NC F150

I realize this is the F-150 forum, however I find much helpful information on here that applies to various makes and styles of vehicles.

What are your thoughts on towing with a ford Transit? They seem to have good payload capacities, which is usually the limiting factor? Just wondering if anyone had tried it or could offer suggestions?

acdii

Transit cargo van is limited to 7500 pounds and the passenger to 5000 pounds.

https://www.fleet.ford.com/resources...e_r8_May15.pdf

Scroll to page 29 for the list of capacities. The max tow is the Powerstroke LWB low roof model.

NC F150

Looked at that. Max tow is 7500 lbs.

Only saw gross cargo weight rating. That doesn't really give much information on payload if you don't know the vehicle weight.

bikendan

you won't get exact payload capacity because each vehicle can be different as equipped. the only way is to see the door sticker.

acdii

It will be exactly the same as the F150. Payload sticker determines your towing weight. Scale it, subtract the weigh ticket from GVWR, divided by .13 and that is the capacity of the trailer. So if you have 800 pounds available payload you can tow a 6100 pound trailer with 13% tongue weight. Of course it must be "Properly Equipped".

smokeywren

But you probably wouldn't want that big boy. Dual rear wheels?

You have to dig a bit deeper.

For example, on fleet.ford.com, for a passenger van with 3.5L EcoBoost engine, 3.73 axle ratio, medium roof height, medium wheelbase (that Ford calls "long":

GVWR 9,400
GCWR 11,200
payload 2,980
max trailer weight 4,600
GVWR minus payload = 6,420 curb weight

That's too small a trailer for my druthers, so I'd get the 350 SRW cargo van instead. Same size and equipment as the pax van above, except no interior behind the front seats.

GVWR 9,500
GCWR 12,600
Payload 4,580
max trailer weight 7,000
GVWR minus payload = 4,920 curb weight.

The cargo van has only 2 seats, so add more seats from the bone yard. Order privacy glass windows all around. Be sure you order the HD towing pkg on any Transit van. And they offer lots of neat options, so study the brochure or order guide to decide what not to order. Running boards? You an order a small step for the driver's door, and a longer running board for the passenger front and side doors.

Surf to https://www.fleet.ford.com/orders/brochures/

and download the Transit brochure. All sorts of specs included.

Anyone can download a brochure or order guide from fleet.ford.com. Lots of other uses of that website requires a fleet ID number, but downloading brochures and order guides are free for everyone.

mikeinatlanta

If I could have equipped a Transit to tow 10,000 I would not have purchased an F150. Best I could configure was also 7,000. The real world max I tow is 8,000. After looking one over I'm thinking maybe it's the brakes that limit it, but don't really know for sure.

ModularFord

I think E-Series was a “better” tow vehicle of you like vans, the chassis was a bit beefier with beefier brakes and obviously the V8 engines had more torque than the current na V6 ones. The Ecoboost transits obviously are much better and I’m sure pull hard but the chassis still limited the capacities.