DonTomio

Hi,
New to the forum and towing.
I've towed boats and trash trailers but never a travel trailer. I know not the same. Hence the questions.
My F-150 is a Super-crew sport, Max tow, 3.5 ecoboost 10 speed trans.Tow rating 1250?
I originally purchased it for my Pilot car business and with the hopes I would be getting a travel trailer in the future.
I'm now looking at a Imagine 2670MK GVWR 8495. I have the truck loaded pretty good with equipment. Going to scale next week but I'm sure I'm close to max payload.
I guess what I'm looking for is to be schooled on what I can safely tow?
Any help would be appreciated.

Gladehound

When you scale the truck, make sure you have everything in it that you will have in it when you tow the travel trailer (both people and gear). Your 7000 GVWR minus your scaled weight is what is left for hitch weight. Hitch weight on the trailer you mentioned could easily be 1,000 pounds when loaded.

You're added weight on the front bumper will actually help the truck be more balanced with a load. And your ~2,000 pound payload is very good for an F150. However, given that you say you have it well loaded already, make sure you do your math very carefully as you will easily go over GVWR and/or GAWR with that trailer and lots of stuff in the truck.

The 32' length of that trailer will be pushing it in any significant wind. Your ability to comfortably handle that trailer may come down to the quality of your WDH and how well you set it up.

I think you're right on the limit of what you can do within the legal weight limits and right on the limit for control in any wind - you may be beyond the limit depending on how much wind, how good your hitch is and how good of a driver you are. Let us know how your weight's work out. I won't tell you not to get that trailer, but a shorter trailer may make for a much more enjoyable vacation.

acdii

A second from me on what Glade said. 32' is quite a bit of sail for an F150. 30' is pushing it for me, and I am quite comfortable with 28', but 4 more feet and it would be a fight with crosswinds and semi's due to lack of forward mass to counter the trailer.

chimmike

If you're already close to max payload with stuff you're just carrying around, you have no capacity to tow anything.

DonTomio

Not sure what you mean. The payload of the truck is 2042 lbs. I think my equipment is close to that. Of course I can scale down a little but how is it I couldn't tow anything?

smokeywren

Payload capacity is a limiter as to how heavy a trailer you can tow without being overloaded.. If you are already loaded to payload capacity, then you don't have payload capacity remaining for hitch weight.

Most properly-loaded "bumper-pull" trailers have average tongue weight of about 13% of gross trailer weight. So a trailer that grosses 5,000 pounds will have tongue weight of about 650 pounds. That 650 pounds is payload.

Make that a much-lighter trailer that weighs only 2,000 pounds when loaded. Tongue weight is about 260 pounds. If you don't have at least 260 pounds of payload capacity remaining for hitch weight, then you're going to be overloaded with that very light trailer.

An exception is a farmer's wagon-style grain trailer that has almost no hitch weight. But I'll bet you're not talking about a wagon-style trailer.

Gladehound

Payload is anything and everything carried by the truck, including people/pets, cargo, hitch weight, dirt in the carpet and loose change in the seat, etc. Big trailers like the one you listed use up a lot of payload. Minimum 1,000 pounds of unused payload will be needed for that trailer once it's loaded (probably more).

I realize the advertised hitch weight is much less than that. Don't go by it. Most of the time it doesn't include batteries and propane tanks. It certainly doesn't include any mandatory camping stuff liked jacks and blocks. For perspective, my little trailer's tongue weight is listed at 460 pounds and it weighs 900 before packing cloths. Don't for get ~100 pounds for a good WDH. How many people do you have and what do they weigh? All that counts against payload - it's not just what you put in the bed.

DonTomio

Thanks everyone. Like I said I need some schooling.
I didn't get how the tongue weight calculated into payload.
Going out to look at more trailers tomorrow. Dropping down to 27 overall. Also I will have to look at what equipment I can do away with.
Keep the good info coming please.

MagneticScrew

Gladehound

Our TT is 27 ft from ball to bumper and we find it to be plenty big for a family of 4.