usmcknight69

I have a 2013 F150 5.0 with 3.73's. The truck is on 6" lift with 35's. I just purchased a 32ft bunkhouse with dry weight of 6800#. Any recommendations on modifications to the truck or am I good. It has built-in brake controller and sway control. The dealer I purchased trailer from is notorious for not selling trailers if the buyers truck can't handle it. He said I was good to go. I'm having a WDH installed when I pick up the trailer Monday. He also recommended with the WDH and sway control system that I turn off the sway control mode on the truck....does this make sense?

5.0GN tow

The lift and 35s won't help much but you should be ok with that trailer if set up well on WDH. Payload will be close when loaded but you should be ok. Might want to lock out 6th but other than that I see no major issues. I like your avatar of the thin blue line. I am retired from it myself. Not sure what to tell you on the sway control. I tow GN or boats with mine and they have not activated it yet and I don't have it on the hitch.

brulaz

Didn't know you could turn off sway control on the truck?
I haven't and don't know why I should.
It only activates under extreme events anyway, your WDH with sway control should stop sway first. If it doesn't, get a better hitch/sway control.

smokeywren

He's wrong.

The built-in Ford electronic sway control does nothing more than reduce engine power to slow you down and maybe slightly apply braking at some wheels if it senses sway. The anti-sway control on a good WD hitch is a mechanical anti-sway device that works very well with the Ford electronic sway control.

I've towed about 25,000 miles with my 2012 F-150 and a Reese Strait-Line WD hitch or a ProPride WD hitch with never a hint of any problems with the Ford system and the Reese or ProPride systems conflicting with each other in any way.


But if you insist, the Ford electronic sway control can be switched off. Look in your Owner's Guide under "AdvanceTrac with Roll Stability Control". In my 2012 Owner's Guide, it's on pages 286 thru 292.

usmcknight69

Thank you all for the info. I figured it didn't make any sense to turn the sway control off.

5.0GN...Thank You for your service....im at 11yrs and counting.

5.0GN tow

Thank you for yours as well. I think as long as you keep 6th locked out you will be pleased with how the 5.0 tows.

llangarica

whats the recommended towing capacity for a 4x4 5.0 with 3.73 gears? im looking into buying a toyhauler, but i want to know what im limited to. the ford towing selector guide says 9300 lbs, but im not sure if im reading it correctly.

BRUTE448

my truck in sig 5.0 CCSB is 9300 but only 1264 # of payload..ill be conv. a 20' dual axle enclosed vs an actual toy hauler

llangarica

1264# is not bad, the trailers I'm looking at are around 7500# loaded and 800-1000# tongue weight. I plan on getting leveling bags and a weight distribution hitch to help with that too. I'm just glad it can tow a decent sized trailer.

smokeywren

You're probably reading it right, but the tow rating is misleading. You can tow that much trailer without being overloaded only if you have an F-150 with no options and nothing in it but a skinny driver.


There are two weight ratings you need to worry about. One, on which the tow rating is based, is GCWR. But GCWR and the resulting tow rating ignore GVWR.


GVWR is probably your limiter. How heavy a trailer can you tow without exceeding the GVWR? Since you already have the F-150, then load it with everything that will be in it when towing, including the shank and head of the hitch, driver and all the passengers, pets, campfire wood, tools, etc. Drive to a truck stop that has a CAT scale and fill up with gas, then weigh the wet and loaded F-150. Subtract the wet and loaded weight of the F-150 from the GVWR of the F-150. The answer is the maximum hitch weight (tongue weight) you can haul without being overloaded. Divide that max tongue weight by 0.15 and the answer is the max GVWR of any travel trailer you want to consider. (It will be a whole lot less than 9,300 pounds, and probably less than 7,000 pounds.)



My F-150 has a tow rating of 8,400 pounds, but I'm overloaded with my small TT that grosses only 4,870 pounds when wet and loaded on the road. So word to the wise.