5.0GN tow

I know what you mean about no tow ratings. I remember my family towing big heavy 1970s travel trailers with cars (rear wheel drive cars). Most were big fords, chevys, and such 4dr and wagons with smog choked 351s/350s and big block 460/454s with 2.73 and 3.31 axles and 3spd autos. How did it ever work these trailers commonly exceeded 7500 pounds, were shaped like bricks, were made of steel, had heavy hitch weights, and crappy brakes. The cars had frame hitches, primitive wd hitches and air shocks, rear drum brakes and front disc if you were lucky. The cars weighed more than a supercrew 150, and had 200hp if they were lucky but they towed trailers from the Midwest to Florida every year. We are pretty spoiled now. My experience came in an 82 jeep wagoneer full size with an inline 6 and three speed auto with 2.73 gears. I towed a tt that weighed over 6k empty and it did just fine doing 65 easy on flat ground and maintained 50 on hills with my foot on the floor in second. Sometimes it makes me crazy that we obsess over tow ratings so much now.

TLB4

Does this count as going over the payload? This is about as far as I think you can push a regular f150 before it breaks. This was like a ton and a quarter. Stock suspension.

Tow Ratings for a gasser are harder to go over because at a certain point you just run out of power. And no one wants to be driving anywhere, 3rd gear, bouncing off the rev limiter the whole time.

Tystevens

That is a lot of weight. I never put anything very heavy in my truck bed -- I have a tandem axle trailer for that. I've always preferred the weight on a trailer rather than in the truck for some reason.

I actually kinda go the other way on tow ratings -- my Ecoboost has better power ratings than the diesels they were putting in 3/4 and 1 ton trucks early last decade. Seems like towing used to mean just what you mentioned -- downshifting, revving and taking it easy up the hills. I remember lots of slow vehicles on the I-5 grades nearby where I grew up -- hills just meant 35 mph or so if you were towing. Now, if you can't go 70 up the hill people act like their rig is under-powered!

It feels like I have the power to tow pretty much whatever I want w/ my EB, but I know that the chassis is not up to it.

Boulevard

The F150 comes in versions ranging from 7500 lb pull to 12,000 lb pull so to me 7500 lb plus another 500-800 lbs is no big deal. On the other hand a 12,000 pull rated truck pulling 12,000 lbs plus another anything is just suicidal.


For me, I would not push any F150 past 9500 lbs unless it was done off-road, or on even terrain or travelling at low speed or traveling a relatively short distance. F150's are great trucks but there is a reason why they make F250's.

Wannafbody

Well, if the hitch manufacturer manufactures a hitch rated for 10,500# for a 1/2 ton truck that is probably the safe upper limit or else their lawyers would force them to lower the ratings.

On the other hand, the vehicle manufacturers don't want vehicles coming back for warranty repairs so they probably set their payload and tow ratings on the conservative side.

Storeman

I had never thought about tow ratings much either until I started reading the Jeep and Truck forums about 10 years ago. You just hooked up and went . Common sense was
The safety factor , problem is a lot of people don't have it now or back then either. I am like a lot of y'all towing over max 5 miles is one thing but across the state is a whole different
Ball game especially if it involves the mountains. . When I saw a guy towing my friends
7000 pound Tractor on a 4000 pound 22 foot triaxle trailer 11,000 total with a CC Toyota Tacoma No brake Controler I new there was not much common sense there either. That was 800 pounds over the rating of the GMC 2500 I just sold. It was a load on that truck. I would not even consider that with my 3.7. . 7000 or less is all I ever tow now. I don't miss the power of the 6.0 or the gas mileage but the 2500 suspension
Sure handles a trailer with more confidence .