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What's my best travel trailer length and weight for my F150 ?
I have had a 2014 F150 XLT Super Crewcab , 2WD , 5.0L enging for a little over a year now and i'm really loving it . It had 93k on it when I got it but now it has 106k . I always take it back to the dealership where I bought it for all check ups and oil changes . Truck runs really good ! It's got the TOW package on it but I've never used it for towing yet and only been out of town a few times . Gets fairly good gas mileage also . What i'd like to know is what would be the most comfortable towing weight and length of travel trailer can I pull especially since it's a 2WD ?? Can't remember right off hand the tow weights and tongue weight in my OM but when I buy a trailer i'm not looking for a 5th wheel or a long trailer . Just for me and the wife and she's retired and I will be in a couple years so age is a factor as well as a little health problems . I've pulled popups with a previous F150 4.6L with no problems but never a full size travel trailer . So since it's 2WD what would be my safe limits ?? Thanks for any help and suggestions !
Open up your driver side door and locate the yellow payload sticker. It will say “max weight including occupants not to exceed XXXX.” Should be around 1500lb, give or take. Take that number, subtract everything you’ve added to your truck, including occupants, and divide by .13 and that is the gross trailer weight you can tow.
Now look at your gross vehicle weight sticker. Subtract your truck payload you just calculated from it (truck, wife, kid, dog), this is your truck’s weight. Subtract this from the gross combined vehicle weight and it should be around the same as above formula
What i'd like to know is what would be the most comfortable towing weight and length of travel trailer can I pull especially since it's a 2WD ??
I don't know about "comfortable" so I'll stick with max without being overloaded.
Length? Probably max around 18' to 20' floor length = 22' to 24" overall length tip to tail. Maybe even shorter if you haul more weight in the pickup so you don't have enough payload capacity remaining for hitch weight to tow a bigger TT. Just remember that the more weight you haul in the truck, the smaller/lighter trailer you can tow without being overloaded.
Your limiter is probably payload capacity available for hitch weight. Your 4x2 can tow a slightly heavier trailer without being overloaded than the same truck with 4x4 because 4x2 eats up less payload capacity than 4x4, and F-150s 4x2s and 4x4s have the same GVWR.
Payload capacity = GVWR minus the weight of the truck.
Payload capacity available for hitch weight = GVWR minus the weight of the wet and loaded truck ready for towing.
Two ways to determine the max weight of a travel trailer (TT) you can tow without being overloaded.
1] Begin with the payload capacity on the yellow sticker in the driver's doorframe. Subtract the weight of everybody and everything that will be in the truck when towing. People. pets, tools, campfire wood. toys, aftermarket options you added to the truck after it left the factory, such as camper shell, bed rug, etc., everything. If you do a good job guesstimating all the various weights, the answer will be the payload capacity available for hitch weight. Subtract another 100 pounds from the payload capacity available for hitch weight to get the payload capacity available for tongue weight. Divide the payload capacity available for tongue weight by 13% (0.13) and the answer is the heaviest TT you can safely tow with that truck when loaded with your stuff. IOW, the most GVWR your trailer can have without overloading your F-150.
2] Most folks are lousy as guesstimating weights of people and things, so a much more accurate way is to load the truck with everybody and everything that will be in it when towing, drive to a truck stop that has a truck scale, fill up with gas, and weigh the wet and loaded truck. Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded truck from the GVWR of the truck and If you did a good job loading everybody and everything in the truck before you weighed it, the answer will be the payload capacity available for hitch weight. Subtract another 100 pounds from the payload capacity available for hitch weight to get the payload capacity available for tongue weight. Divide the payload capacity available for tongue weight by 13% (0.13) and the answer is the heaviest TT you can tow with that truck when loaded with your stuff.
Last edited by smokeywren; 10-09-2018 at 09:13 PM.
I had a 2014 F150 XLT SCREW 4X4 5.0L. Just traded it in a few months ago for a 2018 XLT.
Anyway, I towed my 20’ travel trailer very comfortably. The dry weight of the trailer was 3,500 pounds, fully loaded about 4,500 lbs. The truck pulled that trailer very comfortably. I used a WDH and sway bars.
Thanks everyone for all the help . I took picts of my sticker on the door and other picts of inside the truck . As far as which TOW pack I have I really have no idea so that's why i'm posting picts showing what I have . Hope this helps .
Last edited by RonXLTF150; 10-10-2018 at 09:54 AM.
So I haven't done this for awhile - and I am bored in a meeting - let's do some math.
The 1650 number means that the total weight of everything that you put in the truck that was not there when it rolled off the line at the assembly plant can not total more than 1650lbs. This includes you, your wife, any luggage, food, firewood, propane, bed mats, bed liners, covers, you get the idea.
So lets assume 400lbs in passengers and 250lbs of "stuff". Those numbers could be high or low in your case, I really don't know, but it makes the total leftover payload an even 1,000 which makes my math easier lol.
So 1,000lbs of leftover payload for tongue weight. Take 100 off the top for a good weight distributing hitch. That leaves you 900. Tongue weight on average is 13% of total trailer weight. 900/.13 gives us 6920lbs of trailer you can pull.
This number is based on a couple huge assumptions and is really just a starting point. I didn't take into account any limits other than payload. You will need to look at the limits on the hitch, as well as your Front and Rear axle ratings.
Smokey will follow along soon telling you the only way to really do this is to take the trailer and truck and everything you take on a trip to a CAT scale and weight it out. And he is right.
As noted above, all of these calculations start with the yellow payload sticker on the drivers side door jamb...
Not exactly. All these calculations start with the GVWR of the tow vehicle. The payload capacity on the yellow sticker is GVWR minus the weight of the new vehicle as it exited the assembly line.
Ford very clearly states to never exceed the GVWR or rear GAWR. For example, for F-150 conventional towing in the 2018 Ford RV and Trailer Towing Guide , it states: "Addition of trailer tongue weight and weight of passengers and cargo cannot cause the vehicle weights to exceed rear GAWR or GVWR."
Of course, that also means to never exceed the payload capacity, which is based on GVWR.
To simply that for most of us, it simply means subtract the weight of the wet and loaded truck from the GVWR of the truck, and the answer is the payload capacity available for hitch weight.
When it's all said and done, the proof in the pudding will be the weight on the two axles of the wet and loaded truck when the wet and loaded trailer is connected with the spring bars of the WD hitch tight. If that weight exceeds the GVWR of the tow vehicle, you're overloaded.
10-09-2018, 07:10 PM
What's my best travel trailer length and weight for my F150 ?
