Towing a trailer, how much truck do you need?

[AGGRO]

Went camping last weekend and the family next to us had a 32 ft travel trailer towing it with an older Toyota Tacoma. They went to take off and the amount of tongue weight I thought the front tires were gonna come off the ground. This was up and down a mountain. I would think even an F150 would be marginal for that downhill stretch. Thoughts?

[incredablehefey]

People do sketchy things all the time, sometimes it works out other times not so much. If you plan on towing check the rating on your truck and if the trailer has electric brakes built in its a good indicator that maybe you should use them. I don't tow much any more but when I did it was with a 3/4 ton diesel.

[M1NM]

Depends 100% on weight of trailer. Old 32' Airstream overloaded with crap you'll need a 3/4 ton diesel. Modern lightweight travel trailer and a F150 will handle it with no sweat. We have a 20' lightweight with one slide empty it's 3200 we load it to just under 4100 (it's rated for 5,500) and our Ford Flex tows it fine (It's rated for 4,500). Loading the trailer is critical and using weight leveling hitch is critical at times. I use the hitch bars if we're towing with the Flex but don't need them with our Excursion.

[therealnickb]

Went camping last weekend and the family next to us had a 32 ft travel trailer towing it with an older Toyota Tacoma. They went to take off and the amount of tongue weight I thought the front tires were gonna come off the ground. This was up and down a mountain. I would think even an F150 would be marginal for that downhill stretch. Thoughts?

Um, ridiculous.

[AGGRO]

Um, ridiculous.

They had two kids in that sideways back seat too.

[G-forceJunkie]

Very overloaded and dangerous. It works till it doesnt:

[tigerpan]

You need check the trailer weight. Some superlight trailer are half the weight of normal trailer.

[cpttimerestraint]

My general rule of thumb is 80% of the manufacturer stated maximum. In the case of what the op saw, that is super dangerous. Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

Wheelbase is a huge factor in how something tows. We have a20'/ 3500 lb gvwr rpod trailer. We normally tow it with my 2019 sierra 1500 cc 6.5' bed (about 20' long). Sometimes we tow it with my wife's gmc canyon which is about 3 feet shorter and much lighter. The difference in the affect that the trailer shaking has on the truck is very noticeable.

One of chp offices just posted a picture of Porsche towing a large travel trailer that had flipped.

Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

[ldsnet]

Far too many people tow overloaded or close to the limit to be unsafe. My F250 diesel is rated at GCWR of 20,000; with my old 30ft 5th wheel, I was at 17,500, but still overloaded on the truck rear axle.

It towed fine, looked level, but no margin for error. I was fortunate that all of my evasive actions over the years was straight line braking; IDK if ABS would have been able to compensate the extra weight and not set me up to jack knife or roll over.

Many states know this, as trucks get greater tow capacity some states are now requiring commercial licenses. Many states are also adopting in-motion weight on the interstate. Even a pick-up with a camper can get flagged to "enter scales" if your weights look unusual. I was flagged 3 times on one trip with my truck and 5th wheel (I retired the trailer shortly after we got home).

[CVShooter]

Check weight ratings. Get a weight distributing hitch. With the WD hitch, you can tow pretty close to your max weight. I towed an 18' with a Colorado for a while. It did fine. But my max load was about 5k lb and the trailer weighed about 3500 empty.

Stay well under the manufacturer's recommendations if you don't have a WD hitch. And if you do, you can get up to it.

[Mustard]

Very overloaded and dangerous. It works till it doesnt:

Assuming I already ignored all the advice here... is there a prescribed way to recover from that instability? Speed up? Slow down? Counter-steer?

[therealnickb]

Assuming I already ignored all the advice here... is there a prescribed way to recover from that instability? Speed up? Slow down? Counter-steer?

Hit the trailer brake only.

[nedro]

Went camping last weekend and the family next to us had a 32 ft travel trailer towing it with an older Toyota Tacoma. They went to take off and the amount of tongue weight I thought the front tires were gonna come off the ground. This was up and down a mountain. I would think even an F150 would be marginal for that downhill stretch. Thoughts?

All BS aside, as long as there is an F- in it, you'll be fine.

Don't fall for the hype.

[TrailerparkTrash]

Remember that tv commercial of a Toyota pulling the space shuttle down the street? It was an advertising ploy no doubt, but some people actually beloved that Toyota’s could pull off miracles.

It’s not all the “pulling” ability issue of a truck, it’s the handling and breaking of the truck pulling a big trailer, especially when going down hill. That’s where child’s play (light trucks) meets the “men” (3/4 ton - 1 ton) trucks.

That being said, I think an F-150 or Ram 1500 sized truck is just too light for pulling in the mountains with a regular bumper-tow travel trailer, with a length larger than 22’. It’s right on the edge when you’re loaded up, including gear, fuel, water tanks, passengers and a loaded up truck bed as well.

Get a F-250, or Chevy/GMC/Ram 2500 class truck (3/4 ton at least) if you really are serious about hauling something safely.

Check out www.RV.net for all sorts of these threads.

[Jwalt]

Tow across a parking lot? Tow on flat prairie in Kansas to the Lake on 60pmh roads?

Tow up and over Vale Summit?

Rule of thumb, 80% of rated capacity should be fine for all reasonable conditions.