debbiet23

Just bought a 2012 F150 Platinum 4x4. It's an Ecoboost with a 3.55 axle. I looked it up and it said it tows 9600#. We are currently looking to purchase a Crossroads Sunset Trail Reserve ST32BH travel trailer. It's dry weight is 7204 but we're getting some options put on so they said the new dry weight would be 7320#. The original hitch weight was 914. I forgot to ask them what it would be after the extras. Majority of the time we will only have 2 people in the truck and just the basics (i.e., towels, clothes, lawn chairs and groceries) in the trailer. Possibly a mountain bike or two in the truck bed. We will probably always wait until we get to the campground to put water in the tanks. It would only be once a year that we would have 4 people in the truck. Total passenger weight < 600#. I thought everything was good and we had everything figured out until a friend said that the factory hitch only could tow 5000#. So I got under the truck and saw where it said 5000# tow and 500# tongue weights. But with a weight distributing system it would double each number. And I read more on here and was all set to get one. Then a coworker said no I don't need the WDS, I could just replace the factory hitch with a Class IV hitch that does 10,000# tow and 1,000# tongue weights. Now I'm back to being confused. WDS vs more heavy duty hitch? What is everyone's recommendations? What would you do if this was your truck?

FX4BLK

I would think with a 32' trailer you would want a WDH. I used the equalizer hitch on my 27' trailer and it worked great.

tomb1269

A WDH will give you better control and a nicer ride. It leverages the tongue weight across all axles vs dumping the whole tongue weight on the rear axle. Also you want to run your numbers again. It looks as if your tongue weight could be in the range of 1060lbs. With a dry weight of 7300 you can expect by the time your camper is loaded up (with out water in the tanks) you will weigh closer to 8200 lbs. The original tongue weight was 914 based on the dry weight of 7204 which means your tongue weight calculations should be based on that percentage (914/7204 = .126 or 12.6%) approxamately 13%. Based on what you provided, I assume you have the supercrew with a 5.5ft bed, which would give you a 1520 lb payload cap. With the trailer at 1060lbs and your passanger weight at <600lbs you are over weight by 140lbs, add the WDH weight in and your around 200 lbs over. These are calulations so there is some room but usually not in our favor. Your best bet to understand what your weight really looks like is get eveything loaded as you'd like and take it down to the scales and if needed move stuff around (i.e. take it off the truck and put it in the trailer like the trucks spare tire, your tool box, etc.
Remember one thing, every POUND in the TRUCK is a POUND of PAYLOAD from the truck. Every POUND of weight in the TRAILER adds only 13% of each POUND to the trucks payload. So therefore, put the bikes and everything you can in the trailer(as long as you do not not overweight the trailer)

Twisty

The stickered dry weight of our TT is about 5300 lbs. Ready for living is about 6200 lbs.
I am about 200 lbs shy of the 1520 payload limit for the truck.
I have a WDH. I can't imagine driving without it.

Biggles

To the OP: open your trucks driver's door and check the max payload number.It's probably around 1350lbs . That's your limiting number.
Truck payload 600lbs plus hitch weight 1050-1100lbs equals 300-350lbs over GVWR .

debbiet23

Thanks Biggles. But now I want to scream. The sticker says combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed 1205 lbs. And when I asked the salesman about that, he said that was just the occupants of the vehicle and anything that we had in the bed of the truck. He said the tongue weight was not included because that was only a factor when adding up the GCWR.

Thank you everyone for your input. I'm definitely going to get the WDH instead after your feedback. But I guess we will start looking at lighter trailers.

User-One

Whaat? Payload=cargo, people AND tongue weight. Don't listen to salesman their job is to sell you something, its not their problem what happens after.

And the high end trims like the platinum and limited are not very cable for towing due to their lack of payload because of the added options an large rims, most trucks have 1500-1700lbs payload. As far as I know the king ranch has good payload and still offering high trim level.

PHX 150

Ford does not distinguish between trim levels for capacities.
Nor does it distinguish between wheel sizes.
Here's their table:
http://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/specifications/towing/

Norotso

Any weight the truck is forced to carry, handle or whatever you wnat to call it eats up your payload, this also incl. fuel which most ppl forget to add in. Lighter TT and one of these http://www.equalizerhitch.com/

User-One

Ford does distinguish between trim levels. Go on there site and build different models and you will quickly see who far the payload falls. One of the things that impacts payload is how heavy the truck is empty and the rim size.

The '08 limited lariat with all-wheel drive and 22" rims had a pathetic payload of 900-1100 lbs and 5500 lbs towing. The same standard lariat with 18"/20" and 4x4 has a payload of 1500-1700lbs and 9000lbs towing.

There's a ton of threads on here where people who bought new limited trucks and platinum's then realize they have almost no payload capacity and cannot tow as much as the maximum allows because the lack of payload.