Even my lowly '94 F-150 was rated by Ford to tow 7000, but no way would I try, simply not enough usable torque with the 5.0./E4OD/3.55 powertrain. The rest of the truck was plenty stout enough to handle it. If you have the 5.4 and 3.73 or better gears, go for it, if it is the 4.6 you might want to reconsider. Custom intakes are worthless and an expensive exhaust system is not going to help the low-end either.

Jim

 

Well thanks everyone for all of the postive adivse. I have alot to think about and consider. The camping trailer is small and weigh no more than the small travel trailers I have been looking at. If the weight on the camper is accurate 3800lbs my truck is rated to pull 6600lbs. I am not sure of the pin weight but my truck gvwr is 6250lbs and weighs with me and a small load of my stuff 5250lbs. So that leaves me with approx 1000lbs for the pin weight and my caming gear.

 

It looks like you might be OK. I did a search for you and found that fifth wheel pin weights should be about 20% of the weight of the trailer. 3800*.20=760lbs. It does bring you pretty close to the gvwr though. 5250+760=6010. That leves you about 240 pounds for food, water and waste in the camper.
You should go to iRV2.com or rv.net for more infomration about fifth wheels. There are a lot of knowledgable people there. Not that there aren't any here, just that there's a lot more camper specific information in those places.

 

I tow a 7000#, 30ft camper. If the camper is fairly new there should be a sticker in the trailer giving its weight. It WILL include AC, water, propane, etc. According to the RV assoc. it will be the weight of the trailer as you see it. I have a 2004 F 150, 5.4, 3.73 rear end. It should be rated to tow a camper (not a 5th wheel--that's a different rating) weighing 9,500#. I say should because I have a 4X4 (deduct 500#) and a Lariat (deduct 200# due to large tires) (I may have those two backwards) meaning my truck can haul up to 8,800#. It does that very, very well. I don't have any sway bars yet the trailer tows along real nice. Including thru the TN mountains.

 

Thanks for the info tps I will go check out those websites

 

I should have added, depending on your engine and rear end, your truck should be able to haul that trailer with no problem--and stop. When I first bought my trailer I had a '98 with a 4.6 and 3.55. It pulled it, but the trailer was overweight (my new truck was on order). On level roads it did great. The last time I pulled it (I only pulled it twice--out and back--because of the weight issue) I drove it into the teeth of a strong wind. That poor ol' truck could barely keep 50 mph on the interstate. With a 5.4 and 3.73 you should have absolutely no problem. The only problem I have now is we want to upgrade the trailer to a 36ft 5th wheel and will have to upgrade the truck also. I would recommend drive the truck as is, if you want to upgrade, spend the money on a super duty then your ready if and when you want to upgrade the trailer.

 

These guy's give great advice ,i would seriously think about upgrading to a truck made to pull and stop heavy towing.

 

RVdave, you may want to pull your camper acrross a DOT or CAT scale, that little tag on the side isn't anywhere near what these things actually weigh! My 26Fter says GVWR of 7300lbs, well after a trip to the scale after having my boat hitch installed I found out that emty without a battery, propane tanks, (welding shop asked for these to be removed) water, or sewage it weighed 7600lbs on a DOT certified scale! like I said you may want to pull yours across to find the "real" weight!

 

I neglected to add that we didn't have any clothes, camping gear, or food in it either!

 

Thanks SLE I may just do that. However, I am fairly confident its close. The RVIA has really gotten onto its membership about that. The tag I refer to is not the "general" tag that has been placed on them for years but a more "personal" tag located inside of a kitchen cabinet (usually). Mine weighs (wet) 7,038# (no personal cargo) and has a GVWR of 10,800#. The dealer used that GVWR as a selling point and I asked him if I was going to haul gravel in it. That's nearly two tons of personal stuff. The 7000# is suppose to cover all else, water, propane, etc. But I do agree with you, it should be run across a scale to verify the weight. No matter it's weight, however, my truck pulls it real well, good get aways from stop, 8-10 mpg, stopping is more than exceptable (as long as the trailer breaks work). The only thing I really worry about is the trans temp. I burned up a trans, twice, on a class A motorhome. I intend to upgrade next year to a SD or I would be installing a trans temp gauge. Now I'm just having a h*** of a time trying to decide on a 6.4 psd 3.73 rear end or a V-10 with a 4.30 rear end. Any recommendations?

 

RVDave... Without any hsitation I would recommend the V10 with the 4.30s. I just traded in my V10 and i had the 3.73s swapped out for 4.30s. What a difference it made towing my trailer. I also added the Banks PowerPack, Transcommand and Ottomind. Whoever ends up buying my old (2004) is getting quite a truck. I have absolutely nothing against a diesel truck but, i could never afford one and the V10 made me happy enough that I got one in my new motorhome.
I know IL is a long way from MA but, if you're interested it might be worth the trip. If you're interested in it, PM me and I'll let you know how to locate it. FWIW.. I already traded it in so have nothing to gain other than to be happy someone who appreciates it has it.

 

RVDave, I am very happy with my V10. All loaded up my total weight is near 18k lbs depending on what we pack and the Superduty V10 has done a fine job. If I had it to do over again the only thing I would change is I would get a deeper gear set and go with 4.30s. I haven't found any hills that'll slow me down but I don't think I hardly ever need 2nd to ppull a hill where now with the 285s and 3.73s I have to use 2nd occasionally if I don't want to lose any speed on some of the larger hills. JFYI I am the guy that would rather run 65-70 and burn a little more fuel than try to save that extra mpg, so I may use second a bit more often then some of the other guys when pulling the hills. On the other hand I'm pretty much sitting right at where ford rated my truck so I guess they must know a little about what they are doing, lol.

Diesels have there place as they will definitly get better mileage and they'll cuise along at a lowly 2-3k where the V10 will want to see 3-4.5k rpms at times when she's really working. Personallly the reason I chose the V10 over the diesel was not only the up front cost but at a rate of only 6k miles per year I just haven't been drivng my truck unless I actually need it meaning there are very few bread and milk miles on it. At that rate a diesel just didn't make sense for my situation nor does the load I tow. The first year 22,000 miles were put on it, since then (2 years and 4 months later) I've only managed to rack up a total of 35,000 miles which comes out to about 5,600 miles per year, I think you'll see what I mean. Either or you cann't go wrong as the SD is one heck of truck.

 

tps0424 and sle: Thanks for the recommendations. I've been lurking in the 6.4 psd and V-10 forums since summer and it was really no help. Not that I didn't learn alot but the guys in both groups were very biased to their engines so I took the info with a grain of salt. A friend of mine who owns a trucking/construction/concrete/etc. business drives a SD all day, every day. He had the V-10 in it and also an Expedition. He traded both in on PSD and says he couldn't be happier. I was leaning V-10 but he had me looking the other way--to the 6.4. However, I'm starting to move back to the V-10, upfront costs, price of diesel compared to gas, maintenance, etc. I, like you SLE, don't put that many miles on when not towing and I expect that will continue with the new SD. Thanks for the offer TPS but I'm one of those who believes that if I'm going to spend that much on a truck I want what I want and nothing else will do. I always order the truck, I exacerbate my salesman because he wants me to buy one off of a lot somewhere but I refuse unless he can come up with exactly what I want. I always buy Lariats and am looking forward to the TowCommand, mirrors, etc. I'm also not big on adding a bunch of stuff, I expect Ford to give me a truck that will do just what they promise--tow a trailer up to the listed weight without having to spend a bunch of money on things like Banks, etc.

 

Good luck Dave. Let us know when you've made a purchase, or at least a decision.