Kikki

So we bought a trailer that weighs 3200 lbs and the truck only tows 3200 lbs per the ford dealership. We towed the trailer and it really struggles because of the added weight from stuff inside the trailer and back of truck (campin stuff) is there an ad on or chip to give engine more torque or whatever so the truck can tow the trailer plus extra weight without struggling and ruining the engine?

f150cam

what year? 3200 lbs is all it can tow? is it a 70s or something.

Kikki

It's a 2011 f150 Texas edition.

f150cam

your truck should hardly notice 3200 lbs.

srg12

Doesn't sound right, I have a 12 f150 Texas edition and tow a TT max weight 6200 lbs and tows fine , I have 5.0

f150cam

i cant figure out where hes getting 3200 lbs from lol.

srg12

Smallest max weight trailer tow I see is reg cab 126" wheelbase 3.7L with 3.55 gears that's out of My owners guide for 2012 model is 5500Lbs

brulaz

Yep, that's right. But it may work hard with headwinds and up hills. Unlike the Turbo Eco V6, the 3.7L V6 doesn't have a lot of low end torque. So it will downshift to get the revs up and get the torque needed. That's how they're designed to operate. It may make for a noisy and busy ride, but I wouldn't worry about it much as long as you're under your weight limits.

My previous truck had similar power (Tacoma 4L V6). Going across Manitoba we were fighting constant prairie head winds and spent all the time in a lower gear. Worst gas mileage ever and really, really noisy. The F150 has much better sound dampening and a better tranny so you have that.

I would be more concerned about what a tuner was doing to my engine in terms of wear-n-tear, than towing within your limits.

smokeywren

Your tow rating is at least 5,500 pounds. That tells you how much weight you can pull without overheating something in the drivetrain. Your dealer may be one of the few that was giving you the actual tow rating as restricted by the payload capacity of your truck. The hitch weight is not considered when computing the tow rating, so if you haul a bunch of passengers and other cargo in the pickup, your actual tow rating may well be as low as 3,200 pounds.

Your V6 engine is a little powerhouse with 300 high-reving horses. You don't need more horses, but maybe you just don't like to downshift and rev the engine up enough to put those 300 horses to work? I suspect that's your concern. An aftermarket tune will void the factory warranty on your drivetrain, and probably won't lower the engine RPM required to tow that trailer over a long steep grade. So you'll just have to downshift and put up with the high RPM needed to tow that trailer.

The fix would be to change the engine out for one with more torque, which means either turbo-charging or more cubic inches. If you had the 3.5L EcoBoost engine, you'd probably be happy. Or even the 5.0L V8. But the 3.7L V6 engine has to rev up to make enough HP and torque to do any serious work.

Wisdom

3200 isn't very much unless it's a tall trailer that was providing a lot of wind resistance? Or maybe the axles / bearings are bad in the trailer causing it to pull heavy