Hey - I have heard mixed advice on towing a 5th wheel with my new F150- 5.0 V8 - (axel 3.73)

I was going to get a 5th wheel to pull but some are saying not to due to the turning radius and some aren't worried at all.

Do any of you pull a 5th wheel with your short bed?

 

There are 5th wheels made for short bed trucks..........

 

Most new trucks sold are short bed crew cabs. There are plenty towing with short beds and 5'ers. The slider hitches and auto slider hitches make this possible.

That said.. if you look close there are almost all 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks.

Towing with an in bed mounted hitch is best left to bigger trucks than the 1/2 ton. I'm not saying it isn't possible. It is with very close consideration to trailer size and careful loading and almost no truck load (like no passengers)

5th wheel and gooseneck trailers require a 20% tongue weight for correct balance. This means that even a light weight 5th wheel, when loaded correctly will have about a 1400# pin weight. Add to that the hitch itself as added weight and you are putting 1700#'s plus on the truck. Add a few passengers and you exceed GVWR or axle GWR very quickly. Generally you will exceed a giving spec maximum in a 1/2 ton long before you get to your towing maximum.

 

Short bed once meant 6.5' bed, but if you have 5.5' bed, forget it, especially w/o max tow which you don't have. Supercabs can pull it off, even with 7350 GVWR. My truck had 1700 lbs payload. That is AFTER 150 lb driver and gas. Add 50 lbs for yourself, 200 lbs family, and 100 lbs for a light Anderson hitch, and you still have 1350 left over. /that is pretty good and it can be done easily as some 5th wheels are only 15-17% hitch

 

deleted... trying not to be argumentative... sorry

 

Unless you have the HD payload package, a 5th wheel on an F150 is inadvisable.

 

I have 11,000 trailer capacity, 17,200 total combined weight, 7700 GVW and over 1800# payload. You can easily get a lite 5er if you do your homework. Pack smart and don't have too many passangers. If you have to have the whole neighboorhood or extended family go along you will be in Superduty area but if you travel smart it will work. Over 10K miles towing this.

 

Killer setup, shadow. How close are you to your payload? That being said, RAWR is usually the bottleneck on max tow SCREWS as opposed to payload anyway. In any case, it seems you are towing it just fine

 

There are more and more of us towing 5ers all the time. Do all your homework and get the right stuff even if it cost a little more. In the end you will be happy with your setup. I sure am happy with it, even if it is right up against the limits of the truck. If and when I decide to "Move Up" I will probably sell/trade it all as a combo cause it all works.

 

Add another 1/2 ton to the 5er towing list. We now tow a Cougar 26SAB with a 13 XLT Ecoboost HD Screw 4x4. Was towing a 31' TT but DW decided we needed to downgrade so we went with this smaller 5er.

 

I pull a 26' keystone sprinter5th wheel with my 05 supercrew short bed . I installed a B W hitch and use their companion hitch.

 

This is the reply from Ford I received.

My name is Maureen and I am from the Ford Customer Relationship Center (CRC). I had the opportunity to read your email regarding fifth wheel towing with your 2010 F-150.

Yes this truck can tow a fifth wheel. According to your vehicle identification number, this truck features a 5.4L 3-Valve V8 engine, with a 3.55 axle ratio, is a supercrew 4x4 with a 157” wheel base and a trailer tow package. The maximum weight the truck can tow is 9500 lbs.

For further information you may find helpful please visit our website www.fleet.ford.com. From the top of the home page select the Maintenance tab then Towing Guides from the right side of the page and open the file for 2010 Towing Guide

 

ahaha what kind of response is that? A 157" WB with 7350 GVWR will not have crap for payload. For a 5ht wheel THAT is the number to watch.