Are You Buying All These Half-ton Claims?
"All-New F-150 Can Tow a Ram, a Silverado & Haul Two Hondas" Tows 12,200, claimed. (Ford Truck Enthusiasts) I guess we can soon do away with our 3/4 & 1-tonners. In a couple years the capacity rac...
Forum Discussion
Turtle n Peeps wrote:
Good post and I will take it one step further.
Lets not forget that a half ton towing 8000 lbs is the "tail wagging the dog" and inherently unsafe because the trailer weights 2000 lbs more than the truck.
The Ram 3500 (only using that cause it has the highest tow rating) towing a 30K lbs trailer is perfectly fine, even though the trailer weighs 22,000 lbs or more than the truck... But Spoon, the 30,000 is probably a fifth wheel, so more weight is transferred to the truck. So, max payload for the truck is 4000 or so... subtract that from the trailer and add it to the truck... now you have a truck with a 12K lbs weight and a trailer with 26,000 lbs... Yea, much safer.
But Spoon... the brakes on the half ton are much weaker than the 1 ton. Again... the half ton weighs 6000 lbs. An 8000 lbs trailer makes it total at 14,000 lbs. Lets ignore that the trailer has its own brakes. The half ton is trying to stop 14,000 lbs. That Ram is trying to stop 38,000 lbs. Yea, much safer.
Tow within the means of your truck and keep up with maintenance on truck and trailer. That is your best bet. If something catastrophic breaks, you are going to have problems no matter what.
One more thing about "safety". If I have a Ford max tow HD whatever that is rated to tow 11,000 lbs... what does it matter HOW I pull that 11,000 lbs? What if I have a 5er with a 3,000 pin weight. Its way overloaded, but the 5er will have less sway and still be able to stop the same as if it was bumper pull, won't it? You might break your rear axle or cause other maintenance issues... but from a SAFETY issue, how is it more dangerous than a bumper pull?
