There was about one and a half bundles of loose bar. So basically with the trailer about 14,000ish lbs. With that trailer being a 20ft bumper hitch...theres always a lot of tounge weight. I KNOW it was WAY over 600 lbs. But with the Class IV reciever i believe you can be over 600? I think its a thousand. My shock absorber hitch and ball are rated at 10,000lbs. Honestly, i was scared to tow it, but i had no choice. I was more worried to blow out a tire on the truck or break an axel before anything. Getting stopped wasnt much of a problem with having properly equipted brakes on the trailer. I NEVER would have hooked on with out brakes. I took back roads home and took my time. I could get it to 60 and hold it on flat ground or slight slight inclines but it would start getting fishtaily since there was so much weight on the truck.

We have 3 F-150's around here. We run out own residential contruction business and we definetly need to get an F-250. But, the last 20 years of running f-150's and pulling the crap out of them we havnt had any problems so far.

The thing i have noticed most is the 00 with the 5.4 seems to get the loads moving the quickest, and when your going to pass, it seems to get around them faster. With the 05 and 04, getting up to speed and passing is the weakness it seems. Once your at 60 it never seems to pull down, just keeps chugging along. Hands down the 05 and 04 give you that warm comfy feeling inside when towing though over the 00. It handles 10x better, rides better, and just overall i feel much safer in the new generation.

 

I pulled an enclosed car trailer with a regular cab Ram in it from Milwaukee to Vegas and back. Probably 9000# complete. I have the 4.1 gears. It was OK, until you hit a decent grade - then SUCKO!!!! Came back through Utah, the first real grade brought her to her knees. 2 AM I pulled over and unloaded the Ram.

As for stopping, I have Baer Decelarotors - AND trailer brakes. It stopped fine, but without electric brakes? Not in this lifetime!!!

11,000# with my truck? Not a chance at highway speed.

 

I pulled a fully loaded gas delivery truck up a 12% grade at 85 MPH, and I didn't even turn OD off! YEAH!

( )

 

When I was towing with the Expy, I had never seen the tach go over 3,000 RPM, and that was with mildly aggressive driving. At highway speed, 70 - 80 MPH, I'd never seen it go much over 2,000 RPM...

When I took off that morning heading back to Plano with the loaded trailer, I switched OD off. At 55-60 MPH I was at 3,000 RPM. I was like, "Aw Hell Naw" so I put OD back on. I mentioned the "hunting" it did, but once it smoothed out, it was just like there was no load back there...

Then again, I drove under-powered trucks, and pulled overloaded trailers for nearly a decade in the Army... If there was any danger, I might not have noticed- or didn't think it was dangerous...

 

Either engine could tow a fully loaded semi trailer. Heck a 10 horse lawn mower engine can tow a semi trailer, it has little to do with the engine at all.
The biggest difference between a working pulling rig and a driveing rig is the gearing. Next is the Differential and axle, then the brakes and suspension.

For towing Hersh is right there isn't a huge difference in the two engines either... 4.6 = 294 ft lbs of torque and 5.4 = 365 ft lbs of torque and only 52 horse power difference..... but the lowest gear available in the 4.6 is a 3.73, and 5.4 you can get as low as a 4.10.

You could take a 4.6, go to teh salvage yard and get a rear pinion and carrier out of a 5.4 with a 4.10 slap in your rear differential houseing and add almost 4K lbs to you towing.

Now stopping is another thing, if you guys are saying you dont feel safe with 6K lbs behind you tha ttells me the trialer doesnt have brakes..... I dont blame you I dont feel safe with any trailer over 2K lbs with out trailer brakes...... With trailer brakes, I'll do 20K lbs and not blink an eye, atleast until DOT pulls me over.

 

How to pull a loaded trailer...




How to stop a loaded trailer...






How to pull a trailer and keep the truck level...




Any questions LOL

 

I've towed about 6,000 lbs with my 4.6. Not something I'd want to do on a regular basis, but it did pull and stop the load fine. The trailer brakes didn't work..go figure. I also have pulled a 6,000 lb load with about 3,000 lbs of tongue weight. Now, before you start calling BS, the truck was on the bumpstops, and I've got picture proof. The truck again pulled that load fine (no trailer brakes, same trailer).

 

Was that the ginormous tree with included root ball?

 

No, it was his girlfriend

 

3,000 lbs of tongue weight?

There's only one reason I'd even question this (aside from it exceeding the capacity of most bumpers, and tow bars).

How in the world did you lift that bad boy to get it onto the ball? Unless it was a wind-down trailer, it would take 3, 4, 5, 6 guys just to lift the trailer onto the hitch ball.

In the Army, the CUCV's (Chevy Silverados) and Hummers (H1), even the Dueces (M35A2), didn't recommend any more than 700 lbs of tongue weight.

 

Yes it was the ginormus tree with root ball. The trailer was attached while unloaded. I drove out to the guy who was clearing land, went into his field, picked out the tree, and he loaded it with a bull dozer. Not a front end loaded, bobcat, etc. A bull dozer. When it was loaded and back at our house, my truck was too low to get the trailer jack down, so we had to use a car jack to get it off. Supported the trailer on jackstands, and it was fine.


After we knocked the dirt off the roots (we were able to get the trailer jack down finally)

 

If it is the tree he is talking about, then the trailer was hitched while empty, and the trailer also has a jack anyway..... Then the tree was loaded on it with a dozer, with the mass of the weight in the front of the trailer. Root ball complete with dirt and trunk. Not ideal but what can you do.....
He does have a hitch so it wasnt on the bumper, I wouldn;t use the bumper to pull anything other than maybe a wood splitter, yard cart or anything else less than 1000 lbs total loaded weight.

I have a class VI hitch held on with 8 anodized grade 8 bolts nuts and washers. My Jeeps hitch was welded on. It's going to have to bend the frame of the truck in before it bends the bolts to start folding the hitch.

 

IMPRESSIVE...

MOST IMPRESSIVE...

Yet, people try to diss the 4.6L. That engine is more than adequate for most truck owners. I know what it is though, we like to know we have the biggest and best available. That's why so many opt for the 5.4L, when the 4.6L would suffice for most. (That's why I got that gas swilling SOB in my last Expy... Didn't need it...)

But, I do miss it...

The Expy, not the engine...

 

I still want the 5.4, but my 4.6 does just fine. It lags a bit on the hills when towing normally, but on the flats it can't be beat.

 

How so? Even though the trips are not as long, for some. They are many. I'd bet one year of farmer/rancher towing is comparable to three years RV towing.

I've had 21,000 lbs on the receiver of a Superduty, this was w/o any brakes on the tanks. Pull tanks to town, weigh, go fill, weigh and take them back to the field. Usually 3 trips a day. Round trip minimum 20 miles. If this isn't hard on the Drivetrain I don't know what is. I'm just glad I got to use his automatic 6.0, instead of the 460 5-sp (last year the clutch was taken out due to slipping to start out smoothly).