F250 and up, max 60 square feet frontal area
I was shocked when this was pointed out to me today. According to Ford's owners manuals for the F250, F350, etc. there is a frontal area limitation. I'll quote from the 2013 manual, 3rd printing (I ...
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blt2ski wrote:
In the early 90's I saw some For tow rating posters where I bought my TT. Max trailer at the time was 10K with 80# of FA. 81-100 wt was reduced by 2500 lbs, 101-120 another 2500 to 5000 total. So if pulling some of the monster BIG 5ws, your tow rating was 5000 lbs, NOT the 10K in the advertising. The 4.0 V6 had some similar deductions, but up to 5000 lbs and 60#, 61-70 was 4000, 71-80 was 3000, Over 80 for the 4.0 rigs, and 120# for the full size was NOT recommended to be towed with the Fseries or Ranger/aerostar vans.
marty
"80#"...? Do you mean 80 square feet? Never saw that shorthand before, although sometimes have seen # used to mean pounds.
It makes sense to deduct some weight to offset greater wind resistance, but like has been said earlier, speed affects things greatly. I suppose they might be making an assumption of some sort about speed based on speed limits, but even trailering speed limits vary too much from state to state.
I wish we could pick the brains of Ford engineers to learn where the greatest weaknesses lie in the drive trains of their various vehicles. Then we could better understand the danger to the vehicle, and perhaps adjust. Every system has a choke point. It could be the cooling system, or the tranny, or the rear diff, or something else; but about all we really get in vehicle specs are HP and torque.
