I am getting ready to buy a 2015 F-350 but have had some warnings that it may not suit my needs. I am planning on buying a 2015 F-250 Super Duty with Powerstroke Diesel and SRW. Ford says the towing capacity on that is 14K with bumper and 15900 with 5th wheel/gooseneck. GCWR is 23500 according to what I have read. I would really like to stay with a single rear wheel if at all possible, but don't want to beat up my truck.

I will occasionally (probably 5 or 6 times a year) but towing my new skid steer or mini excavator. I will only be towing one of these at a time, will have an appropriate trailer, and each of these machines weighs ~10K pounds (I think both are just hair under 10K).

Will a F-350 diesel with SRW tolerate towing a 10K pound machine decently well? I want to make sure I am safe, legal, and not too hard on my truck.

If it matters, I do not do anything with the truck or my machinery for a living--I will be using both for rental properties here and there and around our small farm. The truck will not be driven daily and certainly will not be towing machinery on a regular basis. However, I want to make sure that I am safe and not abusing any equipment when I do tow them.

Any thoughts are appreciated! Thanks for your help!

 

my f-350 empty curb weight is 7070. 7070+15900 is 22970. point being not sure what the relevance of the 23500 number is since your truck weights something and the power train has to pull that along. the 23500 is not a buffer number.

so weight of excavator+weight of trailer that will carry it minus 15900 if 5th wheel or minus 14k if hitch pulled. positive difference is good. negative difference is bad. example, 10K excavator plus 3500 trailer is 13500 if hitch pulled you are under by 500lbs.

 

Thanks for your response. I came up with pretty much the same math you did. So the question is how much buffer are in those numbers? As long as I don't go over the limits, are you going to hurt the truck or endanger yourself if you are with 500 to 2K pounds of the limits? I don't think I'll be over at any time, especially with a gooseneck, but I just wanted to make sure it was safe for me and the equipment to get close to maximizing the equipment ratings.

Thanks for the help!

 

We have a 2002 7.3 diesel dually. I know ours is a dually but we've grossed over 30,000 many times with it and never had an issue with reliability. I think 36,000 was the last big load a couple months ago. Only problem was it was 100 degrees outside and the engine had a hard time keeping itself cool but the newer trucks have much better cooling than ours.

 

A srw truck with max towing load will be a lot harder on tires though.

 

Thanks again for the responses. What I was trying to say above is are the ratings for weight:
A) the maximum you can pull and you really should try to be well under them to avoid injury to person or machine
OR
B) very conservative and in reality, the truck is well equipped to pull more

My research seems to say that the answer is "B."

I do understand that it may stress the tires but with the amount of towing I will be doing I don't think that will be a major issue. I will probably only tow the skid steer or excavator 5-10 times a year. Furthermore, most of those trips will be 10 miles or less. I do have one rental property I will need to take them to which is a couple hundred miles away but they will probably only go there once every few years.

 

SMLWinds,

Welcome brother! You will have NO PROBLEM pulling that trailer to here, up the Cascades, through the Adirondacks, up any hill you can find in the USA. You will not be disappointed in this beast. Get a F350 though and not the 250, so you have a higher weight rating. Come over to the 6.7 forum and repost your question and you will get a lot more "specific" advice.

Matt

 

Answer is B until you get in a wreck, if found to be over weight you could very well be SOL. FWIW I use a SRW F250 to tow more than those weights quite often. A 10K lb piece of equipment is going to take at least a 5K lb trailer if not 6K-7Klb. To truly be "legal" any more you would need a class A and probably a F450 in most cases or at the very least a DRW F350.

 

new truck with e-rated tires at max PSI. I would do it all day long without a worry.

Don't exceed the tire limitations or each axle limitations and drive the truck.

 

I will repost there (hope that isn't violating any rules around here) in the 6.7 forum for feedback there. I don't think I can get enough advice prior to shelling out over 60K for a new truck.

I see where I accidentally typed F-250 at one place above...that is an error. I am only considering the F-350!

Thanks!

 

I agree, answer is B. Towing at the limit will not in any way be harmful to the truck.

 

Hmmmm....conflicting opinions! I'm confused....

I certainly will not operate over the legal limits...I don't want the danger to myself or others. But, I am doing the math and with 10K equipment I don't think I should be over the limit....probably need to pay attention to what trailer I buy to determine my weight.

 

I am in a similar boat as I only tow 6-10 times a year. My 08 V10 equipped F350 has no problem whatsoever handling the load. I am 22450 on scale fully loaded. I can only imagine a new F350 with the powerstroke would barely break a sweat.

 

I towed a 9k lb Deere skid steer on my 5900 lb PJ 25' gooseneck trailer with my '13 F150 (with airbags and a tune) quite a few times without issue. Like you my tows with it were short. For a F350 that is a walk in the park. I went with a F350 a couple of months ago because I will now be hauling heavy loads of hay

 

Thanks again for the comments. I do appreciate the much more experienced opinions.

One side point that was mentioned above is the two hitch.

Are there factory options I should make sure I include? I was leaning towards gooseneck/5th wheel but now am uncertain if I will get a gooseneck or bumper pull trailer.

Are there factory options that I need to order (I am ordering this truck so getting what I want) or is the aftermarket stuff just as good or better? I do think the plug in the bed sounds good although I have no gooseneck experience.

If it matters, I am getting the King Ranch F-350. When you get a bed towing option from the factory with Ford, is it a gooseneck or 5th wheel? I have just begun learning the differences between those this morning...