Hey there. Found a 2021 F-150 with the trim and options I'd want. Payload sticker says 1350. This will be a TV. Trailer's TW is 770 with batteries and propane. We rarely travel with water or lots of stuff in the trailer. Say it climbs to 900 worse comes to worst. I'll use a WD hitch. Does the following calculation work:

-Paylod: 1350
-Tongue weight on truck's hitch with WD (1/3 distributed to trailer): 600
-Payload left for occupants and cargo: 750

Does this make sense and do folks think it's enough?

Any info appreciated.

 

A 900 pound tongue weight would be for a trailer with a GVWR of 6,923. Does that match up?

You CANNOT remove 300 pounds of tongue weight, assuming it all goes back to the trailer. On average, it will move 10 to 15% of the tongue weight, i.e. 90 - 135 pounds. It will move weight to the vehicle's front axle also. And, you don't remove it from the calculation regardless.

1,350 - 900 - 100 for wdh = 350 pounds for occupants and cargo.

 

The trailer's TW is 770# which might include propane and a battery but what it doesn't include is food, beer, clothing, sheets, beer, water, a fridge full of beer, cooler full of meat, chairs and anything else you might throw in the camper. It is also likely taken from the website so that is likely a base model, so if you have factory or dealer options added to the trailer that all increases the TW.

I usually ask what the GVWR of the camper is. That is your worst case. My GVWR is 6750 but we are normally around 6500 based on CAT Scales. I like running 13% tongue weight so that is 845# normally or if I was at max GVWR 877.5#. Add in the weight of the WD hitch as that counts against payload as well. So in round numbers I use 900# TW for the camper including the WD Hitch for how I normally tow. Some people like to estimate the WD is 100# but mine isn't that heavy.

So in my case my payload is 1568 - 900 for the TW/WD hitch leaves 668 for people and things that were added to the truck after it left to the factory.

Don't carry anything in the truck other than people. That big bed is tempting to fill with chairs and coolers. However 100# of stuff in the cab or bed count as 100# against a tight payload. If you put it in the camper now you only carry 13% so 13# of the 100# of stuff.

 

Higher payload will give you much fun for travelling with a trailer and go camping with a lot of stuff.

 

Base weight is 5900
GVWR is 7600
TW is 791

This is indeed the manufacturer's specs.

Novice here so sorry for the obvious question but how does WD 'move' the weight but you still have to add all of it to your calculation?

 

I believe it's best to use .13 (13%) of the GVWR to calculate the maximum potential Tongue weight. That is 988 lbs.

1350-988- 100 (hitch weight) = 262 lbs left for people and cargo. Not much left...

 

Your truck is still carrying the weight of the hitch. The WD hitch is more moving the weight to the front axle rather than all of it being over the rear axle. If you didn't do this you would blow way past the rear axle rating, lighten the load on the front and this could impact steering and braking ability.

If the camper's GVWR is 7600, I would plan on 7000 min for the real weight of the camper. They always try and make the trailer seem lighter than real world use so more people buy them and then they can work out the right tow vehicle later. If you use the about 7000# weight in real world use, you are at 910# plus close to 100# for a WD hitch and you are taking up 1000# of your payload.

Of course these are all estimates but what I would use. My truck has quite a bit more payload and I wouldn't personally tow a 7000# trailer. There are people here that would and actually do it. That is on them. Sure the truck will pull it but with my family on board it is just too much.

My guess (you didn't say) but I will be willing to bet this is a hybrid truck probably fairly well optioned. I was really looking forward to these coming out until I saw the payload on them are in the 1300 range. That was a deal killer for them unless they come out with a hybrid system like this for a 3/4 or 1 ton.

Realistically, for a trailer as heavy as you are looking at, I personally would feel more comfortable pulling it with a 3/4 ton. That is me though. You can do what you want.

 

That is how I normally do it as well. The technical numbers are you want 10-15% tongue weight. So technically you can do 10%. If I am pulling a flat bed car hauler with a tractor on it, I am fine running 10%. The reason is that it is easy to shift the load forward back to dial it in. There are no tall walls to catch the wind so they are more stable. None of this is true with a camper. Campers have tall walls that like to catch the wind. Not to mention lets say you are pushing the numbers so you carefully pack things to do 10%. What happens if you camp somewhere that doesn't have a dump station. Now you are going down the road with full black and grey tanks. They are typically behind the axles on the camper so that robs tongue weight. If you are running the line on 10% now you might be at 8%, a little bit of cross wind and you are going to get into trouble. The last thing I want to do is sit on the side of the road trying to repack the camper shifting weight forward. By running 13% and staying below GVWR it leaves me enough in reserves so I can just go. There is enough cushion in my numbers that I am fine with it when my family is in the truck.

Those PowerBoost trucks would be great for camping but they are about worthless to me with the payload numbers I have seen. Maybe on a lower trim there might be a HDPP option or something to help out. I am not sure about that. In the higher trims they are worthless to me. Unless I wanted it to power the house in a power outage or something. I have a standalone Yamaha generator that is 7500W for that anyhow.

 

That's right. Platinum Hybrid. A dealer has it in stock. In a perfect world, I'd go Lariat Hybrid custom ordered with few options. I believe I'd be around 1600 payload from what I gather. However, that's 12 weeks to wait. Need it faster.

Am with you, the hybrid payload is disappointing. They have the power to tow heavier trailers but it falls apart, it would seem, on payload.

 

I would doubt a Lariat with Hybrid would be 1600lbs. I have a 2018 Plat and my payload is 1568. I would say regular Lariats with the 3.5 might be in the 1600 range but Hybrid is probably closer to 1400-1450 at best.

Yeah I was drooling over those Hybrid trucks when I first read about them and how it would be so nice as we do a lot of dry camping. No more having to deal with a generator. It just isn't an option with our current camper unless we went way down in trim or wait until we are empty nesters and don't need a bunkhouse anymore and can do a smaller camper. By then they might have it in a 3/4 ton or 1 ton options.

Even with a truck like mine it isn't anything with the amount of power to pull it heck even stop the weight. It comes down to real weight on the road. There are limits for 1/2 ton trucks and as these trucks get loaded down with more and more tech, the get heavier and heavier. That max combined weight (GCWR) doesn't change and that means what they can haul has to go down. There is no way around it other than going up a class which is why I said you are getting into the 3/4 ton range.

I often use the example of how Ford likes saying my truck can tow something like 13,200# but not when it is a trailer that has tongue weight. Maybe a hay wagon but I don't pull them. Payload is normally the first number you run into problems with.