read the ford truck manul at any ford dealer. An F-150 has a towing weight limit this limit is how much the unit weighs. Four wheel dr and all wheel drive uits are subtracted form the over all GVW. Ask to see the
fleet and Lease manager he will put ypu on the money on this issue.

 

Boy, I wish it was that easy. I have called three major ford dealerships and always talked to the person in charge of their trucks. Each time they did not know that the harley truck or the new 08 limited F150's had this drastic reduction in towing. Each said they would contact ford for info. Each of them called me back in about a week and said no one could help them.
I work at a Ford Transmission plant in Sharonville, Oh. We make the truck transmissions and even our garage guys were unaware of the towing rates for the trucks with 22 inch wheels.

 

My Gen1 lightning is rated lower than standard f150 due to load capacity of the Alum wheels. Put steel wheels on and rating goes up

 

I have an '06 HD F150. When I checked into the towing capacity, I was told by the people at the dealership that is was definitely the All Wheel Drive that limits the towing capacity. You can confirm this with the brochure that shows all truck towing capacities. All the other 4 whl drives have a higher capacity; it is only the HD w/ AWD that has the lower limit. They also said that for short trips it wouldn't hurt to tow more. I don't need to tow more than 5k so I have not had to try it.

 

Somewhere around the dealerships, there is a nice, glossy, expensive looking pamphlet that covers the tow rating on almost all Ford vehicles. I have about 2 that I have picked up when drooling over the expeditions. Ask your friendly truck sales person or manager to get you one of them. He may have to walk 25 or 30 feet or even ask someone else. If you cant get that brochure from the dealer, then tell them you are going to buy a Toyota-----they may have brochures (now you know thats and empty threat).

Let me turn over a few rocks, look under a few piles and see if I can find mine---think I have both 06 & 07.

 

I have a 2001 HD F150 and have had the rearend rebuilt 6 times. The dealer finally said enough was enough and had me bring in my trailer to be weighed.It weighed 850 lbs. on the tongue and my truck was rated at 400 lbs on the tongue.
So, I sold the trailer and got a smaller one. And no problems since.
I also had airbags installed to stiffen the rearend.

 

Somethings wrong with the picture that the dealers selling you on the rearend problem. A Yugo will damn near take 850#. That 400# rating on the truck rear has to be a rating on a step bumper hitch ball---even that is a little low.

I have a full size bronco with an equalizer style hitch that I use without bars on a boat that has 850 # tongue wt, measured. A solid 2# bar rated for 1000# w/2 5/16 ball. It is close to all ratings limits, but works. I also use "air lift" bags on the rear (2500# max) to level since I dont use bars. I have 145K on the original 8.8 axle bearings (need to be changed).

I suspect there is another problem they dont want to admit. Your door tags should show the ratings and total limits. Somewhere there is a GCWR for your vehicle. Post all the figures and you can find out what is accurate from people on this board.

 

Why is the towing capacity of a 4wd lower than a 2wd and why is the towing capacity lower with a manual trans than an automatic trans. I was floored when I discovered such a dramatic drop in the capacity. My little 99 4x4 4.2L can barely haul a thing!

 

Do the same rules for towing apply to winching?

 

I just found my 2006 "RV & TRAILER TOWING GUIDE" that I referred to in a privious post. I really doubt the figures are much different from earlier years.

Manual trannys sure are rated about 35% less than a comperable auto tranny. Tells me what ford thinks about the trannys behind the smaller engines.

You really have to study the rating figures for each component (axle, hitch, total vehicle) to figure out what it will tow/haul. I am not claiming to be an expert, but I have towed for many years (RV's, Boats etc) and do know " a little". It appears for the 4.2L F150 that the recommended weights "shore aint" much. By running the numbers, you will find that they arent telling you that you cant haul/tow something!

For example, an F150 reg cab w/4.2L auto 3.55 gear has a GCWR of 10K lbs. (conventional towing guide). Also keep in mind that (according to this guide) the brakes are "---rated for operation at GVWR" That says that anything that exceeds the GrossVehicleWeightRating should have its own brakes. If your vehicle scales at 5000# unloaded, then you have up to the GVWR of load and the brakes will support that. If you can haul a light trailer that in total with your vehicle does not exceed the GVWR them the brakes can support that as well. I would absolutely go for it.

The hitch capacities, whether bumper or weight dist. are independant of the trucks ratings. It appears (by this guide) that all F150's regardless of engine (even if it has no engine!) are rated minimum for 5000# trailer wt. and 500# hitch or bumper wt. The catch 22 is that the vehicle combination may not be rated for that.

Anyway, just some more info, you need to run your own vehicle #'s

 

Thanks Ben.....I have got to do some reading and test hauling I guess. This all started when I bought myself a winch. And the winch is not rated much more than my truck can tow. Go figure.

 

I have done a little "stare and compare" of this 2006 guide.
Scuba1954--The only HD pkg shown on the chart is a 5.4/3.73/15000# GCWR/144.5 WB/supercab with either 4X2 or 4X4 AWD with auto only. 4X2 is rated 5800# and 4X4 is 5600#. The only vehicle show on the chart for AWD is the HD/supercab/15000#/144.5 WB. If it werent for the HD pkg, it appears that 4X2 would be 9500# and 4X4 would be 9300#. The 4X2 and 4X4 cost about the same weight rating on either vehicle. For some reason the HD knocks the he--heck out of the rating. I am going to guess its either spring rates (which you said are the same) or possibly spring travel. If the HD is supercharged, then there is your explanation. Remember, they are only engineers, so wisdom is not their strong point. (appologies to any engineers on this board, obviously I am not referring to you )

In the notes, actually note #1, it says that "---reduce GCWR and Maximum Trailer weight by 500# on models with 18-20 in. wheels". Probably reduce by another 500# for 22 in.wheels.

As a general rule, the weight ratings and capacities are not rocket science. Once you dig in and run the numbers, it becomes easy from then on.