Should I Buy The Dealer's Hitch

Thomas/NH wrote:


Here's a little more information for you... The reason I stepped up from the F150 (Eco-boost) to a F250 (6.0) was because I noticed the receiver hitch was distorting from hauling the heavy trailer (1400 lbs. tongue weigh). Crawling under the truck for a close inspection I noticed the hitch was stamped with a 1000 lbs. hitch/10,000 gorss capacity (class 4 I think). I traded in the truck for the F250 with the same trim level. After 10K of towing I noticed that hitch with (2-1/2" reviver) was also distorting. On close inspection it was also stamped with the same rating, it just looked beefier. The F350 has done a much better job towing, but it's equipped with B&W 30K Gooseball. The receiver hitch only gets used for the smaller trailers and I suspect it is the same class 4 hitch, which is fine.

I STRONGLY suspect the 1000# TW/10000# towing on the F150 was the “ with a weight distributing Hitch” value and the F250 same value was for the weight carrying tow stats.

should you pay for it no, you should make the hitch part of the deal and get them to throw it in. they spen like 150 bucks on that and I have never seen anyone pay for a hitch when they are buying a new trailer.

Steve

I have towed an rv for 57 years and have NEVER yet met a fellow rv'er complaining they have too much truck to tow their rig. I have met and seen many , many who were not happy with their towing experience or were not towing safely. GET the 250!!!
I have used many equalizer "named" hitches and they were fine BUT when I got
my present trailer I bought the Reese dual Cam hich. It is the best of all of the hitches I have used over 57 years.

Not sure about todays 150s but P series (passenger car)tires were the most common. They have a lower load capacity and softer sidewalls for a smoother ride but will have more side sway giving a less desireable towing experience. Switching to LT (light truck) series will have a higher load capacity, stiffer sidewall and give a better feeling of control when towing. They will ride a little stiffer but worth the feel for towing. Any type of WD hitch will improve the ride with that size trailer especially on rough roads. And from experience working at an RV dealership most travel trailers actually had a tongue weight higher than advertised.

I'm an F150 tower, but I'm only towing about #7000. My F150 has a "tow rating" of #11,000.. It's MaxTow, has #7700 GVWR and #1900 payload according to the door jamb sticker. All fine and dandy, right..

Well, I've been towing stuff of different combinations since the mid 80's.

At this point in my life, I like a nice comfy tow. Not a maxed out load that sure, all the bench numbers match up, but out on the open road with all the other Nuts out there... No thanks. :)

If your new trailer "can be loaded" to #9000 GVWR, chances are, over time, you'll get that heavy. I know I'm at my trailers #7000 GVWR, as I pack heavy, carry all the water I want to and don't worry about it! :)

I have just a simple WD hitch setup. Just a #1000 bar and chain setup. Dealer charged me $350 for it back in 2003 when I used it on my 1997 F150.

I transferred that hitch to my 13 F150 and it's still just fine for my towing comfort.

Anyway, I'd get the F250 for your choice of trailer and maybe get just a basic WD hitch setup. All those fancy and $$ hitches are all fine and dandy and have their purpose in life.. They give the owners of them a comfy tow and that's the main thing, as the point of getting out in an RV is to be relaxed and comfortable, right?

Good luck! Mitch

Thomas/NH wrote:

mkirsch wrote:
If you're willing to pay the $1000's extra for an F250 over an F150, then why are you quibbling over the $300 of shop time to have the hitch installed? That's 2 hours of shop time these days, which is about right.

Say what??? When was the last time you went truck shopping? There is very little differnce between the 150s and the 250 or the 350 set up the same. Availability of trucks is another issue. Yes, I've been shopping and very discouraged by the lack of inventory. My local Ford dealer usually has hundreds of trucks on the lot, only had 6 Super dutys and 35 F150s.

That's been my experience...not much difference in price.

That said, $1000 seems kind of high. We had a hitch with installation thrown in for $600 a couple years back during the height of the RV boom.

Yes, a 3/4 ton will tow better with or without a WDH but generally nicer with. Our F250 with WDH tows like a dream. We've had it in 40mph cross winds and no sway. We also have a decent percentage hitch weight (13%) which the F250 has no issue with. With some marginal 1/2 ton trucks, people try to keep the hitch weight down which makes sway more of an issue.

It's not just how much will it pull, 150-250, but the rear axle and tire capacity difference is huge in comparison. A trailer weighing 9K lbs will have a heavy tongue, plus any other wt added to truck bed, which is mostly being carried by the rear axle.

Jerry

DallasSteve wrote:
I'm buying a bumper pull trailer and the dealer is offering to install a weight distribution hitch for $1,000. They said it is an Equal-i-zer, I don't remember which model. It's my first trailer so it may be nice to have it set up, but I'm pretty sure I could watch a YouTube video and do it myself. I installed a base plate on a Jeep. I checked Amazon and I see Equal-i-zer hitches for around $700. GVWR on the trailer is about 9,000 pounds. I'm planning to tow it with an F 250 though I might get an F150 if people think that's plenty. The difference in price isn't a big deal. Would you pull it first and then decide if it feels like it needs the WDH?

Hi,

I will mention a few things not yet discussed.

First off, the WD hitch.

Make sure the WD hitch the dealer is calling an Equalizer is made by Progress Manufacturing which makes the 4-point brand "Equal-I-zer" WD hitch. A classic camper buying mistake for first-time trailer buyers is, the dealer-supplied an equalizer hitch, as they called it, which can be almost any other brand WD hitch. Generally, the cheapest one they can throw in is with a friction anti-sway bar. This is a very different WD hitch than the branded Equal-I-zer WD hitch.

Another dealer-supplied classic mistake is on the sizing of the WD hitch. If you have never been through this before, you expect them to give you the correct size for "your" camper. It only sometimes works that way. The WD hitch "needs" to be sized for the "loaded" tongue weight, not the dry (empty) tongue weight. If they give you a standard, cheaper WD hitch rated at 1,000# tongue weight, and after you load the camper, you find out you have a 1,200# tongue weight, you have the wrong WD hitch.

The floor plan also drives the loaded tongue weight. Some floor plans load heavily towards the front, others less. This comes from the experience of knowing how to help predict the right size WD hitch needs to be. Too light is no good, and way too big is no good. Since you have a 9,000# GVWR camper in mind, 15% TW is 1,350#, 12% TW is 1,080#. And since you are looking at the Equal-I-zer brand hitch, that brand needs to have the whole hitch head and WD bars changed to jump sizes. So ideally, spend some time sorting out which WD hitch would fit your fully loaded floor plan. Odds are high, sooner or later, you will load it fully. Many of us do... If you tell us the make, model, and year, of the camper, we can help suggest the right size WD hitch.

Once you have sorted out the expected loaded TW, next comes the truck receiver and payload. The truck receiver needs to be rated at or above the WD hitch rating when in WD mode. The F150 might be WD mode limited below your needs.

Now comes the truck and payload; you are talking about an F250 or an F150. Pulling the camper is one thing; carrying the load of the camper TW, truck bed weight, and all passengers is a big difference between an F250 and an F150. What are your expectations for bed weight and people's weight? Are you going to have a truck cap? While the right-sized F150 might be able to pull the camper, can it handle all the added weight?

Where are you going to tow at? Long trips, short trips, higher elevation? Is the truck only needed for towing mainly, or is the truck your daily driver, and towing is a small amount of distance and time?

For my camping situation, given a 9,000# camper, I would go with the F250. But that is my case. I started out a long time ago with a truck that could pull the camper OK but could not hold up the weight once everything was loaded to go camping. And the larger truck makes for a more enjoyable towing experience. You do not have to get a diesel, the right-sized gasser truck will do you well.

Hope this helps.

John

I also did a quick comparison of the prices on Ford.com and the F250 appeared to be about $5,000 more for the cheapest models. But the cheapest F250 probably tows much more than the cheapest F150, so that seems like a bargain to me. Now the actually prices that dealers are getting is another story.

I want something with a towing capacity of at least 10,000 pounds to tow a trailer with about 9,000 pounds. The F150 ranges from about 5,000 to 14,000 so if I am looking for an F150 I have to be considering the different combinations of motor, gear, bed, cab, yada yada. The towing capacity on an F250 starts at 12,000 pounds. Problem solved.

And also to not lead anyone astray, there isn’t a half ton truck made in, since about forever, that is t strong enough to tow a 9klb trailer….
It’s a moot point