MeatWagon17

To make a long story short (ish)- We are looking at getting a camper soon, and what my wife wants is going to be in the 5-6k weight range, empty. I have been averaging about 15 mpg with daily mixed driving (running premium fuel) and in the few short trips back and forth on the highway towing my empty 1300 pound utility trailer, about 95 miles one way and running about 75 MPH, that has been as low as 8-9 mpg, which leads me to believe that if I hook up to 6k pounds, my mpg is going to be absolutely awful.

I know that the mods I chose for my truck did me no favors in regards to towing, but would it even be worth it to look into a little smaller tire (maybe 33x10.5x18) and lowering my truck back down in order to bump the performance and mpg's back up? Will 5 pounds per tire and less than an inch in overall diameter make any difference?

Would I be better off looking into a performance tuner such as Edge or Superchips, etc?

I LOVE my truck the way it is currently and would hate to have to redo it, but I also dont want to be shelling out insane amounts of $ for gas or potentially running empty.

What say you all? Thanks in advance.

Ricktwuhk

First, note that you're towing too fast. Check the tire ratings of that trailer, and of any travel trailer you are considering. 75 is beyond the rating.

Second, before you worry about mods, figure out the towing capacity of your truck BEFORE you changed it. It's on a yellow sticker on your door jamb. Then, visit the Towing section of the site. www.f150forum.com/f82

A Lariat FX-4 would not have a great payload, then you added a topper, raised it, heavier tires. You won't be towing an empty 6,000 pound, loaded 7,500 pound trailer I don't think.

MeatWagon17

Thank you for the response. I appreciate the info and I’m sure I come across as clueless, but that’s only because I mostly am! Haha
I’ve never modified a truck that I owned before, nor have I had to worry about heavy towing and payloads, until now.

msgtord

Weigh your truck loaded. That will determine how heavy of a tongue weight you can carry on your truck. Which will dictate the weight of the trailer.

chimmike

loaded being, occupants, cargo, trailer hitch, etc.

then subtract that number from your GVWR. Whatever's left is the MAXIMUM tongue weight you can support, of a LOADED trailer. To be safe, figure 15% of loaded trailer weight. To be even safer, figure 13% of a trailer's GVWR. If you load a TT to it's GVWR, that's a whole lot of extra crap you're hauling around.

Meathead

iTrader: (2)

Lower it back to stock and put the smaller tires on it. Keep it 65mph and slower and you will be fine.

MeatWagon17

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

According to the manual, my GCVWR is 16,100.
My GVWR is 7050

Truck weight stock is 4894 lbs. I added 200 for the topper and 80 for the tires taking into account the weight of the original tires vs the new ones, so I ended with 5180 lbs.

Ricktwuhk

What does your yellow sticker say?

MeatWagon17

Yellow sticker says the same for GVWR

msgtord

My stock 2 wheel drive weighs 5140. I don't see how your 4x4 weighs less. Where did you get the 4894?

I just checked the specs for your truck and with the topper and tires, your pushing close to 6000 pounds.

You really need to take your truck to the scales.