2005 F150 Towing Capacity

"Ed47" wrote: > Hi All: Have 2005 f150 that has specs rated for 6100 lbs > towing cap. > Factory tow package is stamped with 5000 lbs max weight, 9900 > lbs > distributed. > Heres the question: I want to rent a vehicle trailer (4 > wheels) to tow a > 3600 lb car. Trailer weighs 2100 lbs, Uhaul says my truck is > set up for it. > Does this mean that the trailer with the 4 wheel setup is a > distributed > load? or do I need a special tow hitch other than standard > bar? Thanks as I > want to be sure. Towing car 300 miles. Ed

Wihtout knowing the engine size and axle ratio it is hard to say how well it will do as the engine size and gearing and the terrian you tow on has far more to do with towing ability that a factory sticker/rating.

You might want to see if the trailer rental company will also rent a weight distributing hitch.

towing.

You should do okay because ground should be reasonable flat and car haulers do not have a lot of wind drag like s travel trailer does. Just tow with OD locked out and do not crowd it to much. If you have a big hill in route just find a speed it is happy with on the hill and go with that. I would also run rear tires of truck at max pressure and make sure you have some kind of brakes on trailer (electric or surge) and have a safe trip.

I have done as Sno-Man said a few times with slightly heavy tows. One thing I would caution you to do is balance the load on the trailer if you can. This may mean loading the car back from where you would really like it just to keep too much off the truck. You do not want so much on the rear of the truck that the front wheels are being lifted. The front brakes do most of the normal work and can skid easily when braking if too much weight is removed. If you have front ABS, the rear will compensate to a point but, braking will be greatly degraded w/o the full use of the front brakes.

I would not buy on for this one time trip. Make sure car is centerd properly on trailer. The way I do it is record bumber/hitch height of trailer when it is hooked up but without car loaded and then record the amout the rear bumper/hitch sinks with load. Being a 1/2 ton truck about 3 to 4 inch sink. If you sink it more than that, the car is too far forward on trailer and back it up a bit. Not very scientific but it works. With a stiffer truck it can be less sink.

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 07:51:31 -0400, "Adelphia" <ed@wants#@nospam.com> wrote:

Glad to hear it went smooth for you. Mine did not. While I had my wife at the dentist for an extraction and the dentist was and hour late anyway, my SIL's Explorer had a catastrophic water pump rejection event. I volunteered to take the car trailer to retrieve it about 70 miles away. After having missed breakfast and lunch, I finally got backed up to the trailer and coupled w/o a problem. Noticed brakes were not working. More or less tracked problem to socket. Went to shop for meter and screwdriver to repair socket. Got back and noticed I had backed over a large piece of scrap metel which easily defeated the part of the RR tire that holds the air in making it usless. BIL arrive to observe problem and get his chuckles at my expense. Good hearted as he is, he insisted on just hooking his new Tundra up and making the trip since it was better than my lowly F150 for the job anyway. Eventually got dead Explorer loaded and headed back. Got caught in Atlanta PM rush hour. After working our way mostly through that, encountered aftermath of SUV trying to occupy same space on roadway a TT and lost another 1 1/2 hours watching taillights of cars in front. Missed dinner at home and pissed off wife while in traffic. Finally got off freeway and stopped to pick up new water pump for Explorer. As usual, Pep Boys did not have all of needed parts. BIL turned corner too short into curb turning into Advance to collect rest of parts and destroys LF trailer tire for which we have no spare because the other trailer is out of state on loan to the church along with the spare tire since I usually only use one trailer at a time and they have the same wheel package. Everything is closed for tires. After making a few phone calls to friends and aquaintances for another tire or wheel, we found one. Uncoupled the Tundra and made 50 mile RT for spare trailer tire. Returned and replaced tire on trailer finding lugs could not be tightened well on spare alloy wheel with regular nuts. Found a couple of old cap nuts in parking lot of closed tire store. Got it re-coupled and continued last

15 miles home at 25 MPH just in case the wheel fell off. By then, wife had cooled down along with dinner and served it cold late in the evening. After eating anf having made it home in one piece, we figured our luck must have changed or, at least, run it's course so, we decided to unload the Explorer from the trailer before calling it a day. We put the ramps down and took the chains off. As SIL starts to back Explorer off the trailer, I saw the rear of the Tundra lift a bit before the tailgate came off at high speed. He (we?) had forgotten to put down the rear stands under the trailer to support it and my BIL had already removed the lock from the coupler which allowed it to release from the ball. So, today, I suppose, I get to learn the cost of a new Tundra tailgate and wonder whether I should try to do anything today without getting killed. I am certainly cautious about replacing the water pump this morning for fear of what else may go wrong. Could this Explorer be some kind of jinx?

Good luck Lugnut

Snip

Some points I didnt focus on: Left 30 minutes early from house took wrong turn within mile of house (auto pilot to work instead of RT) wasted 30 minutes. Traffic all the way through CT, Bridgeport 1 hr. behind. Stopped for McGriddle at McDs, cold. 1:15 behind, finally get to entrance to NJ turnpike, 30 min to get on (dead body on side of road, major traffic, Had to overshoot destination 1 hr to pick up trailer, return to pick up car 3 hrs behind. left NJ at 3:00pm hit traffic at every city on 95. Too late to stop at stafford speedway for Busch North race as planned, decided to take a break in CT at Foxwoods (dropped 100.00 in slots) finish trip home (arrive

See, a little comiserating does help! While replacing the failed water pump, my air ratched died. Then, I had my SIL remove the fan hub. He dropped the sucker and busted one of the fan blades out. Not one in Atlanta. Arrived late last night and job finally completed in wee hours. Now, they want $100 to repair a $100 ratchet and I expect to get the bill for the tire that was blown on the trailer and the estimate to replace the Tundra tailgate. Have yet to get thanks from SIL to BIL for his help. So much for helping the family save a couple of bucks!

Lugnut