I've never had a trailer on this truck before. I'm looking at getting one so that I can tow motorcycles, but am concerned about getting something that is too much for this little truck to handle.

I have a class III receiver, and I understand that the truck is 1/4 ton, so the ball would have to take less than 500 lbs - optimally more like 400. That doesn't leave much room to haul.

What's reasonable to assume when getting a trailer for this pickup? Should I restrict myself to certain types of trailers, keep the tow weight below a certain value, fill me in here so I don't wreck my pickup trying to drag a mountain down the road.

 

Rangers are not 1/4 tons. The whole "1/4 ton, 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton, etc" nomenclature is outdated and obsolete and does not reflect a truck's true capacity. Some F150s have a payload of over 2,000 lbs (which is one ton), depending on how it's configured, even though the F150 is a "1/2 ton." Look at the sticker in the door jamb of your truck. It should list the payload capacity as well as the towing capacity. The payload should be over 1000 lbs, which is half a ton. There should also be a label on the receiver hitch that lists the max tongue weight.

 

Look in your owners manual. Look under trailer towing. Look at the type cab you have. Look at 2wd 3.0L and look under the type transmission you have. Look under the axle ratio your Ranger has and there are the recommended towing weights for your vehicle. GCW = combined weight of trailer, load, Ranger, cargo, driver and passenger weight. See if your state requires brakes on trailers over a certain weight. A good rule of thumb is hitch weight should be 10% of trailer weight. Try to raise or lower the ball mount to have the trailer ride level.

 

Thank you for the tip.

I've just never had to tow anything before, and my only experience with towing is hauling farm equipment and pipe trailers with the F-350 Lariat we had on the farm.

I'll take a gander at the owners manual and the door jamb and see what's what.

 

^+1 on the towing info suggestions above.
If you don't have the Owners Manual, go to the "Tech Info" thread atop this forums thread index page, open it & scroll down to the Misc section & click on "owners manual" & it'll take you to the online Fleet Ford site that'll allow you to download the Owner Manual at no cost. The manual will list all kinds of towing info for how your Ranger is equipped.


15 years ago when I bought my then brand new Ranger with the factory tow package, along with the factory hitch, I opted for a "cushioned ball mount", that sure has smoooooothed out my bass boat tow over & through the Blue Ridge mountain twisties on my 30 mile tug to the lake. It's held up well over the years & is worth consideration. My driveline, boat & I appreciate it rounding off the jerks & jars of towing.
Here is what it looks like if your interested. Cushioned Ball Mount for 2" Hitches - 3/4" Rise - 2" Drop - 10,000 lbs Convert-A-Ball Ball Mounts AMSC2 Let us know how your rig turns out & how your tow goes.

 

So the only thing I have now is a Curt receiver, actually on order - not installed yet. Didn't want to buy the hitches and whatnot until I got a better idea of what kind of trailers were out there.

The idea of installing my own receiver seems a bit odd - it's such a critical component, but lots and lots of people swear by them. The Curt 13138, which is what I have seems to be the best of them.

 

On smaller trucks/vans, the manual typically recommends that the frontal area of the thing being towed not exceed the frontal area of the vehicle doing the towing. So, don't just look at the weight.

With my Ranger and Aerostar, I stay well under the recommended maximum. I'm conservative and I like margin. I don't like to push things and shorten the lifespan of my vehicles. The only exception is when hauling dirt/rock to/from the local topsoil place. But that is literally a mile away. I was probably pulling close to the rated capacity that short distance, but I would never dream of doing that on the highway.

Long distance, I hauled two grownup-sized bikes and two kid-size bikes, plus gear. The weight of all the goodies was probably somewhere in the 1,500 - 1,800 lb range. It doesn't sound like much weight, but even with a 4.0, the Ranger sure felt all that weight going over the passes and hills out in Yakima, Washtucna and Snoqualmie, especially in the summer.

The feds require brakes on any trailer over 3,000 lbs (maybe 3,100 lbs) so you'll see lots of trailers without brakes rated for 10 lbs less than the federal requirement. However, in Washington state, brakes are required on the trailer when the weight of the trailer (plus all the stuff on it) is 40% of the towing vehicle weight, or greater. If you have a 2WD Ranger, it probably weighs around 3,500 - 3,800 lbs so you technically need brakes when pulling more than about 1,500 lb.

 

Scroll down toward the bottom of this thread to have a look at what BobK tugged with his Ranger, after adding a tranny cooler & performing a full tranny fluid pumpout, before his trip. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...th-photos.html

 

depends on how fancy you want to be. You did not say what type, but if 2 dirt bikes you are less than 1000lbs for both. You can get one of the harbor freight large trailers and deck it it with rails and chocks and with the 2 dirt bikes be less than 1500 lbs. The 3.0 is not noted for power so you want something light. You would also want to keep the weight over the axle and towards the front to avoid sway. Lowes usually has the nicer but heavier trailers and for what you want to tow they would be overkill IMO.

But let folks know what it is you actually have to tow and better recommendations can be give. Had a friend and Uhaul would not rent him a tow dolly for his 3.0 ranger said it did not have the capability so you will probably want to stay as light as possible.

 

I would not blindly follow the advice of U-Haul. U-Haul will still refuse to rent you ANY trailer if you're towing it with a Ford Explorer, because of the Firestone fiasco over a decade ago. Even if you have a newer Explorer that was built AFTER that whole fiasco was forgotten about, they still won't rent you a trailer. Yet they WILL allow their trailers to be pulled behind a Mazda Navajo or Mercury Mountaineer, even though they're the same things as the Explorer.

A guy on another forum tried to rent a U-Haul to tow behind his 1973 International 3/4 ton pickup. U-Haul wouldn't rent him anything because they didn't have that truck in the system and couldn't look up its towing capacity, even though the trailer he wanted was clearly way below his truck's capabilities.

 

U-haul's system underrates all tow vehicles for insurance purposes I'm sure. They wouldn't rent me a dolly to haul a 2wd Ranger shell(no engine or trans) with my F150, so I lied and told them I was gonna haul a honda civic. The truck towed the Ranger no problem of course.

For the OP, you shouldn't have any problem towing a bike or two on a small trailer, anything up to about 1500lbs is no issue for these trucks. How much you can legally tow depends upon the transmission and axle gearing though so check that out and reference your owners manual or an online towing guide.

 

i have a 6x9 box trailer, its only 1,000 pounds empty, has a capacity of 2,000 pounds, most of the time i have less than 1,000 pounds in it. it has the high roof option, so its just over 8' total height with a interior roof height of 6'. while its great to be able to stand up inside my trailer, there is a drawback to it, even though it is a V-nose trailer and the frontal area is within fords recomendation, it pulls extremely hard, its like dragging a parachute behind you, my fuel milage is around 18 with just the truck, but pulling the trailer, even empty im down to around 12. the wind resistance is just that much...once for the fun of it on a long straight empty length of road i tried going full-throttle with the trailer, no trailer the truck will easily do 90, with the trailer its just over 70, and the temperature guage starts to rise more than normal. brakes? no, mine didnt come with trailer brakes, wish it did. while its fine with the truck to stop it when its dry out, let it be wet and i wish i had trailer brakes. a open trailer would be alot better at times, although when my trailer isnt being used, its a extra storage shed. i have a 4.0 ohv, 3.73 gearing, manual transmission.