was just wondering if you could do it, my relative put on in his 78 f150 custom when it was new and has been pulling tripple axle trailers full of scrap, tractors, cattle and the works, i dont know how much they weigh for sure but i though that was a tad excessive for a half ton. is it cause the ford nine inch is a full floater instead of a semi-floater? or are trucks from the older years just more heavy duty? if it was doable i was thinking of getting one for my 92 thanks all

 

Yes it can be done but it doesn't increase the legal towing capacity of the truck you'll still be limited to a max trailer weight of about 6000lbs depending upon what powertrain you have.

The 9" is a semi floating axle just like the 8.8.

No.. your relative is just ignoring the the legal towing limit for his truck so it's only a matter of time before he gets busted.

 

My 88 F150 parts truck I bought few years ago had a gooseneck in it.


The pinion bearing was completely shot, the wheel bearings were shot, and had almost an inch of play in the gear backlash.

Had 10 leafs springs to, 5 main, 5 overloads. God knows what he was hauling with that truck, but it royally ****ed the rear end up real good.


These half tons weren't built to tow extremely heavy... the rear ends were garbage on these to start with.

 

My 92 F150 with a 300 and 5 speed had 1. never got a chance use it but the former owner claimed he hauled a load of horses with it 300 miles once a month. wonder how he did it but because it was pretty doggish with a big load.

 

all right i found out something, its actually and f-250 that had been rebadged as an f150 to get people excited and roused up, upon further inspection it is not a ford 9 inch and is actually what ever rear end they put in a f250..... so now i feel really stupid

 

I do not agree with this statement.

 

Probably a D55 or D60

 

Rear axle will be a the Ford (Sterling) 10.25. Depending on GVWR it could be the semi-float or full-float version.

 

How can you look it up?

 

There should be a vehicle equipment label on the driver's side door jamb which should have the axle info as installed. The axle itself should also have a tag attached with info too. If you post the numbers on here we can get the info.
Regards
rikard

 

You can also tell if its a full floater or not just by looking at the hubs....

 

how do you tell the difference between them on the hubs?

 

Full Float hub:



Semi float hub

 

Basically what Conanski said is spot on. Now as far as the style of trailor you like to pull thats up to you but the legal load limit is what you need to consider. I pull a 5th wheel with mine but keep it right at or may be slightly over the legal limit. For a camper I just preferr towing a 5th wheel, they follow and pull so much better as is the case with goose necks.

What I did for mine was I added a tranny cooler, Helwig load leveling springs, rebuilt the tranny with steel planetaries and a mild shift kit, new U-joints throughout, and now I'm building a 351 to replace the 300-6. Before everyone gets on to me about the six yes it is a low end beast up to about 55 mph but pulling that small 5th wheel of mine at 65 plus was going to blow it up. I love the six and in fact found someone who wants it to rebuild it and put it back in service.

 

The 5.8 is stronger all stock and has a ton of easily acsessable additional performance so you got nothing to apologize for.