HD F-150 or 3/4 ton truck?

[gladehound]

With regards to "no way you need to add weight to an F150 to pull that little trailer"

For 99.99% of situations I agree. For that freak front in the plains states that spawns a tornado right in front of you, I'll take as much weight as possible while I look for the safest possible place to pull over.

I know it will probably never happen to me again. But having gone through that situation once will change the way you think. With the GC, I could barely keep it in the lane at 20 mph while I made it to a bank and pulled the trailer right next to the bank so that if/when it flipped it would only go part way over and not take the jeep too. I was lucky. It didn't flip and only ripped off one roof vent (which was closed at the time).

 

[gladehound]

Lot of perception is reality thinking going on here. Our old ranch truck, '54 Chevy 3100 IIRC with the Big stove bolt 6. Well we did the same thing back then we do today and I have pulled many a 10,000 lb load, had as much as 2000 lbs in the bed and pulling a trailer load of hay back when a bale would weigh over a 100 lbs guaranteed and a heck of a lot more if you picked up out of the field and got the still wet Alfalfa.

We put over 200,000 miles on that truck before the speedo failed, but the truck never did in spite of me loading in about 3500 bale of hay up in that barn every summer. I can look back and say that truck hauled the mail, it handled it fine...but then empty, on the downhill balls to the wall and foot to the floor board it could hit almost 70 mph. Cruise speed was 55 max, 0-60 was prob measured in minutes rather than seconds. Sure wish I still had that ole rig!

Todays ½ rig can hit a hundred and does not need a down hill run to get there. My F 350 which weighs in around 6k lbs can smoke the tires like a demon, I can pass a car that is doing 75 in a flash I am at a 100. I can left lane drive pulling my 12k 5th wheel across the US and going thru Co over the Rockies I am left lane the whole way and honking at the guy in the ½ T to move to the slow lane. In fact when I had my Truck Camper with its 5000 lbs in the bed of the truck and while pulling a 10,000 lb loaded trailer I still ran at 62 mph and was getting 10.5 mpg, cross country.

That said I mod my trucks. While I feel the tow/haul rating are legit, my concern is handling and I want to increase the safety envelope and there are a few low cost mods you can make that do it and make a world of difference. My suggestion is that if you want to work at the top end of your capacity on your truck you make a few mods to insure its fully capable of living in that space. I feel the companies compromise on comfort vs load capacity. But that is just the engineer in my speaking which is why I mod and drive a F 350 maxed out in carry capacity so my margin of safety is increased...

Specifically what modifications are you talking about to increase safety?

 

[Sysop]

I can pass a car that is doing 75 in a flash I am at a 100. I can left lane drive pulling my 12k 5th wheel across the US and going thru Co over the Rockies I am left lane the whole way and honking at the guy in the ½ T to move to the slow lane.

You really need a dozen or so tickets. No reason to exceed the speed limits with a trailer; it is foolish.

 

[mike69440]

Just recently read an article that the F150 costs an estimated $482 per year to maintain, the least expensive (and apparently trouble-free) of all the full size trucks. Ram are the most expensive, with the Ram 1500 costing an estimated $863 per year and the Ram 3500 costing an estimated $1244 per year. Even a GMC Canyon is more expensive to maintain at an estimated $572 per year...

Source: Most Expensive Vehicles To Maintain And Repair

Fixed or repaired daily.

Just ask anyone who dealt with carbonizing up the heads in the "ECO-Boost" Also basic replacement parts are generally more for Eco-Boost than V-8.

 

[Farmer495]

Yes. And I'll go HDPP in addition to Max tow which should take a little movement out of the rear. Do you have the 5.5' bed or the 6.5' bed? I'm going 6.5'.

My only concern with the F150 is getting blown around in winds. F150 curb weight will be about 5,200 compared to 8,000 for a Ram 3500 diesel and 6,400 for my old F250. The Jeep which weights 5,040 curb and 6,500 loaded got hammered in some crazy winds on our last trip (I realize the short WB doesn't help with sway). I set it up a little better mid trip and couldn't even feel a speeding 18 wheeler passing from behind but was over on a few weight ratings. However, we never got the crazy cross winds after I set it up better so don't know how it would do in those same conditions, and honestly hope I never experience those same conditions while towing a TT with anything!

Something I've been thinking about if I get the lighter F150 is adding ballast low and between the axles to bring me up close to the 7,850 GVWR and that should help stability of the truck. I'm surprised this isn't common practice for towing among a bunch of tractor ballasting experts like we have on this forum! But I guess it's because most who don't have enough weight also don't have extra payload, and those with extra payload already have enough weight. If I can get close to the GVWR, I'll have near twice the weight on the truck tires as the TT tires. That plus 20% tongue weight should make it handle well. I figure that if I can feel the bow wave of an 18 wheeler passing from behind, I'm not ready for any serious wind.

I'm sure I'm over thinking it, but those tornados on my last trip freaked me out.

I've got the 6.5, so 157" WB I do not notice any movement either passing an 18 wheeler, or having one pass me. No effect on the truck or trailer. I haven't had to fight any crazy tornado like winds pulling though so I don't know.

 

[Deere Dude]

Well, the garage says 80". And the specs for the Ram 3500 say 79.8". So I should be able to drive in there at 30 mph without giving it a second thought right?

If I go the used 3500 route, I'll tape measure it before I buy. The entrance is flat so no ramp to mess with the height.

If it was close enough to worry about I would measure the door height and even the truck height, new or not. Hate to have it almost fit then have to get very low profile tires to make it work. People would think you would be a gang banger,

 

[aczlan]

Something I've been thinking about if I get the lighter F150 is adding ballast low and between the axles to bring me up close to the 7,850 GVWR and that should help stability of the truck. I'm surprised this isn't common practice for towing among a bunch of tractor ballasting experts like we have on this forum! But I guess it's because most who don't have enough weight also don't have extra payload, and those with extra payload already have enough weight. If I can get close to the GVWR, I'll have near twice the weight on the truck tires as the TT tires. That plus 20% tongue weight should make it handle well. I figure that if I can feel the bow wave of an 18 wheeler passing from behind, I'm not ready for any serious wind.

Just get a weight distributing hitch, that will let you push some of the tongue weight forward to the front axle and distribute the weight the way you're talking about.

Aaron Z

 

[gladehound]

Fixed or repaired daily.

Just ask anyone who dealt with carbonizing up the heads in the "ECO-Boost" Also basic replacement parts are generally more for Eco-Boost than V-8.

I do not doubt that gas v8s are the current reliability king - I just can't stand the lack of low RPM torque and all that comes with that (can't hold speed in a gear, lots of shifting, lots of noise). I think it's Diesel of EB for me!

 

[gladehound]

Just get a weight distributing hitch, that will let you push some of the tongue weight forward to the front axle and distribute the weight the way you're talking about.

Aaron Z

Already use a weigh distributing hitch. But the more tension you put on the springs, the more weight you put back on the trailer and take off the rear of your tow vehicle. You can actually make a combo less stable by tensioning too much. So once distribution is ideal, I'm talking about adding weight on top of that for better stability in high winds.

 

[gladehound]

My F 350 which weighs in around 6k lbs can smoke the tires like a demon, I can pass a car that is doing 75 in a flash I am at a 100. I can left lane drive pulling my 12k 5th wheel across the US and going thru Co over the Rockies I am left lane the whole way and honking at the guy in the ｽ T to move to the slow lane.
QUOTE]

I think you passed me on my last trip. I was doing 65 mph with high cross winds in the plain states and an F-350 with a 5th wheel passes me doing about 85mph!