Trailer towing capacity??? Need help deciphering Ford's Hyperbole!

Truck is a 91 4x4 F350,SRW 5sp, 4:10 LS rear.


I began working on finding out what my truck can haul weight wise and also what it may be able to tow...

VIN tag on door

VIN 2FTHF36M3CA97075

GCW 9000 Lbs/ 4082 Kg

Front axle 4410 Lbs/2000 Kg

Rear axle 6084 Lbs/2759 Kg


Body B84

Axle C5

Trans C

Springs T4F


In the owners manual there is a chart that makes no sense to me

my books page....shows some weird stuff I cannot understand...

Any one help me out?



So what can I tow...subtract my trucks weight from 14K or 11K? this is not clear The axle ratings don't match the door tag. I would say CGVW is 14K but that's me...maybe a trip to the dealer?

If you tow a trailer weighing 0-3,500 lbs, the maximum gross combined weight rating (truck, passengers, cargo, and trailer) is 11,000 pounds. If you tow a trailer weighing 3,500 to 9,000 lbs, the max is 14,000 lbs.

Why does a gasser have a higher rating than the diesel with 4.10 gears?

because a 460 is Moses. It will part the gasoline sea, then drag EVERYTHING across.

93IDIT said:

If you tow a trailer weighing 0-3,500 lbs, the maximum gross combined weight rating (truck, passengers, cargo, and trailer) is 11,000 pounds. If you tow a trailer weighing 3,500 to 9,000 lbs, the max is 14,000 lbs.

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Thats ridiculous, if my truck for whatever reason weighed 10,000 lbs I could only tow a trailer that was 1,000 lbs, or 3,500-4000 lbs but nothing in between.

You have to realize, Ford didn't want to spend time with lawyers after some idiot overloaded his truck and killed someone. Ford was very conservative. You have to remember they were taking account the mountains and all other types of terrain in those figures. I've towed over 20K with my 83 6.9 4 spd and my 92 7.3 auto with 3.55 gears but it was flat and I didn't push my speed. Eason

I have had 3400lbs in the bed and my truck handled like a champ. I distinctly remember a 4.10 cclb zf5 with a 351W being rated to tow 12,500lbs. I tried finding it last night to no avail. I am quite sure a turbo'ed IDI will tow that just as well. Problem will be finding a rated receiver hitch.

I have never really agreed with Ford's way of rating its trucks anyhow. First, an F350 will have a gross wt rating of lets say 10,000lbs. The lightest version of the truck will carry the best weight rating, usually a small block gas 2wd truck. Add 4x4 and a diesel, the curb weight goes up and this added weight gets subtracted off of the truck's carrying capacity. I get the logistics behind it but do not agree at all with the theory. There is no way in my mind that a 2wd 351 equipped truck will out haul my 4x4 turbo'edIDI.

***(GVW) is the actual scale weight of any vehicle including vehicle and all cargo, fuel, driver, etc. GVW is what it weighs on the scale.

***GVWR is the manufacturer's maximum recommended weight rating for a specific vehicle....truck or trailer. The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is the amount recommended by the manufacturer as the upper limit to the operational weight for a motor vehicle and any cargo, fuel, equipment, passengers etc. to be carried.

***CGVWR is the sum of the GVWRs of the towing and towed vehicle(s) when used in combinations.

***GCWR... Generally speaking, the GCWR that most people are familar with is the term a manufacturer uses to express the towing capacity of the vehicle and includes both GVWs of each unit. Usually, the maximum allowable trailer weight is identified separately. In most cases, GCWR will be stated as the total allowable weight of the completely loaded tow vehicle and trailer including passengers, cargo, equipment, and conversions. The GCWR isn't necessarily the sum of all GVWRs for each unit in combination-unit motor vehicles. For single-unit trucks there is no difference between the GVWR and the GCWR.

Basically an automatic will tow more than a manual transmission, that is due to the clutch slippage rating.

As others have said, Quote[ I tow more than the GCWR}Quote, but that is not the safe weight to tow. Brakes and the safe stopping distance is a big factor in towing. You can tow 50,000 lbs if you can make it up a hill at 12,000 ft altitude. Some States have a GCWR registration, you can register at any weight, but that don't mean the vehicle can tow it safely.

In the first place this thread should be in the TOWING FORUM.

OLDBULL8;680401 In the first place this thread should be in the TOWING FORUM. said:

***(GVW) is the actual scale weight of any vehicle including vehicle and all cargo, fuel, driver, etc. GVW is what it weighs on the scale.

***GVWR is the manufacturer's maximum recommended weight rating for a specific vehicle....truck or trailer. The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is the amount recommended by the manufacturer as the upper limit to the operational weight for a motor vehicle and any cargo, fuel, equipment, passengers etc. to be carried.

***CGVWR is the sum of the GVWRs of the towing and towed vehicle(s) when used in combinations.

***GCWR... Generally speaking, the GCWR that most people are familar with is the term a manufacturer uses to express the towing capacity of the vehicle and includes both GVWs of each unit. Usually, the maximum allowable trailer weight is identified separately. In most cases, GCWR will be stated as the total allowable weight of the completely loaded tow vehicle and trailer including passengers, cargo, equipment, and conversions. The GCWR isn't necessarily the sum of all GVWRs for each unit in combination-unit motor vehicles. For single-unit trucks there is no difference between the GVWR and the GCWR.

Basically an automatic will tow more than a manual transmission, that is due to the clutch slippage rating.

As others have said, Quote[ I tow more than the GCWR}Quote, but that is not the safe weight to tow. Brakes and the safe stopping distance is a big factor in towing. You can tow 50,000 lbs if you can make it up a hill at 12,000 ft altitude. Some States have a GCWR registration, you can register at any weight, but that don't mean the vehicle can tow it safely.

.

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Fixed it for u so that last place is now the first place!

I knew all that part...it was deciphering the damn data I had trouble with...is all..

I'm considering either a decent tongue tow or fifth wheel...or goose neck..unsure which so far..depends on what I can tow legally!
THE OPERATIVE WORD is tow LEGALLY

Go here. http://changingears.com/rv-sec-calc-trailer-weight-fw.shtml

Unficially, of course, changing gearing arrangements will change the vehicles ability to tow a given weight just as the auto trans does. The brownie I have in mine combined with certain suspension modifications that do not rely on factory spring hangers allow for an increased load carrying ability with ease. I;m running the same gear combinations as older semi trucks and with quite frankly, a lot more HP than some of the early big trucks that I drove
I have no trouble getting things going, but I wouldnt think of pulling a trailer that didnt have enough brakes to handle all of itself and then some, between that and never going off a hill faster than I can hold it back with the engine eo where brakes become basically a moot point going down a grade, just have to tap them once in a while in a curve, I dont have problems, but that kind of patience comes from years in a big truck. Where folks get in trouble is where they start adding exhaust retarders and the like and thinking they can fly off hills heavily loaded and they always seem to forget Murphy's law, and it WILL bite you in the hind end about the time you start feeling too good about yourself and a bunch of fancy backup equipment. I dont care how much brakes you have, or how LIGHT you are, if you are on a steep enough grade, they WILL NOT stop you if you are going too fast, all they will do is either fade out or catch fire and if you are lucky, there will be a sandbox to swing off into to keep you from killing a bunch of folks

In all my years, the only incident I've ever had with brake failure that I couldnt control, was running off the Grapevine in CA, EMPTY with no trailer on on a very hot 115 deg day and the brakes, I had just adjusted . I SHOULD have known better and crawled down a gear lower, but I was empty . Amazing how things can decieve... I geared down getting off an offramp and didnt notice, but when the first stoplight came up, I had no brakes and ended up tapping a minivan. Talk about foolishness, Ive never had anything like that happen with a trailer on no matter how heavy, even with permit loads, but its funny how you can let your guard down when you THINK something isnt heavy enough to matter. Never, I mean NEVER go off a hill faster than the engine can hold the thing back.
These engines have superb engine braking and can hold back anything you can climb without having to ride brakes, even 14 and 20% grades but you have to use your head. The moment you get bored and start speeding up, you better make sure your will is in order. If someone behind you isnt happy with how slow you are going, wave politely at them, and let them read between the lines

Well-put!!!

RLDSL said:

In all my years, the only incident I've ever had with brake failure that I couldnt control, was running off the Grapevine in CA, EMPTY with no trailer on on a very hot 115 deg day and the brakes, I had just adjusted .

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What were you driving? I take it you were going north down the steep side...my paternal grandfather once lost the brakes on a Greyhound bus going down the steep side of the Grapevine No wreck, by some miracle...and IIRC the runaway ramps weren't in place yet...

What I remember out of the spec book is 14-16k GCWR depending on rear end and trans. From my experience that's a pretty decent number. I've run 14-15k quite a few times and the truck handles that well. Anything more than that I'm going to be going slow and being very careful.

I agree completely with RLD, it's about stopping. Especially because trailer brakes are not fail safe. I've had numerous times where the trailer brakes stopped working, either due to a loose wire, dirty connection, someone not putting the connector in all the way, etc. And frequently you don't realize it until you go to hit the brakes and realize you're missing something. (Yes, I know, proper maintenance and gear should fix that, and many modern brake controllers tell you if they loose connection, but the point still stands - s*** happens)

I love all the new truck commercials where they talk about how this little dinky half ton can haul 12000#..... really? And then someone tries it and gets wrapped around a telephone pole.

One thing though. The brakes on these new half tons are for one a whole lot larger than they used to be and two are discs all the way around. That's gotta be a large improvement over the old 80's-90's half tons.

Some of the newer half tons have more braking power then these old IDI's. Large rotors and multiple piston calipers at all corners makes for a truck that will stop quite a load.