Pulling a 7500# Travel Trailer

People, when you gonna figure it out. Listen to the experts ..Your gonna half to have at least a 250/2500 or better a 450/4500 just to be accepted in the tow community. Anything smaller will be frowned upon and you will be chastised.

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I don't know what the gear ratio differences are with the 6 spd. I hear the last two gears are both OD, so not as much help with the pulling job as one might first think. My '07 4 spd has one OD which I lock out unless I'm running on flat or just rolling hills. My rear is a 4.10 and that's what allows me to be able to pull my 8000 lbs fairly easy, especially with a low first gear for starting out. I suspect he's not going to like pulling with the 3.55 even with one more gear in the mix. And yes, without seeing his door sticker, I'm guessing the first thing he's going to run out of is payload. It could pull it, but won't be very enjoyable. The 5.4 for all it's flaws is still a good engine, but could use some more ponies with that kind of weight behind it.

Too much trailer for the truck.

My 31 Ft Layton was 4950lbs dry. Loaded for camping we sat at about 6600 lbs scaled.

I pulled it all over Tennessee with my 97 F150 with 5.4 and 3.55 gears.

I remember one pull in particular up a 6% 3-4 mile grade... The truck did the job....I hit the grade doing 60 and reached the top turning 5000 RPM and doing 35 mph.

I am a gasser driver and am comfortable losing speed.

However, at 7500 lbs brochure dry weight you are really looking at 7750-8000 lbs before you pull it off the lot with add on's, few gallons of water in the tank from the PDI, etc...

After food, clothing, pots, pans, sheets, blankets, awning lights, camp chairs, bikes...... Your trailer will be more like 9000 plus lbs loaded down.

9000 x .13 = 1,170 lbs of tongue weight.
9000 x .15 = 1,350 lbs of tongue weight

Here are some facts that you will have to resolve if you buy this trailer and pull it with your F150...

1) you will be over your receiver rating
2) you will be over the payload sticker by the time you hook up and load the truck
3) you will receive receiver flex due to the receiver being overloaded and then applying the torque from the 1400 lb weight distribution hitch bars. The only alternative is to have a custom reinforced class IV receiver built that can handle the weight.
4) the rear suspension will be maxed out ... So you will eventually add Timbren SES or Airbags to Strap up the tail end.
5) you may be over the p rated tires load ratings...so you may be upgrading to the LT range of tires.
6) the first serious grade you hit you will find that you are crawling, not at 35 MPH but a 20-25 mph because of the 3.55 gears. The. You will change to 4:56 gears and resolve the speed up the hill issue.

By #6 you will have resolved all the issues you can without changing one fact...you still have a half ton truck.

With that said, there are those who do exactly what I say above and enhance the capability of the truck. There is performance to be gotten by doing this and will cost you between $2000-3000 to do these changes.

Then in the back of your mind you will have to deal with the voice that says "your overloaded".

I am by NO means the weight police and I will advocate the half ton till I am blue in the face but....

I think you are squarely in 3/4 ton truck range or HD Half ton range.

The two half ton trucks that may handle this load are the F150 with the Max Payload and the Max Tow package and the Silverado with the NHT package.

There are some great reports on the new 6.4 Ram 2500 Gasser :).

Cheers and good luck!

Jeremiah

mkirsch wrote:

ib516 wrote:
The OP is asking about towing 7500 - 8500#. Most modern 1500 series trucks (properly equipped) are capable of that. You would have to watch the payload though.

You basically contradicted yourself with two pieces of this statement:

1. "properly equipped" - Not many 15-series trucks are properly equipped for the 1000-1400lb tongue weight of an 8500lb trailer, plus a spouse, plus 2-3 growing children, plus a dog, plus 4-5 bicycles, plus half a face cord of firewood, plus, plus plus...

2. "You would have to watch the payload though." - Yeah, and watch it like a hawk. Every time you load up. Every ounce. A heavier-duty truck would allow you to relax some and not worry if little Suzie's teddy bear is going to be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back.

Meh. I guess I could have worded it differently to avoid a nit pick, but I think the OP gets what I meant.

ON EDIT:

I went back to page 1 and re-read the OP due to the response below mine.

I mistakenly thought the OP was aksing if a 1500/150 could tow a 7500# dry weight TT, in which case the answer (to me) is yes - with a properly equipped 150/1500 -- but it would be close to the upper limit of most half ton chassis (other than maybe the "F200" 8200# GVWR F150.

I thought he was truck shopping. Oops.

I see he HAS the truck, and is RV shopping.

In that case.....
The F150 5.4L with 3.55 gears isn't going to be ideal for that load. Short trips close to home with no mountain grades...I'll give it a "maybe". Longer trips, head winds, and/or steep grades aren't going to be much fun.

My bad for the reading comprehension screw up :)

ib516 wrote:
The OP is asking about towing 7500 - 8500#. Most modern 1500 series trucks (properly equipped) are capable of that. You would have to watch the payload though.

You basically contradicted yourself with two pieces of this statement:

1. "properly equipped" - Not many 15-series trucks are properly equipped for the 1000-1400lb tongue weight of an 8500lb trailer, plus a spouse, plus 2-3 growing children, plus a dog, plus 4-5 bicycles, plus half a face cord of firewood, plus, plus plus...

2. "You would have to watch the payload though." - Yeah, and watch it like a hawk. Every time you load up. Every ounce. A heavier-duty truck would allow you to relax some and not worry if little Suzie's teddy bear is going to be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back.

mtofell1 wrote:
I get the idea that having the most payload is nice for future needs and such but I can't ever imagine running out of payload on a 2500 with a TT. My 2500 has 3200# payload.

It depends a lot on the truck and what you are doing with it, obviously. My '06 2500HD diesel weighed 6900# with just me and a full tank, and had a 9200# gvwr. So 2300# of actual payload per the scales (I'm not sure what the sticker ratings were). The diesel and Allison are heavy! My family is light -- we are about 550 combined, even with 6 of us -- but even then, that would have left about 1700# for hitch or pin weight. Just about any 5'er would have put us over that limit.

Sure, that was plenty of payload for a TT and my family, but even then, we'd get close. I remember one trip out to the Oregon coast. We had 6 people in the cab, bed full of enough firewood for a week plus bikes and a grill and a small 4 wheeler, and my 6500# TT hooked up. We rolled across one of the logging truck scales they have on the backroads and the truck had about 9100# on its axles as I recall. So even there, we were close, and my trailer is not that heavy.

I think historically, many recommend just going w/ the 3500 because for the last 10-15 years (or longer?), the one ton has many of the same parts, rides the same, only costs a little more, and usually gives you another 1000# payload or so.

I bought my Ram 2500 because at the time of $10,000 discounts the dealer that had the best offer had a 3500 4.10 and a slew of 2500 3.73's. I didn't want the 4.10. The only difference between the 12 2500 and 3500 is the rear springs. Plain and simple. I'm not buying into all that legal BS since no one has ever came back here and said they were sued in court for being a few 100lbs over GVW and got in a wreck. I have never seen or heard of anyone where I live get pulled over because they looked like they were a few 100lbs over weight. It's the same ole******that's brought up all the time on here. I'll use my truck like it's a 3500 with softer rear springs. I can upgrade my rims to 18" and higher capacity tires and no have a concern. Most guys don't buy 3/4 tons and hook up to 15,000lb loaded 5'ers. I very rarely see that. I see guys towing TT's that would make 1/2 tons maxed out. They don't need 1 ton trucks for 7-8000lb TT's. I see guys towing 5'ers in the 12-13000lb loaded range also. Not really over loading a 3/4 ton. Most 3/4 tons have 6000-6200lb RAWR. Load up a 12,000lb 5'er with a 2400lb pin and it's still under the RAWR. To say that 3/4 tons have no place in the towing world is ignorant.

mtofell1 wrote:
I get the idea that having the most payload is nice for future needs and such but I can't ever imagine running out of payload on a 2500 with a TT. My 2500 has 3200# payload.

Case in point...but yes, keep in mind this is my situation.

I have a TT that has GVWR at 9500#, dry weight of 7200#, loaded it scales at 8500#. I do have a 1 ton as I wanted to make sure I had enough payload for the future RV everyone says they end up buying.

Jump forward a couple years and my situation has changed. I moved to the mountains at ~ 8k feet. I also ended up buying an ATV to use as a snow plow. However, the thing is soooo much fun to ride, I am now loading it into the bed of my truck and pulling the same TT to dry camp (full water tank of 56 gallons) and still within my payload limits. I cannot say the same had I went with the same truck configuration but a 3/4 ton.

So no, I did not upgrade to a bigger RV but other changes in my life did warrant the 1-ton which I am glad I went ahead and bought. I am also now considering selling our TT in a few years and buying a slide-in RV. Talk about eating up payload but my 1-ton truck is certified for a slide-in with heavier front springs.

My experiences say that the trailers between 6500 and 8500lbs are the worst. Myself, like many, towed our trailer with half ton (mine was yukon xl denali) that has very nice ride not towing, but that plays against you when you tow. The automatic air levelers fought the WDH, the Pmetric tires had too soft of sidewall, etc.. I was within my specs, but it was just not as enjoyable towing as I had hoped (plenty of power and braking, but just not so stable).

Lighter trailers, not a problem. Heavier trailers, folks get bigger truck to start with. It is just the 7500lb trailers (give or take a 1000lbs) that make us think it will be enjoyable because we are within the specs.

If you are only going out a few times per year and not too far from home, perhaps you will get by, tow at safe speeds, watch out for windy weather and heavy traffic...

If you want to get out more, you will enjoy it more if you are not near the limits of your setup. IMHO

We have a 2500 now and recently got a bigger trailer that meets our needs better.