New Travel Trailer

LewBob wrote:

old guy wrote:
your truck is a so-so truck. meaning it will only tow a small TT not a 29 ft tt. be sure you are with in your towing rating and nothing more. don't forget to add in passengers, gas and clothes and any thing else you put in the truck and the TT.

My F-150 EcoBoost is rated at 11,200 pounds towing capacity. Last year I pulled my previous trailer, a 32-foot Bullet, from south Texas to Oregon with no problems. I believe that a 26-29 foot trailer should be well within capacity.

I spent all last season towing my Kodiak 27ft with the F150. The truth is that I was playing with fire. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you are not at risk.

The tow rating is only a small part of the story. Most of the time the F150 is overloaded. Consider your GMVWR (Gross Maximum Vehicle Weight Rating). Best thing to do is go weigh your truck with you and anyone else you will have with you on the trip...including if possible, luggage. Now you know what you will be hauling. Subtract that from your GMVWR (on the sticker inside your door). That will give you a picture of that value. If you exceed it, you are in dangerous water. I know lots of people disregard it, but it isn't really safe to do that.

Next, get the tongue weight of the trailer you are thinking about. Most manufacturers provide a "dry weight" and you can find a percentage that represents the tongue weight. My trailer has a dry weight of 6,000 lbs and a tongue weight percentage of 13%. That means my trailer has a tongue weight of 780 lbs without anything loaded in. I figure that most of us will add another 1,000 lbs between belongings, food, and any water or waste. So, my trailer would then weight 7,000 lbs and the tongue weight approx 920 lbs.

Next, check the Ford towing guide. You will find a small chart toward the end that shows max tongue/receiver weight. There are two numbers: one is for the receiver with no weight distributing hitch and one for max weight with one. Without a doubt you would want to have a WDH (weight distributing hitch) for stability.

We had a F150 Eco Boost crew cab FX4 and we had only 1,200 lbs of payload capacity. With our trailer taking up 920 lbs of that, there was no way we were going to be under GMVWR. We were also on the edge of the hitch/receiver max as well. There is a yellow tire sticker under the driver door on the sill. Check that too. It gives the max payload based on the tires. If the amount you calculate from the GMVWR calculation is higher than the yellow sticker, use the yellow sticker number.

The bottom line is that you probably can tow a trailer like ours (27 ft ultra light) but you will be exceeding one or more of the limits of your truck. While I know that there are folks on here who regularly ignore this stuff, I don't want to. My family's lives are worth being careful that way.