Heaviest thing you've towed with your Ranger.

[arse_sidewards]

Someone in another thread got their panties in a bunch over tow ratings so I'll start.

Here's the heaviest thing I've got a weight slip for. Truck with me in it is ~3500. Didn't fit on the scale so the "steer axle" is the whole truck.

 

[2011Supercab]

That would have been 1 heck of a ticket in this state.

Your truck has a GCWR of 6000lbs with a max trailer weight of 2800lbs

At 6020lbs overweight

$120 just for being overweight
$0.12 a lbs for every pound overweight

6,020
x .12
= $722.40
+ $120.00
= $842.40

Plus the driver/truck/trailer is not leaving until you get it legal

 

[racsan]

My ‘94 2wd/2.3/manual/4.10’s once towed a short distance approximately 3500/4000 pounds. Was pulling a small tandem axle trailer with a 1963 ford 2000 tractor on it. Didn’t like it, liked stopping less. Shoulda put the ranger on the trailer & pulled it with the tractor! The 2011 3.0 awd escape did good with the same load though.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Sometimes...

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

 

[gaz]

To date...1987 BroncoII, 4" suspension, James Duff (JD) dual 70/30 shocks on all 4 corners, 32" rubber, JD rear 2" bumper towing 847 lb flat (above tire) trailer carrying two 638 lb ORV's plus ramps and road tools just under 900 mile round trip. Kept the Endrigo max torque engine with oil cooler and 15" electric fan in peak torque range, on a fully updated dual cooler A4LD never used OD. Averaged 23.8 mpg round trip through 4 mountain passes (2 each way).

 

[Robertmangrum.rm]

Mine was bought to be a tow rig. Thats before I discovered how capable the Ranger was haha. But it used to tow 2 SXSs on a 20' dovetail trailer. Each weighted around 1300 lbs before the bigger tires and upgrades. Probably closer to 1500 lbs each. Never skipped a beat through the all the hills and stuff on the east coast. I do have the RedArc trailer brake kit. Ended up doing an extra leaf to keep it from sagging after the level kit was installed.

 

[arse_sidewards]

That would have been 1 heck of a ticket in this state.

Your truck has a GCWR of 6000lbs with a max trailer weight of 2800lbs

At 6020lbs overweight

$120 just for being overweight
$0.12 a lbs for every pound overweight

6,020
x .12
= $722.40
+ $120.00
= $842.40

Plus the driver/truck/trailer is not leaving until you get it legal

If you're gonna going to lick the boot at least know the law. This trailer is rated for 8k. I can make this load legal simply by moving the loader aft in the trailer. Ain't no different than a semi truck sliding the 5th wheel or the tandems.

I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine why doing so would be monumentally less safe than the current configuration.

Speaking of monumentally less safe, here's an example of exactly that sort of problem. Trailer deck is 14ft long and a couple inches over 6ft wide and there isn't much pine in the mix. Someone else can calculate what it weighs but it's not a little. That's an 8.00R20 tire on the trailer for scale. I only had to go across town though so tractor speeds were fine.

 

[arse_sidewards]

View attachment 138091
Mine was bought to be a tow rig. Thats before I discovered how capable the Ranger was haha. But it used to tow 2 SXSs on a 20' dovetail trailer. Each weighted around 1300 lbs before the bigger tires and upgrades. Probably closer to 1500 lbs each. Never skipped a beat through the all the hills and stuff on the east coast. I do have the RedArc trailer brake kit. Ended up doing an extra leaf to keep it from sagging after the level kit was installed.

Trailer brakes make a whole world of difference. I highly recommend them.

 

[2011Supercab]

If you're gonna going to lick the boot at least know the law. This trailer is rated for 8k. I can make this load legal simply by moving the loader aft in the trailer.

I didn't say anything about axle weights, Doesn't matter what the trailer is rated for,

Your Ranger has a GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating) of 6000lbs from the factory,

That means your truck, trailer and load cannot exceed a total of 6000lbs, your truck is rated for a max loaded trailer weight of 2800lbs

 

[arse_sidewards]

That means your truck, trailer and load cannot exceed a total of 6000lbs, your truck is rated for a max loaded trailer weight of 2800lbs

There are pictures several posts above that seem to indicate I can.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

 

[I support common sense]

what are you doing to compensate for the tongue weight? Have you reinforced your hitch? Perhaps you have added a leaf spring?

Let me clarify, what is the limiting factor in a ranger that makes 400-500 pounds the maximum tongue weight capacity on any of the hitches you can buy for any of the original 1983-2012 ford rangers?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

what are you doing to compensate for the tongue weight? Have you reinforced your hitch? Perhaps you have added a leaf spring?

Let me clarify, what is the limiting factor in a ranger that makes 400-500 pounds the maximum tongue weight capacity on any of the hitches you can buy for any of the original 1983-2012 ford rangers?

Its a itty bitty truck.

The rear axle is borrowed from a Foxbody Mustang. The truck itself is narrow and short coupled. The brakes are sized for a itty bitty truck. The engines are not super overpowered and the automatic transmissions needed to get peak GVWR's are held together by hopes and dreams.

Golden rule is you want 10% of your trailer weight for tongue weight, doesn't matter what we are talking about, super duty or what. A truck rated to tow about 5k should have about 500lb on the ball.

 

[I support common sense]

That trailer appears as though it weighs more than 5,000 pounds, do you have four leaf spring or did you add a leaf?
That’s a WD-45 on that trailer right?

 

[I support common sense]

The payload capacity is 1300 pounds I believe, and I think that’s limited by the rear axle. It seems to me the only reason that the tongue weight could be less then that is because the drawbar is an extension of the rear of the truck, working like a lever it slightly multiplies the amount of weight on the hitch. But if you got a shorter drawbar, perhaps you could increase the tongue weight?

Source: thecarconnection.com