Hello everyone, I am thinking of getting a travel trailer. I have an 04 scab fx4 with 3.73 gears and 18" stock tires. The trailer I am thinking of getting is 30 feet long includeing the tounge. The hitch weight is 685lbs, dry weight 6600lbs, and GVWR is 10,845lbs. My question is is this going to be too much for this truck? Give me an idea, as I can get a great price on a nice trailer. Thanks in advance.

 

Your truck will handle that trailer no problem. Granted you will definately feel it back there. We pull our boat (32' 8500lbs dry w/trailer) all over the place no problem. (check gallery) do you have any pics of this t.t. yet?

 

I guess what concerns me is that my towing capacity is about 8800lbs, according to the Ford towing guide for my trucks options. I would get the stabilizing bars for the hitch, but I dont want to buy a trailer and not be able to tow it safely.

 

You will have no problems towing that size of TT safely. Stabalizer bars would be a good investment though if you if you will be towing long distances.

 

I have a 05 f150 fx4,5.4 engine and 3.73 gears, and tow 2006 keystone springdale 291 weighs 6600 lbs. I only towed a couple times because it was permanant in a campground. I'm plan on towing different campgrounds this year and you will definitely know its back there. I'm looking into purchasing the edge programer. One of our trips is going to canton ohio for truck festival in july, its all weekend fun.

 

I'm thinking of getting a TT and was considering a fifth wheel style because my brother and a couple buddies run them. They say a fifth wheel tows a lot easier...any comments?

 

I heard with our 1/2 ton trucks, they can tow some 5th wheel trailers, but they usually weigh more than a travel trailer. Plus, they have some added height in the front of the trailer that can cause some instability.

 

I think the trailer is both to long and to heavy for your truck. ther is a wealth of information on an RV website (Rv.net)

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/

 

Fifth wheel is easy to tow but i like my travel trailer. I didn't want to drill holes in my bed for the fifth wheel hitch because if you to decide to sell your fifth wheel your stuck with the holes in your bed. Fifth wheel takes truck bed space. Go to your RV dealer walk in a fifth wheel then tag behind and compare the two.

 

It just blows me away to see people saying "no problem" towing a travel trailer with a GVWR of almost 11,000lbs... Ok look, you can do whatever you want. But if you want to be SAFE about it, then you need to observe some common guidelines.

1. Dry wieght means absolutely nothing. That is usually a number that the manufacturer comes up with that includes no accessories, options (A/C spare tire, batteries, etc), or fluids (LP, water, waste, etc).

2. When determining if your truck is suitable to tow a trailer, go off of the trailers GVWR. Most often, you'll be closer to that than you would be to the dry weight. Weight quickly goes up when you start adding stuff. Plus, it's not uncommon for a trailer to have an ACTUAL dry weight of 1000lbs more than what the manufacturer lists (again, due to the options, accessories, etc).

3. As a general rule of thumb, stay within about 80% of your truck's ratings. So if it's rated to tow 8800lbs, then stay at or below 7000lbs.

4. Tongue wieght should be 12-15% of your trailer's GVWR. Anything less and you could have seriously dangerous sway/control issues. So for a trailer with a GVWR of 10,800lbs, you'd want a tongue weight of 1300-1600lbs. That is WAAAAY too much for a 1/2 truck.

5. Remember, towing a travel trailer is a whole different situation from towing an enclosed cargo trailer. Towing a TT is like trying to pull a giant brick wall. Your biggest obstacle isn't necessarily the weight (extremes excluded), but rather the wind resistance. TT's are high profile.

Anyway, you should probably stop by www.rv.net, and checkout the forums there. There are people with decades of experience towing rigs like ours. For RV'ing, that is the single most useful site on the web IMHO.

If I were in your situation, there would only be 2 options: (1) look for a lighter trailer, one that has a GVWR of 7000-7300lbs; or (2) get the trailer you're looking at, and trade in my truck for an F250 with V10 or PSD.
Enjoy, and above all, BE SAFE (for you and everyone else on the road).

 

Thank you all for your replys, but I know this person is correct. I love these forums as one can get all the info needed to make a correct decision. I was thinking it was going to be too much, so I figured I had better ask you guys here. I am glad I did, as it just saved me a bunch of money and hassel.

 

Amen brother

 

What really thru me off at first was that Fords advertisements say "up to" 10,000 lbs. I got into the thinking that I could, as I had the tow package, the gears and the 5.4. But then you deduct for the supercab, deduct for 18" wheels, etc. So then you wind up short. Plus, the salesperson saying oh, no problem. I am glad I waited. I was hesitant because of the length of the trailer, I thought it was going to be hard to pull. Thanks everyone!!!

 

I'm glad some people with brains chimed in. I was going to say something but people would have said I'm being negative & a Ford hater. ANY F150 is completely inadequate for a 10000lb trailer. Any nimrod who says other wise shouldn't be allowed to possess a drivers license.

Like BAMORRIS2 said, stick with 80% or the tow rating or less. I would actually stick with 70% or so. Another factor to consider is anything above 3500 requires brakes by law & anything over 5000 should be towed with a weight distributing hitch. You'll need an on-board brake controller which is $150-$200 plus installation. No matter what people lead you to believe, towing is not as easy as it looks. I would venture a guess that 90% of mishaps involving trailers are due to inexperience. Having a tow vehicle not adequate enough for the task at hand would fall under inexperience if you ask me.

Before anyone asks, I've been towing stuff since I had a drivers license. The largest thing I've ever towed was one of these:



KC-10 FE out...

 

I will only add that I tow my 30' Dutchmen bumper pull ~900lbs tongue wieght when loaded and 8500lbs gross with no problems whatsoever. I of course have a Weight Distributed hitch rated for 1000lbs and electric brakes. I tow the trailer many, many times throughout the year, whether it's to the deer lease 200 miles away or camping trips half-way across Texas. When on the highway, I will run at about 65 even though she can do more. When towing on the highway I will get 7-8.5 mpg depending on wind direction/speed.

My advice would be to find a trailer with a little less weight and you'll be just fine. They do make ultra-light TT's with the same dimensions/capacitie's as the one you're looking at.

Good luck with you purchase and don't trust any RV salesman if he says, "Oh yeah, you can tow that with no problem."....but then again, you already knew that or you wouldn't have asked the question here.