How Much Can You ACTUALLY Tow?

[AzScorpion]

Josh the RV nerd has some good videos. Here's one showing a simple explanation of towing capacities, cargo and GVW. Kind of like a "Towing for dummies" video but it does help explain to those of us (myself included) who aren't extremely knowledgeable in towing. As always you should always get it weighed to verify everything.

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[RangerTX]

Love his videos.

We had a travel trailer for a while. Learned a lot from his vids.

 

[CB750F]

I keep on asking myself the following question.
Did I buy the right truck to pull a TT from east coast to west coast?
Were talking a 3/4k lbs TT, for 2/3 months. While traveling we would stay
at places for 3 days & at destinations, 1 to 2 weeks. 10 days out, 10 days back, about 10 days in between, so 30/35 days towing in total?
I have no idea, I'm new to this, do I even make sense?
Good videos Dave, tks.

 

[Grumpaw]

I keep on asking myself the following question.
Did I buy the right truck to pull a TT from east coast to west coast?
Were talking a 3/4k lbs TT, for 2/3 months. While traveling we would stay
at places for 3 days & at destinations, 1 to 2 weeks. 10 days out, 10 days back, about 10 days in between, so 30/35 days towing in total?
I have no idea, I'm new to this, do I even make sense?
Good videos Dave, tks.

Not going to tell you what to do, but we tow a 7000 lb travel trailer and have several 2 and 3 week trips planned this year. Have a longer 2 month trip planned for next year to re-visit some of the parks out west.
Have about 5500 miles towing the trailer since we purchased it early last year with no problems.
A 3 to 4000 lb trailer should pose no problem for a long trip....Ranger can easily handle it.

 

[GhostStrykre]

Not going to tell you what to do, but we tow a 7000 lb travel trailer and have several 2 and 3 week trips planned this year. Have a longer 2 month trip planned for next year to re-visit some of the parks out west.
Have about 5500 miles towing the trailer since we purchased it early last year with no problems.
A 3 to 4000 lb trailer should pose no problem for a long trip....Ranger can easily handle it.

Do you have anything upgraded on the truck over stock in order to do that towing? I’m assuming at least some kind of trailer brake controller.

I’m planning to update to the aluminum transmission deep pan before trying anything crazy.

 

[Big Blue]

I keep on asking myself the following question.
Did I buy the right truck to pull a TT from east coast to west coast?
Were talking a 3/4k lbs TT, for 2/3 months. While traveling we would stay
at places for 3 days & at destinations, 1 to 2 weeks. 10 days out, 10 days back, about 10 days in between, so 30/35 days towing in total?
I have no idea, I'm new to this, do I even make sense?
Good videos Dave, tks.

Like @Grumpaw , not going to tell you what to do. The trailer size you are looking at will be no problem for your Ranger. I pull a TT that weighs a little over 4K loaded. Did a trip out to Southern California from the midwest and had no problems at all. Gas mileage took a big hit, but that as expected.

You didn’t say but I hope you have the factory tow package and brake controller.

 

[Grumpaw]

Do you have anything upgraded on the truck over stock in order to do that towing? I’m assuming at least some kind of trailer brake controller.

I’m planning to update to the aluminum transmission deep pan before trying anything crazy.

Have a Tekonsha Prodigy Brake Control, set of rear Bilstein shocks, a Roadmaster Active Suspension set up, Sumo Blue Rear Bump Stops, and a set of Yokohama Geolander 10 ply G-015 tires, pumped up to 40 psi front and 50 psi rear when we tow.
Also have a set of ClearView Towing Mirrors which extend out as our trailer is at the 8 foot width. Expensive, but to me a needed expense.....would not tow without them now.
Also have a proper Blue Ox weight dist. hitch set up with 1000 rated bars, as my hitch weight is right at the max.
I am right at the max for the Ranger, and would NOT advise anything that heavy unless you are VERY experienced with towing.
The OP's trailer at 3000-4000 lbs is an easy tow for the Ranger...not stressing it al all.

 

[CB750F]

Like @Grumpaw , not going to tell you what to do. The trailer size you are looking at will be no problem for your Ranger. I pull a TT that weighs a little over 4K loaded. Did a trip out to Southern California from the midwest and had no problems at all. Gas mileage took a big hit, but that as expected.

You didn’t say but I hope you have the factory tow package and brake controller.

Thank you Lee & Steve.
I have the tow pkg.
I need to look into the WDH(sway), tires, suspension & brake controller.
I'm looking at a 7' wide trailer, Geo Pro or something similar, not sure if
I need extended mirrors. Looks like my preliminary investigation was correct. I will try & find/rent a trailer to see how things works before buying, go for a couple weekend trips(practice unhook/hook. level) .
Also, my brother in law has a camper & they were saying not to buy
a TT with a pullout? I need to ask them, but apart from the obvious , more complicated, issue & that breaking, what would be the +/-
with pullout. Not talking the obvious, more/less room but other insight?
As for camping, well, almost every yr we go camping, tent, in the BRZ, 2 weeks & camping when the kids were small in a Suzuki wagon Esteem.
I also did cross country on my motorcycle, so camping is good, this would be real luxury with a TT. I'll just need practice placing the TT but an empty parking lot & a few hrs(or more) should be fine.

Appreciate your comments.

 

[Grumpaw]

Thank you Lee & Steve.
I have the tow pkg.
I need to look into the WDH(sway), tires, suspension & brake controller.
I'm looking at a 7' wide trailer, Geo Pro or something similar, not sure if
I need extended mirrors. Looks like my preliminary investigation was correct. I will try & find/rent a trailer to see how things works before buying, go for a couple weekend trips(practice unhook/hook. level) .
Also, my brother in law has a camper & they were saying not to buy
a TT with a pullout? I need to ask them, but apart from the obvious , more complicated, issue & that breaking, what would be the +/-
with pullout. Not talking the obvious, more/less room but other insight?
As for camping, well, almost every yr we go camping, tent, in the BRZ, 2 weeks & camping when the kids were small in a Suzuki wagon Esteem.
I also did cross country on my motorcycle, so camping is good, this would be real luxury with a TT. I'll just need practice placing the TT but an empty parking lot & a few hrs(or more) should be fine.

Appreciate your comments.

a 7 foot wide trailer won't require the expensive mirrors some of us use...you can get buy with a set of clip on's.
All of our rv's from the 90's on up have had slide outs, and wouldn't have a trailer or motor home without one (our last motor home has 3). Our present Jayco, a 24 footer (29 feet overall with the front frame) has one. Slide-outs had a bad reputation for many years, but they are a regular part of rv's now and if you maintain them you shouldn't have any problems...especially a smaller slide out on a smaller trailer. Last 3 rigs, plus the current one have never had any problems with the slides.
Sounds like your looking at around a 20-22 footer, and if it's only 7 feet wide, I would suggest you look at one with a slide out. A smaller, narrow trailer can get very cramped if your stuck in it for a few days maybe due to bad weather. Don't know how many your traveling with, but if more than two, it will get cramped quickly.

 

[raytwntrvlr]

We pull a 20 foot Winnebago Mico Minnie with our Ranger. We specifically went with this unit because it is 7 feet wide and has no slides. Just a personal preference after owning a couple larger trailers that had multiple slides. Never had a slide failure but when it's moving day and raining, pulling in a wet slide is a mess. There are other slide issues including the extra weight, not being able to access areas of the trailer unless the slide is extended, and so on. It's all a personal choice. I have found that with a good camera system on the trailer, the standard Ranger mirrors are sufficient.
Our rig weighs in at somewhere between 3600 and 4000 pounds. We have around ten thousand miles of towing and seen few problems while traveling. Our trips included many mountain passes. Winds are always an issue. Once while pushing it a bit on an extremely steep mountain pass, we got a fifteen-minute timeout when the truck went into limp mode.
Don't expect to get better than 10 to 12 MPGs while towing and the small tank can sometimes be annoying.
Your Ranger will handle the trailer you have chosen easily. Have fun.
Edit: If you are traveling with kids, our rig would not be the one to chose. There are some smaller outfits that have bunks in the back though. Good luck with your search.

 

[GhostStrykre]

Great info. I’m just starting to explore the realm of TT towing as that’s an easy way to save money on vacations (renting the TT from a nearby outfit).

I was considering taking my stock 265/65/17 tires up to 275/70/17s. I figure that negatively impacts towing, but is that anything to worry about with our Rangers, or is it a negligible impact?

 

[Joeiconic]

Here’s a good Ranger towing video. And I kind of dig the 1970’s Houston Astros color scheme.

 

[CB750F]

Awesome, tks for sharing your thoughts.
Most of the time, we will be 2. Wife wants to bring the grandson, so
looking at a 19/20'. We have a SCAB, might need to get a SCREW but
I really like the 6' bed.
I feel so much better some random guy on the internet told me
that a slide-out is fine ?
MPGs, yup, I know it will take a hit. I figure I'll be doing 300 km a day, should
be 1 tank, as I can do 600km on a full tank, camp, visit for a few days(3) &
move on.
That's the plan.
Also, people rent their trailers like Air B&Bs so I'll try that first.
I did pull my car on a U-Haul for 4 hrs & back, no issues.

 

[EJH]

Grumpaw is extremely skilled at towing. For the rest of us, a trailer with a GVWR of 5k lbs is about all I'd suggest with the Ranger.

We have a 20 ft TT that is is 4k lbs dry and 5k GVWR. We have about 4,000 miles of towing in 1.5 years. Our trailer is 7.5 ft wide (with a slide). We don't use tow mirrors, but do have a trailer rear view camera mounted to the dash. Our hitch weight is likely close to the 750 lb limit. We use a WDH w/ sway control.

We do fine towing around the west half of the US, including many mountain passes. That said, I would not want to go wider or heavier. We do get affected by cross wind and will slow down as needed. Normal tow speed for us is 65mph, which can be stressful on interstates with 80mph limits. In heavy wind, we have slowed to mid-50 mph on occasion.

In an ideal world, I'd prefer a full size for a 5k lb TT. It would be much more stable feeling, although not really any safer. I feel safe with the Ranger. However, the Ranger fits everything else in our life better than a F-150.

 

[brroberts]

4600lbs trailer with WDH and Clearview mirrors and Ford brake controller. I really disagree with those who say you don’t need towing mirrors. Those are the most important additions to me. We tow at least 10,000 miles and 4 months every year. I bought the Ranger specifically for towing.

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