Towing RV with 2019 Ranger

[slowmachine]

We're looking into getting a RV as well. The specs on the one we want is
Gross Dry Weight 4450 Lbs.
Hitch Dry Weight 440 Lbs.
Axle Weight 4010 Lbs.
Cargo Carrying Capacity 1750 Lbs.
GVWR 6200 Lbs.

Making sure this won't be a problem.

These numbers alone are not enough to say that it is safe or unsafe, wise or foolish. The larger (size, not weight) the trailer is, the more likely it is to require as much as 15% of the loaded weight on the tongue to prevent dangerous sway and loss of control. The maximum tongue weight is 750 pounds, but again, that number alone is not enough to say safe or unsafe. The weight of the passengers and gear in the truck must be factored into the total. With these numbers alone, I would be confident towing the empty trailer and zero passengers, but that‘s not a recipe for family fun.

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[Big Blue]

I think my problem might be my tongue seems high. My trailer is not level after connecting to the truck. The front of the trailer sits high. The RV place that put the weight dist hitch on for me says they do it that way so you can put more weight in your truck bed. I typically don't carry much weight in my bed when towing. Maybe I'll try adding more weight to get the trailer level and see if that helps. Your trailer does look about same size as mine except mine is tandem axle.

I tow a Forest River R-Pod RP 191 with my ranger. Very similar specs except single axle. I too have a Husky Centerline TS hitch, which I disassemble, clean, lube and re-torque each year. I haven't had any issues towing. It definitely sounds like you need to get your hitch set up properly. Towing level is best, slightly nose down is OK, nose up NEVER. Also as has probably been mentioned, but bears repeating, get your trailer/truck weighed. Make sure all your axle and tongue weights are within ALL rated limits including passengers and cargo in truck and trailer. Tongue weight should be 10% minimum and up-to 15% of gross trailer weight. Adjust trailer loading and hitch bars to achieve this. I have also found that using overly stiff bars is not always a good thing. My trailer runs about 3700-3800 lbs loaded with 400-425 lbs tongue weight, so I'm running 400-600 lb bars. The ranger doesn't squat that much with that load so a lot of weight transfer is not needed. Just enough to not take weight off the front, measure front and rear fender well height unhooked and hooked up to judge this.

As far as the other trailers mentioned, I don't see the ranger having an issue towing any of them. As long as you have a properly setup hitch and follow all the weight ratings. The ranger has all the power to pull those weights and then some. But, just power alone does not make safe towing. One thing that hasn't been mentioned here is a properly installed and adjusted brake controller. I recommend the Ford integrated controller that is now available. Unfortunately it was not available when I bought my truck, so I have the Redarc without the added module to tie in emergency braking. I don't have ACC so that's not an issue, you shouldn't use it will towing anyway.

Sorry for getting long winded but towing a TT safely is an important subject. It seem a lot of people new to towing are buying these days. Best advice don't let your eyes or the salesman over sell your need. Start with a smaller unit, maybe used, and move up if you need to. The very worst thing to have is a rig you are afraid to pull, not safe for you, your family or anyone else on the road.

Safe and happy traveling

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Folks,

I have said this many times but load your trailer, family, dog or cat or tortoise, all your goodies and take this assembly to your local truck stop to be weighed. Then consult your owners manual for GCW. If you are below GCW then good, if not then start removing goodies, etc. Reweigh. Okay? now you know....no guessing. This does not address tongue weight, so Weigh the Ranger with the family and stuff. Then weigh with the trailer connected but the trailer is not on the scale....Subtract the two and you will get the approximate tongue weight. This evaluation will allow you to make informed decisions as you will also know the trailer's loaded weight to see if it is above GVW of the trailer. If all is well, the weight will tell you what your tire inflation pressure should be as well.

Knowledge is a powerful tool. Guessing is a recipe for a problem and hopefully not a disastrous one.

Okay....

Rant over

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[slowmachine]

If you have little experience or understanding of how to apply the various ratings and capacities of a tow vehicle and trailer for safe towing, this is a pretty good tool to begin with.

http://changingears.com/rv-sec-calc-trailer-weight-tt.shtml

Most have us have probably seen Toyota’s publicity stunt with the Tundra towing the space shuttle. Clearly, there is more to towing safely than simply being able to get a load moving forward without breaking the truck.

If I may suggest, the single most important towing capability is to bring the vehicles to a stop, in a controlled and safe manner. All of the various numbers are calculated with this single goal in mind. It is not rocket science, but needs to be done correctly, and with some understanding of the dynamics of a truck and trailer moving at highway speed. You can get away with a lot in ideal conditions, but for you and your family to survive in difficult conditions, you need to understand all of the factors in play, and apply them to your towing setup. The most difficult thing is to bring the truck and trailer to a controlled stop, going downhill, around a curve, in slippery (rain, ice, snow, sand, gravel, leaves, etc.) conditions. Think about how that might go with an oversized trailer behind an overloaded truck.

I live in a tourist destination. There is hardly a summer weekend without an RV towing mishap. Don’t be “that guy.”

 

[JimG_AZ]

I think my problem might be my tongue seems high. My trailer is not level after connecting to the truck. The front of the trailer sits high. The RV place that put the weight dist hitch on for me says they do it that way so you can put more weight in your truck bed. I typically don't carry much weight in my bed when towing. Maybe I'll try adding more weight to get the trailer level and see if that helps. Your trailer does look about same size as mine except mine is tandem axle.

Unfortunately, most RV dealers know nothing about towing and proper hitch setup. It is a sad statement to make, but it seems to be proven true time after time. Your hitch looks like it is an Equal-i-zer knock-off, so it is copied from a proven design. I have used the Equal-i-zer hitch before and its sway control setup is definitely better than the add-on friction sway controls.

To solve your sway issue, I would do the following. (1) get the trailer level and the torsion on the spring bars set correctly. The instructions for the hitch should tell you how to do that. YouTube probably has videos on it too. Hopefully, you will not need a different hitch shank to drop the trailer height. If you do, then try to get the dealer to swap it for free since they didn’t set it up correctly. (2) After you get the trailer level and the hitch properly setup, load the trailer as you would for a camping trip and tow it over to a CAT scale at a truck stop. You will want a CAT scale because they have 3 to 4 plates and are designed to get the weights we will want. You will need two different weight readings. The first is with the Ranger and trailer hitched up. For this weight you want the Rangers front axle weight, rear axle weight and the trailer axle weight. You just need the axles on a different scale plate for this. On the second weight reading you will want to unhitch the trailer and get the front and rear axle weight of the Ranger. If no one is in line at the scale, and you are quick, you can unhitch on the scale, and easily get the actual truck weight and the trailer weight. Best case would be the trailer axles on plate 1, the trailer tongue jack on plate 2, the truck rear wheels on plate 3, and the truck front wheels on plate 4. With your trailer being so small, I know your Ranger is not overloaded. What I am really after is the total weight of your trailer and the tongue weight of your trailer. The tongue weight should be between 10-15% of the trailer weight.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

HI folks,

I want to reiterate...a weight distribution hitch does not mean you can exceed GCW!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[Silver Surfer]

We're looking into getting a RV as well. The specs on the one we want is
Gross Dry Weight 4450 Lbs.
Hitch Dry Weight 440 Lbs.
Axle Weight 4010 Lbs.
Cargo Carrying Capacity 1750 Lbs.
GVWR 6200 Lbs.

Making sure this won't be a problem.

My guess is you're looking at a Lance 2075 model. We are full-timing in a 2021 1985 Lance and it feels very comfortable. Just stayed in the middle of Utah at 9032' elevation which had a short 8% grade near the top and it downshifted to 4000RPM's holding 55mph which was impressive to me. It didn't have much left over to give but being a hot day as well (80 degrees at that altitude) the density altitude was closer to 12,000'.

Our only issue is staying under/at the Ranger's max tongue weight of 750lbs when we carry full water (which is most of the time) but keeping heavy items in the rear, moving the spare tire and third propane tank from under the trailer to the bed of the truck, makes it work for us. The 2075 has lower dry tongue weight and I'm not sure where the fresh water is located on that model but it's doable for sure. We travel with two people and a golden retriever and we are 100lbs under Ranger GVWR and 6000lbs in the trailer (same 6200 GVWR as 2075).

 

[canadian_ranger]

The larger (size, not weight) the trailer is, the more likely it is to require as much as 15% of the loaded weight on the tongue to prevent dangerous sway and loss of control. The maximum tongue weight is 750 pounds, but again, that number alone is not enough to say safe or unsafe.

Just curious: are you saying here that for a larger (size, not weight) trailer, you'd want more tongue weight (or may have to add more) to counteract sway, assuming it's below the 750lbs the Ranger is rated for?

I would have (maybe naively, I'm new to this) assumed you'd want less, so long as everything is under the manufacturer's rating (as actually weighed) and the Ranger is roughly level / has the roughly the stance it had unhitched.

Again, just trying to learn here.

Great thread.

 

[slowmachine]

Just curious: are you saying here that for a larger (size, not weight) trailer, you'd want more tongue weight (or may have to add more) to counteract sway, assuming it's below the 750lbs the Ranger is rated for?

I would have (maybe naively, I'm new to this) assumed you'd want less, so long as everything is under the manufacturer's rating (as actually weighed) and the Ranger is roughly level / has the roughly the stance it had unhitched.

Again, just trying to learn here.

Great thread.

You’re not misreading it. A 10-foot long, 5000 pound diesel generator is going to tow very differently than a 20-foot long, 5000 pound giant box of air. Turbulence and crosswind are going to make the RV a much more difficult tow than the generator, which probably won’t be affected at all by the wind. Increasing the tongue load is the primary tool for countering the trailer instability. There are expensive hitch setups that make travel trailers less of a chore to tow, but they also add to the total weight, reducing the amount of fun stuff that you can carry.

 

[canadian_ranger]

If all is well, the weight will tell you what your tire inflation pressure should be as well.

Phil, assuming you mean inflate the tires to reduce the contact patch size, given the increased load. So how do I figure out precisely how much to increase pressure by, if I know the various weights you listed above? I.e., what’s the formula for that?

Thanks again for the great info in this thread all.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Phil, assuming you mean inflate the tires to reduce the contact patch size, given the increased load. So how do I figure out precisely how much to increase pressure by, if I know the various weights you listed above? I.e., what’s the formula for that?

Thanks again for the great info in this thread all.

Hi CR,

The pressure by weight should be on the tire manufacturers website. There is no formula but the tire manufacturer states the side wall, the max pressure, which is likely in most cases going to result in over inflation. They should have a chart of load vs tire size for tire pressure. Many trailers these days come with Chinese tires. These can be problematic but your trailer manufacturer should have this data.

I will use this example...My RV weighs at just shy of 26,000 lbs or 13 Tons. My max side wall pressure recommendation on my very expensive tires is 120 psi. So at a rally for our manufacturer, Alfa, there was a fellow who ran a business called Weigh-It who had individual wheel scales, including my rear duals. Tires were Goodyear and after weighing my coach with half tank of fresh water, half tank of gray and quarter tank of black water, the data from Goodyear indicated 90psi but safety factor of 5 psi, I ran my tires at 95 psi. Otherwise I would have grossly over inflated at 120 psi, which other Alfa owners were running... and complaining of tire wear of the Goodyear tires. They were running over inflated.

Short back story...My tire pressure gauge was also measured by the Weigh-it person and it read 4psi high for the exact pressure of 95psi... so I inflated to an indicated 99 to get 95psi. At Ford we all had tire pressure gauges and they had to be submitted to the instrumentation lab every six months for verification of accuracy. Every once in a while...I was directed to broom the gauge and get another one out of the instrumentation crib to insure we all had certified gauges. The pencil style gauges really do not have the required accuracy for our cerification work at Ford.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[JimG_AZ]

I was thinking about tire pressure last night when I responded to this tread. My first travel trailer was a 22’ Prowler lite weight trailer that I pulled with a 1996 v8 Explorer. The Explorer pulled the trailer well and I only had an issue with sway one time. What happened was the day before we left on a camping trip, I took the Explorer over to Discount tire to have the tires rotated. I guess they decided to do me a favor and pumped the tires up too. Lets just say, the psi was way over what Ford recommended. Didn’t notice that I had an issue until I got outside of the Phoenix area and got the Explorer and travel trailer on the highway. At 65 mph, it was unstable. At 55 mpg it was controllable. It took me a while to figure out what the heck was causing the sway. 15 to 30 minutes later it dawned on me that the only thing that was done recently was having the tires rotated and they probably over-inflated the tires. We made it to Payson, AZ and I checked the tire pressure. Every tire was at 45 psi. I lowered the pressure to 32 psi and Explorer pulled the trailer beautifully after that.

 

[Doctorfong]

I have a question. Are the mirrors wide enough, or should I look into tow mirror attachments?

 

[Doctorfong]

My guess is you're looking at a Lance 2075 model. We are full-timing in a 2021 1985 Lance and it feels very comfortable. Just stayed in the middle of Utah at 9032' elevation which had a short 8% grade near the top and it downshifted to 4000RPM's holding 55mph which was impressive to me. It didn't have much left over to give but being a hot day as well (80 degrees at that altitude) the density altitude was closer to 12,000'.

Our only issue is staying under/at the Ranger's max tongue weight of 750lbs when we carry full water (which is most of the time) but keeping heavy items in the rear, moving the spare tire and third propane tank from under the trailer to the bed of the truck, makes it work for us. The 2075 has lower dry tongue weight and I'm not sure where the fresh water is located on that model but it's doable for sure. We travel with two people and a golden retriever and we are 100lbs under Ranger GVWR and 6000lbs in the trailer (same 6200 GVWR as 2075).

I was thinking about the 2075, but the kitchen is just too small. We have decided on the 1985 instead. How do you like yours so far?

 

[Silver Surfer]

I was thinking about the 2075, but the kitchen is just too small. We have decided on the 1985 instead. How do you like yours so far?

We love it. We also almost bought the 2075 instead of the 1985 but the large bathroom, kitchen (gf wanted an oven and more counter space), the huge room created with the slide, the TV location and the fact that the 2075 was a brand new model, was enough to pull the trigger on the 1985. We like to cook outside though and wonder what it would be like having the outdoor kitchen in the 2075.

All that being said, do be aware of the hitch weight like I mentioned previously. The dry hitch is listed at 550 but ours came from the factory weighing 770lbs without water (850lbs w/full water). We ordered it without the jacknife couch and with two lithium batteries (the couch and regular lead acid batteries would no doubt increase hitch weight). Moving the spare tire, third propane tank and placing heavy items in the rear we were able to get the weight to 670lbs which doesn't include the WDH. It works for us but wish we had a bit more wiggle room.

The 1995/2075 would admittedly be a better fit for the Ranger with the lower tongue weight.

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