Dane52

I bought a travel trailer weighing in at 3800 lbs and towing it with my 1997 F150 XLT w/4.6L Triton engine. Is this too much trailer for this truck?

marshallr

I had a 2002 Screw with that engine, I never tried to tow with it. It was rated for about 6800 lbs IIRC, but it struggled with 4 adults in it. I kept it just long enough to be able to afford to trade it something with more power.

smokeywren

I inherited a 2006 F-150 Lariat SuperCrew with the 4.6L 2v engine and 3.55 axle. Pretty thing in Navy blue, but it was a dog. I towed my lightly-loaded 7x14 cargo trailer from Midland to Phoenix on I-20/I-10. It struggled at 65 MPH. Then I drove home with an empty trailer an it was still a dog. Aerodynamic drag was enough to make it a miserable trip. Right after I got home from that Phoenix trip I traded it in on a new F-150 with 3.5L EcoBoost engine. Wow! What a big difference that engine made,

My suggestion: For your 22-year-old pickup with that weak drivetrain, load the F-150 with everybody an everything that will be in it when towing. Drive to a truck stop that has a Cat scale and fill up with gas,, then weigh the wet and loaded F-150.

If you have the 3.55 axle, and automatic tranny, your GCWR is 10,000 pounds. So for a trailer that grosses 3,800 pounds, your truck could weigh as much as 6,200 pounds before you run out of towing capacity. PROVIDED your truck is in excellent mechanical condition and your cooling system is as good as new. If your wet and loaded truck weighs more than 6,200 pounds, or if you have less than the 3.55 axle, then forget it. You'll overheat the drivetrain while towing, and you'll be the slowpoke holding up traffic on hills and passes.

jeffinthebag

I had a 1997 reg cab, 2WD, Lariat, 3.55 rear, 4.6. It towed a 6x12 enclosed cargo trailer weighting a total of 6,000 trailer and cargo combined ok. No major hills . The 3 speed transmission was the downfall in my opinion.
That said, best looking truck I ever had and my all time favorite!

Dane52

Thanks everyone for the info. I was thinking of buying a transmission cooler and trans temp gauge, is this a waste of money? Maybe just buy another truck? The truck runs great.

smokeywren

It's almost required for towing a 3,800 pound TT if you want the tranny to survive more than a few miles,

Be sure the sender is in the sump (near the bottom of the side of the tranny pan) and that the gauge is clearly marked between 210° and 240° so you can read it at a glance to be sure you don't exceed 225° sump temp for more than a few seconds. If you can see the top of the pass ahead, then it's okay to have sump temp over 225°° for few seconds, but otherwise 225° is the redline. Do not install the sender in a tranny cooler line because the hot line coming out of the torque converter and going to the cooler will have much higher temp, and the cold line going back to the tranny will show cooled temp. If your tranny pan does not have a bung in the pan where you could install the sender, then you'll need to drill a hole and install a theaded bung of the right size. Some Ford tranny, including the 4R100, have a threaded bung in the tranny that reports sump temp, but I don't know about yours.

There are numerous different tranny temp gauges available. You want one that is easy to read at a glance. Here's the one I'd probably choose: