bluegrassfan76

Hi everyone, new here but not new to Ford F-150's. When I was 18 I purchased a 1990 F-150 and drove it for quite a while until I had kids and needed an extended cab so I purchased an almost new 2002 F-150 XL. Drove it until 2015 when I bought my current 2011 F-150 XL standard cab. It's just a plain old huntin'/fishin' work truck with manual windows and locks. Vinyl floor and cloth seats is all I need. Shortly after I purchased it my wife and I purchased a little pop-up camper which we have really enjoyed over the last three years but we are currently thinking about selling it and getting a small hard side camper, mainly so we can have something with at least a small bathroom, but I'm having a bit of a time finding out or figuring out what I can safely tow/haul with my truck. It is equipped with the 3.7 V6 and 3.55 gears. Again, not new to trucks but new to campers and towing heavier loads so would greatly appreciate any help and suggestions, especially from anyone with a similar truck who pulls a camper. As a side note, we live in central Illinois where it is flat as a pancake but we do like to go out of state to places that are hillier such as southern Indiana, Ky, and TN. Thanks again!!

MIKE

dajohu

If you want to follow the Ford ratings it looks like it may be rated to tow 5500 or 5600 lbs max. Not sure what you were looking at pulling but I don't think that's a very large trailer/camper.

smokeywren

Hi, bluegrassfan76, and WELCOME! to our campfire.


If it doesn't have the optional towing pkg, then your max tongue weight is 500 pounds. 500 pounds tongue weight is a travel trailer (TT) that weighs less than 3,846 pounds when loaded for camping. That's a tiny TT, probably a 17' Escape or similar. The 17' Escape "Plan B" TT has dry weight of 2,400 pounds and GVWR of 4,000 pounds. With careful weight management, you could probably load the trailer with enough stuff for enjoyable camping without exceeding 500 pounds tongue weight.
http://escapetrailer.com/trailers/the-17-foot-escape/


If your F-150 has the towing pkg and the 8' bed, then by adding a weight-distributing hitch you can increase the gross max tongue weight to about 650 pounds, which is a max loaded trailer weight of about 5,000 pounds. So with that setup, you could graduate up to the 21' Escape, and have more elbow room when camping.
http://escapetrailer.com/trailers/the-21-escape/


There are a coupla other brands of small very-light-weight TTs available, but my senior citizen brain won't let me remember them right now.


But keep those numbers handy. Without the factory optional towing pkg, max tongue weight of 500 pounds, which is max loaded trailer weight of about 3,850 pounds. With the towing pkg and a weight-distributing hitch, max loaded trailer weight of 5,000 pounds, which is max tongue weight of 650 pounds.


Caveat: The RV and trailer Towing Guide says the "tow rating" of your truck with a weight-distributing hitch is 5,600 pounds. But the tow rating assumes nothing is in the truck but a skinny driver. No passengers, pets, tools, campfire wood - nothing that would cause the wet and loaded truck to gross more than 5,000 pounds before you tied onto the trailer.

jay2703

You can find the info on your 2011 truck here. Like dajohu said either 5500# Short bed or 5600# Long Bed

https://www.ford.com/resources/ford/..._F150nov18.pdf

Storeman

Mike

I have a 2012 like yours but XLT 4x4 3,73 gears . This is my experience . I tow a 6 x 10 x 6 foot tall enclosed trailer often and loaded or empty at highway speeds it puts more drag on my truck than when I tow my tractor and trailer combo that weighs in about 8,000 pounds
I don’t recommend towing as much as I do , just pointing out wind drag is worse than weight . It will pull it but gas mileage will be terrible and you will want to lock it out of 6th and 5th more than likely . Towing my tractor I usually run 3 or 4 depending on speed and road conditions but I am local only towing . The 3.7 is pretty amazing for a NA engine the transmissions low 1st gear really helps on these versus the old 4 speed models .

bluegrassfan76

Thanks for the replies and advice! I really appreciate it! I'm sorry I forgot to mention that mine is 2WD with the 6 1/2' bed. I think finding a camper light enough for us to pull may be a bit of a challenge so we may just have to stick with our popup. We have a 2006 Trailblazer with almost 170,000 miles that we may be looking to upgrade in the next couple years so when we do we may have to look at replacing it with something that will have the ability to tow more. Probably another SUV with a V8 instead of the inline 6 that our current Trailblazer has. Thanks again!

chimmike

check out the Coachman Apex Nano line of campers. Ours is a 20 footer with a dry weight of 3000lbs, has a rear bath. With our gear in it, there's no way it's more than 4,000lbs.

smokeywren

SUVs are deceiving. Ignore the "tow rating" and be concerned with the GVWR of the SUV. Folks want an SUV because they can haul lots of passengers and stuff in the cab with comfort. But those passengers and stuff are heavy, so the weight of those folks and stuff plus the hitch weight of a decent-sized TT will overload the SUV.

So assuming you're a Chevy fan, I'll use a new Tahoe as an example of your new V8 SUV.

Ignore those tow ratings - they're wildly overstated. Go by the GVWR. So be certain your new Tahoe has the Max Trailering pkg, but then determine the payload capacity available for hitch weight.

Payload capacity available for hitch weight = GVWR of the tow vehicle minus the wet and loaded weight of the tow vehicle. So load the new Tahoe with all the people, pets, and anything else that will be in the SUV when towing, drive to a truck stop that has a certified automated truck (CAT) scale, fill up with gas, then weigh the wet and loaded SUV. Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded SUV from the GVWR of the SUV, and the answer is the payload capacity available for hitch weight.

Subtract another 100 pounds from the payload capacity available for hitch weight to get payload capacity available for tongue weight. Divide the payload capacity available for tongue weight by 13% (0.13) and the answer the max weight of any TT with average tongue weight (TW) you can tow without being overloaded.


Not dry weight of the trailer; max weight of the wet and loaded trailer. Instead of guessing, the conservative way is to use the GVWR of the trailer as the max weight of the trailer. If the GVWR is not included in the trailer specs, then add the dry weight plus the cargo carrying capacity (CCC) to approximate GVWR.


Guaranteed, the max weight of the trailer you can safely tow without being overloaded will be a lot less than the 8,600 pounds tow rating, and probably less than 6,000 pounds

mass-hole

As mentioned, the weight isnt necessarily the biggest issue, wind drag from towing a big 8' wide box behind you is. Even if you drop the weight of the trailer, the wind drag will probably about the same as a heavier trailer cause usually all you are doing is decreasing the length. The width and height will be about the same.