I recently bought an 88 F-150 with an inline 6 -- it's to tow my horse around. Can anyone tell me anything about the towing capacity of this truck? I'm looking at a 2-horse trailer with walk-in tack compartment. I haven't got the weight of the trailer, but it's equipped with stabilizer bars. Is this truck going to be enough if I buy a heavier trailer?

 

The Inline six can be enough, but you need to give up some more information first. What gear ratio is in the rear axle? Second, what transmission do you have? Third, what tire size are you running? I pull a 6,200 pound racecar trailer with my F-150 and six cylinder combo, and the engine still has reserve (due to the fact that my truck is a half ton, I'm afraid to pull more than that, but the truck seems like it's capable). That's with an AOD (4 speed automatic Overdrive), 29" tires, and 3.55:1 gears in the axle. My friend has an '81 F250 4x4 with a Heavy Duty 4 speed manual trans, 4.10 axle ratio and 33" tires, also the 4.9L six, and he pulls a 9,000 pound plus trailer with it, no sweat. Just keep in mind that this inline six runs like a tractor engine... lots of grunt, not alot of revs. This engine is a truck engine through and through, and will move a suprising amount of payload (UPS used the 300 in their big brown trucks up untill Ford stopped production of the 300 in 1996), but it does so in a deliberate, methodical way, not alot of speed involved here. If you want to pull Sea Biscuit with an 8,000 lb trailer at 90 MPH, the six won't do it very well. If you intend to cruise this same combo at 55-65 mph, and your final drive is deep enough, it will reliably do it for hundreds of thousands of miles. Hope this helps... and I hope I didn't overload you with details. You know us gearheads...

 

Mostly depends on what size of truck you have (F150/250) then gear ratio and transmission and another thing you really have to take into consiteration is breaking. The six it's self can pull a whole lot, but it really depends on your truck's setup.

 

HELP! How do I find out all these things? I don't speak fluent mechanic, but I'm quite capable of crawling under the hood, or under the truck, if a novice can find anything out that way!

 

Look in the owners manual and then the sticker on the door. The owners manual will tell you what each axle code is. I think 19 is 3.08 and 18 is 3.55 (someone correct me if I am wrong).

If you have the Mazda 5 speed (m50d), that is your weekest link for towing.

 

I tow a 4200# 2 horse goose neck with 1200# Walking horse and another 1500# of people and gear with a 300 l6 manual trans.
It has never given me a problem.

 

There was no owners manual with the vehicle. The door sticker says: transmission K; axle 12; tape 3; spring BH. Tire size is P215/75R15. It's an automatic transmission. The Ford dealership suggested I'd also want to add a "transmission cooler" if I'm going to tow. I live on the prairie, so there aren't a lot of hills to climb (just a 75mph wind half the time!).

 

your gonna have to change your gears, axle code 12 is 2.73, a good size to get is 3.55 which can be found really easy. 3.73 is good too but ford didn't use this one but you can get them from summit or mostly any other aftermarket supplier. The higher the number ratio = lower gears, which in turns means that with a higher number you can tow more with less strain on the truck. With your tranny code K is a c6 3 speed automatic, that is a very good transmission, put a good size tranny cooler on it and change those gears = happy towing!

 

I'll second that - you won't be pulling anything with 2.73 gears. With that transmission, the lowest you'll want to go is 3.55, especially with those small tires. That'll put you up around 3000 rpms at 65 mph, which is pretty much the top of the 300's power band.

300's are great motors. They pull a incredible amount of weight for a six. I'd take a 300 over any V8.

 

Laurie, I used to pull a '72 model John Deere 60 horse tractor with a 9 foot disc hay cutter behind an '83 F-150 with an I6 and a 3 on the tree. Trailer and all, I was towing close to 10,000#. The old brakes did not care for it, but the engine did what it was supposed, not real fast, but it did it.
John

 

I don't expect to be travelling at any speed over 55 -- 50 is more like it. The door sticker is where I got the original tire size, and I put new tires on -- they're P235/75R15. I was planning a 450 mile haul in a couple of weeks, but I've spent all I can afford on it for now with new tires, trailer brake wiring, etc., so it sounds like I'm grounded!

 

Make sure your brakes are good!

 

if you have any local junkyards I'm sure you can find some 3.55 gears fairly easy for it and probabally pretty cheap also. is the truck 2wd or 4wd, if it's 2wd it'll be easier all you'd have to do is the rear end, 4wd you have to change the both sets of gears so they match up. I have a 95 f150 300 4wd w/ 3.55 gears and I love it well except for the m5od.

 

3.55 gears or deeper is a good start. However, if your truck came with the 2.73 gears, it propably doesn't have the heavy duty springs and shocks, so you may still need to look into that. As I said prior, my driveline has plenty of reserve at 6,200 pounds, but I'm afraid at that point about braking and suspension capacity. A weight distributing hitch would be a great help if your trailer, fully loaded, is more than 5,000 pounds. As GeneStoner suggests, make sure your brakes are good, as this is no time to find out that your brakes are worn to the rivets. Also, as Kista20 says, if you are 2wd, it might be easy just to find a complete axle assembly with the gear ratio you want and swap it in. Then all you'd have to do is get your Speedometer re-calibrated, and you'd be set. I strongly urge you to get and read (thoroughly) a Chilton's or Factory service manual for your truck to be familiar in this and all other aspects of how your truck operates, even if somebody else will be doing the repairs.

 

i had the inline six in a 75 ford f 150 great little engine 394,780 miles on it original no rebuild sold it to get my 75 ford f 150 supercab with a 390 in the six i pulled a 34 ft. 5th wheel trailer no problems i just felt i needed more power with the 390 i pull the same thing but at one time for work i had 2 bobcat tractors a rand air compressor 2 pallots of bricks and 6 people it towed fine towed 300 miles one way it weighed 53,000 pounds at the scales in so. cal