2018 F150 3.5 Ecoboost and max trailer length
 

Hey folks,

I've got a 2018 F150 STX with the 3.5 Ecoboost and Max Tow package. I'm looking at buying an RV trailer and I'm concerned about towing it with the half ton truck.

The trailer I'm looking at is 35.5 feet long. That seems a bit long to me for a half ton. Weight wise, it's well within the parameters of the truck. Even fully loaded it's less than 10,000 lbs and the truck is rated for a max of 13,200 lbs.

has anyone towed a long trailer with a similar truck? How did it do, how was the sway and stability? I'll use an equalizer hitch for sure, is there anything else I can do to help it tow a long trailer better?

Kind of pushing the envelope Jayy? (just kidding). There is another recent thread (I don't remember the subject; sorry) where a few people were posting pictures with some pretty long TT. One was a 5th wheel, so that doesn't exactly count, but I know there were a couple with more conventional WDH setups.

Focus on payload first. You will run out of payload capacity long before you reach the manufacturers listed max towing capacity of your truck. Figure out first where the tongue weight of any trailer is going to fall when loaded and subtract that from the payload capacity listed on your truck's door sticker (ignore any RV manufacturers published dry tongue weight..they are never accurate). Best is to take the max GVWR of the trailer and multiply it by 12%-15%. That will give you a much better guess as to where that tongue weight will be. Then you will see what you have left over for passengers, gear, etc.

To give you a better illustration. My Jayco 22BHM (26.5' hitch to bumper) has a GVWR of 5500# and a dry hitch weight listed at 475# if I remember correctly. My actual hitch weight when loaded to camp is almost exactly 800# as measured on a CAT scale with the fresh water tank full, my hitch, bike rack, and all of our gear packed away. My 2018 SuperCrew Max Tow has a listed payload of 1857#, so already I've taken over 40% of my listed payload capacity with just the trailer tongue weight and I still have to add passengers, generator in the bed, fuel cans, etc. That payload gets eaten up quick with all the extras most of us drag along with us.

Now, I'm not going to be the person that says to you that you can't pick a certain size trailer. However, if you are not careful, you can easily eat up most of your payload capacity with just tongue weight alone. Trust me when I tell you that you are going to enjoy your towing experience much more when you are not fully maxed out on payload, axle, and/or tire capacity as you are traveling.

You will run out of payload before you hit the max tow number. Is your truck a 4x4 ? Is it 145 or 157"wb?

Well, I've got the 5.0 with the 7,050 max GVWR in a superCab 4x4 and my max payload is 2,200, so I'm guessing his would be north of that 2,870-3230 for a 4x2, or 2,620 to 3000 for a 4x4. Those numbers don't look all that restrictive to me unless I'm looking at the wrong figures.

matt

As other have said tongue weight and truck payload are the limiting factors.

I recently bought my truck and scaled it while I was setting up the WD hitch so let me demonstrate how the math really doesn't work. My 2017 SuperCrew 4x4 3.5L 5.5'. 5700 lb curb (including my hitch), 7k max. Jayco Eagle Super Lite 26' 7500 lb, 1100 lb tongue weight, (15%, as it should be). 13,200 combined. Well under the advertised max combined of 16,100 but my payload on the truck is already 6800 lb so I'm maxed as soon my wife and granddaughter buckle up.

In a nutshell: Weigh your truck before you shop for RVs. Calculate 15% of the trailer gross and add that to your truck curb weight. Don't go over the gross on your truck door sticker.

Derail alert... He was asking about the length, not weight.

Oh, I get it now, the published payload numbers are "hopeful".

Weigh the truck. Got it, thanks.

Honestly I probably wouldn't do it. The longer the trailer the more tongue weight you're going to have on your hitch. Add to that the fact that 35' trailer is going to have a lot of surface area which will make towing in a crosswind fun, especially with these lighter aluminum trucks.

If you do decide to do it anyway, you'll probably want to invest in air bags, a sway bar, and a good WD hitch(this is a must, not a may).

A 2000 F150 CCLB base weight was 4914lbs
A 2018 F150 CCLB base weight is 4946 lbs

These trucks are not lighter! They are certainly stronger, but not lighter!

There was no F150 SuperCrew until 2001. They were all short bed too. The long bed showed up in 2004.