Hi, with my '99 F150 supercab I have been towing my classic car on an open car trailer for a while with no problems at all, in fact sometimes I forget I am towing! My current set up is: Trailer 2,100 lbs and classic car, 3100 lbs for a total of 5200 lbs. I want to move up to an enclosed V nose trailer, 20'. That weights about 3200 lbs, so with my car my total towing will now be 6300 lbs. Just my wife and myself and not much other cargo. My truck has a cap on the back however, it is a 5.4L, has 98,000 miles. 3:55 gears, heavy duty trans cooler installed by a ford dealer last year and I also recently installed EZ lift airbags on the rear in anticipation of getting the new trailer. According to my paperwork I should be good for up to 8,000 lbs. If I get the enclosed trailer I will use a weight distributing hitch. Does anyone have experience with this towing? Will it be ok? I do have a few steep short hills in my development also.

thanks for any help, Jim

 

sounds like you took every precaution to take. the only thing left you could possibly do is regear. id say 4.10s if you only tow, or 3.73s if you daily drive the truck too.

 

Dup post for some reason!

 

An FYI for you.
You are missing an important point about towing weight.
It is called Gross Combined Weight or GCW.
The total combined weight of your loaded trailer and your truck with all of it's load is the important parameter.
Your truck has a GCW rating that you should stay under.
Your stated new weight would compute like this assuming a weight for your truck that you have not specified.
If your loaded truck would be 6000 lbs, the GCW would be 6000 + 5200 = 11,600 lbs.
This will be near the truck's max rated GCW rating.
The 8000 lb rating you think you have means very little in the light of the above real conditions you have to work with.
The GCW is what your engine, trans, tires and brakes etc have to deal with full time as you tow.
Find out your GVW rateing and add up the weights to see where you are.
You will see a great difference in load performance and long term life of the trans due to the extra load and wind resistance.
Good luck.

 

Thanks, went to my owners manual, it says to get the GCWR, take the weight of the weight of the loaded vehicle and subtract it from the max GCWR to calculate the load you can carry/tow.

My truck weighs (I went to the recycle place last week to be weighted)

5,000 lbs add the wife, fuel and some other items
500
________
5,500

GCVR of my truck as equipped per ownerns manual is 12,700

so

12,700 - 5,500 = 7,200 lbs

I will be towing about 6,300 max with one of my classic cars and only 5,200 with my other so I feel pretty good all will work well. I only plan on towing 3-4 times a year.

 

With the 99 in my sig I tow a 24ft enclosed trailer.

The trailer weighs approx 7000- 7500lbs on race weekends. I drive about 74mph for a trip of about 80 miles each way to the track.

Best advice i can say is have good working trailer brakes and controller. Make sure the truck brakes are up to par. Dont tow in overdrive at all and be very aware of your surroundings.

The 5.4l will tow the weight fine, you wont win any drag races with the trailer behind you but it is more than capeable.

 

thanks for the info. Why never tow in OD? Even on totally flat roads?

 

You can, if your truck doesnt shift in and out much. Im betting it will with that much weight.

I lost one tranny shifting in and out of overdrive manually for large hills and decided then it wasnt worth the risk of burning another up to save .5 mpg on a tank while towing.

Its just not a good idea.