If I take a look at the chart for my 2016, it says under 'conventional towing' that my RCSB 4X4 SWB 3.73 gears can tow 8500.

But what happens if I install a WDH? Can I tow more than 8500? Forget the payload for now.
If yes, why there is not a chart listing the WD capabilities?

See attachment for chart.

 

Lie down under your rear bumper and look up, you'll find a sticker with the limits of your receiver, including the limits with a WDH. Many are 1,150. Some are lower, some are a tad higher. Do the math and you'll have your answer on that limitation.

 

That rating is very important, and I probably wouldn't have gotten my truck had it been much lower, and definitely not 1,150 lbs.

 

I looked on my hitch receiver and it says 5000 carrying and 11000 WDH.

But I thought those numbers were the limit of the receiver hitch itself, not the towing capability of the truck.

 

The hitch limitation comes into play when working with tongue weight. Some F-150s are limited by Payload. Others have a higher Payload, but when you do the math you can't put that kind of weight behind the truck. That hitch sticker is a good example of what I'm saying, although that limit is higher than most.

1,320 pounds is the max tongue weight. 100 of those pounds will be taken up by a WDH. That leaves 1,220 pounds of available tongue weight. At 13% average tongue weight, that works out to (1,220/.13) 9,384 pounds for a max loaded trailer. Yet the hitch says you can tow 13,200 pounds or nearly 4,000 pounds more. But you can't get there, because of the actual tongue weight with 13% of the trailer load put on the tongue.

As to whether you can "forget the payload for now", you know you can't, the question was what's the limitation of the hitch itself, and you can see that by doing what I suggested.

And, to answer your question - no, your truck cannot tow that. You come back to Payload, axle limitations, and GVWR limits.

My hitch is 1,220. Some are 1,210. Some are 1,050.

The difference between 1,320 and 1,050 is 270 pounds, which at 13% is 2,077 pounds of trailer.

 

"Conventional Towing" means bumper (or receiver hitch) pull, as opposed to 5th wheel towing. The chart is actually for conventional & 5th wheel towing, so those ratings are the same in this case..Per Ford and the hitch rating, anything over 5000# trailer weight or 500# tongue weight requires a WDH. So to answer your question, no a WDH won't allow you tow more than the 8500 and in fact, you'll need to use a WDH to get to that max rating (assuming you get there while staying in all other ratings).

 

That is true regarding my tongue weight and the maximum I'm likely to tow with some fresh and gray in the tanks, until I reach a dump station.

I'm near the maximum hitch ratings with black and gray tanks full, but my freshwater tank is behind the axles, so that does help out with the hitch weight, and even after I dump, I leave at least a half tank of fresh... I have never towed with completely empty tanks.

 

I see.
So, if I tow a boat, that the trailer can't have a WDH, the boat and trailer cannot weight more than 5000 lbs?
If the trailer is 1200 lbs, and liquids, and food, equipment etc is another 700 lbs, the boat dry weight should not be more than 4300 lbs!
That's a small boat for a full size truck...

Since boat manufacturers suggest a tongue weight of 5-7% (aerodynamic of the hull), does that change something compared to the 5000 lbs maximum?
My guess is NO, but it should, since there is a lot less resistance to air while driving.

 

The 8,500 tow rating also requires the 2.7L EcoBoost engine.

That chart is the shorthand version. If you dig deeper into Ford docs you'll find the RV and Trailer Towing Guide that has more detail.

No. 8,500 is the maximum with a "properly-equipped" F-150 with the specs of your truck. Properly equipped means with an optional trailer towing package and a WDH. The 2016 Towing Guide shows 8,500 pounds tow rating for your RCSB 4x4 3.73 2.7L.

That chart assumes you are towing with a WDH, which is required to reach the "maximum" tow rating of 8,500 pounds.

And it also assumes your F-150 has the optional Trailer Towing Package or the Max Tow Package. If your F-150 has the Class IV Trailer Hitch or an aftermarket receiver hitch but not one of the two towing packages, then your max trailer weight is limited to 5,000 pounds with a WDH, or 500 pounds tongue weight (TW) without a WDH. 500 pounds TW is a gross trailer weight of about 3,850 pounds for most properly-loaded trailers.

Right, but you cannot exceed any of the weight limits of your truck, including GVWR (used to determine payload capacity), GCWR (used to determine tow rating), rear GAWR, or hitch weight rating. Your post said to ignore payload capacity for now, but GVWR is probably the limiter as to how heavy a trailer you can tow without being overloaded.

Your GCWR is 13,100 pounds, so to have a tow rating of 8,500, your wet and loaded F-150 cannot weigh more than (13,100 minus 8,500 =) 4,600 pounds without exceeding the GCWR of your F-150. And I'll bet your wet and loaded F-150 loaded with family and gear weighs a lot more than 4,600 pounds. So your real-world tow rating is less than 8,500.

But even your real-world tow rating is probably not your limiter as to how heavy a trailer you can tow without being overloaded. Most F-150s exceed the GVWR (and payload rating) before they reach the GCWR or GAWR or hitch weight rating with a WD hitch. The tow rating indicates the heaviest trailer your truck can PULL but ignores payload capacity, rear axle weight capacity and hitch weight capacity. But you are the one responsible for safe towing, so you must consider all the weight limits of your truck.

 

That sticker is misleading in some situations. Pulling a hay wagon that weighs 13,000 pounds has nearly zero tongue weight, yet the receiver can handle it.

Think of it this way, with or without a WDH that pull weight is the same. The pin holding the hitch to the receiver is the only thing keeping them together, so all the pull is on that pin.

Where the WDH comes into play is the downforce on the receiver itself from the tongue weight of the trailer. With or without WDH the weight dropped on the receiver is identical, it's the distribution of that weight that matters. Most trailers that are towed will fall into the 10-15% TW bracket, a few trailers that dont would be a boat trailer and a horse trailer. These trailers center the mass over the actual trailers axles, and very little is carried by the tow vehicle. In these cases, you are limited by GCWR instead of payload or hitch.