NEW TO TRAVEL TRAILERS HELP
DID CAMPING WEN I WAS YOUNGER BUT NEVER TOOK MY WIFE AS MUCH AS THE CAMPING TYPE TEN SE DECIDES SHE WANTS TO START (GREAT FOR ME ITS A NEW TOY) BUT I JUST BOUGT A NEW 2014 F 150 WITH THE 5.0, I DONT W...
Forum Discussion
I'll ignore everything up to this point and see if I can help.
There are a few things to consider when pairing a travel trailer (TT) to your truck (TV).
First let's look at the truck (TV):
You should have a tow rating of 11,000lbs. This considers frontal area of I believe 60 sqft. Your travel trailer (TT) has a larger frontal area so you are now slightly derated at highway speeds. If you plan on towing at 65 mph keep the gross TT weight under 9,000 lbs.
Payload: The yellow sticker on the driver door jam will provide this. It will read something like "Weight of all passengers and cargo can not exceed ####lbs. The TT tongue weight, hitch, all people and anything else you put in the TV including the bed can not exceed this weight. This is where most 1/2 ton TVs fail.
The TT:
The 5500 lbs you provided is empty (dry) weight. You need to know gross weight (GVWR). If the brochure does not provide this add the gross carrying capacity weight (GCCWR) to the dry weight. Take that value multiply by .15 (GVWR X 0.15). This is a good starting point to determine your maximum tongue weight. Add up the tongue weight + your weight + all passenger weight + anything else you will put in the TV (fire wood, bikes, first aide kit, clothes, etc.) + plus 100 lbs for the hitch. Subtract this value from Payload. If it comes up negative you exceeded your payload.
There are other things to consider but this is a good start.
I hope this helps.
There are a few things to consider when pairing a travel trailer (TT) to your truck (TV).
First let's look at the truck (TV):
You should have a tow rating of 11,000lbs. This considers frontal area of I believe 60 sqft. Your travel trailer (TT) has a larger frontal area so you are now slightly derated at highway speeds. If you plan on towing at 65 mph keep the gross TT weight under 9,000 lbs.
Payload: The yellow sticker on the driver door jam will provide this. It will read something like "Weight of all passengers and cargo can not exceed ####lbs. The TT tongue weight, hitch, all people and anything else you put in the TV including the bed can not exceed this weight. This is where most 1/2 ton TVs fail.
The TT:
The 5500 lbs you provided is empty (dry) weight. You need to know gross weight (GVWR). If the brochure does not provide this add the gross carrying capacity weight (GCCWR) to the dry weight. Take that value multiply by .15 (GVWR X 0.15). This is a good starting point to determine your maximum tongue weight. Add up the tongue weight + your weight + all passenger weight + anything else you will put in the TV (fire wood, bikes, first aide kit, clothes, etc.) + plus 100 lbs for the hitch. Subtract this value from Payload. If it comes up negative you exceeded your payload.
There are other things to consider but this is a good start.
I hope this helps.
