hi folks. first post here. it concerns your best guess on what tow bar / ball mount to get to tow a car hauler.

I have a 14 F-150 STX (4x4) w/ 18" wheels. Just purchased (but have yet to pick up) a 17 foot Kaufman diamond floor to haul the competition car(s). the f150 has the factory tow pkg, 3.73s, and the trailer brake controller.

what i know - factory receiver is 2" ; ball dia is to be 2 5/16 and i am looking for something that is good for 7500 lbs / 700 or more TW.

what i don't know is the drop I should be thinking about, or the length of the bar, or for that matter, manufacturers, etc.

I've requested the coupler height from Kaufman, but thought some of you may have already be hauling this combo and might have a guestimate. and I'm definitely interested in brand feedback, etc, as well as - anything you know now, that you wish you'd known when you got your ball mount.

thanks!

v/r

 

Hi and welcome!!


I'm not quite sure what you're asking about when you mention "what tow bar / ball mount to get".

I think you're asking about a WDH (Weight Distributing Hitch), which is what you'll need for pulling anything with more than 500 lbs of tongue weight.


The tongue weight of a trailer is commonly recommended to be 10% to 15% of the loaded trailer, so if you're going to be pulling 7500 lbs the tongue weight will be in the range of 750 lbs to 1125 lbs.


I assume that with a 3.73 rear end you probably have the Max Tow pkg - and that would be good for hauling a heavy trailer.


You need to tell us a little more about your truck. Take a look on the driver's door at the 2 stickers there and tell us your:

• GVWR (max weight of the fully loaded truck)
• The payload capacity ("weight of passengers and cargo should never exceed xxxx lbs")
• Subtract the payload from the GVWR and it will be the empty weight of your truck (nothing at all in it, except for a full tank of gas)

Also, look under your rear bumper and tell us what the sticker with the hitch rating says - it will probably say max trailer/tongue weight is 5000/500 for bumper pull (no WDH), and 11,500/1150 with a WDH.


I looked at the Kaufman site, and they have a lot of Diamond Floor trailers with various GVWRs from 6000 to 10000 lbs. However, they didn't list the weights of the trailers.

• Which one are you getting?
• What is the empty weight of the trailer?

What is the weight of:

• The car you'll be hauling on the trailer? (none of the cars in your signature look like they should weigh more than 2800-3000 lbs; and the Ninja is probably around 400-450 lbs; will you carry it along with a car?)
• Any other stuff you'll haul on the trailer? (will you have a spare tire rack, gas cans, box for tools/spares, generator, compressor?)

BTW - if you are asking about a WDH, just Google "weight distribution (or distributing) hitch". Also take a look at the Reese, Husky, Curt, and Equal-I-zer sites to see their hitches. There are also lots of threads here on the forum about various WDH - do a forum search for lots of good info.

Welcome, and you're in the right place to get great answers about your truck and towing your cars to track events - this forum is GREAT!!


Bob


.

 

The largest ballmount i found was a reese at the time was 600/6000 you can buy larger solid//cast mounts...but ford f150s say wdh after 5000...i use one when needed..if just using as a trailer i use the reese...

 

thanks for the replies! most appreciated. you're helping me formulate better questions, which is great. I have never towed before. (not anything)

not concerned about a WDH unless I need one.

my question, really, is about drop versus rise, and the length of the mount. I figured i would go with something rated at 7500 or better. max tow capacity of the truck is said by Ford to be 9700 lbs, but i shouldn't be too, too close to that. max gcwr is said by ford to be 15,100.

trailer is probably 2k or so unloaded (7000 gvwr); the STi is about 3100 lbs presently, and figure wheels tires and gear are another 400 lbs or so absolute max (though some or all of that will be in the truck bed or cab (never towed or had a trailer til now ; what i've carried to events is what i could fit in the car). no tool box or tire rack.

per ford: gvwr for the truck is 7350; max payload 1830, making 5520 the apparent unladen weight of the truck.



so...how does this info change the analysis? I'm looking in the manual now for anything that says I have to use a WDH if over 5k.....

 

5500 lb loaded trailer - you should have a WDH!


Look under your rear bumper and you'll see a sticker with your hitch rating limits - I suspect it will say that the max trailer weight and tongue weight if not using a WDH will be 5000/500.


So - any tongue weight over 500 lbs should have a WDH.


Tongue weight should be at least 10% of trailer weight, but more like 12% to 13%, i.e., around 650 lbs.


If you're towing short distances, no bigee.


If you're towing a couple hundred miles several weekends a month all summer, you should definitely have the correct setup for towing a 5500+ lb trailer.


Once you get your rig, you need to take it to the local CAT scales to weigh it so you know exactly what you're dealing with.


.

 

10-4. i'll start searching wdh threads as well. and thanks for the CAT scale thing, their site tells me just exactly where i can get weighed locally.

 

You will get all kinds on answer on wdh needed or not. Many folks do not use them and are fine. At 5-6 k lbs I wouldn't bother with one. I've towed 8 k lb 20' enclosed trailers thousands of miles without a wdh and...... I lived. Truck pulled it fine with no problems at all. Also pull 8k lb boat without wdh, no issues at all at 70 mph for thousands of miles.

So make your own decision but my recommendation is to get your ball and mount with a 2" drop and hit the road....

 

Normally I'd reccommend a WDH for TT's and large heavy boats but in your case the 17' open deck car hauler probably doesn't need one. Use the length to balance the load and control the hitch weight to your advantage. Besides a WDH would be hard to set up for all the possible weight choices you'll have with a car hauler. Hitch drop can be difficult to predict til you see how much sag you'll get with the loaded trailer. For future reference a 17' car hauler with a 7000lb GVW works great for carrying cars but pushes the limit in length and GVW when you put any full size pickup on it.

 

Here's my car hauler at about 6000 lbs in this picture, with 675 lbs of tongue weight:




I'm not using a WDH in the picture above, and the rear is squatting quite a bit. I towed it about 300 miles round trip like that, but won't do it again. With all that weight on the tongue, plus the stuff I had in the bed, I was over the hitch limit and the truck's GVWR. Coming home in the evening after the track event I got numerous flashes from oncoming traffic because my low beams were blinding them.

With a conventional tow hitch limit of 5000/500 I was over by just a little bit - okay for a one time short distance tow, but not for 700 miles each way like I'll do the end of June.

If you're running 650-700 lbs of tongue weight like I am, you want a WDH.

You can get an add-a-leaf, Timbrens, Ride Rite airbags, RAS, etc., in order to take the sag out of the rear, but you'll still be over your hitch rating.

Mark where you load the car and load the trailer the same every time, and once you set up your WDH it will be the same every time you hook up.

Just MHO, YMMV.

 

You're right on the edge of needing WD hitch. Probably not mandatory at just over 5k lbs, but IMHO makes for a much better setup. Little more up front cost and a little more setup when hitching, but the gains far outweigh those drawbacks. Better trailer weight control, level towing (no rear-end squat), adjustable hitch height, and plenty of room to grow in trailer weight in the future.

Here's my 18ft open car-hauler and WD hitch weighing in right a 7k lbs. Notice no rear end squat due to the weight distribution and that's without airbags.