First Tow. Lots of questions.
 

I have a 2007 5.4L XLT 4x4 SB. I believe I have the towing package. About 82k miles on it. So many questions. So little knowledge.

I will be towing from DC to NY on Saturday, pulling a 12x6' U-Haul trailer. No idea what I'm doing. I picked up a 2" drop ball mount and draw bar I will probably have to change. Ball mount needs to drop much more, as the trailer is not quite level. However, I won't know exactly HOW low my bumper will be sitting until I load it with the ~500lbs i'll be carrying in the bed.

Here's what it boils down to:

Trailer is 1800 lbs empty
I'm going to fill it to 4400 lbs.

What is the best type of hitch, mount and ball to use for my task? I can spend up to $100.

F 150? , if so you need a weight distribution hitch , @ 12% tongue weight you are looking at 550 lbs TW plus your load in the box . This amounts to at least a 4+ inch suspension drop. . A F 150 is limited to 500 lbs TW a F250 600 without a WDH.

You are going to be right up against the tongue weight limits of your receiver, so you have to load the trailer very carefully.


Crawl under the back of your truck and find the sticker on the frame of the receiver hitch. It probably says 500/5000 WC, 1,000/10.000 WD. The WD is weight distributing hitch, and you probably don't want to invest in a good one to tow a U-Haul trailer. So without a WD hitch, the 500/5,000 is your limits for a weight-carrying (WC) hitch. The 500 is max tongue weight, and the 5,000 is max gross trailer weight.


The 500 max tongue weight is your problem. You must load the trailer so you have between 440 and 500 pounds hitch weight. You must have a minimum of 10% tongue weight, so that's why the 440 pounds minimum. 500 pounds tongue weight is 11.4% of your 4,400 pounds gross trailer weight. That's certainly achievable, but average tongue weight on that trailer is around 12.5% tp 13% of gross trailer weight. So you have to load a it with a bit more weight in front of the trailer axles than average.


Your ball mount will slide into the receiver. The main concern is the loaded trailer must be level, front to rear, when tied onto the tow vehicle. So you have to buy a ball mount with the correct "drop" to achieve a level loaded trailer. You may not know the exact drop needed until you are all hooked up with a loaded trailer. But if you have both the truck and trailer available to measure, then you can get close by measuring the unloaded truck and trailer hitch heights.


Measure from the top of the coupler to the ground, and from the top of the opening in the receiver to the ground. Subtract 2" from the dfifference in those measurements, and the answer should be the approximate drop you will need in your ball amount.


As for the type of ball mount and ball. an ordinary ball mount sold by U-Haul will do. Here's one for $25.
http://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/...00-lbs?mid=606


BTW, you also need a trailer brake controller to tow that trailer. :eek: