KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

No, NO, NO!! You DO NOT have a 7700 lb tow capacity. That's for a truck with NO options and nothing in it but a 150 lb driver. As soon as additional weight of options, more people in the cab, and some firewood, other camping equipment, and some tools are loaded in the bed, YOUR TRUCK'S tow capacity goes waaaaayyyy down!!!


Let's say you have a truck that can pull a 15,000 lb load.


You come across a truck that's stuck in the mud, and it only weighs 12,000 lbs - no sweat, right?


You're hitch is rated for 10,000 lbs before you might rip it off the truck. Hmmmm....you've got a limit that is LESS than the load you want to pull.


You open up your tool box and pull out your tow strap that has a limit of 6,000 lbs.


Uh-Oh....You've got another limit that is waaaay below the job you want to use it for!!!


Just because your truck can pull 15,000 lbs, do you think you can pull that 12,000 lb truck with stuff that's only rated for less than that???? The lowest limit is the tow strap, and that would be the max you could safely pull.


You need to look at the LOWEST weight limit rating of your truck.


Just because the "SALES" brochure says an F150 can tow 7700 lbs does not mean that YOUR truck can do that!!


As we have discussed before, that 7700 "max trailer weight" in the "sales" brochures is the lowest model/trim truck with NO options and with NOTHING in the truck except for a skinny 150 driver. It will have a lot higher payload capacity than YOUR truck, and it doesn't have the 750 lbs of people and stuff in the truck that you want to load up with when you tow.


Your PAYLOAD CAPACITY of 1528 lbs will usually be your limiting factor.


750 lbs of people and stuff in the truck, plus a WDH head of at least 50 lbs, leaves you 1528-800=728 lbs for tongue weight.


The trailer you're looking at a DRY tongue weight of 785 lbs!!! You're overweight with the dry trailer!!!


Another limit is the GCWR - the combined weight of your truck and trailer.


As I said in a previous post:Bottom line - you cannot tow more than the most restrictive/lowest weight limit of your truck. It looks to me like, if you want to load up your truck with 750 lbs of people and stuff before you hook up to a trailer, you can NOT tow more than about a 6900 lb max weight trailer (wet & loaded), and you need to keep the tongue weight down below 728 lbs (about 10.5%).


However....many people just hook up and go. If you don't care about towing overweight just get a heavy trailer and it may tow just fine. But, you'll be cutting into the strengths built into the truck, which might cut into reliability and add additional maintenance and longevity concerns.


Me, I like to be conservatively under the max limits of the most restrictive limit of my truck so I have a safe, comfortable, no worries towing experience, and don't run into maintenance problems from running my truck over the limits of the engine, axles, springs, etc., etc., etc..


.

Feathermerchant

FWIW Ford offers a HD Payload Package (not available aftermarket) that adds about 700lb to the payload capacity of a typical truck. My truck for example has a payload capacity of 2200 lb. So when it comes time to replace the truck...

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

Absolutely something to consider!!


The HD package usually needs to be an "ordered" truck - not many are in inventory on dealer's lots.


Also, as I said earlier, for some reason the 5.0L has a GCWR about 1800 lbs less than a comparably equipped 3.5L EcoBoost. Not sure why, and there's been a lot of talk on the forum that the 5.0L is artificially low to steer people toward buying the truck Ford wants to sell - the EcoBoost.


But, like your truck, an F150 can be a full 1-Ton truck with the HD package.


OTOH, my truck is a true 1/2-Ton pickup. My heavily optioned King Ranch is very payload challenged with only 1115 lbs (and with my bed liner and tonneau it's actually down to 1020 lbs!!!


.

Feathermerchant

I think mine was ordered. I bought it CPO with about 24000 mi.

schmenke

Hey HappyCamper, listen to what KR Kodi has to say. Lots of useful information there.

You need to look at the sticker on the inside of your truck’s driver-side door frame. It should look something like below.



When considering towing with a half-ton truck (as has been mentioned) the limiting factor will almost always be the maximum payload capacity, identified on the door sticker as “The combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed…”. This value needs to be compared with the total payload of your truck when loaded with all passengers, camping gear, WDH, shank, and the GROSS (i.e. “wet”) tongue weight of your trailer. If the indicated payload capacity is exceeded you either need to shed some cargo from your truck or consider a smaller trailer. Keep in mind also that the indicated payload capacity excludes any aftermarket truck accessories, such as a tonneau cover, bed liner, etc.

You mention that your trailer has a dry hitch weight of 785lbs. The gross weight, when fully loaded, will likely be over 900lbs. The estimated gross weight of your trailer should be indicated on a sticker somewhere on the outside of the body.

Ricktwuhk

You need to SLOW DOWN. Until you completely understand how to determine what you can tow, what WDH you will need, and how everything works together, IMHO you should buy nothing. . Don't ask trailer dealers, don't ask Ford dealers, LEARN. Otherwise you risk the safety of your family and the safety of others - i. e. us.

HappyCamper123

I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around this. but if someone would be willing to help me, I have picked out a different trailer option - here are the numbers:
truck payload capacity per sticker in door: 1582
Truck towing capacity per manual: 7700 (i realize this changes but this is on paper)

Trailer shipped weight with all the options etc: about 6800(give or take a few pounds)
trailer tongue weight: 660 (this is a a bit off - the weight was based on 6540 shipped weight and we added some options to bump it to 6800, so the tongue weight likely went up a little too)

Our tongue weight capactiy per ford is 10-15% of the trucks listed tow capacity (so 10-15% of 7700(on paper) - which is 770 to 1155

this is lower than the other trailer, but not sure if it is low enough to be safe. It's getting harder to find what we want the smaller and lighter we go on the campers..

HappyCamper123

I also want to understand something that has me baffled. the travel trailers that are ultralight - say 2,000 lbs less than what I even have listed above, still may only be 100 lbs or less difference on the tongue. I mean, dropping the weight of the trailer by 2000 lbs, and only having an 80 lb difference in the tongue, if the payload is the concern, does that even matter? Goodness, at this rate I can't tow ANYTHING with our payload already at about 750 or so with people/dog food etc - that leaves about 800 lbs and with anywhere from 550 and up for anything worth while as for tongue weight, that leaves 250 in the bed (or maybe 150). that sounds ok to me but I don't fully understand it all

jroc99

Your truck sounds like it has the same capacity as mine, 7700 max tow etc. I believe you probably have more trailer options than you think. We just bought a 24', ( just under 28' bumper to hitch ) with a walk around queen up front, dinette slide, double over double bunks and bathroom in the rear. It is not classed as an ultralight but comes in at just over 4600lbs dry. We looked at another manufacturer with an identical layout and it was 5800lbs. My buddy also has a 23' with slide that is over 6500 dry. Are you looking at models over 30' long? Multiple slides? We wanted to keep the dry weight under 5000 lbs and actually found quite a few with all the options we wanted. I 'm sure you can find something to fit your needs without going overweight. Good luck and happy hunting!

HappyCamper123

you may be right - but maybe we need to look at other brands - we were going with Jayco for quality, so maybe we have to sacrifice that then.. what brand did you go with?