Towing
#3
Senior Member
right at max on length, but not enough info to give a formal positon. engine /trim level/ yellow sticker on door jamb/axle ratio/ all wll help us give a good opi.
#4
Grumpy Old Man
Trailer length is not as important as trailer weight, and especially wet and loaded hitch weight. Most properly equipped F-150s can tow a 30" TT with no problem if you limit the weight in the truck and trailer so you don't exceed any of Ford's weight ratings.
To give you a WAG we'd need the specs Lenn mentioned. But even better would be the GVWR and payload capacity of your pickup along with the GVWR and dry weight and dry hitch weight of the trailer. You can pull a lot heavier trailer than you can haul the hitch weight of that trailer.
Dry hitch weight ( tongue weight or TW) divided by dry trailer weight will give you the percent of hitch weight. Trailer GVWR times the percent of hitch weight will give you an approximation of the wet and loaded hitch weight for a well-designed TT.
For example, if your 2015 F-150 shorty is an F-150 SuperCrew 4x4 with 3.5L EcoBoost engine and 3.73 axle ratio along with the Heavy Duty Payload Package, then Ford says you can tow a trailer that weighs up to 11,700 pounds without overheating anything in your drivetrain, and without being the slowpoke holding up traffic on steep grades. But that's a myth, because it requires absolutely nothing in the truck but a skinny driver, and no options that were not required to achieve that 11,700 pounds tow rating. And nobody tows a TT under those conditions except maybe the RV transporters that deliver new TTs to dealers. But the real-world tow rating would probably be around 10,000 pounds for that truck.
On the other extreme, if your F-150 is a regular cab or SuperCab shorty with the standard V6 non-turbo engine and 3.55 axle ratio, your tow rating is only 5,000 pounds. And you won't find a 30-foot TT with GVWR of only 5,000 pounds.
So give us the specs of your F-150 and of your trailer and someone will expand that into the max trailer weight you can tow without being overloaded.
#5
Rule of thumb is divide your wheelbase inches by 5. The result is the approximate number of feet for length of trailer. Length is important as the trailer can be a big sail in a crosswind.