Am I towing too much weight?

[bgitler]

I am considering purchasing a 2003 ford f150 crew cab v8 4.7L 4x4 with a towing capacity of 6200 lbs. The TT I am interested in has a 5700 lb GVWR (I think dry is 4200). Is this too much weight for the truck?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Ben

[Tom-n-Holly]

Update: We walked away from it. And got a regular travel trailer. After reading these posts and more research, I could not justify the wear on the truck and not have much gear to go camping with. The new trailer is well within the trucks limits and we are quite happy with what we picked out.

Thanks for the advice.

[ewarnerusa]

Hello OP,
We tow a TT with 4600 lb dry weight and estimated ~6000 lbs fully loaded. My truck has a 4.7L V8 (1st gen Toyota Tundra), quad cab, 4.10 gearing, 6600 lb max tow capacity. I'm a bit over on GVWR, but with the WDH it sits level. We've towed from Montana to Oregon and back and pretty much any local camping trip involves climbing mountain passes. I am the guy going 45 mph up the passes with hazard lights on, but I'm fine with that because the big rigs are doing the same (sometimes I even have to pass them!). Now for sure I'm often day dreaming about the next truck that will tow this TT without breaking a sweat, but I'm not in a hurry to buy something just so I can keep it over 55 mph on the passes. Now I'd want a test drive/tow before I committed to anything, but I wouldn't be nervous about the setup you've described.

[APT]

We towed our TT with a 20003 F-150 Supercrew 4WD 5.4L/3.73. The truck did very well with our 6500-ish pound loaded TT. But we already had the truck. Since it sounds like you do not, I highly recommend a 2004+ F-150 with 5.4L. It has a lot more power than the 2003 4.6L you are considering. It also uses less fuel than the 20033 generation trucks.

An even better choice is a GM 6.0L equipped truck from that era. 1500HD, 2500, etc. More power than Ford's 5.4L, better fuel economy, and extremely reliable.

[MitchF150]

bgitler wrote:
I am considering purchasing a 2003 ford f150 crew cab v8 4.7L 4x4 with a towing capacity of 6200 lbs. The TT I am interested in has a 5700 lb GVWR (I think dry is 4200). Is this too much weight for the truck?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Ben

IMO, yes and no.. 🙂

Yes, if you are one that has to heed to not exceeding your trucks GVWR/payload... No, if you don't mind being a 'tad' over those ratings and don't mind having to put the pedal to the floor when going up the grades and slowing down to around 50-55mph.

I towed a #5000 TT for over 12 years with a 97 F150 with the 5.4 and 3.55 gears and was a tad over it's GVWR/payload and traded it in for the 13 F150 in my sig with over 255,000 miles on it and never a problem... I only traded it because I owned it for 13 years and I wanted a new truck! 🙂

With my 13, it tows the same TT with ease, but that's only on the power end.. Handling, it's exactly the same as the 97 was. Very stable and no worries.

Essentially, it all boils down to what are YOU comfortable with towing? As was said before, the closer you get to any vehicles 'ratings', the closer to the edge you will be. At that point, it's just what you feel you are up to dealing with and your own comfort level..

Good luck!

Mitch

[atwowheelguy]

Tom-n-Holly wrote:
Since the question has been raised, let me ask this:

We have started the paperwork on a toy hauler that has a base weight of 6700 lbs. We have a 2013 Ford F-150 Supercrew that is rated to pull 11300 lbs. The GVWR for the toy hauler is 10000.

Am I biting off more than I can chew?

It sounds like you may have a Max Tow 3.73 3.5L Ecoboost.
What is the payload of the truck? 1600-1800 lbs.? It is posted on the tire pressure sticker on the edge of the driver's door.

I have a toy hauler with a "base weight" in the brochure of 4650. Out the door from the factory it was 5025. Loaded for camping with two dirt bikes, it's 6720 with 780 tongue wt. That's 2100 lbs. more than the "base weight".

The payload on my truck is 1607 lbs. With two people and luggage and some riding gear (707 lbs.) in the truck, and 780 lbs. on the tongue, the weight on the rear axle is just 50 lbs. under the axle weight rating and the GVW is just 180 lbs. under the GVWR. My GCWR is 15300, and my rig is at 12920. So the rig is at 84% of GCWR, but the rear axle is at 99% of it weight rating. That's the way it usually goes.

I'm guessing your trailer will be at 8800 lbs. ready to tow with 1060 lbs. of tongue weight. Does your payload have room for 1000 lbs. of tongue weight and all the people and gear you will load into the truck? Also check the weight limit on sticker on the the hitch receiver.

The Ecoboost will PULL it, but the truck chassis may be loaded close to, or over, it's weight rating. I have been reading this forum for a while, and all but maybe the HD payload F150s run out of payload before they reach their maximum towing weight.

[jerem0621]

Tom-n-Holly wrote:
Since the question has been raised, let me ask this:

We have started the paperwork on a toy hauler that has a base weight of 6700 lbs. We have a 2013 Ford F-150 Supercrew that is rated to pull 11300 lbs. The GVWR for the toy hauler is 10000.

Am I biting off more than I can chew?

IMHO.. You are very very close... Depending on the toy hauler lay out you can end up with 15-20% tongue weight.... IMHO .... If you buy the toy hauler and load it up close to GVWR (that's not hard to do BTW) you may be looking at a SuperDuty.

Remember that the the component on the truck that runs out of capacity first is your true limit.

Half tons run out of payload and receiver capacity way before they run out of tow capacity. HD trucks can have the opposit problem... They can run out of tow rating before they run out of payload. I have been on both sides of this coin.

My F150 was under all weights buy had a noodle for a receiver... With the WD bars attached you could see the receiver flex. My F350 had 4,000 ish lbs of payload but about 10,000 lb tow rating... That was fine for my TT... But if I needed to pull my friends 14k Montana fifth wheel I couldn't...at least on paper...

Please Be careful...please choose wisely

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[Tom-n-Holly]

Since the question has been raised, let me ask this:

We have started the paperwork on a toy hauler that has a base weight of 6700 lbs. We have a 2013 Ford F-150 Supercrew with Eco-Boost that is rated to pull 11300 lbs. The GVWR for the toy hauler is 10000.

Am I biting off more than I can chew?

[jerem0621]

I'd do it and not even think about it... with 3.55 or 3.73 gears ONLY... 3.31 and there is no way.

The truck and chassis can handle it just fine.

Driving a 4.6 every day myself... it had good TQ...just let it rev and it will get there...

Just think that little 4.6 has more HP than big blocks that towed monster fivers 30 years ago.

Make sure you have a WD hitch, proper receiver, transmission cooler, and especially, the gears. Your towing... not racing.. let it rev... it's really okay to go slower and take in the scenery.

thanks!

Jeremaih

[wandering1]

Yes.

[handye9]

Forget about that 6200 lb towing capacity. You will run out of payload before you get there. You might be over on payload with that 5700 lb trailer.

Reason I say that is, max tow capacities are calculated with the truck having no aftermarket accessories, no cargo, no passengers, and the driver only weighs 150 lbs. As you add weight (from any of the above), your available payload and tow capacity are going down, pound for pound.

If you have more than 500 lbs (the first 100 will be the WD hitch) of accessories, people, and cargo, you don't have tow capacity for that 5700 lb trailer.

[K_Charles]

We pulled a TT about that size with our '97 F150 with a 4.6 and the trucks tongue was dragging on the ground from panting on every hill. My wife likes the truck so we got something else to tow with so we wouldn't kill it.

[spud1957]

Lets get the engine correct. Ford never had a 4.7. I assume it's a 4.6?

[Campfire_Time]

In my experience, the closer you get to the rated capacities of the tow vehicle, the more unpleasant it is to tow. Can you tow this trailer? Yes. Should you tow it more than a few hundred miles or though mountains? You can but you won't enjoy it.

And welcome to the forum!

[donn0128]

The ones I have driven the small blocks can barely get out of its own way empty. No, not a good match IMHO.