jcain

I'll tell you what, the mentality on the diesel forums is down right scary. Their answer to every can I tow this?' Question is add airbags and watch your egts. Unbelievable. And when you try to educate them they kick and scream like little kids. I can say without a doubt the knowledge and attention to ratings is much more common on this 1/2 ton forum.

atvtinker

Well you've got to remember that when it comes to towing, we have a lot more capacity than the F-150 crowd so we're not as close to critical weight unless you're towing really heavy stuff close to 20,000lbs. That's when it gets more critical for us. Air bags are more commonly use on F-250s to just reduce the sag but most are hardly ever close to their tow limit. You'll also find that they use either gooseneck or fifth wheel connections rather than tow bumper hitch style hence the use of airbags more.

Watt-maker

That has been my experience as well. Some of them will even brag about how much they were overloaded. I will admit, I was once guilty of that too but not anymore. This is one of the best sites for towing info that I have ever come across. I will add, the F250+ chassis will tolerate being overloaded much better than the F150 almost to the point where you won't even realize it unless your on the extreme side. That doesn't mean it's right though.

HoustonRider

capacity towing? or hauling? Are you towing 20,000lbs with your SuperDuty Crew?

I'm on most of the diesel forums, usually the airbags are a favorite for gooseneck travel trailers to keep it level. The biggest issue with the SD is the weight of the truck itself. Its easy to overload if you don't know the weight of the truck itself. Some add bumpers, boxes, racks, 50 gal tank, and low and behold they are close their GVWR before they throw anything in the back or hook up a trailer.

atvtinker

Not even close HoustonRider to my max. I have a 30' gooseneck and a 33' fifth wheel RV that I tow. RV is 9000# gross and the 30' goose neck is 16,000# gross. I could probably get overloaded if I tried on the gooseneck, but I don't have anything that heavy I haul with it. In fact I put airbags on the F-250 thinking I might get too heavy on the payload because I have filled the bed with way too much at times but still haven't overloaded it that way either. Payload is 3750#. The airbags make it nice to level it back up and not worry about the light steering. Oh and mine is a Supercab not a Crewcab. I looking to trade mine for either a Crewcab F-150 or F-250. Want more cab room to carry the grandkids when we go camping.

HoustonRider

oh, SuperCab will hold more. with the crew you will lose half of that payload.

The GVWR is 10,000 on the F250 Crew (11,100 on the F350 Crew) and it weighs like 8200-8400+ empty. lol. I think the towing max on the 4x4 crew diesel is 14,100 and 5th wheel towing is like 15,000? I can't remember exactly. 23,500 GCWR unless you have 3.73+.

sllydderrr

That is a frightening statement. There are some very knowledgeable folks here, sure, but still....

wintersucks

I wouldn't say so. Just a few less dinks around here. Some other forums I run into some guys that don't want to be reading anything critical from you unless you have thousands of posts. Much of it just seems to be the 'near rating' towing some guys do with a 1/2 ton. I am not a huge fan of some of it, but not against 5th/gooseneck hookups like some are here. You just have to feel out people on any forum. Lots of guys with the same ideas here. These pickups do have soft suspension. I'd give the same response of some sort of suspension upgrade and keep an eye on temps if you have some sort of gauges. I've had pickups from mini-3/4 ton diesels. I miss my last truck all the time but so far this one has treated me pretty well, I just hated the short box in the dodge and havn't found a replacement I want to spend the cash on yet. Some may be the possibility of the users on here being a little older than some diesel forums. I have gotten sick of many errogant, I just want to make smoke and cruise around guys over the years.

smokeywren

jcain, I have been a very active moderator, with over 36,000 posts on TheDieselStop since 1999. I don't agree with your conclusion.

Ignorant folks are on both forums, bragging about how heavy a trailer they tow. Too many people don't understand - or else ignore - the weight limitations of their tow vehicles. For F-150 and F-250 pickups, payload capacity is usually the limiter, but ignorant folks ignore the payload capacity for cargo and hitch weight and worry only about the "tow rating". Manufacturer's tow ratings are significantly overstated, because they are calculated based on GCWR and ignore GVWR. Plus they assume a wet and loaded truck weight with absolutely no payload in the truck before they compute the tow rating.

The diesel engine is a lot heavier than a gas engine. Therefore an F-150 with HD Payload pkg can have about the same payload capacity as an F-250 diesel with the same configuration and options. The strongest F-150 with GCWR of 17,100 pounds cannot pull nearly as much trailer weight as an F-250 diesel with GCWR of 23,500 pounds. But that additional 6,400 pounds of pulling capacity is not useable without exceeding the GVWR of the tow vehicle.

I suspect most F-150s towing a fifth wheel or gooseneck trailer are overloaded over the GVWR of the F-150. And any 5er or goose with a trailer weight over about 12,000 pounds will overload the newer F-250 diesels. That's why the 14,000 pound tow rating is a joke. My '99.5 F-250 diesel had tow rating over 13,000 pounds, but my 8,000-pound 5er overloaded the GVWR of the truck by a few hundred pounds.

My 2012 F-150 with a tow rating of 8,400 pounds is overloaded with my TT that grosses 4,870 pounds when wet and loaded for a long trip.

atvtinker

So you're telling me that with my F-250 with a GCWR of 23,500 and my truck weighing 7620 "wet" that I can't tow a 14,000 load? Hmm, something don't add up. And taking in consideration of my gooseneck trailer that the hitch weight is 2300 when loaded, I can't pull that load, I must be tearing my truck up every month. NOT!