Tow weight

Jebby14 wrote:
1640
-100 for the hitch
-500 for the family (guessing modify this to your needs)
-300 for randoms (food, coolers, gas cans, gear whatever again modify since im guessing)
=740 left for payload

740 / 0.15 =4933 fully loaded.

assuming my numbers are correct your rig shouldnt weigh more than 5k fully laoded to be able to carry 15 percent of the trailer weight on the tongue for a nice tow. dont look at dry weight look at GVWR. id guess you will be around 24 feet.

Thanks. If my truck was capable of towing 7400 lbs, wouldn’t I be able to add more cargo to the empty trailer to not max out my payload of my truck? And do the trailers have the exact tongue weight on the specs, so I could essentially be in the 6500 range fully loaded trailer and still be ok? Like what you are saying is a 5000 lb trailer will have a tongue weight of 740 based on 15%, but couldn’t there be a 6500 lb trailer with tongue weight of 650 lbs?

ken56 wrote:
Your first trailer will not be your last. You say you want to park it a destination campground in the future but how far out in the future? Are you going to pull it to places while the kids are young like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore, you know , long trips cross country?

You will find that by taking longer trips and really using your trailer if it suits your lifestyle to the point of parking it for long term use. Floorplan is critical to function and how YOU use it. we started RVing in 2012 and are on our 3rd trailer. We like this one, finally.

Your truck will handle towing a trailer in the 5000lb empty range but the payload number is the one to watch as others said. I pulled a 6500lb trailer with my Chevy 1500 just fine.....most of the time. I did tow an 8000lb trailer for a friend and it was a struggle with my 1500. Get the best hitch you can afford. Equal-I-Zer is a good one for fair money. Make sure you size it for the heaviest tongue weight possible for your combo. A 1000/10,000 should do it for you but you might consider a 1200/12,000 if the tongue weight is anywhere near 1000lbs.

Thanks. Yes, I’m looking to buy something we won’t easily outgrow with a nice floor plan. We would def be open to pulling out for Trips in the future. That’s why I’m looking at trailers in 27 to 30 feet range. There’s a lot of trailers in that range with a gvwr under the towing capacity of my truck which is 7400 lbs. that’s for a fully loaded trailer.

Your first trailer will not be your last. You say you want to park it a destination campground in the future but how far out in the future? Are you going to pull it to places while the kids are young like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore, you know , long trips cross country?

You will find that by taking longer trips and really using your trailer if it suits your lifestyle to the point of parking it for long term use. Floorplan is critical to function and how YOU use it. we started RVing in 2012 and are on our 3rd trailer. We like this one, finally.

Your truck will handle towing a trailer in the 5000lb empty range but the payload number is the one to watch as others said. I pulled a 6500lb trailer with my Chevy 1500 just fine.....most of the time. I did tow an 8000lb trailer for a friend and it was a struggle with my 1500. Get the best hitch you can afford. Equal-I-Zer is a good one for fair money. Make sure you size it for the heaviest tongue weight possible for your combo. A 1000/10,000 should do it for you but you might consider a 1200/12,000 if the tongue weight is anywhere near 1000lbs.

1640
-100 for the hitch
-500 for the family (guessing modify this to your needs)
-300 for randoms (food, coolers, gas cans, gear whatever again modify since im guessing)
=740 left for payload

740 / 0.15 =4933 fully loaded.

assuming my numbers are correct your rig shouldnt weigh more than 5k fully laoded to be able to carry 15 percent of the trailer weight on the tongue for a nice tow. dont look at dry weight look at GVWR. id guess you will be around 24 feet.

He has a 3.3L engine with the 3.73 gears, which is an interesting combination. The 7,400 I'm sure comes from the power (290/265) of the 3.3L as with that small engine that payload is probably legitimate. It's the one 1/2 ton configuration where you can probably load up the family and pull a trailer at max tow rating and be safe from a vehicle dynamics perspective because you're going to tow slower but be well within the payload capacity unless you're really, really loading the bed up.

Yes that is the correct engine size of my truck. I just checked and my payload is around 1640, not 1990. Sorry. I just want to make sure what weight range to look at for a camper. I’m looking in the 27 to 31 feet range for length. I’ve seen a bunch of dry weight trailers in the 5500 lb range and want to make sure I shouldn’t have too many issues, as long as I’m not over loading cargo in the trailer and maxing out my payload. I believe my gvwr of truck is 6500 lbs.

JIMNLIN wrote:

I do want a nice size trailer that we won’t put outgrow anytime soon, so my question it’s what is my max trailer weight? Would it be the 7400 lbs? So ideally, I would want my dry weight to be around 5000 to 6000 lbs? Thanks

What is your trucks GVWR and its RAWR ?? Some F150 has some low RAWR numbers which is carrying most if not all the weight.
Your 5k-6k dry weight sounds like a good plan for the F150. I've found its best to use dry weights and the trailers GVWR/CCC when making math numbers.
That 7400 lbs tow rating seem a bit low for a F150 with almost 2000 lb payload. However for 1/2 ton trucks I wouldn't tow over Fords tow ratings.

He has a 3.3L engine with the 3.73 gears, which is an interesting combination. The 7,400 I'm sure comes from the power (290/265) of the 3.3L as with that small engine that payload is probably legitimate. It's the one 1/2 ton configuration where you can probably load up the family and pull a trailer at max tow rating and be safe from a vehicle dynamics perspective because you're going to tow slower but be well within the payload capacity unless you're really, really loading the bed up.

I do want a nice size trailer that we won’t put outgrow anytime soon, so my question it’s what is my max trailer weight? Would it be the 7400 lbs? So ideally, I would want my dry weight to be around 5000 to 6000 lbs? Thanks

What is your trucks GVWR and its RAWR ?? Some F150 has some low RAWR numbers which is carrying most if not all the weight.
Your 5k-6k dry weight sounds like a good plan for the F150. I've found its best to use dry weights and the trailers GVWR/CCC when making math numbers.
That 7400 lbs tow rating seem a bit low for a F150 with almost 2000 lb payload. However for 1/2 ton trucks I wouldn't tow over Fords tow ratings.

Any trailer in the 5-6k dry weight range is within your trucks capacity for the most part.
Towing rating sounds low though. What engine?
I wouldn’t want to pull 6-7k with the base V6 but any other engine will pull it smartly.
First time, go easy on the length. Makes everything easier for a new person.
Have fun with it and don’t get bogged down in the folks who’ll try to make you worry about every pound of gear you bring and over analyze the c rap out of it.

If you are looking for a seasonal place to just park it, just go for a sesonal allready on site. It will cost more now but maybe less in the long run.

Most will say dry weight is meaningless, me included.
The trailers I've owned and weighed always came in just shy of the GVWR stamped on trailer and considerably exceeded the dry weight or UVW.

You still have quite a few trailers to choose from with all the ultra lights on the market but maxing out towing capacity is never wise.

Look at the trailers GVWR and it's tounge weight.....add up tounge weight and all passengers and gear in truck and deduct tally from the 1990 payload.