I recently purchased a boat trailer for my 26 foot cabin cruiser I keep in the water here in Houston. I will be pulling the boat out every few months for "preventative maintenance" which involves a 7 mile trip from the ramp to the driveway. I will also be doing a longer distance pull in the next year. I have some questions I am looking for input on:

2000 Lariat Supercab 4x4 with 5.4L and Tow Package 6100 LB Boat/1500 LB Trailer

1) How is GCWR determined by Ford? It appears only engine size and gear ratio are the determining factor.

2) I have surge brakes on the trailer, can I use a load equalizer?

3) Since boat trailers are often well-balanced, do I need a load equalizer?

4) It appears the difference between a Class III and IV is the load equalizer itself?

I have read some old post and taken the wise advice of Familyride. My ball and hitch mount have been upsized to 10,000 LB capacity and my trailer has been rebuilt with new brakes and tires. I know I will be very close to the max limits on the truck and want to ensure I have everthing covered. Thanks.

 

Like you said, you are pretty much maxed out on your towing weight for an F150. If you have the 17" wheels, Ford actually lowers this "Max" by 500#'s.

At any rate, I don't think you can use surge brakes with an "equalizer" hitch setup. At least I've never seen one. One other thing to consider is that a trailer tows better with more weight up front. You are on the right track of thinking about the distribution hitch path. You "should" only have 500#'s of tongue weight without the distribution hitch (1000#'s with one).

Since you can adjust the axle position on most of the boat trailers I have seen (even tandams), you can play with the tongue weight some, but you don't want to make it so you have more weight on the rear because it'll be really hard to tow then.

Good luck and have a safe trip.

 

Just saw this post too

Reese told me that you can use weight distributing on a trailer with surge brakes but you'd have to adjust them to be just about non-functional so that the brakes would still work. It sounded like to me they were saying "Yes, buy our product and attach it but don't adjust it so that it will work because we could be in hot water if you had a problem, but we still want you to buy our stuff!"

So, like you said, in most cases the Class IV is only adding weight disto. However, Putnam does make a Class IV rated receiver that is a direct replacment of the OEM Class III. It's almost exactly the same but some of it uses heavier material. It's rated for 8000# carrying weight and I think 10000# with weight distro. It was only about $100 from Truck Performance (They have Draw-Tite and Putnam for the F150. They might require driling on some) and the finish is great! Looks soo much better than the fading, rusty looking OEM. Only problem is the connector bracket. I think the F150 uses one that mounts to the bumper so you're OK. Mine mounts to the receiver so I'm still trying to find a way to make it work. The Ford conector is not industry standard, at least the one they use on the Expy so I can't use a regular aftermarket bracket.

I replaced mine just so I had everything "rated" appropriatly. I don't want any liability becasue I was over the rating.

As for GVWR, it's alot of things but power and gear are part of it. And like MitchF150 said, the wheels make a difference too. In my case, the 2 wheel drive and 17" is rated higher that 16". Obviously the differnece is the tire height. With 4x4 it's the opposite I beleive because the tires are actually taller, not shorter like mine.