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The first thing you'd want to do is replace the cruddy rear OEM shocks your truck came with. Bilstein is a brand that's highly recommended, as you'll see if you spend much time in the forums.
Air bags or other suspension enhancement products are best for suspending weight carried in the bed of a pickup or rear cargo area of an SUV. Weight distribution works better at evening out the right height between the front and rear vehicle axles due to sag caused by a trailer's tongue weight being applied to the hitch.
If you click the link below, you can find out more information about weight distribution and how the systems work.
I just wanted to post a follow up on how my setup went towing my motorcycle and a Can Am Spyder. Both weigh about the same at 850 pounds. I took the advice given here and purchased a tongue weight scale. I also took the truck to a Cat scale, which was enlightening. The total hauling weight of the trailer is right at 3900 pounds including a spare tire, and tool box.
The longer trailer allows me to load both the Can Am and the motorcycle one behind the other with no overlap. That turned out to be a good thing because it gives me about 2.5 feet of room to adjust the load. I didn’t plan that, it was just dumb luck on my part, and getting a good price on a 20 foot trailer.
The tongue weight initially was 500 pounds with the motorcycle pushed all the way to the front of the trailer. I moved the motorcycle back about six inches and, and the Can Am back on the trailer tandems about four inches and was surprised at how much the tongue weight changed. It literally lightened it by about 50 pounds. I also experimented with the hitch ball drop. The truck rear and trailer are dead-on level. The tongue weight is at 11.5 percent.
The whole setup pulls great without a WDH at 70 mph, which is as fast as I want to go. I would, however, get a WDH if the hitch weight or total weight were any heavier. There’s no sway to speak of, but the truck rear feels a little squishy (if that makes sense) at times, so I’m looking to get Sumo springs or something else to help with that.
Sounds good for now. Welcome aboard. Good that you have the tongue weight and percentage figured, at that the trailer is level. Any rake on the trailer places more weight on one axle more than the other, and affects the tongue's static and dynamic loads.
Your truck is not factory-equipped with any tow package, but with it's factory-suppled step-bumper and four-pin connector your truck can tow up to 5000 lbs with a maximum 500 lbs tongue weight.
Simply adding a Class IV receiver hitch and trailer brake controller does not increase your factory tow capacity from a liability standpoint. You're limited to 5000/500.
Simply adding a Class IV receiver hitch and trailer brake controller does not increase your factory tow capacity from a liability standpoint. You're limited to 5000/500.
Right.
Adding the receiver gave him the ability to use a shank/drawbar/ball mount with the proper rise/drop to result on a level trailer when loaded. Using the standard ball mount in the rear step bumper has the same 5000/500 weight limits as the aftermarket receiver, but you cannot adjust ball rise/drop with the standard ball mount.
The 5,000/500 limit confuses some folks. Those are two different limits. But they are both limits that you should never exceed.
5,000 gross trailer weight limit is because of the drivetrain cooling requirements. Without a towing pkg, the tranny will overheat with a tag trailer that grosses more than 5,000 pounds. And the engine might overheat also, depending on the cooling capacity of the radiator.
The 500 pounds tongue weight (TW) limit is usually the limiter as to how heavy a trailer you can tow. A properly-loaded tandem axle trailer will have about 12% to 14% TW, or average about 13% TW. So a trailer with 500 pounds TW would gross only 3,846 pounds. OP reported 11.5% TW which would be a max trailer weight of 4347 without overloading the receiver.
The aftermarket receiver may have a lot more weight capacity than 500 pounds tongue weight (TW), but it's installed in a truck that has a max of 500 pounds TW without a WD hitch. So with his setup, the max TW is 500 pounds.
Bottom line: Ignore the max trailer weight limit and concentrate on the max tongue weight limit. With a properly-loaded trailer, if you don't exceed the TW limit, then you won't get close to the max trailer weight limit of the hitch.
Thanks smokey. Yes, and Ricktwuck mentioned it too, earlier in Post #3 in this thread.
I'm only aware of the details of this topic as I have the same truck: a somewhat lean 5.0 XLT crew, factory-equipped with no tow package per se other the step bumper and four-pin connector and the limits of 5000/500.
I thought I'd add a Class IV receiver myself, along with the Ford-spec'd 7-pin/4-pin connector, it's harness, the Ford TBC and the 5.0's auxiliary trans cooler so that I might tow closer to, say, 7500 lbs... [Edit: you remind me of my possible engine cooling limitations as well!] but the Part# I gave to my local Ford dealer's parts guy was for a Ford Custom Accessories Class III receiver hitch. I have add the Ford TBC but have not installed that receiver hitch yet, trying to decide if I simply want to limit my towing to towing light (max 5000/500). I too want the receiver for it's capability to change slider and ball heights, and when not towing and offroad, there's a nice pick point for a recovery strap, using a slider and shackle. Just have to mind the weight limitations there, too.
And keeping to the 5000/500 means I have the option, now, of going without the aux trans cooler (the trans fluid is already cooled with engine coolant), depending on future towing environments. Speaking of trans fluid heat exchangers, did you know that the 5.0 is the only engine of the four powerplants offered to also utilize a trans fluid heater? Yep! Odd.
Looks nice! Makes we want to get a street bike again. A little supplemental spring and some good shocks is all you should need with that. I can't see the need for a WDH. I do know what you mean about the squishy springs. New trucks are sprung pretty soft.
I appreciate all the advice I received on this forum. It's really is a wealth of information, especially regarding towing. I don’t anticipate going over 5000 pounds, but I know I would have to add at least a transmission cooler and bumped up rear suspension to do so. So far I’ve towed in 85 degree weather with my current setup, up some pretty steep grades in the Smoky Mountains with no cooling issues. I must say I love the 5.0 engine, there’s plenty of power.
I actually dislike towing the bikes. I’ve ridden everywhere for 36 years, but arthritis has taken its toll, so anything over 350 miles a day I have to tow unfortunalty.
08-09-2017, 01:19 PM
