If I remember correctly my 13 crew ecoboost has a little over 7,000lb tow rating. What would you guys consider to be an ideal weight for a travel trailer? Running the stock p rated michelins and 3.55 gears. Thanks in advance!

 

Towing capacity is 9,600 lbs if I read the chart right for your options. Having said that, my dump trailer is rated at 7k lbs. and when it is loaded at it's capacity the truck has to work. I have 3.55 gears as well but I have the 6.5 bed and 285/65r20 wheels.

 

Of course the truck has to work, it's pulling around more than double it's empty weight! You should see how a loaded vs. empty semi truck handles, it would probably blow your mind just how hard that 450-HP engine has to work to even get up to speed. They do it every day though, for hundreds of thousands of miles...so the fact that it has to work isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I think you're going about this backwards. What's the ideal configuration of a travel trailer for your family? Find that, determine whether it's within the capabilities of your truck, and go from there.

 

Actually, I used to haul a 70,000 LB asphalt grinder and would pull into the scales at around 120,000 lbs. So I know about a truck working but with a tractor trailer I could split my lower and upper gears and I had allot of torque available. Once I got moving it wasn't bad unless pulling grade.

 

Thanks guys. I just thought an ideal weight would be useful to help narrow down my search a little. Looking for something in the 20-24 foot range and as you probably know, there are tons of variations out there.

 

an ideal weight, for me, would be something within your listed towing limit.


with your configuration and the size of camper you are looking at, you should have zero problems finding something you can pull.


when you get into something 29ft or larger, then weight can become an issue.


If I had your truck, I'd look at the floor plan and features of the camper and not much more (aside from price). I don't think you are going to find a 24ft long camper that weighs more than your truck is rated to pull.

 

You may find that tongue weight and truck payload is a bigger factor than max trailer weight.

You may also plan to upgrade those tires eventually, as the p-metric tires feel somewhat squirrely under heavy loads.

Still, I wouldn't hesitate to tow near the listed rating of your truck.

 

Ok thanks again guys, the info is appreciated.

 

Doesn't frontal area of the trailer also come into play?

 

Absolutely, this is a big factor. However, i think most camping trailers are about the same frontal area.
But this is the reason that very heavy boats tend to feel easier to pull compared to similar weight trailers.