Help Confirming if I Can Tow these Toy Haulers with my 09 FX4
08-03-2014, 03:24 AM
#1
Member
Thread Starter
Help Confirming if I Can Tow these Toy Haulers with my 09 FX4
Hi all,
I'm looking at buying a Toy Hauler, and trying to make sure I'll be able to tow it without any issues. Due to my parking limitations (RV Parking spot I paved on the side of my house), I have to get a 23-24' hauler (~ 26-28' full length including hitch).
My truck is a 2009 F-150 FX4 (stock suspension, cold air intake, throttle body spacer, cat back, stock size BFG AT tires). I used to tow my boat (23' Calabria Pro-V, ~6000 lb) constantly, and it pulled it no problem. However, I understand the weight ratios are very different with a trailer, so I need some help confirming that I'll be able to pull what I'm looking at. Note that I would definitely be getting a weight distributing /stabilizing hitch system and a brake controller before pulling the Toy Hauler. Also, I wont' be heavily loading the trailer. It will just be for my wife and I, and 2 dirt bikes.
I've done a lot of reading about calculating the different weights, but I'm still confused and not quite sure that these will work. Here are the stickers on my truck showing the specs:
I'm seriously considering 3 different brands of trailer. Here are the manufacturers weight specs on each:
Attitude AT23FB
Rage'n 23FBX
NITRO 24FQSL
If anyone can help me to understand if my truck's towing capacity will support these trailers safely, I would very much appreciate it. I will definitely be getting a brake controller and a weight distributing/stabilizing hitch if that matters.
Thank you all in advance!
I'm looking at buying a Toy Hauler, and trying to make sure I'll be able to tow it without any issues. Due to my parking limitations (RV Parking spot I paved on the side of my house), I have to get a 23-24' hauler (~ 26-28' full length including hitch).
My truck is a 2009 F-150 FX4 (stock suspension, cold air intake, throttle body spacer, cat back, stock size BFG AT tires). I used to tow my boat (23' Calabria Pro-V, ~6000 lb) constantly, and it pulled it no problem. However, I understand the weight ratios are very different with a trailer, so I need some help confirming that I'll be able to pull what I'm looking at. Note that I would definitely be getting a weight distributing /stabilizing hitch system and a brake controller before pulling the Toy Hauler. Also, I wont' be heavily loading the trailer. It will just be for my wife and I, and 2 dirt bikes.
I've done a lot of reading about calculating the different weights, but I'm still confused and not quite sure that these will work. Here are the stickers on my truck showing the specs:
I'm seriously considering 3 different brands of trailer. Here are the manufacturers weight specs on each:
Attitude AT23FB
Rage'n 23FBX
NITRO 24FQSL
If anyone can help me to understand if my truck's towing capacity will support these trailers safely, I would very much appreciate it. I will definitely be getting a brake controller and a weight distributing/stabilizing hitch if that matters.
Thank you all in advance!
Last edited by DaxxRuckus; 08-03-2014 at 02:01 PM. Reason: added in more pics of truck info
08-03-2014, 12:35 PM
#2
Well, we can see your truck's GVWR and GAWRs on that sticker.
But the OTHER sticker on your door has what is probably more important info - your PAYLOAD CAPACITY!
The tire pressure sticker will say "weight of occupants and cargo should not exceed xxxx lbs". What is that weight for your truck???
Also
Here's the 2009 brochure:
http://www.gdmjoe.com/gothf150/docum...nsbrochure.pdf
It looks like your GCWR is possibly 15,300 lbs.
If your truck has any options, your payload capacity is probably down in the 1200 to 1300 lb range. You and your wife in the truck, plus the WDH (almost 100lbs), plus the tongue weight of the trailer, and you will be up to the 7200 lb GVWR of your truck.
With your truck up at 7200 lbs, if indeed your GCWR is 15,300, then the max trailer weight you can pull is 8100 lbs.
However, the tongue weight of a trailer that heavy (especially a Toy Hauler - they have notoriously heavy tongue weights), then you'll be far exceeding the 7200 lb GVWR of your truck, and the hitch rating as well.
Let's see your payload capacity weight, but I'm betting that a trailer with a max weight of about 7000 lbs (tongue weight of 800 to 900 lbs) will be the absolute heaviest that you'll tow comfortably.
.
But the OTHER sticker on your door has what is probably more important info - your PAYLOAD CAPACITY!
The tire pressure sticker will say "weight of occupants and cargo should not exceed xxxx lbs". What is that weight for your truck???
Also
What rear end ratio do you have?
What cab configuration do you have?
What length is your bed?
What is the weight rating for your hitch? (Lie down under the rear bumper and look up and you'll see a sticker - it probably says that with a WDH the max tongue weight is 1050 lbs)
Knowing those things you can look in the 2009 sales brochure and Towing Guide to get the GCWR (COMBINED weight rating) that the truck and trailer together can weigh. What cab configuration do you have?
What length is your bed?
What is the weight rating for your hitch? (Lie down under the rear bumper and look up and you'll see a sticker - it probably says that with a WDH the max tongue weight is 1050 lbs)
Here's the 2009 brochure:
http://www.gdmjoe.com/gothf150/docum...nsbrochure.pdf
It looks like your GCWR is possibly 15,300 lbs.
If your truck has any options, your payload capacity is probably down in the 1200 to 1300 lb range. You and your wife in the truck, plus the WDH (almost 100lbs), plus the tongue weight of the trailer, and you will be up to the 7200 lb GVWR of your truck.
With your truck up at 7200 lbs, if indeed your GCWR is 15,300, then the max trailer weight you can pull is 8100 lbs.
However, the tongue weight of a trailer that heavy (especially a Toy Hauler - they have notoriously heavy tongue weights), then you'll be far exceeding the 7200 lb GVWR of your truck, and the hitch rating as well.
Let's see your payload capacity weight, but I'm betting that a trailer with a max weight of about 7000 lbs (tongue weight of 800 to 900 lbs) will be the absolute heaviest that you'll tow comfortably.
.
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DaxxRuckus (08-03-2014)
08-03-2014, 02:12 PM
#3
Member
Thread Starter
Thank you Kodi! I added in pics to my original post of the other stickers on the truck. Looks like payload is 1200.
Rear end ratio is 3.73
It's a Supercab (rear doors are suicide doors), with regular size bed.
The sticker says max tongue weight is 500.
The owners manual says for 3.73 gearing with the 5.4l v8 SuperCab 4x4:
Max GCWR-lb = 15400
Max Trailer Weight-lb = 9700
It also says those numbers are higher with the Max Trailer Tow Package (My window sticker says "Trailer Tow Package", not sure if this is the max or not).
if it's the Max tow package, it goes up to:
Max GCWR-lb = 17100
Max Trailer Weight-lb = 11200
So given those numbers, what do you estimate I'd be able to tow in a trailer?
*Also, looking at the weight numbers for the different trailers, it looks like the Nitro is the only one even close to my hitch weight, etc. Realistically, it looks like I need to be looking at a smaller toy hauler that is 20-21', something like this:
http://www.majorrv.com/pre_owned_detail.asp?veh=3691669
Rear end ratio is 3.73
It's a Supercab (rear doors are suicide doors), with regular size bed.
The sticker says max tongue weight is 500.
The owners manual says for 3.73 gearing with the 5.4l v8 SuperCab 4x4:
Max GCWR-lb = 15400
Max Trailer Weight-lb = 9700
It also says those numbers are higher with the Max Trailer Tow Package (My window sticker says "Trailer Tow Package", not sure if this is the max or not).
if it's the Max tow package, it goes up to:
Max GCWR-lb = 17100
Max Trailer Weight-lb = 11200
So given those numbers, what do you estimate I'd be able to tow in a trailer?
*Also, looking at the weight numbers for the different trailers, it looks like the Nitro is the only one even close to my hitch weight, etc. Realistically, it looks like I need to be looking at a smaller toy hauler that is 20-21', something like this:
http://www.majorrv.com/pre_owned_detail.asp?veh=3691669
Last edited by DaxxRuckus; 08-03-2014 at 02:42 PM. Reason: add more info
08-03-2014, 03:27 PM
#4
No - it's not Max Tow with just a 7200 GVWR.
And your GCWR looks like it's 15,400 lbs. Your truck will almost certainly be loaded at its GVWR of 7200, so subtract that from 15,400 and the max trailer you could tow is 8200 lbs.
However, you can't really get close to that!!!
With a 1200 lb payload capacity, your empty truck (empty as delivered from the factory, but with a full tank of gas) is 6000 lbs.
If you've added anything like a bed liner, tonneau cover, etc., you'll need to subtract aftermarket stuff that adds weight from your 1200 lbs.
How much do you and your wife weigh? Using the standard FAA passenger weight of 170 lbs, you two would be 340 lbs.
The hitch sticker says 500 lb max tongue weight with no Weight Distributing Hitch, but you'll need a WDH and then the max tongue weight is 1050 lbs. However, the WDH weighs about 100 lbs.
So, from your payload capacity of 1200, subtract 340 for people and 100 for your WDH, and you have 760 lbs remaining for the tongue weight of the trailer. And that's nothing in the truck except for two people and a full tank of gas.
Considering you should load your trailer so that when it's all loaded up the tongue weight needs to be 10% to 15% of the trailer weight, if we figure a realistic minimum of 12%, then 12% of a loaded trailer of 6300 lbs is 760 - and that would max out the GVWR of your truck.
Actually, a WDH will redistribute some of the tongue weight forward to the truck's front axle, and some back to the trailer's axles - so you could probably tow close to 7000 lbs and be right at the rated limits for your truck.
He often and how far will you be towing???
If you'll be towing 50 miles a few times during the summer, the truck can really handle a lot of weight.
However, if you'll be towing a few hundred miles every week, or long cross country hauls, then you will probably want to remain conservatively within the published weight limits of your truck for long term maintenance concerns for durability and reliability of your truck, and especially for safety.
I'm thinking a wet and loaded max trailer weight of 6500 to 6800 lbs would be the max for comfortable towing.
.
And your GCWR looks like it's 15,400 lbs. Your truck will almost certainly be loaded at its GVWR of 7200, so subtract that from 15,400 and the max trailer you could tow is 8200 lbs.
However, you can't really get close to that!!!
With a 1200 lb payload capacity, your empty truck (empty as delivered from the factory, but with a full tank of gas) is 6000 lbs.
If you've added anything like a bed liner, tonneau cover, etc., you'll need to subtract aftermarket stuff that adds weight from your 1200 lbs.
How much do you and your wife weigh? Using the standard FAA passenger weight of 170 lbs, you two would be 340 lbs.
The hitch sticker says 500 lb max tongue weight with no Weight Distributing Hitch, but you'll need a WDH and then the max tongue weight is 1050 lbs. However, the WDH weighs about 100 lbs.
So, from your payload capacity of 1200, subtract 340 for people and 100 for your WDH, and you have 760 lbs remaining for the tongue weight of the trailer. And that's nothing in the truck except for two people and a full tank of gas.
Considering you should load your trailer so that when it's all loaded up the tongue weight needs to be 10% to 15% of the trailer weight, if we figure a realistic minimum of 12%, then 12% of a loaded trailer of 6300 lbs is 760 - and that would max out the GVWR of your truck.
Actually, a WDH will redistribute some of the tongue weight forward to the truck's front axle, and some back to the trailer's axles - so you could probably tow close to 7000 lbs and be right at the rated limits for your truck.
He often and how far will you be towing???
If you'll be towing 50 miles a few times during the summer, the truck can really handle a lot of weight.
However, if you'll be towing a few hundred miles every week, or long cross country hauls, then you will probably want to remain conservatively within the published weight limits of your truck for long term maintenance concerns for durability and reliability of your truck, and especially for safety.
I'm thinking a wet and loaded max trailer weight of 6500 to 6800 lbs would be the max for comfortable towing.
.
Last edited by KR Kodi; 08-03-2014 at 03:32 PM.
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DaxxRuckus (08-03-2014)
08-03-2014, 05:13 PM
#5
Member
Thread Starter
Your estimates are all right on for passenger weight, truck weight (I have added nothing that would increase the weight), etc.
90% of the towing will be from San Diego to the desert, ~100 miles each way. We do go pretty often, so maybe twice a month during desert season.
Based on this analysis, I think I need to stick with the Ultralight trailer and about 19' to keep max loaded weight around or under 7000.
Thanks again, I sincerely appreciate your help!
90% of the towing will be from San Diego to the desert, ~100 miles each way. We do go pretty often, so maybe twice a month during desert season.
Based on this analysis, I think I need to stick with the Ultralight trailer and about 19' to keep max loaded weight around or under 7000.
Thanks again, I sincerely appreciate your help!
08-03-2014, 05:20 PM
#6
Would you like to be able to easily pull an 8500 lb trailer???
Take a look at my stickers - I'm a lot more weight restricted than you are, and I easily pull my enclosed 6500 lb car hauler without exceeding any of my truck's rated limits!!!
You can see below that I have a payload capacity of only 1115 lbs - but it's worse than that!! With my tonneau cover, bed liner, and bed extender, when I weighed my truck at my local CAT scales it weighed 6180 lbs - which reduced my payload to only 1020 lbs! Yikes!!!
With me and my wife, plus our luggage and the maxed out snack cooler my wife packs in the cab, and a couple hundred lbs of tools and spare parts in the bed, that brings the truck up to around 6800 lbs. That only leaves about 400 lbs for a hitch and tongue weight - i.e., a max 4000 lb trailer with a very minimal 400 lb tongue weight.
So....here's my solution to keeping my very comfortable but heavy and highly optioned King Ranch, and still be able to easily tow up to more than an 8000 lb load???
I bought a Trailer Toad! I got an older used one for $2k, and I've seen other nice used ones on racingjunk.com, a couple of drag racing forums, and craigslist for a little more than $1K. New ones are about $3200. Here's mine:
You can see that the a Trailer Toad is what's called a "hitch extension" - it doesn't require any registration or tag.
My Trailer Toad is an older one with a 3500 lb trailer axle, but is only rated to carry about 2000 lbs of tongue weight. The new ones, especially the heavy duty one, can carry up to more than 4000 lbs of tongue weight.
The Trailer Toad carries ALL the tongue weight, so I have ALL the payload capacity available for people and stuff in the cab and bed of the truck. I can now easily carry 1000 lbs of people and junk in the truck and I'll still be a couple hundred lbs under my 7200 lb GVWR.
With my 15,500 GCWR, if my truck weighs 7000 then I can tow 8500 lbs. I guess my Trailer Toad would be counted in that and my older one only weighs about 200 lbs, so I could pull an 8300 lb trailer with a 1200 tongue weight and still be in limits.
I recently towed from FL up to a track event in VA (1300 miles round trip) and the Toad and trailer towed flawlessly!!
Just my solution to be able to tow with my very weight restricted F150.
.
Take a look at my stickers - I'm a lot more weight restricted than you are, and I easily pull my enclosed 6500 lb car hauler without exceeding any of my truck's rated limits!!!
You can see below that I have a payload capacity of only 1115 lbs - but it's worse than that!! With my tonneau cover, bed liner, and bed extender, when I weighed my truck at my local CAT scales it weighed 6180 lbs - which reduced my payload to only 1020 lbs! Yikes!!!
With me and my wife, plus our luggage and the maxed out snack cooler my wife packs in the cab, and a couple hundred lbs of tools and spare parts in the bed, that brings the truck up to around 6800 lbs. That only leaves about 400 lbs for a hitch and tongue weight - i.e., a max 4000 lb trailer with a very minimal 400 lb tongue weight.
So....here's my solution to keeping my very comfortable but heavy and highly optioned King Ranch, and still be able to easily tow up to more than an 8000 lb load???
I bought a Trailer Toad! I got an older used one for $2k, and I've seen other nice used ones on racingjunk.com, a couple of drag racing forums, and craigslist for a little more than $1K. New ones are about $3200. Here's mine:
You can see that the a Trailer Toad is what's called a "hitch extension" - it doesn't require any registration or tag.
My Trailer Toad is an older one with a 3500 lb trailer axle, but is only rated to carry about 2000 lbs of tongue weight. The new ones, especially the heavy duty one, can carry up to more than 4000 lbs of tongue weight.
The Trailer Toad carries ALL the tongue weight, so I have ALL the payload capacity available for people and stuff in the cab and bed of the truck. I can now easily carry 1000 lbs of people and junk in the truck and I'll still be a couple hundred lbs under my 7200 lb GVWR.
With my 15,500 GCWR, if my truck weighs 7000 then I can tow 8500 lbs. I guess my Trailer Toad would be counted in that and my older one only weighs about 200 lbs, so I could pull an 8300 lb trailer with a 1200 tongue weight and still be in limits.
I recently towed from FL up to a track event in VA (1300 miles round trip) and the Toad and trailer towed flawlessly!!
Just my solution to be able to tow with my very weight restricted F150.
.
Last edited by KR Kodi; 08-03-2014 at 05:35 PM.
08-03-2014, 09:45 PM
#7
Member
Thread Starter
That's amazing! I have never heard of a trailer toad, didn't even know something like this existed. What an awesome solution to the problem. Thanks for putting together all this info, it's definitely given me a lot to think about, and really changed my perspective on the whole thing.
I don't think I'll be going with a hitch extension and trying to pull a bigger trailer, but rather will start looking into the 19' toy haulers. Since I'm just putting a few dirt bikes in the trailer, it will still be more than enough room for my old lady and me. Plus, the 19' will fit perfectly in my RV parking spot on the side of the house. The larger 24' + all were over 28' including hitch, and would require me to move some of the landscaping on the side of the house and pave a few spots. The 19' will be better all around.
Thanks again Kodi, your advice and info have really helped me make the right decision here. Much appreciated.
I don't think I'll be going with a hitch extension and trying to pull a bigger trailer, but rather will start looking into the 19' toy haulers. Since I'm just putting a few dirt bikes in the trailer, it will still be more than enough room for my old lady and me. Plus, the 19' will fit perfectly in my RV parking spot on the side of the house. The larger 24' + all were over 28' including hitch, and would require me to move some of the landscaping on the side of the house and pave a few spots. The 19' will be better all around.
Thanks again Kodi, your advice and info have really helped me make the right decision here. Much appreciated.
