Hi all,
I very rarely tow anything, I have a steel one horse bumper pull trailer and have towed that empty across a couple states, but that’s it. I recently finished building a dedicated hunting truck for use with dogs, and since it’s not really intended to be a highway vehicle and most of my hunts are 2 to 10 hours away, I would like to tow the truck on a car hauler out to my hunts.

here’s the data I’ve collected so far:
tow vehicle
2016 2.7l ecoboost
6 speed auto
4x2
max gross trailer weight, 11k lbs wdh/ 5k lbs standard hitch
max tongue weight, 1,110 lbs wdh/ 500 lbs standard
GVWR, 6250 lbs
Rear GAWR, 3300 lbs
bfg ko2’s on stock rims

hunt truck
I weighed the hunt truck on a Cat scale, full gas tank, one person, no dogs. only other thing I didn’t have is 6 gallons of water, so add 45 pounds
steer axel, 2180lb
drive axel, 2440lb
total 4620lb + 45lbs water weight

truck length 16.5 feet

total dog weight: 300lbs

potential trailer:
Big Tex 70-P 83" x 18' Tandem Axle Pipe Top Utility Trailer
weight 2060lbs
GVWR 7000lbs
payload: 4940lbs


total weight hunt truck and trailer: 6,680lbs
13% tongue weight: 868lbs

So, clearly I will need to run a weight distribution hitch. That would put me under both tongue and max trailer weight. I will be traveling with half the hounds in the truck cap and half the hounds in the hunt truck travel boxes on the trailer.

Am I missing anything? I am probably going to be hauling once or twice a month through the winter, going up in elevation, but all highway. Should the hunt truck be on the trailer backwards since the drive axel has roughly 400 pounds more weight than the front axel? this would put more of the overall load closer to the tongue, is that necessary in the scenario?

This 2.7l has about 140k miles on her, so I don’t expect it to last all that much longer, but she runs really well and is paid off, so we’ll keep it going for this season. I will upgrade to an f250 next so all of this will be no concern by then, but for now I want to make sure I am within reason here.

thanks all for keeping me straight, much appreciated in advance.
Ive attached a picture of the hunt truck, with the dog boxes mostly finished so you can get an idea of the weight distribution here.