These tow capacity numbers can't be right

So a bit of a detailed question, but trying to figure out all these GVWR numbers is a bit confusing.

I never really worried about these numbers before, but have been just starting to look at possibly going to a 5er and wanted to see what I could safely tow.  But while doing that i was plugging in the numbers for current rig and was suprised that it looks like I am almost out of spec for it.

So here goes.

Truck = 2018 F250 King ranch, short bed (6.7 D, 3.55 rears)
TT = 2015 Primetime lacrosse (37ft)

Truck numbers
Curb Weight (about) 7,000
GVWR -= 10,000
GCVWR = 26,000 (at least that is what I can gather from the terrible charts from Ford)
Max Payload = 2,102
Towing Cap = 14,700

RV numbers
Dry weight = 8,695
GVWR = 11,078
Hitch = 1,500 (15% of normal weight of 10,000)

People = 460 (2 adults and 3 kids)
Cargo = 100 (don't usually carry alot in the truck

With all those numbers plugged in, I am finding I have about 43lbs of spare payload.

How is that possible?  if that was the case almost anyone pulling a 5th wheel with a 250 SRW is overweight.

Can someone check my math here, and tell me how people pull 5th wheels with 3/4 ton trucks legally?

I attached a screen shot of the calc I built to do these calculations.

Yup, pretty much all 5ers with a 3/4 ton are over limit. Good for you at checking first. Start lucking at travel trailers or a 1 ton truck.

Man - my truck is only 4 months old.  (didn't think it would be a huge deal).  I mean we aren't looking at enormous 5vers.  Max would 13,000 lbs. 

It's really disappointing, I feel like the truck manufacturers are under spec'ing them to reduce their liability (my tinhat is on). 

I mean these trucks can pull so much more.

Oh well.

The payload is only part of the problem - look in the Ford Towing Guide, available online at https://www.fleet.ford.com/towing-guides/

Those maximum tow ratings apply only to a trailer having no more than 60 sq. ft. of frontal area for a conventional trailer or 75 sq. ft. for a 5th wheel.  That's a small utility or boat trailer, a 12 ft. high x 8 1/2 ft. wide RV trailer has 102 ft. of frontal area.

You're right, many RVers exceed one aspect or another of their truck's TRUE towing capacity.  Which is fine until you're in a situation that demands 100% of the truck's rated performance - braking or handling - to avoid a bad outcome.

The only way to be sure what your rig actually weighs is to get it weighed, loaded for the road.  Escapees offers their SmartWeigh individual wheel weights at several locations, or you can go to a truck scale and get your axle weights.  I tow a 30 ft. Sunnybrook TT with a single rear wheel Ford F350 and when Escapees weighed it in the middle of an extended trip, it was at less than 80% of the maximum on all of the weight limits.  That's probably why it tows like a dream.

It is the bed weight that will kill you with a 5W, not tow weight. That is why I recommended you look at a travel trailer. When we bought our Ram 2500 diesel, our dealer really tried to talk us into a 1 ton in case we were interested in getting a fiver one day. He was quite upfront that our 3/4 ton was not adequate for a fiver. Then again, we were in Utah, and the truck dealers seem to be pretty knowledgeable about towing. Not all dealers are so helpful.

I'll bet the majority of 5th wheel tow vehicles on the roads are over their GVRW,    but,  as non-commercial personal use trucks they are never going to be weight inspected,  so as long as you can safely operate it...no one cares.   

Commercial use trucks (not private use trucks) are heavily weight regulated and enforced,  but that is for tax purposes, not safety.

Anyone that has ever been to a 3rd world country has seen average pickup trucks carry an obscene amount of weight over the factory listed GVWRs.

Those door stickers are there mainly for tire liability,  and factory warranty purposes.

Pickup trucks can safely carry more than the door sticker says,    and it is not illegal to modify your truck to carry more weight. 

Most 3/4 ton trucks use most of the same components as 1 ton trucks.  Wheels and tires are one of the biggest difference.

The problem is your payload capacity. I have a 1/2 ton and my payload capacity is 24 lbs. less than yours. Mine is 2078 pounds payload. Truck is rated for 6,900 pounds (GVWR). After I subtract the truck curb weight with everything in it, I have 1,500 pounds for pin weight.

Check your curb weight to GVWR? The numbers aren't adding up. 7,000 + 460 + 100 = 7,560 pounds. 10,000 - 7,560 = 2,440 pounds. You shouldn't have any problem.

You need a different truck.  Not enough payload.

Hanr3 said:

The problem is your payload capacity. I have a 1/2 ton and my payload capacity is 24 lbs. less than yours. Mine is 2078 pounds payload. Truck is rated for 6,900 pounds (GVWR). After I subtract the truck curb weight with everything in it, I have 1,500 pounds for pin weight.

Check your curb weight to GVWR? The numbers aren't adding up. 7,000 + 460 + 100 = 7,560 pounds. 10,000 - 7,560 = 2,440 pounds. You shouldn't have any problem.

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His truck is going to come in a lot closer to 7700-7800 lbs......not 7000 lbs!  My 2011 F250 Crew Cab Diesel 4x4 XLT had 2148 lbs of payload, so his seems to be pretty close, and mine weighed about 7750 lbs.

Agree on the curb weight.  Have your truck weighed.  My 2005 F250 Diesel CC 4x4 long bed weighed 7,400.  Add passengers, fuel and optional equipment and it grossed close to 8,000.  So 2,000 lbs left for hitch weight. 

Also double check your hitch weight.  Seems high for a travel trailer.  Usually they're about 10% of the weight. 

Fords are funny beasts my buddy had a 2013 king ranch 350 short box payload was almost 1000lbs less than my 2013 chevy ltz 3500 short box - he was pissed because he had his heart set on a Grand Design 5 er but was way over on his payload
FF to 2017 i was looking at new 350 duallys and i bought a Ford F350 with a higher payload than a 2017 Denalli ( which i could have bought for way less) and a higher payload than a F450 with the same equipment as my 350 ( and i could have bought it cheaper than my 350 too because they wanted to unload it at the same dealership i bought my 350 from because it was a factory order that the guy bailed on to buy 350 lol)

Moral of the story ALWAYS look at that yelllow decal on the truck you like before buying it.


PS a Gm 2500 srw has the same towing capacity as a Gm 3500 srw -17100 lbs BUT  the 3500 has about 1200lbs more CARGO capacity. Same trans, rear end - different brakes and spring packs

I thought the Primetime LaCrosse was a travel trailer, not a 5W?  Tongue weight should be on the order of 10-12% of the actual loaded trailer weight, so 10% of trailer GVWR is a reasonable estimate. That says to me about 1150-1200 lbs... Might hit 1350 if it's 12% and loaded to the max, but probably a bit less than that.


High trim trucks like the King Ranch add a lot of weight imply for the interior goodie and comfort.  That reduces the payload vs a less elegant model.

Did those truck numbers come from the yellow tire & loading placard on the door post, or some brochure or chart? Only the door placard is useful for the cargo capacity number.

xrated said:

His truck is going to come in a lot closer to 7700-7800 lbs......not 7000 lbs!  My 2011 F250 Crew Cab Diesel 4x4 XLT had 2148 lbs of payload, so his seems to be pretty close, and mine weighed about 7750 lbs.

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Yours is a 2011 and his is a 2018. Aluminum bodies dropped a lot of weight. However the upper scale trim packages add some weight for those options. 4x4 adds weight, crew cab adds weight too. They all add up. Especially when you drop a diesel in it. It all comes down to that yellow sticker. What is your GVWR - curb weight fully loaded?


What I find funny is that a diesel 3/4 ton has < 100lbs. more carrying capacity than my 1/2 ton. Based ont eh numbers of that TT, I can tow it with my 1/2 ton. He shouldn't have any problems. If it was a 5th wheel. That would be a different story.

Lou Schneider said:

The payload is only part of the problem - look in the Ford Towing Guide, available online at https://www.fleet.ford.com/towing-guides/

Those maximum tow ratings apply only to a trailer having no more than 60 sq. ft. of frontal area for a conventional trailer or 75 sq. ft. for a 5th wheel.  That's a small utility or boat trailer, a 12 ft. high x 8 1/2 ft. wide RV trailer has 102 ft. of frontal area.

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Pretty sure the frontal area is above the cab of the truck. The cab is figured at 36.6 square', plus the trailer frontal area. Those figures exclude the portion of the trailer behind the truck and only account for the portion of the trailer above the truck cab. At least that is the way I understood the ratings.

Hanr3 said:

Pretty sure the frontal area is above the cab of the truck. The cab is figured at 36.6 square', plus the trailer frontal area. Those figures exclude the portion of the trailer behind the truck and only account for the portion of the trailer above the truck cab. At least that is the way I understood the ratings.

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Actually, it's not.  Frontal area is the combined frontal area the truck AND trailer present to the wind.  From the 2018 Ford Towing Guide:

Frontal Area Considerations

Frontal Area is the total area in square feet that a moving vehicle and trailer exposes to air
resistance. The chart above shows the maximum trailer frontal area that must be considered for a
vehicle/trailer combination. Exceeding these limitations may significantly reduce the performance
of your towing vehicle.

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Sorry to join this late.  Just got home from a great camping weekend - and no internet.

I suspect your specs should read BASE wt, not CURB wt.  In Ford jargon, BASE  weight is the weight of that configuration (crew cab, diesel, short bed, etc) in the base trim with NO optional equipment.  CURB wt would be the weight of the truck, as equipped.  A King Ranch will have 700 - 800 pounds of options.

As others have said MOST people towing a FW with a F250 / 2500 are overweight, many are grossly overweight.  You are smarter than that!

Thanks for all the great responses.  You validated what I was thinking.

It won't be much longer before the only way to pull a camper is to have a 18 wheeler size Rig. 

To me the only difference between a 250 and 350 is the suspension.  Am I totally wrong with that?

I think you'll find the tires and brakes, maybe the frame, are more substantial on the F350 SWR vs. the F250.  For one thing, the GCWR goes up by 1000 lbs. on most comparable F350 models, not just the payload, and the tires are one size larger.

Hanr3 said:

Yours is a 2011 and his is a 2018. Aluminum bodies dropped a lot of weight. However the upper scale trim packages add some weight for those options. 4x4 adds weight, crew cab adds weight too. They all add up. Especially when you drop a diesel in it. It all comes down to that yellow sticker. What is your GVWR - curb weight fully loaded?


What I find funny is that a diesel 3/4 ton has < 100lbs. more carrying capacity than my 1/2 ton. Based ont eh numbers of that TT, I can tow it with my 1/2 ton. He shouldn't have any problems. If it was a 5th wheel. That would be a different story.

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No idea....I traded that truck about a year and a half ago for a F350 Dually.....5270 lbs of payload

Hanr3 said:

Yours is a 2011 and his is a 2018. Aluminum bodies dropped a lot of weight. However the upper scale trim packages add some weight for those options. 4x4 adds weight, crew cab adds weight too. They all add up. Especially when you drop a diesel in it. It all comes down to that yellow sticker. What is your GVWR - curb weight fully loaded?


What I find funny is that a diesel 3/4 ton has < 100lbs. more carrying capacity than my 1/2 ton. Based ont eh numbers of that TT, I can tow it with my 1/2 ton. He shouldn't have any problems. If it was a 5th wheel. That would be a different story.

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My 2017 dually which is lighter than xrated 2016 dually has 100lbs less cargo weight mostly because of all the extra stuff they put on the 2017s (cameras and panorama sunroof etc) so watch your cargo capacitiesx closely