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The wife and I are considering purchasing a travel trailer. I have a 2013 F150 3.5 Eco boost Super Crew with built in trailer brake controller and the short bed and I am trying to understand what size and weight trailer I can safely tow, and also understand tongue weight. I am not sure if I have the tow package or what else I might need or want for towing setup Here are the pics of the door and hitch sticker. Thanks for any help
Payload is what most people run out if first but you also need to be concerned about hitch receiver, GCVW and GAWR ratings as exceeding any means the trailer is too heavy for the vehicle. From the 1400 lb payload you need to subtract the weight of all passengers, cargo/personal, post factory add-ons (bed cover, liner, megawatt stereo, etc), 100 lbs for the hitch and anything else that will be carried in the truck. This will leave you with the payload available to carry the tongue weight of the trailer. If you have children keep in mind they grow and that 50 lb today will be 100 lbs before you know it. With the now known free payload divide that by .13 (13%). This will give you a good idea of the heaviest loaded trailer you can tow safely. I like to divide by .15 (15%) as well for a worst case scenario.
Do not size a trailer by the dry trailer and tongue weights. These are not accurate for determining whether your truck can tow them or not. It is not uncommon for a loaded trailer to weigh 1K lbs or more over the dry weight. This will result in a heavier tongue as well. The ideal loaded tongue weight is considered to be between 10% and 15% of the loaded trailer weight with weights in the middle of the range being the most common.
With a payload that low, you'll hit payload limit before GCWR limits (Gross Combined Weight Rating, weight of truck+trailer together).
First thing to calculate is how much payload you'll have leftover when towing. So take that 1400 lbs and subtract the weight of all the passengers and any gear you have in the truck including the bed. What's left is the weight you can have on the hitch for the next part;
What you really need to know when shopping for a trailer is the tongue weight. You can do a rough calculation of 13% of the trailer's weight being tongue weight. But remember that dealers advertise DRY WEIGHT. You don't go camping with nothing in the trailer. So batteries, propane tanks, water in the tanks, and anything you put into the trailer adds to that weight. You should ask the salesman what the exact tongue weight is, and he should be able to tell you the REAL weight since they're on most spec sheets. If he starts calculating with a calculator, then he's only guessing with the 13%.
IF the trailer tongue weight when fully loaded falls within what you calculate as leftover payload then you're good to go. However, if the trailer weighs over 5000 lbs, or the tongue weight is over 500 lbs, then you also need a Weight Distributing hitch. Those can weight 100lbs or more. That also counts as payload!
So the final calculation should look like this:
1400lbs payload - passengers - gear - WD hitch = leftover payload for tongue weight.
Example:
1400lbs - 300 - 50 - 100 = 950 lbs.
Now to quickly calculate maximum trailer weight, we can cheat by assuming 13% hitch weight and use the 950lbs payload leftover.
950/0.13 = 7,307 lbs. That's the maximum weight of a trailer you can tow because you are limited by your payload.
Open the PDF for 2013 and go to page 15.
Under the 3.5 GTDI section, find the rows of what gearing you have, look over to the SuperCrew 145WB column in either 4x2 or 4x4 depending if you have 4x4 or not. The number you find there is the maximum trailer weight you can tow according to the guide. NOW, this number may be higher or lower than the 7,307lbs we calculated earlier. The important part here is that whichever number is lower, is your limit.
My 14 was similar to yours with 1470 pounds payload. A Coleman 274BH with a GVWR of 7600 pounds and 2560 pounds of cargo worked well with that truck, it was tight, but within GVWR of the truck. Since yours has 70 fewer pounds of payload, you may want to look at something under 7K GVWR. Keep in mind though that cargo capacity is key. The more CC it has, the lighter it will be. A 7600# trailer with 2500 pounds cargo will always be lighter than a 7600# one with only 1200 pounds cargo. Mine with a full FWT and fully loaded for a weeks travel came in at 6400 pounds.
Some good explanations above. I'm going to focus on tongue weight as not to duplicate the above info.
Tongue weight is the downward force that a trailer coupler exerts at rest on a tow ball that is holding the full weight of the trailer tongue (i.e. the trailer tongue jack has to be off the ground).
Enough tongue weight is important to have adequate straight line stability of a truck / trailer combination. More tongue weight always makes a trailer more stable. However more tongue weight will always make a tow vehicle less stable and will also negatively affect dynamic handling. So you are looking for a balance point that gives adequate straight line stability and dynamic handling for the combination.
Most people recommend that 10% to 15% of a trailers total weight is tongue weight. How much is optimal depends on many factors including but not limited to trailer design, load balance, weight of trailer compared to truck, weight distribution of the truck before hooking up the trailer and the type of driving that you do. (i.e. a slalom course will favor less tongue weight while high speed straight line stability will favor more).
Your hitch has a maximum tongue weight of 1050 pounds with a weight distributing hitch. This is your absolute maximum for tongue weight. Given that you have a fairly heavy truck 5,800 pounds empty. I don't think the 1050 pound maximum tongue weight will upset your tow vehicle too much and you could run up to that amount as long as you have no more than ~350 pounds in the cab and the WD hitch properly adjusted. I intentionally didn't add in the weight of the hitch on the truck because once the WD hitch is properly adjusted, the weight of the WD hitch should effectively be transferred to the trailer axles.
Given the above (including posts from others), you'd do well to shoot for something < 7,000 GVWR and <1,000 pounds tongue weight wet and loaded.
Dry tongue weight - many trailers advertise dry tongue weight. This is a bogus number that typically doesn't include propane tanks or batteries. Do not go by it. Most TT's under 7,000 GVWR should come in under 1,000 pounds wet loaded tongue weight so you should be fine if you are under the 7,000 GVWR on the trailer.
One thing I don't think was covered is what your actual tow rating is (i.e. do you have the cooling for a 7,000 pound trailer). Maybe someone else can chime in or perhaps you already know your GCWR.
If you have the select shift transmission you have the standard tow package not max tow. Max tow included a GVWR bump to 7650lbs on pre 2015 models
Your GCWR will be 15100 with 3.31 gears or 15500 with 3.55 gears plenty of room for anything you can tow with your payload.
I am looking at travel trailers at 22 ft. or under and most of them in that range are pretty light or considered ultra light. below are a couple examples of what I am considering. I am actually now wondering if the hitch weight would be too low for good tow handling? Also do you think I would need a weight distribution and anti-sway setup for this because it is too light?
09-05-2018, 09:27 AM
Another how much can I tow thread
