Will the F150 Do the job?

The 5.4L is a great engine. I had a 07' and it towed our 5500lb(loaded) trailer great. I would say the only weak link is the 4spd trans. I had to lockout 4th gear while towing and the engine was constantly in the 3500-4000rpm range to maintain the speed limit. Gas mileage wasn't very good and i don't want to think what it would be like with a trailer that has a dry weight of 7000lbs+.....

Last Fall I bought a Hemisphere light (7200# on the door sticker) I had a 2010 Platinum F150 heavy half with 3.73 rear end and put E tires on. I used an equalizer and one side sway control. The truck pulled it fine in no wind and no ups and downs. I went from 16 MPG normal to 6 MPG. In ANY wind...the tail was wagging the dog. I really liked the F150 but now I don't drive it for anything other than towing...so I just traded it for a 2011 F350 Dually with 3.73 and the 6.7 liter diesel. I would recommend looking at a 3/4 to be safe. I have a couple of other larger trailers and am looking at a gooseneck equipment trailer so the Dually made sense. It doesn't matter if you can start, you have to stop and handle wind.

We had a 2013 F150 EcoBoost premium short bed. We bought the truck before we even considered owning a TT. A few weeks later the bug bit us and we bought a Kodiak 27ft, 6000 lb dry weight trailer. Loaded, it weights about 7,000 lbs. The tongue weight is about 1,000 lbs. There is a big problem.

With the crew cab and all the goodies, the F150 only has a 1,250 lb cargo capacity at best. There is no problem with towing capacity, but the truck is overloaded the second my wife and I get in. Before we really understood the weight issues (thanks to this forum, we now do), we spent all of last summer towing the trailer with the F150. Handling was ok, sway was minimal. However, there is no doubt we were a few hundred pounds over the max gross weight. This just isn't a good idea.

We bit the bullet and traded the F150 for a F350 diesel in November. We really don't need the diesel, but around here no one sells or wants the gas engine. The F350 isn't as much fun to drive and fuel costs a bit more (mileage/gal is about the same as the F150, but fuel is 60 cents a gallon more). However, we now have a max load of 3,500 lbs and there is no issue at all towing the TT.

It comes down to how you feel about the engineering limits of the F150. I suspect that you could tow that trailer for a very long time without a life-threatening failure. However, I don't think it is ever a good idea to operate anything right at, or above, its rated limits. I know that lots of people on here do operate F150's with more load than the nominal rating and haven't reported any issues. We took a long, hard look at this issue. I read everything on here and elsewhere I could find on the subject of weight limits, etc. I just decided that the risks outweighed the other factors. My wife uses the truck as her DD. She doesn't like the F350 as much as her F150.

I can say that we had no towing problems over mountain passes with the F150. The Eco Boost engine has plenty of power to pull the rig. It all comes down to how you feel about running at over the max GWR.

Yes, that will do just fine.

9500 lb F150?

Lorimeyer wrote:
We want to get a 2014 Forest River Hemisphere travel trailer that weighs 6,600 lbs. and we're looking at an F150 to pull it.

I found a 2007 Ford F150 5.4L V8 Triton with a towing package. I read online that it will tow a max of 9,500 lbs.

Will the truck handle this particular RV? I'm going to put a brake controller and weight dist. hitch on it also.

Thanks guys.

Do you need the significantly better fuel economy of 1/2 ton truck for daily driving? When towing, almost all size gas trucks get the same economy, or lack thereof.

The 9500 pound F-150 truck will perform the job you describe. The tires are the weak link and the only safety concern, since too much overload on them may make them hot and cause a blow out. Fortunately it is an easy fix. If truck load and tongue weight turns out more than you thought, put heavier duty tires on for sure. HD tires will even help prevent squishiness if the load is well within guidelines.

As an example, if you log onto http://www.tirerack.com, and check for replacing the original tires on a 2007 F-150, you will get a variety of F-150's to choose from. Not all 2007 F-150's are the same and factory capacity guidelines vary widely.

On TireRack, I looked at a F-150 4x4 XLT crewcab, and a similar model listed as Heavy Duty. The first normal duty 1/2 ton has 6 bolt wheels and passenger type Load Range B (35-44 psi inflation) tires. The other HD truck has 7 bolt wheels and Load Range D (50 psi inflation) or Load Range E (80 psi inflation) factory tires. If your truck came with passenger type Load Range B tires, you can safely upgrade the load capacity several hundred pounds by going to heavier tires. This might over the Load Capacity tag on your truck but will usually be within the capacity of a similar truck. The Load Range is likely written on the side of the tires you have on, or are about to buy, now. Letters B,C,D,E with E being heavier duty.

Note that one TireRack listed truck has 7 bolt wheels and one has 6 bolt wheels. This may mean that there is a difference in axles with one being heavier duty. If you mildly overload your axle(s) by 400-500 hundred pounds, the wheel bearings will wear faster. If you overload them by 1000 pounds they will began to wear the wheel bearings really fast. You can avoid wearing out the brakes by simply driving slightly slower; it's an exponential decrease in wear.

The brakes on your lighter duty truck won't make any difference as opposed to a 3/4 ton truck, as they both stop about the same nowadays. The 3/4 ton trucks used to have poorer brakes than 1/2 tons but they are catching up. Both trucks equally depend on trailer brakes to help stop the hitched rig and no RV stops as fast as decent car, so allow for more stopping distance when towing.

The "Towing Package" usually means a truck has a larger radiator and transmission cooler for sustained towing uphill. A larger transmission cooler used to be a good investment in saving expensive transmissions, but perhaps HD OEM coolers have improved.

Either size truck (1/2, 3/4 ton) will be stable at highway speeds if the trailer load is loaded correctly and the WD (weight distributing) hitch is properly adjusted. The WD hitch does remove some weight from the truck which helps reduce truck load, as in lightened load against Load Capacity. The tongue weight is still there, but partially "distributed" back to the trailer axles. The full non-hitched tongue weight still counts as the recommended 10-15% ratio for stability, even though the truck load is actually lighter when distributed.

Like most camping aficionados that frequent this forum, I prefer a dedicated 3/4 ton or larger, tow vehicle. But I sure wouldn't want to drive them everyday. They are terrible gas pigs and ride poorly. If daily fuel economy was a contention, I wouldn't hesitate to use a 1/2 ton truck for a large camper.

Wes
...

8000 pounds loaded with 1000 pounds loaded TW is not fun for most half tons. You will be a lot happier with a 3/4+ ton. You will also be happier with something new enough for 6-spd trans. 2007.5+ GM 6.0L is my recommendation.

If you are going to tow with a 1/2 ton PU I would highly recommend a set of E rated tires. TV stability is very important towing a TT.

Not fun having your own TT pass you, I know!

Lorimeyer wrote:
Thanks for all the great feedback. The trailer hitch weight is 540 lbs. plus 2 people (280 lbs.), WDH is 75 lbs. and about 200 lbs. of stuff in the truck = 1,195 lbs. The truck payload is 1,640 so I'm okay with that.

The dry weight of the trailer is 6,500 lbs. and I'm adding 1,000 lbs. (just saying 1K but it won't be that much) for stuff we'll be taking with us.

With water, food, gear, clothes, and the such, you'll likely be closer to 1500 lbs over the dry weight. Then add another 200 to 300 lbs for trailer options if your talking a 'brochure speced weight".


I'd say you'd be closer to 8300 lbs loaded. Average tongue weights run 13% (included hitches own weight) and your looking a hitch weight of 1080 lbs. That's over most 1/2 ton truck hitch ratings so you'd be in 3/4 ton truck area now. Plus that heavy hitch weight against your payload would leave you little capacity left for you and your wifes own weight, along with any gear.

BTW, that 1640 lbs is the MAX Payload off of Ford website. I remember it like yesterday as I was looking at payloads as a priority before making my decision to purchase. What's your true payload? It's on the yellow tire loading sticker in the drivers side door jam. That before any added accessory weight as tonneau covers/caps/toppers, bed liners, side steps, etc. You probably have much less payload than you think.

I'd be looking at 3/4 ton trucks with that heavy trailer.

IF your 1640 lbs payload is correct, your hitch weight rating is 1100 lbs or more, you don't have anything at all in the truck other than you and the wife (no add on truck accessories that aren't from the factory), you "SHOULD" be okay with that trailer as long as you don't load anything in the truck that's over 500 lbs. This is a guestimate so you still could be over.

You're pushing it close if you ever decide to take anything in the truck with you. Plus that trailer will push that lighter truck around a bit easier. You may want to get LT tires just so you have stiffer sidewalls to keep the truck more planted.

Good luck.

Hybridhunter wrote:
I'd suggest moving up to a 2009 to get the 6 speed. It's night and day better.

2009s and 2010s had transmission (shifting) problems that were corrected in 2011. I had a 2010 and Ford could never fix it. After chassis issues, I just traded to a 2012. It's night and day difference. I would recommend against the 1st and 2nd year of that new F150 generation. 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 have been good except for the continuing condensation issues with the Ecoboost 3.5L Twin Turbo engine. That's why I have a 5.0L, plus I liked the way the 5.0L drove better.