adammjarvis

So I have a 2017 F150 3.5 with pro-tow package. Rated for 12,200 # towing capacity.

Looking at buying a travel trailer - our first travel trailer.

What would be a good/comfortable weight range on the higher end to tow?

The trailer I'm looking at is just shy of 10k lbs and hitch weight of 1k lbs. The WD rating of the F150 from what I saw was 1,200 lbs.

Just trying to get a general feel of what comfortable weight range I should reasonably consider towing with the F150..

My truck is a lease so it won't be getting any upgrades other than air bags to level things out in the back end.



The trailer we're considering is this one - tho we're not final on it. We just like the floor plan other than it doesn't have the outdoor kitchen we'd like to have..

https://www.venture-rv.com/products/...STT333VRE.html

s1njin

Take your payload/cargo capacity from the yellow sticker on the door jamb. Get that number; lets call it 1700 pounds for argument's sake.

Now take out the weight of all your passengers in the truck. Lets call it 500. Take out another 75-100 for a proper WDH hitch, so for easy math we'll call it 100.

Putting anything in the bed? Tonneau cover maybe? Easy math, lets say 100 pounds of 'stuff'.

So 1700 - 500 - 100 - 100 = 1000 pounds of available payload capacity. That's essentially 1000 pounds of available tongue weight.

Proper tongue weight of a travel trailer is 10-15% of the trailer's weight. So lets be conservative/safe and say 15%.

So your math comes out to:

1000 / .15

Or --> 6,666 pounds of trailer.

Shocking right? Welcome to the world of realistic towing w/ payload as your true limiting factor. Happy trailering !

dodgeman1

My opinion is thats too much trailer. Probably end up with a hitch weight more than a 1000 lbs in the end. By the time you end up with people in the truck, fuel and other stuff, its probably over loading the weight of the truck. If you set up everything perfect, in theory it might be OK but probably not.

lariatpsd

If you were going to pull that a lot I would say for simple safety reasons go with SD. If occasional your good. I tow around 10k with my 16 5.0 and now my 18 eco and it’s like it’s not even there with both. I tow that trailer maybe 4-5 times a year so who knows only takes once I guess

2017ExecFx4

#1 - that's a cool trailer. And, embarrassingly - you sent me off on a google side trip. @s1enjin has the formula - you'll need to plug in some of your own numbers.

in my opinion (since you asked) - that is WAY too much trailer for a 1/2 ton truck. Your trailer is 10k lbs without anything in it. Wait until you load it up with all your stuff....add another 1k lbs easy.

I know they're spendy....but, you really need a SuperDuty with diesel to pull that safely and economically.

bound4doom

s1njin is pretty much right on. I would have just said off the top of my head 6500 but he showed you how it is calculated. You can go from there. I know I can go more, my travel trailer is around 7.5k fully loaded up with water tanks full. I like to go off grid but if not going off grid I leave tanks empty till I get there. However I have a SCAB which is lot less weight and just me and the dog riding when towing. I have a cloth Tonneau cover.

Don't forget your water weight. A gallon of water is about 8.5 lbs. So depending on your holding tank size roughly 500lbs of water will be on your trailer if you have it full.

You can pull a little more that that if you need to, you can add a leaf, and get E rated tires. Might help you pull another 1000lbs pretty comfortably. However still 6000-6500 lbs rv is really a lot of RV now days.

rliles1

I have an F-150 with 11,800# of "tow weight" and 1895# of payload. We have in or on the truck:

400# - just us
200# - A.R.E. cap
150# - portable bote we sometimes carry
80# - WD hitch
200# - just stuff we carry when towing/camping

for a total of 1030# leaving 865# for tongue weight. At 15% of trailer weight that means we can tow a trailer with a GVWR of 5766#. We are very, very close. We have a trailer that has a GVWR of 6000#. (Actually, I am comfortable with 12% to 15% tongue weight, so 865# of tongue weight gives me a weight range of 5766# to 7208#.)

I am at my comfort limit.

That is how you decide how much trailer you can tow, not Ford's "tow limit" chart. (And even at that, I had some folks telling me I needed an SD truck for my 6000# trailer.)

2017ExecFx4

For those of you that do this regularly...would the tow mileage ever pay back by bumping up to SD with diesel?

they are really damn expensive - I was just wondering if you towed enough....maybe.

rliles1

You will get a lot of arguments about payback on diesel. Personally, I feel you will never get payback. The reason to get diesel is for the absolute torque power. Unless you are towing HEAVY weights up steep hills, I don't think diesel is helpful. The decision to go SD is driven by getting the payload limits where you want them. a loaded F-250 may or may not have a higher payload then an entry model F-150. You may need to go F-350 to really get increased payload. However, the price difference between the F-250 and the F-350 is very small.

(I have a moderately loaded F-150 XLT, and my SIL has a loaded F-250 Platinum. His payload rating is only 139# higher than mine.)

adammjarvis

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Of course it's a crushing numbers game and as we all know - not nearly as easy as "I can tow up to 12,200 #'s - nothing else matters!"

I'll need to do the calculations of course but yeah - just trying to see what a comfortable range is for the truck overall in terms of performance and handling. I don't plan on pushing the limits.. that's just more headaches than I'd care to deal with when camping lol

We got the F150 as it's a bit more comfortable for our vacations. It's a 3 year lease but I'll probably hop out of it around the 2 year mark (same as the Explorer).

We found a few trailers we liked but they all seem to be in the 30' range which is up there weight wise.