I have never Posted a message before and I have never come accross a more complicated site. I have tried everything (nothing in FAQ) to try and post a NEW posted message. I am probably entering in on someone elses Post but I do not have a clue.
Anyway
I am trying to find out what my 1999 F-150 Super Cab ,5.4L,Auto trans will pull . I can find the tow weight in my Ford manual but it is not very helpful when it comes to 5th Wheel hitch-up. 5th Wheel Dealers are only trying to sell me a trailer and not the problems I might have with my 1/2 ton out on the road. I am not looking at a big RV just a 30ft with a pull out. I will be pulling the 5th. over 10,000 to 11,000 ft mountain roads, to get out of the valley where I live. Then it will be accross flat hot roads to the east or to the west.
Thank you for your help and I sorry if I am not in the right posting area .. I even tried contacting customer support and I got a long winded message that made absolutely no sense. I think this is a GREAT forum but as I stated it has to be the most complicated I have ever tried to enter a Posting on...

 

Welcome to the forum Zeke2

I've split your question to here so it's by itself where more people will see it.
To post a new message you just click on the "New Topic" button on the left side of the page, near the top of the forum. Stick around and you'll get the hang of it

 

got a weight on that 5th wheel? it's hard to say without a weight, but a 30 footer seems a bit outside of the abilities of a half ton pickup. An f-250 or better would do better. Check out what the owner's manual says about the max towing capacity. Now of course this takes into account that the load is hitched to the back of the truck and not in the bed, but even so I wouldn't exceed it by a lot. The engine and tranny are part of the equation for coming up with that load max too.

 

I agree with AMISH...Unless it is an empty shell and light, may be an issue. The most that an F150 was rated at was 7700, and I am not sure they did that for the 99's. The 05's are rated at 9000 but that is another story. For yours, Get the weight of the trailer you want to pull, the wieght on the pin when hitched, and the distance from the pin to the two front corners and make sure that doesn't exceed the distance from the center of your fifth wheel to the bed.

 

That is going to be too much weight, you would need an f250 for that. If your pulling steep hills at 11000 feet you couldnt pull much more than 6000lb. Alot of guys will say--" I pull 8000 lb all over the place" but that is either on mostly flat ground or over reving the engine and overloading the transmission, I pull a boat and trailer that weigh about 6200 loaded (5.4) and thats about max for any extended steep hill pulls.

 

I think the max for a 5.4 would be a light 24-26 foot enclosed trailer with a car...but primarily an open trailor I would say..
I just trailerd an all steel 18 foot open trailer and a 3800# Ford Galaxie about 220 miles yesterday and it did fine..Only dropped lost about 40 miles from my usual tank full.

 

You cant go by size for what you can pull, it has to be by loaded weight and how steep the hills you will be pulling. In this last car and trailer case, they probalby weigh around 6000lb----so that would be about right for max. weight going up long steep grades, especially at 10,000 + feet altitude.

 

I have the factory specs for 2000... these should be the same for '99s as really nothing changed... I have taken these from the Ford Builders Site (Body mods for ambulances, rental trucks and such...)

F-150 Pickup Fifth Wheel Towing

5.4L (330) SEFI V-8 2v AUTO tranny
RATIO - 3.55
GRCW 13,000(1)
Max trailer weight reg cab 4x2 - 8600
Max trailer weight reg cab 4x4 - 8200
Max trailer weight supercab 4x2 - 8300
Max trailer weight supercab 4x4 - 8000

GCWR 12,500(2)
Max trailer weight reg cab 4x4 7700
Max trailer weight supercab 4x4 7500

This relates to the 7700, which did not come into being until 2000 (was the 3.73 5.4 version of the F250LD)
5.4L (330) SEFI V-8 2v AUTO tranny
RATIO - 3.73
GCWR 13,500
Max trailer weight reg cab 4x2 - 8800
Max trailer weight reg cab 4x4 - 8500
Max trailer weight supercab 4x2 - 8700
Max trailer weight supercab 4x4 - 8300

NOTE: Maximum trailer weights shown. The combined weight of the towing vehicle (including hitch, passengers and cargo) and the loaded trailer must not exceed the Gross Combination Weight Rating (GCWR).
(1) With 16² tires or 4x2 P275 17² tires.
(2) With 4x4 P265 or LT265 17² tires.

Required Equipment:
• Heavy Duty Electrical/Cooling Package or Class III Trailer Towing Group for trailers over 4000 lbs.
Trailer Towing Package Content:
• 7-pin Trailer Wiring Harness and Connector
• Class III Frame Mounted Hitch Receiver
• Heavy Duty Electrical/Cooling Package:
—Super Engine Cooling
—Auxiliary Automatic Transmission Oil Cooler
—78 Amp.-hr. Heavy Duty Battery
• Heavy Duty Shock Absorbers (F-150 Only)

Hope that answers some stuff... feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.

-Kerry

 

THOSE ARE NOT REAL WORLD NUMBERS, they are only good for on the flat or small hill towing and/or low speed towing up hill. IF YOU ARE TOWING UP LONG STEEP HILLS AND YOU WANT TO DO IT AT A COMFORTABLE SPEED AND NOT OVERLOAD THE ENGING OR TRANSMISSION THEN THE MAX. WEIGHT GOES WAY DOWN. The original question said that they would be towing over mountains at 11,000 ft.--you are not going to pull 8000+ lb without alot of problems in this condition. LETS GET REAL

 

fire105 is right.....real world numbers don't include an F150 pulling over 8,000 lbs over 11,000 foot mountains......not happening unless you want to blow it up after a year or two....get real

 

either way a 30 foot enclosed with a car in it is gonna be pushing if not over the weights he posted. isn't real world and you're still getting close to if not over it.

 

I understand the numbers I posted are factory numbers... man, you need to read the fine print, and get off your soap box a second. Back to my previous post, and I quote -

"NOTE: Maximum trailer weights shown. The combined weight of the towing vehicle (including hitch, passengers and cargo) and the loaded trailer must not exceed the Gross Combination Weight Rating (GCWR)."

Then Ford also put that big list of requirements down at the bottom of the page... there's not a great deal of trucks that came from the factory equipped exactly like that list.

I know for certain that I, a person who owns a 7700, would never attempt to tow anything in the 30' Fiver range with my truck.... so why on Earth would I recommend that a person with a standard duty F150 tow something like that.

The key is the GCWR - Gross Combined Weight Rating

If MY truck and trailer weigh 13,500lbs, loaded and wet, I have reached that limit. By the way, when I do tow a trailer, my truck weighs just over 6000lbs when everybody's in it, with all the gear in the cab. That means that my 7700's max trailer weight is then dropped down to around 7000lbs. That 7000lbs, doesn't mean I can buy a 7000lb trailer, it means the max weight of the trailer, when loaded can be 7000lbs. Today's 25'-27' trailers are pushing that limit. The front cross section of the trailer is about as aerodynamic as a brick, too... that's a huge dynamic load on the engine. The high altitude will also kill your power... 3-4% for every 1000 ft (also from a Ford Trailering guide... Ford covers their butt, it's the people that refuse to read the paperwork or don't have a manual that are asking these questions).

If Zeke wants to buy a fifth wheeler, he should think about a something much smaller than 30'... try 21', max 23'

By the way.... I do know something about trailering at high altitude, I was raised in Colorado and my family does a lot of camping.... let me know when you go over Cottonwood Pass. I know how to read the fine print of the ratings as well... I just hope that Zeke does, too.

-Kerry

 

sorry kspilkinton, didn't mean to call you out, just wanted to keep the line on this one clear.

 

I wasn't necessarily directing that at you amish77, even though you had the last post about real world numbers. It's when someone uses the internet protocol for yelling when it isn't necessary, that really gets me.

The line is set quite clearly by Ford, if you read the literature they provide.

I appreciate that you apologized... one of the hazards of not being face-to-face is a person may be misunderstood.

-Kerry

 

hey it's a good post, I just didn't want to lead the poster astray. Somtimes people hear what they what to hear, and with your post being so full of information, he might say "well that guy sounds like he knows what he's doing, I'll go with him" not really reading the post, and just seeing the numbers being more than his 10k pounds or whatever, and breaking his truck in the process. It isn't because you're wrong that we got all over ya, it's because you might be interpreted wrong.