A WD hitch does not replace the standard hitch, it's a specialized ball mount with additional hardware that works to reduce tongue weight (many help to reduce sway also) by distributing weight to the rear trailer axles and front towing vehicle axle.



If I was going to tow 3000 pounds I'd skip the WD hitch, if I was going to tow 5000 pounds I'd probably go with it. Lucky me though - I'm somewhere in the middle!

 

My wife and I just purchased a 2016 explorer platinum and its first trip was 265 miles pulling my 20 foot Grady white boat, roughly 3800lbs. It did an excellent job pulling and stopping the boat but any crosswind and you definitly knew it was back there. I think I'll stick to letting the super duty be the toy mule.

 

Well heck. I was about to pull the trigger on a boat with expectations that I could tow it with my Explorer as well as my Ranger. Looking at the specs previously, I thought I was good to 5K pounds by adding a hitch. Now it appears that is not the case.

 

Maybe the Sport is NOT listed as 4WD because it's AWD ?!?

use your vin to register on fordowner.com to see the ratings - iirc, the build sheet for mine was available there...

and IMHO, I would not consider the sport a tow vehicle...
can it tow a lil, yes, but that's why they sell a LOT of super duties, of which, I had 3 before...

I would contact ford and ask them if you can put a wd and sway hitch... (although ours has a towing (sway control) setting... I've not taxed it with other than our 5x10 utility trailer with our garden tractor )

 

I have 2015 Sport which I'm planning on doing some towing a ~4000 camper. I have pulled my small boat loaded with stuff a few hundred miles, probably ~1000 pounds, and my average fuel mileage dropped a tenth, lol. I haven't towed the camper long distance yet, but did tow it around town with no problems, the Explorer had more than enough hp. I have a WD hitch to install for the camper, I'll get that on one of these days, do some highway miles and report back.

 

If you have the factory Class 3 towing package on the sport you should have no problem at all. Other than a possibly big drop in fuel economy. With the factory sway control enabled (the default) I routinely tow a 3800 lb trailer. Honestly, I see no difference with it on or off but then I haven't towed in strong cross winds yet.

 

For grins, I asked my sales rep (I have been using her for years) how realistic it would be to turn in/trade my existing leased 2016 Explorer XLT for another Explorer with the tow package. Based on some of the trades I have done in the past, she will probably get a laugh - had a focus for less than 6 weeks once.

 

My Sport has the towing package (all 2015 Sports come with the Class III factory tow package, not sure about other years). The specs say you need a WD hitch to get to the maximum specs (500/5000), but no hints as to where the break point might be regarding WD/no WD, so YMMV! ;-)