Hi Team,

A question on Towing here. In a perfect world which may happen tomorrow the bank will clear me on a loan to purchase a 32' by 12 ft wide cabin cruiser that I plan on living in, and it comes with a triple axel Trailer. Dry weight is 15,100 pounds for trailer and boat. Add in fuel and supplies and I'm looking at 16K +. Also in my perfect world I will talk him down on price and have enough money to drive to BTS to get my transmission fixed so I can tow it (my tranny has no chance in its current state)

So thats my plan, assuming the above is true, how much does a lift effect towing capacity? I have a 6inch lift on 35s. I know Glenn and a few others tow 16K + but not with lifts. Can I still get away with that? Anybody doing it?

The trailer is a bumper pull, can the stock hitch handle it or do I need to upgrade that for the weight? I don't have manuels for the truck and didn't see weight specs on the receiver.

Any other advice is apprciated as I've never towed over 7K before. I know I will need permits for a wide beam, but last i looked I can purchase them as 1 offs, or for a year. As long as I'm not over 12ft I don't need escorts. The trailer has brakes on each axel as well.

Thanks!

 

With a lift and it being a bumper pull your probably gonna want airbags

 

I thought our bumper pull weight is 10,000 pounds? 1000 pounds tongue weight.

 

it will be alot for it,but if it has trailer brakes you can probably get away with it this time

 

12,000# without weight distribution and 14,000# with.

Trailer Hitch by Draw-Tite for 1996 F-250 and F-350 - 45002

I think you are going to have to do something different unless you can find a bumper pull hitch rated for that weight. A 5th wheel is your best bet. You can go anywhere from 15,000#-22,000# with a 5th wheel hitch.

15,000#:
Fifth Wheel for 1996 Ford F 250 and F 350 | etrailer.com

22,000#:
Fifth Wheel for 1996 Ford F 250 and F 350 | etrailer.com

 

If the brakes are in good working order, a triple axle will stop really well. That part you should be OK. 90% of my towing is with a 5th wheel but once I had a bumper pull way over weight. You probably will not believe this but I was desperate. I used a heavy duty come-a-long and put it on the king pin of the 5th wheel hitch, ran the cable down under the tailgate and hocked it on the trailer tongue. I cranked on it as hard as I could to help support the hitch weight and it got me by. As far as the lift, use a drop down hitch. How far are you going with it? The truck can handle it and I really like the triple axle setup, I have a 42' enclosed car hauler with triple axle and it stops really well.

 

What size gears in the rears? Even if you have 410's the tires will make that worse, I imagine you have a 4x4 I think they have a better granny than my 5spd. IDK you might not get it out of the water. Hopefully it's already out and all you have to do is tow it.
How far do you have to tow it, and how often? I think I would try to find a pro. or friend with a MDT

 

The guy that tows it now has an 89 F350 that he uses. It is already out of the water. I don't plan on towing it much. The initial haul is 3 hours to where I will dock it. Once it's in the the wet slip I really only plan to pull it out every couple of months to fuel it. Marina gas prices are way too high.

I will need to check on the rear gears, at 65 I spin in the neighborhood of 2,100.

 

My truck runs 2,000 RPM at 70 mph with 285/75/16 tires. I would say that you have 4.10 gears.

 

The one thing you need to check is most big tires are load range D and I'm not sure if a D would handle the weight. All I run is load range E

 

About a year ago I was looking for a heaver tire then E and couldn't find any.

 

You can get a 16 ply but that's pretty much a semi tire like they run on the IH durastar tow trucks

 

Load range D is 65 psi of air and E is 80psi

 

That's not in our stock size tire is it? I'm running Toyo's on the rear and they are a tough tire but I have a lot of weight bouncing on them. They are E's 10 ply, I couldn't find anything heavier.

 

We have them on box trucks at work with 16" rims. The bad thing is they only come in a five rib tread like the front tire of a big rig they suck for anything off concrete or gravel we get stuck in wet grass