130 to 160 pounds would be distributed off the truck axles. In fact per the CAT scale, my WD hitch distributes 140 pounds of that 650 pounds of hitch weight back to the trailer axles, so my setup is about as good as it gets. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm still overloaded over the GVWR (and payload capacity) of my tow vehicle.


Folks that rely on the WDH to distribute enough weight off the truck axles to prevent exceeding the payload capacity of their tow vehicle are grasping at straws.

Bootsie80

Cherokee Grey Wolf 23DBH is a fantastic trailer with the layout you are looking for, and it has wood sliding doors for privacy