Questions on Towing.

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Jul 15, 2004 | 07:28 PM

thebillsmith1

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Questions on Towing.

I have a 2000 Ford 4 x 4 with 5.4 engine with 3.73 rear end. Auto Trans. I guess basically I do not understand all the towing formulas. My truck has front GAWR 4400, Rear GAWR 6084, GVWR 8800 and the owners guide says Max. GCWR 13,500 lbs. and also Max. trailer weight is 10,000 lbs. I have noticed that some of you out there are very sharp on this and obviously I am stupid. Any help would be appreciated Thanks.

Jul 15, 2004 | 07:40 PM

rvpuller

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From: Home Base Nebraska

Are you going to tow a TT or a 5ver

Jul 15, 2004 | 08:59 PM

04superduty

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From: Michigan

the GCWR is how much your truck and trailer together can weigh. You need to find out how much your truck weighs (take it to a truck stop, gravel quary, any place with a truck scale) and subtract that from your GCWR. try to get the front and rear axle of your truck weighed seperate. that is how much of a trailer you can tow. Now it gets fun, the 8800 GVWR is how much your truck alone can weigh. If you tow a trailer you shouldnt go over either limit. you need to make sure your tongue weight isnt to high. hope that helps.

Jul 15, 2004 | 09:00 PM

horsepuller

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From: Southern California

I'm assuming that with a GVWR of 8800#, you have a SuperDuty. 13,500# GCWR is low for a SuperDuty. That means that at gross truck weight (8800), you can only pull a 4700# trailer. Or say if the unladen weight of the truck is 6800#, then a 6700# trailer will put you at 13,500# GCWR.

Most SuperDuties have a GCWR around 22,000# and allow for towing a 13,000# trailer. What does your manual show as being the limiting factor for your low GCWR? Is it the engine, a short bed with crew cab or what?

Thanks for joining us in the Towing forum and welcome to FTE!

Jul 15, 2004 | 09:06 PM

04superduty

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From: Michigan

i think the engine might be his limiting factor.

Jul 15, 2004 | 10:27 PM

SoCalDesertRider

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From: USA

His GCWR is correct. My 2003 Superduty towing guide shows a GCWR of 13,500 with a 5.4L and 3.73 axle. This doesn't surprise me, as my '92 F350's GCWR with a 351 and 3.55 axle was only 11,500. The 4.10 axle brought it up to around 13,500 if I remember correctly. That max trailer weight of 10,000 lbs is wrong though. At a GCWR of 13,500, to tow a 10K trailer his truck would have to weigh 3500 lbs! The 2003 Superduty tow guide shows a max trailer weight of 6800 lbs for a 5.4L 3.73 F350 Regular Cab 4x4 with single rear wheels. Manual trannys and automatics are showing the same ratings. That 6800 lbs makes sense, since 13,500 minus 6800 equals 6700 lbs. The commercial towing guide assumes a 1000 lb truck body, since the commercial trucks all come without a truck bed on them. The max tow rating of a regular pickup would probably be around 500 lbs more. 6700-500 = 6200 lbs. That doesn't sound like an unreasonable curb weight for a gas engined reg cab 4x4 pickup. Sorry, my towing guide does not cover F250's because it is a commercial vehicle towing guide, starts at F350 and goes up through F550.