David85, you said your manual says 12000 lbs towing capacity? Was that GCWR?

I'm reading my manual (1985) and it says GCWR 14,000 lbs for my truck. The manual states:

"The maximum Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR) for your powertrain. This is the maximum combined weight of the loaded verhicle plus trailer that will meet acceptance test."

So, earlier in this post it said a 4x4 should weigh about 7000 lbs. (Which seems right for my truck GVWR of 8600, 7000 for truck plus 1500 (3/4 ton) = around 8600. ) So if you take my trucks GCWR 14000 lbs - 7000lbs = 7000 lbs towing capacity.

Did the 86's up the towing capcity 5000lbs? Am I reading the manual wrong? ... Or, do you have the Dual wheels? Does that up the weight limit considerably?

 

clarification, the 12 000 lbs was for the big block gasser.

For the 460, auto tranny, and 4.10 gears it states 18 000 GCWR, or 3500-12 500 for the trailer alone.

For the diesel with auto and 4.10 gears it states 14 000 GCWR, or 3500-9100 for the trailer alone.

What is your gearing and transmission?

 

Improving the intake and a larger freeflowing exhaust helps the power on these. If you don't know when the fuel filter was last changed I would change it and fill it with a good diesel additive. Tou can turn the pump up a little but you need to install a pyro first.
If you have the stock exhaust bigger pipes and a good diesel muffler will suprize you straights are great but without a turbo they are too loud to stand when pulling a load.

 

I have 4.10 and previous owner put in a C6.

 

take it out of overdrive read your oners book dont tow in over drive

 

I have an 84 250 3.54 6.9 with a hypermax turbo and pulling my 9600 ford tractor on a 28 gn I'm running somewhere around 24,000 gross whitch I admit is really pushing it the problem is keeping the c6 cool I will be adding a electric fan on the tranny cooler. But with the cab on the tractor it is 13'4" tall on the trailer 55 mph is doable with out a heavy head wind, but on the hills it only pulls down to about 45 mph. But with your auto install a cooler and a temp guage because i have a 12x8 inch cooler and i still gets hot to the point i need the fan.

 

The 85 in my sig is 6000 lbs front tank full and me in it but sorta stripped down with no skid plates, AC delete, and no spare. That said I have towed 10,000 lbs before when I used to haul a bobcat around. Go slooooooow. Airbags helped handling the load quite a bit. Brakes were never great so lot's of anticipation required (errr go slow). I would not tow that load with this truck today as I have adjusted my common sense (safety) margin a bit to the right and I have a better tow rig. If you go to smaller tires for more rpm watch that you do not exceed the tires weight capacity. Also the skinny tall tires do have a side roll effect on handling corners when loaded down.

 

My 1991 F-350 with 4.10 gears and a 5 speed also struggles most of the time when pulling my 25 ft gooseneck.It doesnt matter if you have 3000 lbs on the trailer or 12,000 lbs on it. About the best it will do is 45-50 mph on level ground.If you are driving in to the wind 40 mph is about it. Its in 3rd gear going up most hills.7 mpg is about all it gets too.These trucks just dont have the horses for heavy towing.

 

Both my IDI's struggle when under load to, my 6.9 is always under load being a 11,000 pound motorhome. But I don't mind at all always being in the slow lane going up hills and whatnot. That's what I don't understand from many guys here (no offence to no body or anything) but what's the big deal being pasted by bigger trucks or losing speed on a grade? Isn't that normal? Sure feels perfectly normal to me anyways.... I guess i'm just use to driving old slow machinery lol. One thing I always keep in mind, no matter what I will get there....eventually!

 

Ah-HA! So YOU were the one getting in my way

 

I've never been disappointed with the way my truck handles it's hauling duties. Most recently, helping my brother move. This was using a 12x6 uhaul trailer and the bed of the truck. The little uhaul was surprisingly heavy for it's size, coming in right about 2000lbs empty, but the truck never noticed it. Combine that with it being stacked to the ceiling, and my brothers penchant for heavy furniture, then loading the bed equally tight, I would wager we had the trailer overweight (says the max is about 4500lbs), and easily another 1500-2000lbs in the bed. In line with this particular discussion, that's obviously not that heavy. I've rolled across the scales in my old 460 truck with loaded trailer at just over 16k, and by comparison, I'd say this past workout was probably totaling in around 13k (including the truck, full bag of fuel, and 3 adult males in the cab). Moving from the City of Pittsburgh (around Bascom Avenue) out to Wexford, it's nothing but hills, and some are pretty steep. I can't say I can complain about how the truck performed, although it is a 4 speed, which might have contributed to my non-disappointment. I guarantee the turbo "made the difference" on that subject though, although I definitely have a boost leak somewhere (7psi tops right now).

 

You could have at least gave me a little push up the hill

 

this is incredible all this weight these high mileage trucks pull, 300,000 miles on an auto trans bravo man bravo , and 24,000 lbs on a turbo 6.9 ?!?! thats real impressive also .. wow i really wanna go pull something heavy

 

Good maintenance ALWAYS pays off !!

 

i saw the chunk that feel of ur truck lol iam happy with my truck crushs cars efforsely and those peskey high bryds reel good