We have a 1988 F-150 XLT Custom 4.9L I6. We currently tow a pop-up camper with no trouble. Our camper is shot, the truck is far from it. We are looking into a new one, one of the new 'super-lightweights'. The weight ratings have me totally confused. (look @ my username, haha) Our rear axle ratio is 3.08, which I understand isn't so great for towing. The dry weight of this camper is 2077lbs.
As far as I understand so far, the GCWR is 6450lbs, and the GVWR of the truck is 5450lbs. Does that mean we can only pull another 1000 lbs? (weight of trailer)
As I said, take my username into consideration when answering this question...make it easy to understand. TIA
Jen

 

You can pull about 5,500 lbs with the I6 4.9L truck. The axle ratio is very low, but that only means that you have to rev the engine a bit more to get enough power to initially move the trailer from a rest, and you might have to downshift on hills more than if the truck had a higher ratio rear axle.

The GCWR and GVWR are for the total weight of the truck PLUS the *tongue weight* of the trailer, so you won't have any problem. Those ratings tell you what you can carry *in* your truck (IOW, you can put an additional 1000 pounds onto the truck - hence the term 'half-ton pickup').

I imagine a pop up camper probably has a tongue weight of around 200 lbs. A typical horse trailer (like the one I tow with my I6 F150) has a tongue weight of about 600 lbs, but the trailer weighs about 4500 lbs fully loaded with two horses.

I don't think you'll even feel the popup camper back there when you are towing it!

 

Thanks for the reply. It's not actually another pop-up we're looking at, it's one of those new 'hybrid' campers. It's basically a hard-sided travel trailer with pop-out sides (beds) like a pop-up. The models we're looking at range in weight from 2100-3100lbs unloaded. So I guess we'll be ok. I suppose we'll still have to get sway bars and maybe an auxillary brake system on the truck? Not sure.
Jen

 

I assume you were towing the popup without any electric brakes. IOW, an unbraked trailer. That's fine. If you are towing 1000 lbs or less, then unbraked is fine. If you are towing more than that, the trailer will most likely have brakes on it, and you'll have to hook up an electric brake circuit. It is just a box that senses the press of the brake pedal and sends a signal to the trailer's brakes. You can get one almost anywhere and they are simple to install.

As for sway bars, they do come in handy and make the truck more sure-footed when towing. But since you aren't carrying the trailer, nor pulling a goose-neck style trailer, just a bumper pull trailer, they aren't really necessary. Most manual trans trucks came with sway bars standard (as mine did), so you may already have them. Also, if you have the 'heavy duty' suspension package, that includes sway bars.