5.0GN tow

Read through all of this even the really old parts lol. When I was deciding to buy both my 2013 f150 and later my 2016F F350, I spent substantial time online and looking at spec sheets of my trailers and even trailers we were considering at the time. Its something everyone should do. I knew the specific truck I was looking at could do what I needed it to do, the 150 was at its limits, but inside them.

When we started to look at LQ trailers I started studying the pin weights and towed weights of a lot of them. One early thing I noticed was some trailer makers put more weight on the truck than others. This means not only do you have to study the truck side, but the trailers too. I quickly realized all the SRW large LQ combos I see at shows were grossly overloaded. If you want a 3 to 4 horse 13 plus foot its dually time. Then I started looking at dually payloads and like 150s options steal payload quick. I rapidly came to the conclusion that a nicely set up XL with the power group was the best compromise. A new stereo was added aftermarket and now its basically an XLT equipment set up. But I ended up with 5800lbs of payload, where the KR is right around 5k. Thats lot of extra trailer that I can pull. With DOT boys cracking down on Horse Trailer weights in certain states this became more important.

So when we purchased the new trailer 1 year after the truck, it was easier, I knew I had enough truck. We ended up with a trailer that puts 20% on the pin appx depending on load out(4000 to 4500lbs), I dont even have to worry now I have 1200plus to play with no matter what.

When I was buying the truck and trailer, the dealers were shocked I took the time to know this info. Both were good honest places and asked what trailers and trucks were matching up, and actually took the time to verify my info before the deal was done. Maybe its because they are all horse people too, I dont know.

Mike Up

If the buyer doesn't know what tool to do the job with, for the safety of everyone, he should not be doing the job!

To many ignorant people towing large trailers.

Hek, my 2000 Xterra said it would tow 5000 lbs with an anemic 3.3L V6 and a 4 speed auto. My 29' Jay Flight is stated at 4800 lbs in the brochure and is 5050#s dry. An ignorant person would think he pull my Jay Flight with that short wheelbase, anemic SUV. Best to keep those type of people from towing anything large.

kbroderick

Well, if they tried to tow anything with real frontal area with that XTerra, they'd either figure it out real quick or end up dying of old age before reaching the destination. I had one with a 5-speed, and towing an empty 6x12 enclosed trailer 60 miles was painful. Towing my open sled trailer (two-sled, all-aluminum trailer, probably around 1500 pounds total) was less painful but I sure as heck wasn't passing anyone.

But I think it's reasonable to expect that someone who's in the business of selling a particular kind of item (whether it be hardware supplies, trucks, computers, or whatnot) be willing and able to accurately answer customer's questions if they cite a particular use case...or at least say, "Gee, that's an interesting question, I'm not sure if you can use this tool for that job; I don't know much about that particular job." For example, I can walk into the local hardware store, show them a photo of a pipe that's leaking under the sink, and they can help me figure out which pipe they carry is most likely to fit (and, being a small-town store, they'll probably let me return and swap it if I realize before installation that it's not the right pipe). They obviously can't read your mind, and if you walk in and just grab the wrong pipe off the shelf (or quote an optimistic dry weight of a trailer) you may end up with the wrong tool for the job.

But if I walked into the local Ford dealership and said that I was looking to tow a 30-foot, 10k wet travel trailer (or any sort of 5th wheel), I'd hope they'd steer me towards a Super Duty, and if I came back at them with the tow ratings on the F-150, they'd be able to say, "well, in some circumstances you're probably going to want more truck so that you can carry more stuff/people in the truck while going camping, and have some margin of safety on the ratings" rather than saying, "oh, well, we've got this nice F-150 Limited on the lot here, and it's got the Max Tow package to go with its 1400-pound payload." If they suggested learning a bit more about large trailers and 3/4-ton/1-ton trucks before dropping the coin and trying to operate on the road, that would be even better.

Particularly as a motorcyclist, the fact that you can buy a Super Duty and put a massive RV on it without having any experience towing (or perhaps even driving anything bigger than a Civic) is moderately terrifying at times, and really terrifying when encountering said rigs as oncoming traffic in the mountains (second only to the rental RVs). It would be nice if people in the truck and RV industries were part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

acdii

Salespeople have one job, and that is to sell something. Once it is sold, it is no longer their concern. That will never change unless liability laws change, but open that door, and you will see it spread to other industries. Is a gun manufacturer liable if someone shoots someone else with their gun, no, but if a dealership becomes liable for a salesperson who sold a truck to someone, with no knowledge of what they are buying based on what the salesperson told them, then you start down that slippery slope. What I can see happening though is the manufacturers being held liable for advertising towing weights that the majority of the line ups are not capable of doing. Those little disclaimers that are hard to read at the bottom of the screen, and flash off faster than you can focus on them should be outlawed.

Bottom line, it is always on the buyer to make sure what they are buying fits their needs.

Simnut

Didn't Cessna go through something as you mentioned...being liable when one of their planes crashed? That quickly got "laughed" out of existence too. My wife and I were lucky to find a TT that fits our truck very nicely.....after the fact of buying the truck. At buying the truck though, we hadn't even thought about buying a TT. Here we are , a year later.....equipment trailer, TT.....but all working with the truck.

tomt5078

See I believe your wrong.......with you tube and any other sources to help you with the job the place selling the tool should make sure you get the right tool!

But whatever, too each his own, blah blah blah.......

acdii

Ans I believe your wrong for the simple matter that most people believe what they see and are told on TV and don't bother to research it themselves. They see an add that the 2018 F150 has the most towing capacity( whether it does or not, irrelevant for this discussion), and go and buy one loaded to the gills thinking that Hey Ford said it can out tow them all, only to find out that it can't. The few that do go out and research it though, do it the right way and as you said, research on youtube, google, or whatever to find the right too for their needs.

OTOH they see about some bozo who goes around saying you can tow a house with a car and some believe him, go and tow a heavy trailer only to wind up killing someone.

Storeman

acdii

A former co-worker of mine from many moons ago once came up with the best description for our sales guy. He has a Synthetic Smile.