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Hello all first post, excited to be rejoining the Ford Truck family 15 years after selling my last one!
I've been pulling my 22' ATC enclosed car hauler for 10 years with various Land Rovers. They tow great, have never had an issue. Now that I'm lucky enough to have more buddies to race with, I've decided it's time to buy a bigger tow vehicle and a larger trailer.
I just ordered a 2026 F450 with HO motor. I am in the final stages of commissioning a 28' Intech TAG Stacker. The GVWR of the trailer will be 21k lbs. Might weigh around 19k with a typical load out. Triple axle.
I was just doing my due diligence before finalizing the order and have run into a number of threads saying pulling that big of a trailer with a bumper pull is a bad idea and to go Gooseneck. While I'd love to do that, a 28' bumper pull is the max size I can fit in my storage. If I went to a 36'+ GN, I'd have to find some other place to keep it and that would be far less convenient.
Every FB post, forum post, etc that I have read saying this is sub-optimal, was at least one or maybe 2 generations old. When the weight was right at the max the SD was rated at. As you know the current gen is rated at 30k lbs for traditional, bumper pull towing.
Is this STILL a bad idea? I know general physics haven't changed in 20 years and a GN would still pull nicer. But I'm trying to maximize the space I have and be safe at the same time. More than happy to upgrade shocks, use a WDH, etc if it makes an impact. Appreciate any insight!
If you're spending that kinda coin for a trailer the only thing you should worry about is the hitch choice. Spend the money for a nice hitch and try it out. If the trailer is loaded right I don't see the problem. A triple axle spreads the load more to the ground. The engine won't have a problem pulling it and the truck and trailer brakes combined won't have a problem stopping it. As long as the weight is loaded right it should track just fine.
If you're spending that kinda coin for a trailer the only thing you should worry about is the hitch choice. Spend the money for a nice hitch and try it out. If the trailer is loaded right I don't see the problem. A triple axle spreads the load more to the ground. The engine won't have a problem pulling it and the truck and trailer brakes combined won't have a problem stopping it. As long as the weight is loaded right it should track just fine.
ok excellent, thank you. I planned to get a nice GenY hitch. Haven’t figured out the WDH yet. Is there a consensus on what the gold standard is?
life is full of compromises. Prioritize the important aspects. See what the effects on the other part of the system are. Because you may go with a bumper pull that is less than optimal because it corresponds to your storage capabilities is a good discussion on compromise. What are you willing to live with. Less than optimum, can still be good enough.
Hello all first post, excited to be rejoining the Ford Truck family 15 years after selling my last one!
I've been pulling my 22' ATC enclosed car hauler for 10 years with various Land Rovers. They tow great, have never had an issue. Now that I'm lucky enough to have more buddies to race with, I've decided it's time to buy a bigger tow vehicle and a larger trailer.
I just ordered a 2026 F450 with HO motor. I am in the final stages of commissioning a 28' Intech TAG Stacker. The GVWR of the trailer will be 21k lbs. Might weigh around 19k with a typical load out. Triple axle.
I was just doing my due diligence before finalizing the order and have run into a number of threads saying pulling that big of a trailer with a bumper pull is a bad idea and to go Gooseneck. While I'd love to do that, a 28' bumper pull is the max size I can fit in my storage. If I went to a 36'+ GN, I'd have to find some other place to keep it and that would be far less convenient.
Every FB post, forum post, etc that I have read saying this is sub-optimal, was at least one or maybe 2 generations old. When the weight was right at the max the SD was rated at. As you know the current gen is rated at 30k lbs for traditional, bumper pull towing.
Is this STILL a bad idea? I know general physics haven't changed in 20 years and a GN would still pull nicer. But I'm trying to maximize the space I have and be safe at the same time. More than happy to upgrade shocks, use a WDH, etc if it makes an impact. Appreciate any insight!
How TALL is this double stacking trailer?
It looks pretty tall. Twelve feet?
A search indicates that typical stacker trailers of this sort have 11.5 feet of interior height and 13 feet of exterior height.
And is it eight feet wide, give or take an inch? 8' x 13' = 104 square feet of Frontal Area.
Frontal Area is the total area in square feet that a moving vehicle and trailer exposes to air resistance.
The maximum trailer frontal area that must be considered for a F-250®/F-350®/F-450® Super Duty/trailer combination is:
- 75 sq. ft. all 5th-wheel and gooseneck applications
- 60 sq. ft. all other applications. (tag trailers)
Exceeding this limitation may significantly reduce the performance of your towing vehicle.
Your proposed F-450 + stacker trailer combination appears to present between an estimated 96 sq. ft. to 104 sq. ft. of frontal area, which is substantially higher than the 60 sq. ft. maximum frontal area limit that Ford based their tag trailer towing capacity ratings upon.
Therefore, Ford's trailer capacity tow ratings, as Ford suggests, may have to be "significantly" reduced for that kind of stacker trailer.
Frontal Area is the total area in square feet that a moving vehicle and trailer exposes to air resistance.
The maximum trailer frontal area that must be considered for a F-250®/F-350®/F-450® Super Duty/trailer combination is:
- 75 sq. ft. all 5th-wheel and gooseneck applications
- 60 sq. ft. all other applications. (tag trailers)
Exceeding this limitation may significantly reduce the performance of your towing vehicle.
Your proposed F-450 + stacker trailer combination appears to present between an estimated 96 sq. ft. to 104 sq. ft. of frontal area, which is substantially higher than the 60 sq. ft. maximum frontal area limit that Ford based their tag trailer towing capacity ratings upon.
Therefore, Ford's trailer capacity tow ratings, as Ford suggests, may have to be "significantly" reduced for that kind of stacker trailer.
Interesting point, thanks for making it. I've never heard of that being something to lookout for. I looked up the guide, it counts the area exposed to the wind and not shielded by the tow vehicle for that calculation. The trailer is 12'1" tall by 8'4" wide. So yes while the trailer on the ground would have a 100 sq ft surface area. Roughly 57 of it is exposed to the wind. So I appear to be right at the upper limit of that.
Interesting point, thanks for making it. I've never heard of that being something to lookout for. I looked up the guide, it counts the area exposed to the wind and not shielded by the tow vehicle for that calculation. The trailer is 12'1" tall by 8'4" wide. So yes while the trailer on the ground would have a 100 sq ft surface area. Roughly 57 of it is exposed to the wind. So I appear to be right at the upper limit of that.
CHATGPT / AI does a fantastic job at presenting information, whether accurate or not.
The quality of the presentation is easy to conflate with the quality of the information.
That is scary.
For the time being, let's focus on what information that Ford offers, as that leave enough for us to struggle to interpret, without getting AI involved.
We want to make sure that you, and others who find this thread in the future, understand the impact of frontal area on Ford's advertised towing numbers, and that impact is compounded with elevation.
Fortunately, with the 6.7L diesel engine in the Super Duties, the frontal area has zero impact on emissions certifications. In other vehicles, it actually does.
We are just concerned about your towing experience, since you reported being on the brink of deciding between a gooseneck or pulling the purchase trigger on this empire state stacker trailer.
Where did you get the idea that the silhouette of the truck is excluded from what Ford described as the "F-450/trailer combination."
Frontal Area is the total area in square feet that a moving vehicle and trailer exposes to air resistance.
The maximum trailer frontal area that must be considered for a F-250®/F-350®/F-450® Super Duty/trailer combination is:
- 75 sq. ft. all 5th-wheel and gooseneck applications
- 60 sq. ft. all other applications. (tag trailers)
Exceeding this limitation may significantly reduce the performance of your towing vehicle.
Your proposed F-450 + stacker trailer combination appears to present between an estimated 96 sq. ft. to 104 sq. ft. of frontal area, which is substantially higher than the 60 sq. ft. maximum frontal area limit that Ford based their tag trailer towing capacity ratings upon.
Therefore, Ford's trailer capacity tow ratings, as Ford suggests, may have to be "significantly" reduced for that kind of stacker trailer.
So, an F250 with a 6.2 or 6.8 and a numerically low rear end has the same max frontal area as an F450 with the 6.7 and numerically high rear end? That does not make sense.
CHATGPT / AI does a fantastic job at presenting information, whether accurate or not.
The quality of the presentation is easy to conflate with the quality of the information.
That is scary.
For the time being, let's focus on what information that Ford offers, as that leave enough for us to struggle to interpret, without getting AI involved.
We want to make sure that you, and others who find this thread in the future, understand the impact of frontal area on Ford's advertised towing numbers, and that impact is compounded with elevation.
Fortunately, with the 6.7L diesel engine in the Super Duties, the frontal area has zero impact on emissions certifications. In other vehicles, it actually does.
We are just concerned about your towing experience, since you reported being on the brink of deciding between a gooseneck or pulling the purchase trigger on this empire state stacker trailer.
Where did you get the idea that the silhouette of the truck is excluded from what Ford described as the "F-450/trailer combination."
Ya, I'm a data scientist so I tend to use CGPT to help visualize things for people rather than spend the time in Excel graphing it out. The math all checks out.
Page 26 of the 2025 Ford towing guide shows: "FRONTAL AREA LIMITATION
Frontal Area is the total area in square feet that a moving vehicle and trailer exposes to air resistance"
That could certainly be interpreted as the truck itself is part of the limitation, in which case I would be way over, as would just about any gooseneck stacker car hauler. A 2 car bumper pull and a 3 car GN have the same height and width after all.
I am by no means a towing expert. I've been towing various single car enclosed trailers for 15 years and maybe 50k total miles, and very much err on the side of caution.
If I did go GN, it would be my first. I would certainly higher someone to show the ropes and help me get my non-commercial Class A.
Since I had earlier wondered if something was "fishy" (couldn't resist! just teasing!) about what appeared to be an online calculator that actually wasn't... I started rummaging through some Ford pdf documents that I had on hand in my computer to illustrate how Ford calculates frontal area.
The 2026 model year is a continuation of, and identical to, the 2023 mid-cycle refresh. So while the image I post below will say 2023 model year, it is applicable to the 2026 model year as well.
But first, in a quick review Ford's quotation from the 2025 RV and Trailer Towing Guide, Ford states:
"Frontal Area is the total area in square feet that a moving vehicle and trailer exposes to air resistance."
Frontal Area is the total area in square feet that a moving vehicle and trailer exposes to air resistance.
If 60sqft of TOTAL trailer frontal area is all that is allowable for an F450 then my 20ft enclosed trailer with the optional 5300lb axles would have been over that. It was 102" wide x 92" tall. If that trailer had the 3500lb axles your logic would mean the F450 would be exceeding it's limitations towing a 7k lb GVWR trailer. My F350 with a 7.3 gas towed the trailer and didn't even know it was behind it on just a ball. I towed it fully loaded with a 95 F350 460/5spd 4.10 gears from Michigan to Alabama without a problem.
The frontal area interpretation has ALWAYS meant the exposed portion of the towable to the wind. If you follow the total frontal area logic then there is no half-ton produced that could tow any 5th wheel no matter how light.
Since I had earlier wondered if something was "fishy" (couldn't resist! just teasing!) about what appeared to be an online calculator that actually wasn't... I started rummaging through some Ford pdf documents that I had on hand in my computer to illustrate how Ford calculates frontal area.
The 2026 model year is a continuation of, and identical to, the 2023 mid-cycle refresh. So while the image I post below will say 2023 model year, it is applicable to the 2026 model year as well.
But first, in a quick review Ford's quotation from the 2025 RV and Trailer Towing Guide, Ford states:
"Frontal Area is the total area in square feet that a moving vehicle and trailer exposes to air resistance."
Thanks for sharing that sheet I hadn’t seen that either.
Originally Posted by OBS460
If 60sqft of TOTAL trailer frontal area is all that is allowable for an F450 then my 20ft enclosed trailer with the optional 5300lb axles would have been over that. It was 102" wide x 92" tall. If that trailer had the 3500lb axles your logic would mean the F450 would be exceeding it's limitations towing a 7k lb GVWR trailer. My F350 with a 7.3 gas towed the trailer and didn't even know it was behind it on just a ball. I towed it fully loaded with a 95 F350 460/5spd 4.10 gears from Michigan to Alabama without a problem.
The frontal area interpretation has ALWAYS meant the exposed portion of the towable to the wind. If you follow the total frontal area logic then there is no half-ton produced that could tow any 5th wheel no matter how light.
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just teasing!) about what appeared to be an online calculator that actually wasn't... I started rummaging through some Ford pdf documents that I had on hand in my computer to illustrate how Ford calculates frontal area.
