I am also waiting for the disclosure from Ford that says its ok to exceed 500 lbs tongue weight with an aftermarket hitch. I wont hold my breath.

These trucks, like all vehicles, are designed and rated from the factory with OEM options. They do not design and rate them for aftermarket equipment.

RTFM

 

Well you do you and I will personally go off the guide and what engineers say.

I don’t know what your educational background is but you clearly are not seeing some jargon there. Adjectives such as- “This” “optional”, “factory”, “every”; and only limit mention of do not ‘exceed’ mentions ONLY “gvwr or gawr”.

Furthermore bottom left of the first pics says you are responsible for obtaining your own proper tow “equipment”.


Not that I feel old but I have been doing this probably longer than you’ve been alive, since there was actually internet “threads”. Since 6 cylinder Econoline vans were the most efficient work vehicles out there.

 

Ok then, tell us what the engineers are saying! I want to know the trucks weight carrying rating with a class 5 hitch!

 

Your weight carrying rating is on the white sticker on the driver door jamb. Referred to as gawr and gvwr. Ford says not to exceed that. Furthermore it says you have to run WD at max trailer load.

The Ford guide says you are responsible for obtaining your own proper equipment.

 

Ok so if I understand you correct:

My payload capacity is 1898 lbs.
Subtract myself of 230
Some gas

You are saying with the correct hitch I can put 1600 lbs of tongue weight on my truck? Receiver hitch not gooseneck or 5th wheel.

 

Maybe profit but they have to meet engineering standards before labeling.


The hitch you referenced will be accompanied by a body builder guide from Ford and a guide from the actual body builder. Usually a diagram or strict language in a guide or label on the body frame.

 

You can go off the path Ford set out for us if you want, I'm not your personal nanny. My arguments with you aren't for you, they are for others that are trying to sus out the truth.


Not sure what my educational background has to do with this. Don't have to be a pilot to know landing a helicopter in a tree isn't how you do things. But if you must know: I'm an electrical engineer. My father was a structural engineer that lives in Bloomfield Township... because he is a retired 35 year Ford employee. I've actually spoken with him on multiple occasions specifically about the F150's hitch conundrum, and got some solid answers that continue to be ignored by people that think their life experience trumps everything else.

When I was a teenager, we mocked up a Ranger for crew cab design, in 1984 and 1985. Did it the body shop of a Ford dealership in Crestwood, Ky. Stretched the chassis, cut the back off the cab and re-enforced it, welded up a support structure for floor sides panels, and a support structure for a fiberglass upper. Built gull wing windows and a sloped roofline with forward facing glass for the rear passengers (similar to his sleeper designs, they produced semi chassis trucks in Louisville back then). Spent a whole summer learning how to make molds for fiberglass and thermoset plastic, welding steel, calculating structural loads, sizing wire for components, bondo and paint (and much more through other projects we worked on over the past four decades).

Do I win a prize?

As far as all the jargon you mention, lawyers man. Every published guide gets a fine tooth combing from the lawyers, whose purpose is to make things perfectly clear for the judicial system, which at times does not mesh with providing clarity for the layman.


What an odd flex to say you know better because you might have more experience. I see people nearly every day running down the interstate pulling their 5ths along at 80+mph, and most of those boomers have been towing for longer than I have been alive. Doesn't mean any of them has a lick of sense in their head. If I've learning anything in my life, it's that most people bull**** their way through it.

We went through three of those Econolines. First one was a 1st gen that I barely remember. Second a fairly plain jane late 2nd gen. Second was an early 80's custom that succumbed to a leaking fuel engine fire in the early 90's as that gen was prone to do with age. Other than the fire, damn things just ran, even though they couldn't ever find a path out of their own way. Torque was solid, though, could load them up for a trip across the country with no worries about keeping up on the highway, once you got up to speed. Damn things were used in F350's, a bunch of the dump trucks at the quarry had them.

 

Well, then post up the body builder guide that defers from what I am posting. I am posting screen shots that give the ratings of factory hitch options and screen shots saying not to surpass gvwr or gawr. I posted up screenshots from the ford guide saying Every hitch has its own rating.


I can also post up pics of hitches with stickers showing higher ratings. These aren’t stamped by some internet poster, someone engineered them.

Its kind of a pain in the *** to change them because you also have to change the bumper bracket (as Ford calls it), or hack it up, to install another hitch. But the factory stuff is junk.

 

I'll ask again though, but in a different way: if I put a class 5 hitch on that has a rating of 1700 lbs tongue weight(No WDH) and 17,000 lbs towing, is that my trucks new rating?

 

Ok I will repeat it again.

The ford guide rates a 5.0 2wd 3.15 SCLB at, I think, 9100, but please look up your truck. We can use that one for example.

The GAWR is going to be 3800 on the 8.8 axle.

The payload on our current delivery truck is about 2,200, the example.

The hitch on that truck is engineered/rated at 1,000/10,000 without WD. WD is 1,200/12,000. As Ford states, every hitch has its own rating labeled on it, no mention of a label on the chassis or any I ever found on a 2a rated vehicle.

The Ford guide states to tow at max tow capacity you need W/D.

So the truck can tow a 9,000lb trailer with 11% tongue weight at 990 lbs. As long as the DCU top/bed isnt loaded over 1,200lbs, as long as the driver isnt over 150lbs, and as long as the bed/topper is loaded evenly and heavy tools up front (always).

I wouldn’t invest in a WD hitch to gain 100lbs tow capacity and no one at work would figure out how to use it. They could also just jump into our F350 or F250that is only limited to the 14k axle trailer rating, but could become subject to CDL rules which is outside of this discussion.

The 9000 rating frankly covers the 14k axle 20ft trailer and any bunk/bundles of framing/cornice material that is not double stacked and loaded properly.

When my office orders materials, generally most vendors will give you the weight. They know to try to stay under 9000, but definitely under 10,000 with an F150.

I even do quick checks on contractors visiting our sites because we work an urban area and commercial enforcement is pretty strict. Different conversion. I could also go over class 2b, class 3, and trailers with gvwr between 10,000-16,000.


The more you know 🌈