How close to tow ratings do you dare go?

[bspeedy]

Our family car is a 2008 Expedition with the 5.4. I think you will be working the fertilizer out of that thing. And, it will not like the 800 lb tongue weight. Too close to maxed out in my opinion. There are some nice trailers around 5000 lbs with a lighter tongue weight that would suit the tow vehicle better. You'll be better off spending a couple grand more for a lighter camper than ruining the trans and getting 8 mpg in the Expo.

I've towed our camper with our Expedition. The camper is a Forest River Surveyor Eco Light Edition 26-footer. About 4500 dry. Probably 5500 loaded up. That was plenty of weight for the Ford. I would not want a 7k camper behind it.

 

[Sysop]

TBN needs a "Redneck" forum where the question would be: "How many multiples of the tow rating do you dare go over by?"

I can't speak for a redneck, but I can tell ya that a hillbilly determines this by load, risk, and cost assessments.
Will it fall off and need reloaded, increasing labor exerted?
Will anyone or anything be hurt if it falls off?
How expensive is this if I break it?

If I'm just going across my property, ratings be damned. Load it till it looks like it's ready to break in two or fall over. If I'm going on the road, I exhibit extreme caution and only tow or load to the limits on 100% showroom quality vehicles. The "average" vehicle I'd tow/load to about 80%. Old beaters are lucky to be safe at 50% of their original ratings in my opinion.

 

[Shaneard]

I would not worry about the truck itself. I tow all the time right upto my tow limit.

What I would do is update your 14 year old hitch. That salt has had to taken its toll. I like Curt and Putnam. For about $150 you can get a unit that is upto the task and safe. I have personally seen 4 or 5 15 year old hitches fail. At that point safety chains and brake away's do you no good.

Chris

If the hitch is that bad the frame it's bolted to can't be much better! Time for a new vehicle, lol.

 

[Steve1300]

I can't speak for a redneck, but I can tell ya that a hillbilly determines this by load, risk, and cost assessments.
Will it fall off and need reloaded, increasing labor exerted?
Will anyone or anything be hurt if it falls off?
How expensive is this if I break it?

If I'm just going across my property, ratings be damned. Load it till it looks like it's ready to break in two or fall over. If I'm going on the road, I exhibit extreme caution and only tow or load to the limits on 100% showroom quality vehicles. The "average" vehicle I'd tow/load to about 80%. Old beaters are lucky to be safe at 50% of their original ratings in my opinion.

I'm kind of surprised by these posts. Here we are on a forum devoted to tractors, and some of us intend terms like Redneck to be derogatory?

If anyone creates a forum for "rednecks," I'll move to that one. At least, I can hope to get some experiential information rather than theories.

 

[LD1]

Being called a redneck or hillbilly is not a derogatory term in my area.

As to the OP, consider the type of camper to be hauled. Getting near the tow limit with a big blat square camper....at road speed is gonna feel like a lot more weight back there due to air drag. Gonna be working the crap outta the engine/trans.

At the very least I'd consider installing a trans temp gauge if it dont have one already.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have to second the notion of checking the frame where the hitch is bolted too. I had the frame rot out on the hitch on my Jeep once and barely made it home with my aluminum boat after two of the frame bolts tore out. Luckily I had a guy next door with a portable welder that was able to put some bracing on it and weld the hitch back on. I sure wouldn't have wanted a big camper on the back when that happened.

As for the hitch itself, peening around on it with a brass hammer will find any corroded spots under the paint. That frame is much more susceptible to rot out than the hitch.

Pulling a 6500# camper should not be an issue with your engine/transmission in that expedition since it has the tow package. Keep your speed at 55 and the wind load will be much less than at interstate max speeds. Folks here seem to think that if you don't have a 1 ton dually with a 10 liter diesel engine and 12 speed Allison transmission that you cant pull a little 6-7000# load. I have no trouble pulling my 8500# tractor with cab on my 20 foot trailer (10K total weight) with my 5.3L 4 speed transmission at 60 MPH down the interstate. I do have to load it to keep the tongue weight down but that is all. It does strain a bit going up hills but only enough to have to kick down into 2nd gear on really long and steep ones. Flat ground towing once up to speed cant tell it is back there.

With a load equalizing hitch, anti-sway bars and proper tires, you wont have any problems with the power to pull. Just make sure you have the hitch attached to something that will hold all that power.

 

[fried1765]

I wouldn't plan on anything using the dry weight of the camper, it's often wrong and any options aren't taken into account when they throw out the dry weights.

Examples would be if you towed with any amount of water in the tanks, the weight of the water and the area where the tanks are located would throw off your guesstimated tongue weight. Just exactly how much weight are you going to be putting the camper? where are you going to distribute that weight. Cooking utensils, LP gas, water, coolers, food, beer, clothing? All of that stuff weighs something and it's going to affect total weight. Where it's placed in the camper is going to affect tongue weight.
How much stuff will you have in the Expedition? What is the payload capacity of the Expedition? That affects how much tongue weight you have left to tow with.

To be exactly sure, you need to know the weight of the trailer, loaded up and ready to go, and the weight of the Expedition, with all passengers and stuff loaded in it, before you can make an educated guess on where you stand with the tow rating capacity.

If the camper is 6250 pounds dry (assuming the manufacturer is close) then your tongue weight is 1% of camper weight. If you add 500 pounds of stuff then you're up to 6750 pounds total with a tongue weight of 1012 pounds. And from my experience, it's not hard at all to add 500 pounds of weight when you started carrying foodstuffs, cooking utensils, tools, firewood, leveling and blocking materials, etc.

I'd wait for a bigger vehicle or a smaller camper.

I am totally confused with this!
A 6250 lb. camper should have:..... "tongue weight is 1% of camper weight"?
1% of 6250 is 62.5 lbs. Did you mean to say 10%?
If the OP added 500 lbs., for a 6750 lb. total, then the tongue weight could be as high as 1012 lbs.
The rule of thumb for tongue weight as I understand it is 10-15%.
For a 6750 lb. trailer; the tongue weight, should be between 675 lbs. and 1012 lbs.
675 lbs. tongue weight would be 10%. At 800 lbs. tongue weight would be 12%.
The bathroom scale method is a reasonably accurate way to measure tongue weight.
If the camper is 6250 lbs. dry, then the axles must be rated at 3500 lbs.,or more, each.
That would mean the OP could add 750 pounds of (properly distributed) gear to his trailer, and would still be fine with a 700 lb. tongue load.
Technically the OP can add 1450 lbs. total, to a trailer with two 3500 lb. axles. 750 lbs. will be carried by the axles, but the other 700 lbs. will be carried by the hitch.

I tow a 12,000 lb.GVW loaded equipment trailer (1200 lb. tongue weight) using a 1997 GMC 4x4 Suburban, with a 454 V-8. I use a 14,000 lb. Equal-i-zer hitch, have new Bilstein shocks, 4 wheel electric brakes, and an Air Lift suspension system. Yup, the vehicle is 20 years old, and has 130,000 miles! I replace the transmission fluid each year, and have never towed more that 2000 miles in any one year. DO NOT TAILGATE! Works like a charm!

 

[RNeumann]

Not to speak for Gunny, but yes, the typical ratio would have 10% tongue weight. I read that as an innocent typo as the rest of his math and data was sound.

 

[breadtrk]

Pretty much, If it don't blow tires or bend anything, I roll with it. Truck is pretty ugly but the 383 stroker pulls and the Wilwood brakes stop, Trailer is electric hydro discs, it stops too.

 

[cockeyedMFer]

Our '97 Expedition with the 5.4 and 3.73 gears is a great tow vehicle for equipment or car trailers with a moderate load, but the 7600lb rating always seemed quite optimistic. Some of the 5.4 equipped F250s from that year were only rated for 7800lbs, and they're heavier with better suspension and tires.

Expy's don't like tongue weight, and travel trailers are a lot trickier to load evenly than a car trailer, with a broad flat side that is susceptible to crosswinds. They also work really hard when pulling even 4000 or 5000lbs.

Don't overlook Diamondpilot's comments on hitch rust...Our truck had the factory hitch with some faded paint, and it showed just the slightest bit of bubbling in one spot on the main tube. Didn't think anything of it and put on a nice coat of paint when detailing the vehicle. 2 months later I hooked up to an enclosed car trailer to move it around the property and the hitch just collapsed. 3 or 4 cracks appeared along the tube as it twisted downward. Despite the frame of the truck being rust free, the hitch itself was completely rusted from the inside out. To this day I've never seen another failure like that.