Hi all,
I'm looking at buying an travel trailer with a GVRW of about 10,000-11,000 lbs with a tongue weight of 750 lbs. I will also have a 750 lbs quad in the box. I live in the mountains so the road can be fairly steep. Would you suggest a F250 or F350 both crew cab and power stroke deisel. I don't want complete overkill. Thanks for any help

 

Depends of the MY the 350 might or might not be rated for what you want to haul.
250 is out of the question.

 

With those numbers, you have to do some research. And unfortunately, I don't have the numbers you need.

But I do agree with Kajtek1, I think you will end up way beyond weight ratings of 250 and probably many 350's. Quite possibly will need 350 dually or maybe even 450....
The diesel engine is heavy. If you're looking at crew cab, I assume you have multiple passengers. The quad is heavy. I assume you'll be wanting to toss some firewood and other camping stuff in the bed. The tongue weight on an 11K trailer is going to be heavy. The hitch and WD system is going to be heavy. It all adds up to a LOT of weight, much of it accumulating on the rear axle. Keep in mind that published capacities assume no options, no passengers, no hitch, not tools in bed, no fuel, etc etc etc. All those things need to be factored in.

 

A 10K or 11K GVW trailer should not a problem for any F-250/350 truck as long as you run a weight distributing hitch and have adequate tongue weight.

The PSD will *easily* handle this type of load and the V-8 would probably do OK as well.

Make sure that you have brakes on each trailer axle and you should be good to go.

Lou Braun

 

One thing you need to consider is that the F-250 and the F-350 Single Rear Wheel (SRW) have the same towing weight ratings when they have the same engine/transmission/gearing. An F-350 SRW can haul more, but tow ratings are the same. An F-350 Dual Rear Wheel (DRW) can tow more, but you do not need that.

10-11000 pounds is easily within the F-250 tow ratings. A 2005+ 5.4L V-8 with an automatic and 4.10 gearing is rated at about 11k. A V-10 or a diesel engine goes up from there.

 

The issue with a 250 is that the weight in the bed (atv) plus tongue weight, of an 11000 lb trailer, which should be 10 to 15 %, means you have 500 lb atv, plus 1100 to 1600 lbs of tongue weight, equals, likely 2000 lbs of weight on the rear of the truck. this leaves you 500 lbs roughtly of additional GAWR ont he F250 and more like 1500 lbs on the F350. I have a F350, and with a load of stuff and firewood in the back of truck, trailer fully loaded with full tanks, I still have 1500 lbs remaining on my rear axle rating and I am no problem on total weight of rig, truck and front axle. On the F250 with that big a trailer it would be close. That being said, a set of air bags on the F250 and the 6.0 are good to pull no problem, but you will be at max. The F350 isnt much differnt, few more axle splines, diff spring codes, but it all makes a difference in the numbers. If you ever want a 5th wheel the F350 is the better way to go as well. more hitch weight.

 

No difference in the axle internals, it's a misprint in the guide, all Ford 10.5" axles are created equal, excepting ring and pinion gearing differences and LS units. The only mechanical difference is the size of the block between the axle and the springs. Spring codes depend on the options ordered., my 250 has a higher front GAWR than most 350s out there. A camper package on a 250 will effectively out haul a base model 350, with the aux springs installed over the spring pack. The difference IS in the numbers, and then only the ones printed on the pillar tag. Go set up a 250 with the snowplow package and the camper package, and compare that to a base 350, and tell me what the numbers are. The limiting factor is the GVWR number, which means absolutely nothing mechanically. Just come in under the GAWRs and go from there. Sorry for the rant.

Now for the sensible part:
OP said he expects a 750# tounge, and I'll trust his statement since he know what trailer he has, but I've never seen an 11,000# trailer with that light of a tongue weight. If the trailer loads like most people's, you'll end up tongue heavy. RVs tend to have LP tanks on the tongue, water tanks in bad places, and bedrooms at the front that end up with lots of baggage in them, plus truck beds collect stuff. All of it's dead weight on the tongue, and it adds up in a hurry.

Unarguably though, the brakes are the exact same on all the SRW trucks. Since the OP is hauling in the mountains on grades, brakes are actually the defining characteristic he should be looking at. Even someone like me with a history of overloading work trucks will admit that bad brakes can cause big problems. If you doubt the ability of a SRW SD to stop the load safely on the grades you plan on pulling on, then the only option is a larger truck, not for the capacity, but for the brakes. '08+ SD F-450s have larger brakes, and IIRC prior year 450/550s have larger brakes than 350s. I have no personal knowledge of 350 DRW vs 350 SRW brake differences, but since the base model wheel is a 17" on both configurations, I would assume they're the same.

OP, get a diesel and you'll be fine. Pick up a used 2007 if you can, I've seen a bunch floating around West Texas in the low 20s with less than 50k miles on them. Avoid early '08s, but later builds of the 6.4L are solid. The 7.3L was a great engine, but unless you're fine with looking at trucks well into the 100-200ks, then try to find a newer engine.

And honestly, having lived in Colorado and pulled down I-70, and over passes all over the state... there is something to be said for the stability of a dually. I hate overkill, but sometimes weight ratings aren't the detail you should be focusing on. Yeah, I've personally driven an F-250 towing over 20,000 pounds of livestock, but not over any sort of grade worse than a highway overpass. Look at ALL the factors in your trip, not just the "can my truck move the weight forward" part of it.

 

My old truck was a 99 250SD with a V-10 and camper package. No problem with 10,000 40 foot camper, 7 guys, load of plywood to cover the roof and watch the race. Generator, extra water and a bunch of cases of beer. Had a few guys ride in the trailer at times too.

 

Huh? What would have you come to that conclusion? My F250 has roughly a 2,000 lb payload to stay under GVWR. Also my rear GAWR is 6,100 lbs with an empty weight of 3,200 lbs. I could put nearly 3,000 lbs on top of the rear axle without overloading the tires, wheels, axle, springs, or brakes.

The differences, as stated above, between F250 and F350 SRW are very minimal. Other than the overload springs in the rear, which can be had on F250s with the camper package, the suspension, axles, tires, and gearing is rated the same.

To the OP:

Any SD would tow your trailer and haul your quad. If you're concerned with being under the GVWR for the truck, which is kind of a meaningless number compared to GAWR specs, I recommend a gas engine F250 or PSD F350. The gas engines are lighter, and would leave you with more room for payload under the F250s artificially low GVWR.

But seriously, guys. Out of the question? With helper springs an F150 could pull this load!

 

I tow many different loads and routinely have over 2K in the bed. A F250 would do just fine. A F350 will as well.

If the 250 and 350 were side by side and the same price I would get the 350, but it is not needed.

 

Get the 2010 or 2011 towing guide from Ford it has all the number you could ever want on all cab/engine/bed combos. http://www.fordvehicles.com/assets/p...RDUTYsep09.pdf

Are you looking for a new or used truck?
How often will you haul loads like this? Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Couple times a year

The F350 with a camper package and snowplow package will have the numbers you want with what ever engine you put in it. I believe in overkill so I would get the F350 simply becasue it has higher number thought the trucks are almost identical.

On all 250/350 your going to be limited to 12500lbs by the hitch rating the trucks can pull more but the hitch only is rated for 12500 how ever a DRW 15000 hitch fits just right if your worried about number.

 

We do have at least couple of topics here with links to cargo/towing capacities.
As I recall -lot of F350 have 10,000 towing capacity, few 12,000.
The truck do carry overload just fine, but you have to look at legal part.
In last years CA require declaration of weight you are using the truck for. I have mine paid for 15k, but that makes me illegal for towing heavy trailer and big sticker at the door is easy to see. Are other states doing the same? The 15 k sticker cost me almost $400 in "weight fee"

 

I would suggest f350 diesel. Given that you want to put stuff in the bed you would do better with the higher payload in the mountains. If you only would travel this heavily loaded a few times a year a v-10 (or even the new 6.2...?) would probably be fine.

 

Up through 2004 SRW trucks had a 20,000 lb GCWR. 2005+ SRW F350s and 250s are rated for 23,000 lbs.

My F250 in my sig is rated for 15,000 lbs trailer weight.

 

That's with a fifth wheel on the receiver it is 12,500 unless you put the DRW receiver on it