Need help with comfortable towing weight and length.

Bottom line is that the gross weight of the trailer should not exceed the tow rating on your truck. No one here is going to tell you that it's OK to exceed any of the truck's ratings. Aside from that, "comfort" is subjective. Only you know what you are comfortable pulling and parking.

Thanks Mr. Landry.
So i guess my problem is I don't know the tow rating of my truck. I thought that the gvwr is the max truck and all cargo and passengers. Or am I wrong? What is or where can I find the max tow rating.
Again, thanks for the help.

You have the GCWR numbers already. Load everything up in the truck like you will normally travel and go to the scales. From there you can subtract scaled weight from GVWR. That is available payload. Or tongue weight for a TT. Also you can subtract the scaled weight from the GCWR. That is how much you have left over for a trailer. Keep a trailers GVWR under the last number and you should be OK on both numbers.

If as donn mentioned, you load up the rig, weigh it, if it is at gvw, then you have NO tow capacity! unless you want to tow a trailer with no hitch wt!

There is not a what is comfortable as far as what you are asking. There are a couple of "rule of thumbs" besides staying under gvwr for the truck and trailer......

IIRC max length is 110" wb for 20', then add/subtract a foot of length per 4" of wb.

I use a max trailer weight of 2x the grawr.

Then use the gcwr as a guide per say. Then again, I also had and have a truck where the gcwr is lower than its gvwr! I guess I can not load to gvwr?!?!?!?!?!

BEST max trailer by lbs, is weigh the truck ready to go with people etc. Take the remaining payload to gvwr, divide by expected hw%, and you have max trailer you can tow. So if you have 1000 lbs left over, you have a max 10K ball mount trailer with 10% HW, or 4000 lbs if you tote a 5w with 25% hw! If the tow rating is under these amount, that that is your max warranty tow rating available to you!

Marty

Thanks Marty. Good info but I think you confused me even more with all the abbreviations.
What is :
hw%
10%HW
5w

Never mind I figured out the abbreviations. I'm imbarrased!

5,000 pounds is a comfortable tow. Have fun.

Your truck is very similar to mine, except you have 3.55 gears (I have 3.73s) and you have about 100 lbs more payload than I do. My trailer is 5500 lbs dry with full propane and battery. Gross is 7500 lbs. It is around 6500-7000 lbs loaded depending on how much water I have in it. Trailer is a 24' model which is 27' bumper to ball. It's a high riding trailer with springs sitting above the axles. Truck pulls the weight well. Power is very adequate and it has pulled a few mild grades, plus one 10 mile 6% grade hill at 60 mph in 3rd gear at around 3500 RPM in 95 degree heat without breaking a sweat. Cruises at 63 in 5th gear (I lock out 6th) at ~2000 RPM and I get around 10 MPG. The engine sounds great when it's working, but it settles down and is very calm and relaxing cruising on the flats.

I wish for a bit more lateral stability sometimes in gusty conditions. I've tweaked the hitch settings to restore a bit more than 50% of the weight back on the front axles than Ford recommends and its gotten better. Wind blows it around a bit, but I never get sway...it moves as one unit. Passing trucks don't blow it all over the road, but there is some push. I think a lot of this has to do with the mushy P metric tires and 70s Cadilac style floaty shocks on these trucks. I'll be installing some Bilstein shocks in the next few weeks, and plan to switch to LT tires next spring after these Ps wear a bit more.

If I were you I'd make sure you have a good hitch setup (Equal-i-zer, Reese Dual Cam, or better). I'd keep loaded weight below 7000 lbs, but you could probably go a bit longer on length if you got a lower height lightweight style trailer.

Under 6k dry is a good number for most half tons, including yours. Payload, receiver limit are likely to be exceeded when towing an RV near the tow ratings.

I usually see trucks like that pulling 25'-28' trailers in the campgrounds. I'm sure it also depends on what type of hitch you use and if you have airbags and how you pack.