After getting $16,000 damage in a March hail-storm, I downsized from a 2013 Ram 2500 Megacab with Cummins to a 2017 F-150 Screw short bed XLT FX4 3.5L Ecoboost. 98% of the time, the F-150 is more than I need, but I do occasionally drag my 7,500 lb max gross travel trailer a few hundred miles. I'm planning on upgrading to a 9,000lb travel trailer at some point. I was cognizant of the max tow option, but it was impossible to find a truck with the camper mirrors (really?!) or the 6-1/2' bed. It never occurred to me until I already had the truck that it would come with car tires and that max tow of 12,000# didn't also imply max cargo.

Darnit.

So, anyway, I know I'm not in bad shape, but, I'm expecting that I'm going to have to make a few changes to the truck. I'll be at 1,000 miles this weekend and plan to take the camper out for a test run. I don't understand how max tow get's a 3.55 rear end while max cargo by itself somehow warrants 3.73, but, I'll trust Ford on the 3.55. Heck, my Ram had 3.42s.

Some thoughts I have are:

• air bags
• Hellwig sway bar
• better shocks (rear at least)
• E rated tires (what pressure?)

Any suggestions on the order I do these in, or other thoughts? I'm getting my Leer 100r camper shell installed tomorrow and I've covered the lack of camper mirrors with a set of *****. I don't expect this truck to tow like my Cummins did, (80 mph if I didn't mind burning the fuel, and I could barely tell the camper was back there) but the lack of suspension and LT tires concerns me. Heck, surprises me.

Thanks!
Tad

 

Order would be sway bar, bags, tires, shocks. I waffled betwddn bags and tires 2nd cause its close but ive towed heavy with stock tires ok.... but heavier loads the truck sagged pretty good.

 

You've pretty much covered what I did accept for the sway bar. The air bags made the single most improvement for towing. E rated tires next and then rear shocks. All 3 together it handles A load similar to my buds F250. Actually has similar or better acceleration too but just can't stop it like the diesel. I run mine at 40psi and bump up to ~45-50 when towing the boat.

 

I suggest you read some threads on the Towing section of the forum here, where these type of questions are asked daily.

Max Tow gives you a heavier payload, but 9,000 pounds is right on the edge. First, the hitch receiver you have has a max tongue weight. Lay down and you will see it. A 9,000 pound trailer, at 13% tongue weight, is 1,170 pounds. You may barely make it. 12,000 lbs never unless it is a big hay wagon with low tongue weight.

If that works, then take the Payload number from the door jamb, subtract all additions you make to the truck, your passengers, your wdh. That, divided by .13 to see the max loaded trailer you can tow. Your additions will help you a heavy tow be easier, but will not increase payload.

 

What parts of Max Tow Package increase Payload?
Are the springs stronger?

 

I happened to do a good write up on this for a FB group,
The back story a woman with a dodge 1500 had put a golf cart in the bed and was asking it it looked safe, she had the tailgate closed with the frame of the golf cart hanging on the top and the wheels were behind the tailgate blocking the tail lights, she was going to put her family of 4 in the truck and then hook up a 20 ft camper and drive from TN to FL.... here was my response to her as she has no clue what payload is and how that plays with towing capactiy.... to make it short and sweet, pay attention to payload not towing capacity


Id like to offer education/ advice for towing as there were lots of information being discussed, some of it wrong/ dangerous
Admins remove if needed but i think its educational and will keep us all happy and safe campers
( steps up to the lecture podium)

payload is the limit of the truck, not the towing capacity

the way that towing capacity is calculated plays hand in hand with payload

For example dodge sets towing based on a 300 lb driver and the max tongue weight for the vehicle to be used with that driver.Ford uses 150 lb driver if i am not mistaken
in our example the truck has a payload of 1190 with a max tow rating of 9260
so we take payload of 1190 and subtract the driver weight of 300, we now have a total of 890 lbs
Typical trailer tongue weight is 10%- 12%
9260 X10%= 926 and thats really close to the 890 we have remaining once we factor in the 300 lb driver ( dodge uses 9.6%)

so now that we know the max lets work from there in a real world environment... we will use me as the driver, and my 2516G pop up as the trailer we will use my wife and kids and gear as the typical load out
Me= 240
wife and 2 kids = 180 ( see what i did there)
Trailer Tongue weight = 330
car seats= 30
towing and recovery gear = 50
cooler #1= 40
cooler #2= 50
bag #1=30
bag#2=30
bag #3=30
Total weight on truck... AKA PAYLOAD 240+180+330+30+50+40+50+30+30+30=1010lb

now our dodge has a payload of 1190 and were at 1010 so were under payload by 180 lbs now the kids want to bring their bikes 20 lbs each for the kids and 35 lbs each for the adults
20+20+35+35=110
so the bikes can come as 1010+110=1120 leaving us 70 lbs left on payload... sorry parker puppy( 85 lb golden) you cant come with us.
keep in mind this is with a small pop up trailer, many of us have Tongue weights that are greater than 500 lbs

I can personally speak with knowledge on Ford F150's as i have one, its not easy to increase the payload on it because Ford uses 3 differnt frames in the F150
LD, HD and HPP... mine is an HD
but is more than just the frame that increases the capacity of the truck, its the system as a whole.
For me to get more payload out of my truck, currently at 1440, I would need to swap my 8.8 rear end for the 9.75 as that axle can hold more weight, I then need new springs as they can hold more weight, and then would need new rims and tires as they too can hold more weight.

I know this info seems like a lot, but i found this out after i got my truck, a $750 option at the factory would take my payload from 1448 to over 1900 lbs
to do the same after the fact is almost $5000 when you count parts and labor, parts alone are $3500+ and i still cant change the payload sticker as its didn't come from the factory that way
Adding airbags does not increase capacity of your truck, it levels the load, to increase capacity you have to make big changes, expensive changes and in most cases is better to buy a new truck, reason being is when an issue does arise, your payload sticker on the door tells the cop's all they need to know, regardless of what upgrades you tell them the truck has that sticker is what they will use
thank you for your time
(puts on flame retardant suite and steps away from podium)

 

My yellow sticker states 1385lbs My 2016 Scab 2.7 4x4 F150 Has Tow Package
So take away 500lbs Me Wife ect
Gives me 885 Divided by .13
Gives me about 6807 fully loaded trailer weight.
So I can safely tow a TT that's about 4000 lbs loaded?

The Ford Trailer tow chart state 7200lbs

 

anything in the bed? IE coolers, bikes fishing gear...

basically anything in the truck has to be accounted for... even car seats if you have kids or the actual towing gear( hitch/ ball receiver)
any after market items need to be taken into consideration, especially if the weigh more than what was taken off( rims/ tires)

the math so far says your OK

 

Ignore charts. Charts are stripped vehicles, not models with options.

"about" should never be used. Go weight the trailer. Methodology on the towing section of the forum. People routinely add 1,000+ pounds of crap to a trailer after they buy it. If you exceed 500 pound tongue weight or 5,000 pound trailer weight you will need a weight distribution hitch.

 

Iam now looking at different TTs and trying to stay below 3500 lbs Trailer empty weight
But Trailers over 3501 Lbs have 4 Tires on the highway and friends say that's better.
About means 6807.098756798 lbs I use about a lot.