I am thinking about buying a travel trailer, a 92 Nomad. Its a 24ft. No slide out or anything like that. tandem axle with a weight distributing hitch. I know the hitch can handle the weight, but what about the v6 and 5spd?
W/the 5-speed and 3.55 gears, the manual states that the maximum towing cap. is 3600 lbs for my truck, but it easily towed my dad's 24ft cajun boat that we think weighs a little over 4000 lbs. i think the reason they rate the towing cap. so low is because so many people will just tow wrong when they have a 5-speed - you need to hold each gear much higher (i'd shift at around 3000 or 3500 rpm) and basically don't use overdrive unless you're going 65 or 70. if you shift too low, you'll tear up the clutch and put alot of strain on the tranny. my clutch and transmission felt fine when i was towing the boat, and i'm sure they'd hold up for a long time if driven correctly. i'm betting the main reason ford rates the 5-spds so much lower is because they have no say in how the truck is driven when towing. with the auto, ford controls where and when the shifts occur; with the manual someone who is poor with a stick and who dosent know how to tow properly could do some serious damage to the drivetrain in a hurry.... as long as you don't try to tow a yacht or anything you should be fine...
ChuckM;
I have a '98 F150 SC 4.2l 5-speed with 3.08 gears. I have been towing a 23 ft. prowler trailer @ 3150 lbs. dry weight and have had no problems. I also load in bicycles, canoe, wife, kids, dog etc.... My total load would be at least 4000 lbs. and it tows it fine. I am going to install 3.55 gears next month (june) but that is as much for my peace of mind as anything else. Happy trailering, Glenn Mc.
Thanks for the info. Local RV place told me I would be pushing the limits of the engine and trans. They said though that as long as I'm not trying to tow in the mountains I should be ok.
The platform and the engine aren't really the problem, it might be in the transmission.
When I moved up here, my truck, trailer, and contents all weighed 10,740. The Army pays you to move yourself by the pound and the mile, that is how I know exactly what I weighed. The engine didn't have too much problem, and the ride was fine. But, I have an auto.
If you be careful, you could probably do it. I bet Ford would strongly discourage it however.
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'98 SC XLT 4.2
4x2 3.55 ls
Gibson 3" cat back
K&N filter (who doesn't?)
Cpt. chairs, and those oh so cool auto headlights.
Factory door steps to get my pants dirty
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'01 VW Jetta TDI
I have a 2000 F150 with 4.2/5spd. If you have seen previous posts, towing and my truck did not mix because I had the 3.55s with the 35” tires, the prev. owner did not bother with a gear reduction and that caused havoc with pulling a 3000 lbs. Seadoo boat out of the water. I now have 4.10s in there and it is great, not diesel great but I wouldn’t hesitate to head up the mountains. I am toying with the idea of picking up a trailer, nothing fancy, an 18 footer that is older and probably around 4000 lbs. tops…should be fine. I agree that when towing, more novice drivers on a stick would increase the likelihood of damaging their drivetrain but as all F150 drivers no, we are the best.
All is not lost, if you drive well and are just shy of the limit, you can do some basic mods that will deliver the hp needed to compensate from what the emission laws and mpg freaks at Ford have deprived us of. I installed a Flowmaster catback system, there’s 10-15 (advertised) and an intake which will be developed by K&N(on my truck J) shortly. I think gearing the biggest thing and one should weigh how much towing they will do with the rig compared to daily driving without to see if it is worthwhile to invest in lowering their top end. Like I said before, I opted for the 4.10s and it only helped me get back into the green. There are websites (erased my favorites) that will tell you what gears you should be running for your tires and if you are stock, it will suggest which gears are best suited for towing or highway driving.
Location: Collierville,TN,Confederate States of America |><|
Posts: 305
I got 3.55 rear and 32 inch tires with a 5sp 6 and i pull a 16 foot tandem axle trailer with mowers on it all the time without a problem.
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'97 XLT Clearcoat Red 4x2
17 inch Wheels,Stepside, K&N,bedliner, 32 inch tires, flowmasters, deep tint, big Ford oval on back window, 5 spd, platinum plugs, CB, hidden hitch, ford emblem hitch cover and a little wal-mart smiley face on the antenna wearing a coboy hat :-)
I pull a 25' terry resort at 4200#. I have taken it into the smokey mountains and pretty much everywhere. I added a superchip which helped a lot and this year an airforce one Magnecore wires and Bosch PlatinumPlus4 plugs. Though with the superchip only I had problems with using the overdrive and cruise control,this year adding the FIPK and plugs and wires there was no problem using both. Actually I comfortly towed on the highway around 65 mph and tached at 2000 to 2100 rpm
while in cruise. I too was concerned about towing this much wieght for a period but each time gets easier and easier. This week I'll add the gibson catback and it should help even more.
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bright red 99 F150 extended cab 4.2V6
Snugtop hard tonneau
Superchip
Bosch PlatinumPlus4 plugs w/Magnecore 8mm competition wires
AirForceOne FIPK
clear corners
(Thanks for all the help Mike Troyer)
V-6 auto trans here. Dunno the gear ratio but I think it's low, my accel is really slow. Anyway, I loaded it up last week with about 2k pounds or more worth of fire-wood and the thing reminded me of the little engine that could. I suppose if one can deal with the overwhelming lagginess of towing a huge deadweitght with a v-6, I'd say go for it. For me however, I was ready to cry (j/k). Ahh well, good thing I do mostly street driving.
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2000 4.2 Supercab XLT
What I've done: K&N filter, Magna flow custom exaust (From where cat's join, 3"in, two 2.5" out the rear), Michelin LTX M/S 265/75/16's, MTX Thunderform custom box with two 6000 series 8" subwoofers and Mtx 120 amp.
Plans: Lund hood deflector, superchip, Poweraid, Xenon sport Flares, (custom ram-air idea?)
New: Pioneer DEH-P6300 Head unit (I definately reccomend it!)
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Towing capacity
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