New to owning a truck and RVing
I posted yesterday and I guess I was missing some information in my post. When you're new at stuff, you know..in any event here is my question in full details I hope I just bought, my first ever, a...
Forum Discussion
If you have not towed a "heavy" trailer before the maximum trailer tow capacity is just that a "maximum". Even at 7,000 lbs. your truck will be much slower to accelerate to freeway speeds when getting onto the highway and will not be passing semi's on mountain grades. Stopping distances will be doubled and manueverability will be greatly reduced as well.
A friend went from towing his 6,000 lb. boat and trailer with a 1/2 ton gas powered pickup to a diesel powered 3/4 ton truck and the difference was night and day out on the highway. A lot less stressful with the heavier duty truck and the more powerful engine.
Your truck can handle the trailer load you are planning but you will need to adjust your driving style to compensate for that great a tow load with your truck. The difficulty in towing a 7,000 lb. trailer with a F-150 is going to be different in the Rockies than in the midwest and different with a 20 MPH head or cross wind blowing. If you are willing to tool along at 55 MPH it will be less of a problem than if you want to maintain a 65-70 MPH speed all the time.
The GCWR is the important number that is the sum of the weights of the truck, everything in the cab, the trailer weight with its contents including fluids in the holding tanks. That is the weight your trucks drivetrain is engineered to handle. I stay within 75% of a truck's tow rating for any trailer for my own piece of mind.
With my Chevy 1/2 ton a trailer weight of half the rated max trailer weight and no passengers or gear in the bed would result in such a drastic change in my stopping distance at 55 MPH that I stopped using the truck for towing altogether. What the truck could tow without breaking and what it could tow and have effective braking were two very different things.
Start with the weight of the truck and go to a CAT weigh scale where for $10 you will learn exactly what your truck weighs at each axle. Then add your passenger and cab and truck bed gear total weight and subtract the grand total from the GCWR for your truck. The difference is the maximum total weight for the trailer fully loaded. Subtract 1000 pounds for trailer contents and you have the maximum dry weight for the trailer.
It is easy to add significant weight without realizing it. When I put a 4-cycle outboard with its gas tank and a trolling motor with its battery in the cab of my truck I added 180 lbs., adding a dog, adding bicycles or a boat onto the truck or a fiberglass cap, weight distriuting hitch, firewood, etc. will add to the payload your truck is carrying bit by bit.
A friend went from towing his 6,000 lb. boat and trailer with a 1/2 ton gas powered pickup to a diesel powered 3/4 ton truck and the difference was night and day out on the highway. A lot less stressful with the heavier duty truck and the more powerful engine.
Your truck can handle the trailer load you are planning but you will need to adjust your driving style to compensate for that great a tow load with your truck. The difficulty in towing a 7,000 lb. trailer with a F-150 is going to be different in the Rockies than in the midwest and different with a 20 MPH head or cross wind blowing. If you are willing to tool along at 55 MPH it will be less of a problem than if you want to maintain a 65-70 MPH speed all the time.
The GCWR is the important number that is the sum of the weights of the truck, everything in the cab, the trailer weight with its contents including fluids in the holding tanks. That is the weight your trucks drivetrain is engineered to handle. I stay within 75% of a truck's tow rating for any trailer for my own piece of mind.
With my Chevy 1/2 ton a trailer weight of half the rated max trailer weight and no passengers or gear in the bed would result in such a drastic change in my stopping distance at 55 MPH that I stopped using the truck for towing altogether. What the truck could tow without breaking and what it could tow and have effective braking were two very different things.
Start with the weight of the truck and go to a CAT weigh scale where for $10 you will learn exactly what your truck weighs at each axle. Then add your passenger and cab and truck bed gear total weight and subtract the grand total from the GCWR for your truck. The difference is the maximum total weight for the trailer fully loaded. Subtract 1000 pounds for trailer contents and you have the maximum dry weight for the trailer.
It is easy to add significant weight without realizing it. When I put a 4-cycle outboard with its gas tank and a trolling motor with its battery in the cab of my truck I added 180 lbs., adding a dog, adding bicycles or a boat onto the truck or a fiberglass cap, weight distriuting hitch, firewood, etc. will add to the payload your truck is carrying bit by bit.
