Towing/hauling with Lariat/Limited/Platinum
03-13-2019, 10:58 PM
#21
Well, that and people usually have a family with at least one kid, so where they going to put the rest of the passengers? There are trailers out there light enough that most F150' can tow them, and still have plenty of room inside them for comfortable glamping. What surprises me, there are many that have the same floorplan, yet the weights are all over the place, I saw one like mine that weighed 9K pounds! Mine is 7600 GVWR and travel ready at 6400. And that heavy one was lacking cabinets that we have in ours!
When setup right any truck with ~1600 pounds payload can tow 7600-8300 GVWR trailer, but they have to be setup correctly and not have a lot of stuff in the cab and bed. With mine I have 400 pounds available hitched up and ready to travel, and if needed can pull the topper off to gain another 250 pounds. The key is setting it up so that the weight gets distributed fore and aft like it is supposed to be.
When setup right any truck with ~1600 pounds payload can tow 7600-8300 GVWR trailer, but they have to be setup correctly and not have a lot of stuff in the cab and bed. With mine I have 400 pounds available hitched up and ready to travel, and if needed can pull the topper off to gain another 250 pounds. The key is setting it up so that the weight gets distributed fore and aft like it is supposed to be.
I know Ford says "when properly equipped" in very very small print on all their ads, but their ads can also be very misleading. Combine that with sleazy RV salespeople and its easy to see how consumers get in trouble /w GVWR.
I wont lie I love my Platty - but I can't argue that a XL Crew Cab wouldn't have been a better choice. Buddy of mine has a 2017 STX /w the 3.5 and 4x4 in a CrewCab and has 19xxlbs of payload. Thats a towing truck for a family.
Last edited by Jeff1024; 03-14-2019 at 09:20 AM.
03-13-2019, 11:10 PM
#22
Yep, 100% agreed. When I replaced my 2014, I knew how much payload I required, and a Lariat 502 had more than the 14 did, and when I had to get rid of that 16 POS, I knew a Plat could handle what I have, so got that instead, but I also know that for us to upgrade we have to stick with the same GVWR trailer in order to use the Plat. I happen to have found the exact one we all like and it is exactly the same GVWR as what we have, and know that it will weigh more than what we have once it is ready for the road, but the Plat has enough payload to handle it and remain within specs. The trick is for us, we take two vehicles when traveling, comes in very handy for us. My wife zips ahead when we get close to the destination, or scouts for fuel stations, or places to eat that we can get the rig into, and at the campsite, if we need something she can hop in her car to go to the store. She has a Focus, gets nearly 40 MPG in it too. For some that might sound stupid, but traveling with 5 people in the ca of the truck for hours on end, the car is a life saver. I take the kids, she travels with my mom. Sometimes the kids will ride with her too. Keeps all our sanity in check. 
As long as a person can understand GVWR, and payload, then finding the right trailer for their truck or right truck for their trailer should be fairly easy. Like you said though, too many sleazy sales people who have no clue about any of it and all they care about is their commission on the sales.
As long as a person can understand GVWR, and payload, then finding the right trailer for their truck or right truck for their trailer should be fairly easy. Like you said though, too many sleazy sales people who have no clue about any of it and all they care about is their commission on the sales.
