I tow a 7000lb camper with my F150. I usually make about 10 trips a year. The only time I have ran into a power issue was last month when we to Boone. There is an 8% grade for 7 miles going into town. There is also no warning that it is coming so I couldn't get a running start at it. About 1/2 half way up the hill we were going 35 with it floored at 5000 rpms. The sad thing was I passed a box van at this speed because I was about to slow down and loose the momemtum. Going down is no problem the truck has really good engine breaking to slow it down.

I also have air bags, airraid intake, flowmaster exhaust, and superchips programmer. If you get the weight distributing hitch the airbags aren't neccessary the weight from the hitch will make the truck set level. I put a leveling kit on mine so I need the airbags to make it level when I am hitched up.

 

If you are going to buy a brand new 150 to tow with, try to get the highest GVW package you can, and the lowest gear ratio you can, along with as many heavy duty options as you can. Adding all that together will make it about as good as it's gonna get with a 1/2 ton truck.

 

Try this calculator at the following url:
http://changingears.com/rv-sec-calc-...eight-fw.shtml

I am also looking at the same trailers, only in a 5th wheel. The calculators will do either a trailer or 5th wheel.

I think I have no choice but an F250.

 

We towed a 24ft. 5,000 trailer this weekend, with and without trailer brakes(wiring issue) and we didnt have any issues at all. We also did have sway bars/weight dist. kit, Thank God.
Highly recommend these.

But yea the F150 had the tow package but wasnt modded at all. No worries at all.

 

Why is no one looking at the gross towing weights for the truck and figuring the gross trailer weight from this.
It's not enough to just use a trailer weight as the basis for towing.
Using the empty weight of the truck, adding passenger weight, then the loaded trailer weight plus any other weight will tell you right away if your over loading.
There are many items to consider for towing at max loads.
Tire capacity, P rated tires are minus 10% on load rating.
Gear ratio for lower trans temps and pulling power.
Braking capacity etc.
I can tell you that a trailer salesmen has little idea about the sum total of what you might be looking at. Many has bought and found the trailer to be to heavey/large for their puller.
When you tow weight near max and often, expect to service the trans more often and don't be supprised if the trans has issues at some point.
Pulling steep hills is hard on the converter. It tries to ballon them and this takes out the bearings from being compressed to hard.
Not trying to scare anyone but don't be so nieve about all this.

 

I don't think people are being naive about the tow weights. The problem is how much misinformation is out there. I just recently read an article about how Toyota came out with their 10,500 lb tow weight and almost immediately Ford began running the 11,000 lb tow weight box frame commercials. The jist of the article was that nothing in the truck had changed but the "box frame", and somehow the tow weight drastically improved.

A trailer dealer will sell what they can sell. The problem I struggled with (and I think a lot of people are struggling with) is if Ford says my '03 KR can pull over 7,000 lbs fully loaded, why is the reality that the numbers say I can only pull something less than 5,000 lbs? Why does Ford claim the weight they do when that really isn't the weight? Who's actually telling the truth?

After 17 years in engineering, and a good part of that in automotive, I have a pretty high confidence level in saying that everyone here is right in their opinions. You probably don't want to pull more than what the numbers add up to. But if you do, you probably wont break anything, just expect faster wear and more maintenance.

Not trying to flame or start a fight or anything. I think there's just too many questions created by the advertising for any of this to be so clear cut.

 

This is why I am saying people are nieve.
My 02 Super Crew has an 11,600 lb gross combined towing weight right from their official charts for the equippage it has.
The weights 'thrown around' are just that, thrown around without any conformation, but hear-say and inaccurate, just to impress and get possible sales.
You pull at the limits often enough, expect to have failures.
Transmissions have limits of durability as well as axle bearings, tires, brake wear etc. You don't do all this for no extra cost at some point.
Been there already at 12,000 lbs weekly in the summertime..
These people who pull 8000 over the mountains do it often enough and they will find out what the limits are in a hurry.
Pulling weights that are way over what the truck weighs is foolish.
Just because someone else does it does not make it correct.
Let me example this out.
11,600/2 = 5800 lbs.
The truck weight 5400 even. Add two people at 400 lbs total plus the 5400 = 5800 lbs.
Think the factory did a good job of figuring the 'practical' towing gross combined weight of 5800 x 2 =11,600 ?

 

Here is a towing guide from Ford for 2003. Please note the "Note" part...

https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/...150_Ranger.pdf

So, if you can keep your truck within it's GVWR and GAWR with a #7100 trailer, there you go....... In my case, I have a #7700 'tow rating', but when I hitch up my #5000 TT, I'm over the trucks GVWR and right on the GAWR.... So where did that other #2700 go??? It's in my fat a$$, all the other stuff I haul around, Wife, etc.... I know my truck can haul a heavier trailer, but at what cost?? Less towing performance, more wear and tear on the drivetrain, less towing mpg.. (I get 10 mpg now!)

My truck just rolled 179,000 miles today, and it runs and tows my trailer great! Just gotta get those darn exhaust manifold studs replaced!

So, it's not that anyone is lying as such.... They just work the numbers the way they want to, then add foot notes and such to cover their a$$..

Mitch

 

Sounds like some of you guys should just buy an F-250!

 

Every time I say that, everyone tells me I'm full of ****. Just because you *CAN* tow X number of pounds does not mean that you SHOULD.

 

That's right.
Those that know full well they are close or over the GVW limit and will be towing enough to justify the next truck level are just fooling themselves into a false economy between the cost of maintaince from overload and the cost of the next size truck.
You can't have it both ways.

 

I have a friend that's a roofing contractor. He has a F-550 with a 12 foot dump bed. He also has a big@$$ trailer. He has gotten that thing up to 28k pounds gross combined. The 7.3 PSD doesn't care, but he's been through 8 trannys. Even a 4R100 can't handle that as a steady diet.

 

That's interesting from two points of view.
First, it's fine to go bigger with frames, tires, brakes, motor etc but the trans is still small and used in the 150s.
Secondly, he should by now have saw the light and considered a commercial truck rated to do those loads either with an auto trans or a big manuel.
Not doing so has cost a lot of expense and may have covered a large part of upgrading to that truck and not had the down time.

 

He doesn't trust his Mexicans with a manual, and he considers it a cost of doing business.