Clarification on tow capacity

What makes the Ecoboost a better candidate?

Shorteelaw wrote:
I *think* these are accurate numbers... let me know if one seems way off (as this is new to me, can you tell, haha)...
Tongue weight - 445
Payload - Approx 2000 lbs

That payload sounds more like a 3/4 and not any 1/2, SUV except for some EcoBoost 150s. 11/2 T are more in the 1200 to 1600lb payload and some of the newer ones have fixed receiver limitations for TW and can't be upgraded.

Larry

jaycocreek wrote:
I feel for you as there are so many locked in cement opinions here. I was and am totally dismayed at some of the responses.

I have been towing RV's for over 50 years and admittedly used mostly 3/4 tons with large engines and in some cases, more springs/better radiator/transmission cooler and a hitch rated to pull out stumps by our heavy equipment welder.:B

Pulled a 40ft Mobile home with a GMC 2500/454 adapted by me for the weight and never had an issue. Pulled a 35ft Jayco fifth wheel for several years with a '76 Ford F-250/390 V8 with a GVWR of 7200lbs without issue and again adapted to the job with towing extras. Ran a 8ft Lance on that same 3/4 ton easily but it appears to have been way over for the rules here.

Since I have a lowly F-150 rated only to 9200 lbs towing, it's time to trim the load and leave the wife's purse and water bottle at home along with the dog food and I'll be okay.:S

My advice to you is to call Titan and ask them there opinion if your worried about it. There the ones that know that vehicle the best and are under obligation to keep you safe, not us opionated internet hero's (laughing).....

Good luck on your trailer and truck choices. Just my personal opinion, nothing more.

And I'm even more DISMAYED by your almost cavalier response and hinting at towing WAY BEYOND a TVs limit is something someone should even speculate about. Your IMO seriously misguided comment about the TITAN and trusting the powers to be in that area to have safety as the most important consideration in my opinion shows me just how apparantly naive you are in this area.

My advice to the OP is to ignore almost even thing you posted and listen to the vast majority of folks saying something different in this thread and I'm in that camp also.

One tidbit is some of the generalized rules on tow capacity and cargo capacity might not apply to some vehicles such as the higher rated FORD VANS. My Van has a max tow of 10K, and a max GVWR of 9500 and I can load to my max TV GVWR and still have my max tow capacity of 10K and infact still be 500lbs below my rated GCVWR which is 20K for my particular Van.

My general thoughts are to GO BIG and BE SAFE and leave how big up to you, but the only non 3/4 or 1T I would consider would be the F150 Ecoboost and then only with the highest or next highest GVWR available and of course the max tow.

Larry

I *think* these are accurate numbers... let me know if one seems way off (as this is new to me, can you tell, haha)...
Tongue weight - 445
Payload - Approx 2000 lbs

Shorteelaw wrote:
So if my TT has a GVWR of 7500 and my TV has a 9500 capacity.... would I be OK?

It depends. What is the payload of your TV and tongue weight of your TT?

So if my TT has a GVWR of 7500 and my TV has a 9500 capacity.... would I be OK?

Campfire Time wrote:

Shorteelaw wrote:
We don't want to get something that has even worse gas mileage so I cringe at 3/4 tons as this will be a daily commuter. But I also don't want to get a TT that just doesn't work for us. Decisions decisions!!! :)

Towing is not cheap. Even if you use a smaller SUV like an Explorer or Traverse to tow a small hybrid trailer, gas mileage will be bad when towing, and when not towing its not all that great either.

A good rule of thumb is to know what the GVWR of the trailer is(Note, that is not the dry weight. Dry weight is a fictional number). Make sure your tow vehicle has at least a 1000# capacity over and above the GVWR of the trailer. The rest of the numbers will generally fall into place because of the margin. Granted this is not perfect methodology, but its a good place to start. If your truck has a 9000# capacity, the GVWR of the trailer should be no more than 8000#. And always keeping in mind that the closer you get to the max rated weights, the harder it will be to tow.

More important, nothing is perfect. No matter what you do (unless you have unlimited funds) you will compromise on something on your choice trailer and tow vehicle. Sure you can buy the trailer first, but then you will buy based on eye candy and not on practicality,or affordability. Certainly you want something livable and comfortable, and that you can afford. Make a list of your needs and wants. Don't compromise on the needs, and you probably still get a lot your wants. There is nothing wrong with a smaller trailer and living with it for a while. You adapt. We tented for years, then a PUP, then a hybrid, and now another hybrid. But in each case we kept the trailers 10 years each and never felt we had to trade out after a short time.

And you don't have to buy a new truck. There are plenty of affordable well maintained, used trucks out there. You just need to be patient and take your time looking.

This was a really helpful post - thank you. Regarding it not being cheap to tow - I'm not worried about the cost to actually haul it - I'm not wanting to spend my whole salary on gas and not even be able to afford to go away for the weekends in our TT, lol.

Shorteelaw wrote:
We don't want to get something that has even worse gas mileage so I cringe at 3/4 tons as this will be a daily commuter. But I also don't want to get a TT that just doesn't work for us. Decisions decisions!!! :)

Towing is not cheap. Even if you use a smaller SUV like an Explorer or Traverse to tow a small hybrid trailer, gas mileage will be bad when towing, and when not towing its not all that great either.

A good rule of thumb is to know what the GVWR of the trailer is(Note, that is not the dry weight. Dry weight is a fictional number). Make sure your tow vehicle has at least a 1000# capacity over and above the GVWR of the trailer. The rest of the numbers will generally fall into place because of the margin. Granted this is not perfect methodology, but its a good place to start. If your truck has a 9000# capacity, the GVWR of the trailer should be no more than 8000#. And always keeping in mind that the closer you get to the max rated weights, the harder it will be to tow.

More important, nothing is perfect. No matter what you do (unless you have unlimited funds) you will compromise on something on your choice trailer and tow vehicle. Sure you can buy the trailer first, but then you will buy based on eye candy and not on practicality,or affordability. Certainly you want something livable and comfortable, and that you can afford. Make a list of your needs and wants. Don't compromise on the needs, and you probably still get a lot your wants. There is nothing wrong with a smaller trailer and living with it for a while. You adapt. We tented for years, then a PUP, then a hybrid, and now another hybrid. But in each case we kept the trailers 10 years each and never felt we had to trade out after a short time.

And you don't have to buy a new truck. There are plenty of affordable well maintained, used trucks out there. You just need to be patient and take your time looking.

Thanks everyone for their advice and sharing their own experiences. We don't want to get something that has even worse gas mileage so I cringe at 3/4 tons as this will be a daily commuter. But I also don't want to get a TT that just doesn't work for us. Decisions decisions!!! :)

BurbMan wrote:
Typical travel trailer is 8' wide by 8' tall = 64sf. If you consider how high it sits and not just the area of the front cap, then 8' x 10' = 80sf. It would seem that the 60 sf is a limit, ie do not tow anything bigger than 60sf frontal area. It doesn't tell us what the relation between weight and frontal area is, ie, if 80sf is 33% over the 60sf limit, does that mean you de-rate the 11300 by 33% to 7533?
...

Like others have said, it's really %TW and receiver rating that determines tow capacity.

The only way you'll get to 11300# without exceeding the truck's receiver rating is with 10% tongue weight. And you really don't want to do 10%TW with a TT with 8' high walls and 64sqft frontal area.

But, offhand, let's say 12%TW will be ok with 60 sqft frontal area, and the receiver could then limit total trailer weight to ~9400#.

I've got ~ 66 sqft and about 15% tongue weight on a 7500# trailer. It's pretty stable in high winds. I would go down to maybe 13-14% but not lower, so maybe up to 8500# trailer weight max for 66sqft frontal area, as determined by receiver limits and %TW.

There's other factors than %TW and wall height involved in trailer stability (like load distribution in the trailer), but seems to me that the higher the frontal area - the higher the %TW is a good idea.