Let's take apart your calculation and see:

The 1,200 pound limit stands, it's on the sticker.
The 11,000 pound limit stands, it's printed in materials.

Therefore, the only thing that can change is the 13%.

11,000 x ______ = 1,200. 10.91%.

So they are assuming 11% of the trailer's weight on the hitch instead of 13%.

Of course as noted, Payload comes into play much sooner than 11,000 pounds.

 

Is maxing it out at the full 1200 considered an ok practice though?

I assume the bigger trucks like the SDs have a class V hitch then?

I'm not fully clear how the payload would come first though? 1,865 - 1,200 = 665 left over. My wife and I wet are 300 lbs total. That leaves 300 for other stuff which we don't have a lot of (anything we have could go in the RV).

 

Since the WD question came up, should also mention that the 1200 rating is with weight distributing style hitch. Without WD it's only about half that, can't remember if it's 500 or 600 lbs, but it says on the sticker. However, I personally think this is another aspect when the extra payload buys margin in that you can more comfortably exceed the weight carrying limit when the weight on the hitch is a smaller fraction of the available payload. When they make a payload spec they don't assume that you're going to have 75% of it concentrated that far behind the rear axle, and you need the WD hitch to do its job. If you haul a "routine" load like a camper you can fine tune the tounge weight, but often with random loads on a flat bed you don't get an ideal tounge load. Too much tounge load with light springs in the back and it's headlights to the sky. The extra capacity of the payload package is more forgiving of the tounge load before it needs to be distributed.

 

1865 is a real nice payload for a half ton. Remember some of the nicely equipped models from the last generation were more like 1400 lbs and I could easily see payload being the first limit hit when considering a family camper set up.

 

Ok good - so an 10,500 lb RV (packed) @ 11.5% wouldn't be totally out of the question for us then? That would be worst case scenario - realistically I'd likely be in the 10,000 lb range - but always better to plan for the worst

I was starting to worry if I should have looked for one with a HDPL package instead of just max tow. To be perfectly honest it would have probably had to been a custom order anyway. Of all the trucks I looked at (5 dealerships) I didn't see ANY with this package.

I always thought my max tongue was geared toward the payload number not limited to the 1,200 number which means we will always have 665lbs available for cargo if we max the tongue out.

Sorry for any hijacking - but I think I feel better now about my rig.

 

I just come back from my wooden lot, brought back 1 face cord of hard wood in the truck bed and 3 1/4 cord in my flat bed trailer that weight 2150 pounds so 1,300 pounds in the truck and a little more than 6000 (trailer plus the wood) and my heavy duty payload did very fine there was over 2 inches from the rubber to the axel .
My F150 has an 8 ft box, and XLT with a 2 6 0 3 pounds of payload, it handle the load so smoothly . The rear did not look too low compared to the front. Total of 300 KM and an average of 17.8 l /100 km, with the same load, my 2000 f250 did over 30 l/100 km a lot of a n improvement. The tow-haul function did great in the hills, looks like a jacob brake hahaha.

 

Here is a photo of the truck loaded.....not so bad.

 

Nice truck! You can get a lot done with a set up like that.

 

Not to hijack this thread, but if anyone is looking for an hdpp screw in the upper Midwest.........


Located in north central Minnesota. (Pine river)

 

Put my truck on a scale today and thought I'd share some information. This is for a supercrew XLT HD payload 4x4 2016 3.5EB 7850gvwr
Total weight: 5340 lbs
Front axle: 3080 lbs
Nothing in the truck, mostly full 36 gal tank. (Payload sticker 2455)
Going to start shopping for a topper soon - I hope they can match my green!