Tongue Weight

Weights have been pretty well taken care of.

Tires only briefly mentioned.

Many 1/2 tons come with passenger tires ("P" as the first letter on the size description. i.e. P235/65 R 16) and if yours did, you should change out to Light Truck tires (LT245/75 R 16 for instance) to get a stiffer sidewall and better handling.

fla-gypsy wrote:
Your tongue weight will be in the neighborhood of 800 lbs (the rating for the receiver is stamped on it) and should not be a concern unless you want to go full blown psycho and weigh every possible combination of factors affecting the truck/trailer wheel spot by wheel spot. I know some people do but I have better things to do.

Bingo. 4500lb dry trailer can be pulled safely with pretty much any combo of f150.
Base 6banger will struggle.
With a WD hitch you can manage the tongue weight easily without even beefing up the truck.
Not a fan of P rated tires if it has these still.

Your tongue weight will be in the neighborhood of 800 lbs (the rating for the receiver is stamped on it) and should not be a concern unless you want to go full blown psycho and weigh every possible combination of factors affecting the truck/trailer wheel spot by wheel spot. I know some people do but I have better things to do.

Honestly. with a 6000lb TT, loaded, and a 2000lb payload. You are good to go.

And yes you can just plug in 15% of your TT for the tongue weight. But you would prolly be wrong. I bet your tongue weight is closer to 12%. Best to weigh it IF you want to be sure.
With your tow cap of 9100lbs. Your hitch in all likely hood has a max tongue weight capacity of 1200lbs. Ford puts the same hitch on all of their F150s. So if the max tow capacity for the max tow model F150 is 12000lbs. Then the max hitch capacity is 1200lb. At any rate Don't have to believe me. It is stamped on your reciever hitch. There are two numbers. One for weight carrying, and ne for WDH.

To keep it simple, payload and tongue weight are two different things, but one affects the other.

The trucks payload is its gvwr (7000lbs) minus the curb weight (5000lbs?). With the numbers you list the payload would be 2000lbs. Your drivers door jamb should have the actual payload listed as it left the factory. Usually the tire loading sticker will have a line that reads "weight of passengers and cargo should not exceed....."

The payload number gets reduced by the weight of anything you load into the truck (passengers, cargo etc). For example, if you have a payload rating of 2000lbs and add 600lbs of passengers and 200lbs of bikes and wood in the bed of the truck you would have 1200lbs of payload remaining. Best thing to do is load the truck up with everything and everybody that you plan to travel with and drive over a scale. Subtract that scale weight from the gvwr and that is your available payload. The remaining payload should be sufficient enough to carry the tongue weight of the trailer plus the weight of the hitch itself.

Trailer tongue weights usually range between 10 and 15% of the trailers loaded weight you list a dry weight of 4500lbs. That is probably closer to 5k once options, battery and propane tanks are installed. A family of 4 can easily add 1k worth of "stuff" into a tt. Call it 6000lbs loaded for example. That would give you a tongue weight range between 600-900lbs. To be more accurate you should load the tt and use a shurline tongue weight scale or google the bathroom scale method.

Hope that helps. Happy camping.

it is good to hear someone ask a question like this who is concerned about his family 's safety.

As mentioned above...actual weights are really needed to make an accurate calculation. Dry weights are a starting point, but your end result will still be only a guess at best.

True payload capacity can only be determined by subtracting the "actual scaled weight" of the truck minus it's GVWR. The door jamb tag may not include options and accessories. It's best to load the truck up with fuel, camping equipment, and passengers prior to weighing.

Tongue weight is only determined by measuring the actual tongue (with hitch) with a scale. The tongue weight will vary from trip to trip and the WD unit will need to be adjusted to accommodate any change. When weighing your trailer, you'll need to get both the actual weight of the trailer and the tongue weight. If the tongue weight is less than 10% of the trailer's actual weight, you'll need to make some adjustments within the trailer to get the percentage up around 12% to 15%. Therefore, as above, it's best to load the trailer like your going camping....that way you can move things around to get the desired result.

Hope this helps...

Ron

When towing, the maximum your loaded trailer might be around say 6,000 pounds?

10% of that is 600, 15% is 900 pounds. Looks like you will be OK.

What year is the F-150? Yes it really does matter.


If you offer the trailer model number, then we will really know what you are talking about. . . .

I am guessing that you will be using some sort of weight distribution system? I would also be taking an educated guess that you have 7,000 - 1,250 or 5,750 pound truck with passengers on board, and things like the cooler, or anything else in the back of the truck added in, giving you the 1,250 pound hitch weight rating? And probably are also considering the WD hitch will come in a crate, with a weight around 100 - 150 pounds. . . Many do not think they will add that much weight to the back of the truck, but it is a lot of steel. . .

Have fun camping!

Fred.

WOW! That post is all over the place. But maybe its just me.
Anyhow, truck scaled weight fully loaded with fuel, family and anything else you might usually pack. Subtract that number from the trucks GVWR as listed on the drivers door post. That is your available payload.
As for determining trailer tongue weight. Average is usually around 12% of the loaded weight. Lacking that, use 12% of the trailers GVWR. Is that number under or over available payload?