New Travel Trailer

Thanks everyone for all the info. I think we will forego the RV until I get a Superduty.

You mention the states you will be in but not the type of stay; structured camp ground you pay for, National Forest and State structured camp grounds, boon-docking, or being in CO rough boon-docking (remote FR and jeep trails).

If traveling and staying in structured camp grounds you can get into the lites and ultra-lites in the 20' +, if boon-docking you need tougher construction than lites but they get heavy so 18' or less.

Regardless of your choice stay within the weights that the others are discussing.

Happy trailering.

We pull our Camplite 21BHS with a Ram 1500 4.7L. That combination works great and we've towed from Florida out to Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and up into Tennessee. We have not had an issue with mountains.

The Ram has a 3.92 rear which is a bit better than your Ford's ratio. The bigger thing is the fact that the camper, which has a full queen and bunks along with a dinette is all aluminum and light weight. We weigh in loaded at about 4600 pounds. The trade off is the Camplites cost a bit more but over the last 4 years has been great.

I agree with others that if you get up to the 6500 pound mark, you're going to find it difficult to tow in some situations. While the Ram/Camplite combo works great, I really wouldn't want something 2,000 pounds heavier.

Camplite 21BHS

We had a Chevy Astro van rated to tow 5,000 lbs. Our trailer was 4200 lbs.We had the transmission cooler and had it serviced every year.It pulled it fine but at 108,000 miles on a hill the engine blew.So it's best to have a larger towing capacity than what you need. if you go to the limit it will be putting a strain on your vehicle and you'll eventually pay for it.

The 3.55 is going to hurt you in the mountains. 5000 lbs is going to be a load for that engine and axle ratio.

The most important thing you can do is upgrade the radiator AND the transmission cooler. Both of these are CRITICAL to NOT "blowing up" your engine.

A 3.73 axle would be better, maybe even a 4.10, but having to change both axles would be $$$$.

Your realy going to hate towing in the mountains with that tow vehicle and that much weight.

You won't blow your engine. Far more important is your payload number and maximum tongue weight. Then we can discuss TT length and how it limits your camping. Such as: https://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/upload/Olympic-National-Park-campgrounds-general-seasons.pdf See page two...biggest trailer you can tow?

Trucks GVWR is 7000#
Truck/trailer GCVWR is 13500#

That leaves you 6500# total for trailer


Company websites don't include weight of accessories added or sometimes weight of propane batteries so UVW (DRY) weights can differ
GVWR on company websites is what you go by

Your max tow is 7900 lbs. I towed 7300 lbs with my 2010 F150 5.4 3.73 gears. i thought that was about it. I live in Oregon and frequent the mtns regularly.
JMHO here but I wouldn't want to go over 4500-5000lbs loaded with your truck.
So something in the 3500-4000 lb UVW range.