Wondering how much you can haul or tow with your Ford truck or SUV? You should read this page before you tow anything or buy a trailer.

I’ve had the opportunity tow car dolly’s, U-Haul trailers, car haulers (trailers), boats, and campers. Ford wise, I’ve towed with a:

  • Ford Ranger
  • Ford F-150
  • Ford F-250
  • Ford F-350
  • Ford Expedition
  • Ford Excursion

Truck manufacturers keep building more and more towing capacity in to their trucks, and today’s Ford F-150 can out tow a Ford F-250 from the 1990’s. But that doesn’t mean that you can tow and haul anything you want. You should still know the limits of your individual vehicle.

To explain this, I’ll use my 2016 Ford F-150 (above) as an example.

What Is The Payload Capacity of My Ford?

If you look at the drivers doorjamb of your Ford you’ll see a sticker that looks similar to the one below:

Here you can see that the sticker clearly states that ‘the combined weight of occupants and cargo’ of my Ford F-150 should never exceed 1,771 lbs. The more passengers you have in the cab, the less weight you can carry in the bed.

The Federal Safety Compliance Sticker

This Federal Safety Compliance Sticker in your doorjamb provides some important information that you’ll need to know for towing.

Some of the information on this sticker includes:

GAWR (Gross Axle Weight Rating): The maximum weight to be carried by a single axle (front or rear). The total load on each axle must never exceed its GAWR. You’ll see that the sticker lists the rating for both the front and rear axle.

GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating): The maximum allowable weight of the fully-loaded vehicle (including passengers and cargo). The weight of the vehicle, passengers, and cargo (Gross Vehicle Weight) must never exceed the GVWR.

Axle Code: The 2-digit code under ‘Axle’ (see green arrow) will be needed to identify your axle gear ratio.

How Heavy of a Trailer Can I Tow?

I have the Ford Towing Guides available on this site going back to 2002. CLICK HERE to find yours. In my case, I referred to the 2016 Ford Towing Guide.

With that guide in hand, I can now look to see what my F-150’s towing capacity is.

Looking at the sticker above you’ll see that my Axle code is ‘L3’. Page 30 of the 2016 Ford Towing Guide has a chart that indicates what this code represents:

As you can see from the chart, L3 for the F-150 indicates that I have a 3.31 gear ratio and an electric locker.

If the Towing Guide for your model year doesn’t provide the axle ratio codes, check out ‘Identify Your Ford Truck Axle From Door Sticker‘.

From there I scroll up to Page 16 to the Trailer Towing Selector. I have a SuperCrew 4×4 with a 145″ Wheelbase (WB). If you’re not sure of your wheelbase, it’s listed in the bottom left corner of the Federal Safety Compliance Sticker previously shown above.

Following the chart (green arrow), I see that my Ford F-150 has a trailer towing rating of 10,700 lbs. If it was a ‘Limited’ package it would have a trailer towing rating of 10,400 lbs.

Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR) / Max Towing Package

Next to the gear ratio in the Trailer Towing Selector chart is the Gross Combined Weight Rating for your truck.

Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR): Is the maximum allowable weight of the towing vehicle and the loaded trailer – including all cargo and passengers – that the vehicle can handle without risking damage. (Important: The towing vehicle’s brake system is rated for operation at the GVWR – NOT GCWR. Separate functional brake systems should be used for safe control of towed vehicles and for trailers weighing more than 1,500 lbs. when loaded.) The measured GCW must never exceed the GCWR

GCW: is the weight of the loaded vehicle (GVW) plus the weight of the fully loaded trailer. It is the actual weight obtained when the vehicle and trailer are weighed together on a scale.

The GCWR for my Ford F-150 is 16,100 lbs. That means that my truck fully loaded with cargo and passengers and pulling a trailer can’t have a combined weight over 16,100 lbs.

Max Towing Packages – You may have noticed that some GCWR’s had a (7) next to them indicating that it applied to vehicles with the Max Towing Package.

If you have the window sticker for your truck you can look under optional equipment to see if you have any type of towing package installed. They are:

53c – Is the Max Tow package. It’s only for 3.5 EcoBoost engines and has everything in 53a plus a 3.55 electric locker rear end, heavier bumper and integrated electric brake controller.

53a – Will say Trailer Tow  Package. It includes 4/7 pin connectors, auxiliary tranny cooler, Class IV hitch, upgraded front sway bar and if its a 3.5 EcoBoost will have an engine oil cooler.

53b – Will just say Class IV Trailer Hitch on the sticker. It includes 4/7 pin connectors and a Class IV hitch receiver

The Trailer brake controller is included with 53c but an option for 53a and 53b. Therefore don’t think you have a Max Tow Package just because you have a trailer brake controller.

Know Your Hitch Weight!

Most of my towing has involved towing my off-road Ford Ranger on a car hauler. In these situations I can control how much weight is sitting on my hitch by how far forward or back I park the Ranger on the trailer. To much weight can not only make the truck sag, but also overload the payload and rear axle rating of the truck. To little weight on the hitch and to much on the rear of the trailer could make the tow rig unstable and want to sway.

When towing my Ranger I not only know how much my Ranger weighs, but also what the GVWR rating and weight of the trailer (car hauler) is. A typical car hauler will have (2) 3,500 lb axles giving it a GVWR of 7,000 lbs (3,500 + 3,500). The payload rating is typically the car haulers GVWR minus the trailer weight. So if the trailer weighed 2,000 lbs, the payload rating would be 5,000 lbs (7,000 – 2,000). If my Ranger weighed 4,000 lbs, then it would mean the trailer had a gross combined weight (GCW) of 6,000 lbs (4,000 + 2,000) which is within the trailers 7,000 lb GVWR. If my F-150 weighed 5,000 lbs with me in it and was pulling my Ranger on that trailer, it would have a GCW of 11,000 lbs. Well under the 16,100 lb GCWR of the F-150.

With a camper you can’t do much to control how much weight is on the hitch (hitch weight / tongue weight). You’re camper will have a sticker either on the wall or in a cabinet that lists its Unloaded Vehicle Weight (UVW), Hitch Weight, and Payload capacity. Especially if it’s a tow hauler. The hitch weight of my Forest River Work And Play toy hauler was 1,133 lbs. The unloaded weight was 7,542 lbs. That was before I loaded anything in it.

Exceeding Payload Rating When Towing

Where people get in to trouble is when they load a trailer and increase it’s weight, but don’t take that added weight in to consideration. Or when they exceed the trucks payload or axle weight rating. If I were to tow that Work & Play with my F-150 (I never did, I towed it with a F-350) I could potentially exceed the trucks payload rating, even though the trailers empty weight was within the weight range that Ford says I can tow.

My payload rating is 1,771 lbs. Subtract my weight of 215 lbs and that leaves me with 1,556 lbs for additional passengers and cargo. Hook up the camper to it and the 1,133 lb hitch weight reduces that 1,556 lbs to 423 lbs of payload capacity. That means if my passengers, their belongings, and anything in the truck bed totals more than 423 lbs, I’ve exceeded the trucks payload capacity. Let’s say your spouse and (2) teenage kids all weighed 150 lbs each. That would total 450 lbs and put you 27 pounds OVER your trucks payload capacity.

Tongue Load Weight Rating

Tongue Weight (Hitch Weight) is the downward force that the tongue of the­ trailer applies to the hitch of the tow vehicle. Most experts agree that an acceptable tongue weight for any trailer is somewhere between 9 and 15 percent of the gross trailer weight (GTW)(weight of fully loaded trailer). There’s good reasoning behind these numbers, too. It all comes down to trailer towing safety.

If the tongue of the trailer does not exert enough downward force on the tow vehicle’s hitch ball — meaning that the trailer’s tongue weight is too light — a dangerous condition called trailer sway could result. If the tongue weight is too heavy, the steering of the tow vehicle will be affected. This makes it sound like tongue weight is a big deal, and it is. But fortunately, tongue weight is also easy to adjust.

Just remember that the trailer acts like a lever, and the axle of the trailer is the fulcrum — or pivot point — for the lever. If the tongue is too light, you need to move some of the cargo forward of trailer’s axle. If the tongue is too heavy, you need to adjust the load so that more of the weight is behind the trailer’s axle.

As mentioned earlier, a camper will typically have a sticker somewhere that lists the tongue weight (hitch weight).

According to the Ford Towing Guide, the Ford F-150 has a maximum tongue load weight rating of 500 lbs. and a Weight Carrying Max Trailer Capacity of 5,000 lbs. What that means is the F-150 would need to use a weight distribution hitch if the weight on the hitch exceeded 500 lbs or if the trailer weighed over 5,000 lbs. Many people tow vehicles on car haulers that may very well exceed a combined weight of 5,000 lbs, but fail to use a weight distribution hitch.

Weight Distribution Hitch

A weight distribution hitch is a system designed to create a level, stable ride when you tow a trailer. Basically, a weight distribution hitch will help keep your towing setup level and make sure the weight of your trailer doesn’t cause undue stress on your vehicle.

A weight distribution hitch uses spring bars to apply leverage to either side of your setup, which transfers the load at the rear of the vehicle to all axles on your tow vehicle and trailer. This even distribution of weight results in a smooth, level ride, as well as the ability to tow at the maximum capacity of your hitch.

Worksheet

Want a worksheet that will allow you to just enter numbers and do the math for you? Here you go:

Ford Truck Payload And Combined Weight Tests worksheet

If you don’t have Excel, you can open it with Google Docs at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/

Conclusion

I hope this helps out someone trying to figure out how much they can haul or tow with their Ford truck or SUV. I also hope you guys with car haulers and utility trailers are using weight distribution hitches when suggested.