Disclaimer: I am not, and do not claim to be a professional or expert in the subject of towing. Apart from some construction materials and a Side by Side a few times, I’ve hardly ever towed anything until we bought a camper. However, everyone must do their research and the point of this post is to outline some of what I dug up when I was doing my own. You may take this advice with a grain of salt, but at the very least you’ll be able to talk a little more comfortably with the other guys at the campground.
Towing a large trailer, or in our case a camper, comes with a lot of responsibility and research into the capabilities of your current (or prospective) tow rig, and your own skills hooking a trailer up and pulling it down the road. A lot of folks might be alarmingly nonchalant about it and act like it’s no big deal, but the safety of you, your passengers, and other folks on the road is quite firmly in your hands behind the wheel. Though a lot of the following info is based around my Gen-13 F150, most of the principles still apply no matter what brand or size Tow Rig you have.
Let’s get a major talking point out of the way first: Why a Half Ton?
Well, I got into mine, brand new, for half the cost of a Super Duty. Most people already have them. They’re very capable. They’re less cumbersome to deal with on the daily basis. My trucks typically see quite a bit of off-road time. Did I mention I bought it for half the price of a base package Super Duty..?
Sure, you can save a lot of the following headache by buying a 3/4 or 1 Ton truck if your wallet allows. However, you’re only saving that headache because you have a larger safety buffer with weights and numbers, but all of the principles still apply exactly the same. Realistically, what most people tow is well within the range of comfort of a 3/4 or 1 ton but you can very much overload an F250 if you’re not paying attention.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get down to the brass tacks. I mentioned that a half ton is very capable, but how capable? It depends on a whole host of factors that apply no matter the brand of automobile (using Ford as an example):
Base Package - XL trucks have less frills than an XLT or Lariat, which equals less carried weight on the truck from the factory. Sure, the moon roof is nice to look at but the weight of it plus the mechanism it takes to operate it is weight taken from the payload capacity of the truck. Stereo speakers, heated seats, wiring for more electronics all add up when absolutely every pound counts.
Engine - To be honest, even if the EcoBoost offers measurable performance gains over the ol’ naturally aspirated V8 Coyote platform, it was never a consideration. Could I have more towing capacity if I went with the boosted V6? Yeah, but V8. Also, modern turbocharged V6s have great fuel mileage when they’re not towing; real world towing numbers have actually been showing less mileage when hooked to a heavy trailer towed by the V8.
Powertrain - This usually comes down to the differential gearing and also the physical size of the axle carrier:
Ford offers two different axles, the most common being the Super 8.8 and then the heavier duty 9.75. The 9.75 is available with the Max Towing Package and the Heavy Duty Payload Package (HDPP). Larger axle tubes and bracing allows the 9.75 to carry more weight. The larger pumpkin allows for larger ring gears, such as the 4.10 ratio found in Raptors.
All manufacturers come with a range of differential gear ratios. If you’re not familiar, the higher the number, the lower the gearing and the more you can tow (I won’t go into the other traits that go along with it, but you should research that as well). For example, the Ford 3.73:1 gearing is rated to tow more than an F150 with 3.55:1 gears.
Optional (Additional) Packages - There’s a few ways to look at this as well. Ford has a Tow Package, a Max Tow Package, a Heavy Duty Payload Package, and a host of other comfort and appearance packages. As I mentioned above, luxuries add carried weight to the truck, so keep that in mind if you’re going to be really pushing the numbers, specifically payload and axle ratings.
Tow Packages come in many forms and usually include things like a transmission cooler, factory installed hitches and trailer wiring, upgraded axles or gearing, tow mirrors, etc. Sometimes they also include technology like Ford’s Pro Trailer Backup Assist, and OEM Trailer Brake Controllers. I’ll go into specific examples using my truck further down the page.
Finding a package that best suits your needs can be exhausting, but also rewarding when you find or build the truck ideal for your use.
Alright, so you already have a truck or found one you’re going to drive off with. How do you know what the capacities of it are? Before we grab some scratch paper and calculator, there are several terms to understand that factor into how much you can pull behind you: Payload Capacity, Tow Capacity, Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, Gross Combined Weight Rating, and Gross Axle Weight Rating, just to name a few.
Curb Weight - This is the weight of the vehicle including fuel, oil, and other fluids and equipment as required for the vehicle to operate. This is sometimes called “Wet Weight”. This can be found on the Door Sticker with other capacities.
Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) - This gives you the allowable weight of your truck plus everything you can load it down with. The GVWR can be found on the Door Sticker or sometimes requires some additional math.
GVWR = Curb Weight + Payload Capacity
Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) - The actual weight of the vehicle plus everything you have installed and are carrying. This should be estimated as accurately as possible, or you can weigh you vehicle at a Weigh Station.
Payload Capacity - Payload is how much additional weight your truck can haul, total. This is literally everything from the toolbox you installed, the firewood in the bed, the passengers riding with you, and the tongue weight of the trailer minus the weight of the truck itself. Payload Capacity sometimes is not stated on the vehicle, but instead is found using the following formula:
Payload Capacity = GVWR - Curb Weight
Tongue Weight - This is how much weight is applied on the tow ball by the trailer you are attaching to it. Your truck has a maximum rating for the tongue weight; this rating depends on the vehicle and type of hitch installed. You should be able to find this rating by looking under the rear bumper on the trailer hitch itself.
Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR) - This is the maximum allowable weight of the vehicle, cargo and passengers, and the trailer you are towing.
Gross Axle Weight Rating (GAWR) - This is the maximum amount of weight your axles can carry. These ratings differ from front to back. You can find both ratings on the Door Sticker. This is a separate capacity from your payload. As you can imagine, when you load the bed or hitch of your truck, you are not putting as much weight on the front axle. It is possible to overload your rear axle and not be over the Payload Capacity of the vehicle. In a towing situation, this is where a Weight Distribution Hitch comes into play, more on that later.
Tow Capacity - This is the maximum allowable weight of load you can tow behind your vehicle. Tow Capacity depends on the total configuration of your automobile. Cab size and bed length (total length of the vehicle), two-wheel drive vs four-wheel drive, differential gear ratio, power of the engine, and other factors play into the tow capacity of any given vehicle.
Example:
My 2020 F150 has a GVWR of 7050 LB, found on the white sticker in the door jamb.
The Payload Capacity, found on the yellow and white Tire and Loading Information sticker also in the door jamb, is 2208 lbs. (Yes, a modern half-ton can legally haul over one ton of total weight.)
Math Time: To figure the weight of your truck as it rolled off the assembly line, subtract the Payload Capacity from the GVWR. In my case, 7050 - 2208 = 4,842 pounds. Also note that the payload rating “includes” a driver, though a very fit one. Everything else that you add to the truck or that you weigh over the figured driver weight of 180 pounds is subtracted from the payload number. If you regularly carry around a toolbox full of tools, that weight gets deducted from how much additional weight you can haul.
The Rear Axle (Rear GAWR) can carry 3800lbs, but that includes the weight of the truck already on it - For this you need to go to a Weigh Station (yes, the ones big rigs have to go to on the Interstate) and it will tell you how much weight is loaded on each axle. Subtract 3800 from whatever weight is printed on the weigh ticket and that will tell you how much additional weight you can put in the bed or off the tongue of your truck. This is usually one of the limiting factors when it comes to trailer size, trailer weight, and cargo you can load at once.
The Front GAWR is 3375lbs. Why do we need to know how much the front can carry? In general, when the weight of the trailer weighs more than 50% of the tow vehicle, you must use a weight distribution hitch. A WD Hitch uses rods hooked onto your hitch ball and the tongue of the trailer to put load onto the front axle of your tow rig. Don’t ask me how this happens, Engineering Physics was the bane of my college existence. These hitches are adjustable so that you can visit your friendly neighborhood weigh station and dial in how much weight you’re putting on each axle to keep them beneath their ratings, and yes you will need to be pulling your trailer to do this.
Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating is the total weight of your truck plus your cargo plus your trailer weight. If you’re driving a Ford (I’m too lazy to see how other manufacturers do this), can be found on their website or brochures at the dealership. The GCWR of my particular truck is listed as 14,400.
Math Time: This is where you can figure the MAX amount of weight your truck can tow (which is also listed in the same brochure the GCWR is located, just a different table). If you subtract the weight of your truck (4,842#) from the GCWR (14,400#), you get the total weight you can tow behind you, i.e. Tow Capacity (9,558#). Again, for the actual weight of trailer you can legally tow behind you, you have to also add all weight of everything else in the cab, the bed, and so on. If you have 500# of additional weight in the bed, that has to be subtracted from the total.
Going way back to Powertrain specs, my truck is equipped with the 3.55 Gear Ratio option. If my truck was equipped with 3.73 axles, my Tow Capacity would be rated over 11,000 pounds. Every specification matters!
But wait a second! The chart says my F150 can tow 13,000 pounds! And to that I say, “Ask someone smarter than me…”.