Half-Ton Trailer Camping at Yosemite
Hi, y'all! I'm kind of going nuts trying to plan our trip to Yosemite. We are pulling a Sonic VRK231 which is a pretty light trailer overall but we only have an F-150. We're trying to decide on a ...
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Thanks! I know I was a little short on info. It's actually not the mountain driving I'm concerned about, it's whether the truck is up for the grades. It is a 2020 F-150 with the 2.7L Ecoboost and towing package which tops out at about 9,000 lbs capacity. I haven't weighed the trailer but your guess matches mine, probably about 6,000 lbs fully loaded. We went up an 8% grade recently and it felt like that would be its limit. The transmission temp was 210 (I'm not sure how much that matters but it's the hottest it's been since I've been watching). That was a relatively short grade, maybe 3-5 miles. I don't know how it would handle a long uphill slog because this is only our second season and haven't encountered anything like Yosemite.
I've been trying to find someone who's actually been up these roads because the guidance on the website is ambiguous. For example, on the CA-140 (Big Arch entrance) it mentions a 45' vehicle length restriction but offers a 60' combined vehicle restriction (max 35' trailer). The CA-120 entrance mentions the 45' limit but not the combined vehicle. I'm not sure if that's a fact or a website oversight. Also, I've read to take the CA-140 entrance because it's flatter and < 3000' elevation but once you're in the valley if you need to go to a campground at 7,600' then I'm not sure if it makes much difference taking CA-140.
My bad. I thought it was driving apprehension not equipment concerns.
I’ll check but I’m almost certain those 10 speeds run around 200deg normal operating temp. My last 2 Chevy 10 speeds did (same trans). I’ll check the F150 I’m driving now.
Keep the gears low, rpm’s up especially if the trans is building heat. And good trailer brakes. Wouldn’t bother me to pull that trailer with that truck up a mountain.
If I showed you pics of 10klbs on a 4klb trailer behind a half ton Silverado with the factory weenie rear tires pumped up to 65 psi over Chinook, Cayuse, White, Snoqualmie, Blewett, or Stevens passes or pulling the grade out of Vantage either direction from the Columbia. Sometimes on hot summer days, you would have no worries about your trailer in Yosemite.
Let er buck!
Haha! Great, that makes me feel better about it. I kick myself for not getting a bigger truck but it is what it is. Since I have the towing package I've got a few positives in my corner. In towing mode it does keep the gear low automatically going up, downshifts automatically going down, and has a way to tweak the trailer braking.
Eh, I mean unless you got a 3/4 or 1 ton you’re not missing out on much.
As you know, the size and suspension on the F150 is solid for a trailer your size.
And it’s got enough gears to make that little Ecoboost put out. Especially if you have deeper final drive ratio.
You’ve got the torque comparable to an average of the “big” gas motors offered in current half tons.
And the bonus is you make all the torque by 2500rpms ish and it’s relatively flat.
What kinda combined city/highway driving mpgs you get?Im pretty blown away by the ole 5.0 in my work truck. Getting a combined 18mpg commuting. Either stop n go or driving it like a rental!
Yeah, I was thinking I should have got an F-250 but we ended up getting a trailer to suit the truck rather than a truck to suit the trailer. I'm glad to hear it's not so far off but that's the thing about the gas mileage - it's no better than your 5.0! What I usually say is that I get 18mpg in the city, on the highway uphill, downhill, in the wind and going straight. Never seems to change (except for steep grades). I can even pull our trailer on flat roads and it gets 17 but with hills it goes down to 9-10 pretty quickly. In the truck envy department, a campsite neighbor last year had a real nice GMC HD with all the bells and whistles, he said he got 22-24 on the highway...! First thing I did was go home and calculate how long it would take for us to break even (back when gas was approaching $5/gallon) to upgrade to that truck. At that price for gas, it wouldn't be long. Wife wasn't sure I was serious but the numbers don't lie!
