Heaviest thing you've towed with your Ranger.

[85_Ranger4x4]

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?

That trailer was actually hooked up to my dad's F-350

The empty trailer weighs more than 5k lol

 

[arse_sidewards]

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

I have a fabricated bumper that includes a hitch and moves it a couple inches forward. I also cut down the ball mount and re-drilled it to move it a couple more inches forward. Every inch helps, how much I'm unsure. Front still starts getting unacceptably light in the low 600lb range which impacts steering but more importantly braking. An ex-cab could probably eek out a couple hundred more pounds.

I also installed longer, softer bump stops (from a mid 00s Town and Country) that engage about an inch and a half earlier but are tons softer.

Springs are stock. I don't want to suffer through a terrible ride for all the miles I'm not towing.

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?

You're pushing a whole lot of things to the edge of their comfort zone around 5-600lb tongue weight and the resultant 5-6k of trailer that you get for that tongue weight is pushing a bunch of other things as well. There's no one weak link that you can address at that point in order to get a ton more capacity.

The hitch itself can likely take far more but you gotta throw more rear spring (airbags probably the best option TBH) at the vehicle to keep it from hammering the axle/frame to oblivion over every bump, that still doesn't add more weight to the front though. So you slap on a big honkin winch bumper or some other weight. The vehicle is probably pushing 4000lb now, call it 4500 for an ex-cab. You've still got brakes, engine and trans on the small side for all this. At some point the juice stops being worth the squeeze and you're better off going to a weight distributing hitch (which people with fullsize trucks also start reccomending at around the same tow weights relative to the tow vehicle. Still, even with proper equipment towing 2-3x your vehicle weight with a vehicle that wasn't specifically built to do so gracefully isn't fun or comfortable.

I would definitely say that 400-500lb is a "good safe number, but not one that leaves too much performance on the table" from the POV of the hitch manufacturer. It also correlates to ~10% of what these trucks are rated to tow. At 5k in tow you're definitely into "you must seriously consider all the details if you want it to go well" territory at that point.

I would implore anyone seeking to tow these kinds of weights with these small trucks to work their way up to it both in terms of weight and in terms of speed and setting/conditions. Don't just park a 4000lb vehicle on a car hauler without a care for positioning, drop it on the wrong height hitch ball that's too long to begin with and take off down the highway without a care in the world for speed or traffic conditions.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

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?

They can approach 1700 with certain packages.

 

[arse_sidewards]

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

There was a 2k "max payload" option that came and went over the years. IDK the details of what it was available with (i.e. might not have been an option depending on how other things on the truck was spec'd) but the only thing it changed was different leaf springs.

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?

Absolutely, anything you do to increase the lever distance will make the truck handle worse in every way.

I have one stupid long drawbar I used exclusively with my car dolly (because the extra length lets me get it past 90 when backing). It noticably magnifies sway and tongue wieght (not that a car dolly has all that much even when loaded) vs the same cars on the same dolly with my normal hitch.

 

[I support common sense]

I have a fabricated bumper that includes a hitch and moves it a couple inches forward. I also cut down the ball mount and re-drilled it to move it a couple more inches forward. Every inch helps, how much I'm unsure. Front still starts getting unacceptably light in the low 600lb range which impacts steering but more importantly braking. An ex-cab could probably eek out a couple hundred more pounds.

I also installed longer, softer bump stops (from a mid 00s Town and Country) that engage about an inch and a half earlier but are tons softer.

Springs are stock. I don't want to suffer through a terrible ride for all the miles I'm not towing.



You're pushing a whole lot of things to the edge of their comfort zone around 5-600lb tongue weight and the resultant 5-6k of trailer that you get for that tongue weight is pushing a bunch of other things as well. There's no one weak link that you can address at that point in order to get a ton more capacity.

The hitch itself can likely take far more but you gotta throw more rear spring (airbags probably the best option TBH) at the vehicle to keep it from hammering the axle/frame to oblivion over every bump, that still doesn't add more weight to the front though. So you slap on a big honkin winch bumper or some other weight. The vehicle is probably pushing 4000lb now, call it 4500 for an ex-cab. You've still got brakes, engine and trans on the small side for all this. At some point the juice stops being worth the squeeze and you're better off going to a weight distributing hitch (which people with fullsize trucks also start reccomending at around the same tow weights relative to the tow vehicle. Still, even with proper equipment towing 2-3x your vehicle weight with a vehicle that wasn't specifically built to do so gracefully isn't fun or comfortable.

I would definitely say that 400-500lb is a "good safe number, but not one that leaves too much performance on the table" from the POV of the hitch manufacturer. It also correlates to ~10% of what these trucks are rated to tow. At 5k in tow you're definitely into "you must seriously consider all the details if you want it to go well" territory at that point.

I would implore anyone seeking to tow these kinds of weights with these small trucks to work their way up to it both in terms of weight and in terms of speed and setting/conditions. Don't just park a 4000lb vehicle on a car hauler without a care for positioning, drop it on the wrong height hitch ball that's too long to begin with and take off down the highway without a care in the world for speed or traffic conditions.

As far as your stock springs go, helper springs are easy to put on and take off when you need them or when you don’t.

 

[sgtsandman]

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

View attachment 138112

The moment arm of the hitch behind the axle is what partly dictates the maximum tongue weight. Too much weight can lift the front of the tow vehicle up too much, causing a loss in traction for steering.

The frame on the older Rangers aren't the beefiest thing either and are rather narrow compared to bigger trucks.

 

[Blmpkn]

Lol.

"Someone got their panties in a twist discussing negligence, so lemme just start a new thread to show everyone how negligent I am with photo evidence."

3 tons over the GCWR of that poor truck. Hope you never get in an accident like that.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I have an F-150 so I don't really tow a whole lot with my Ranger.

Heaviest thing I have really pulled with it was our camper:





From SW Iowa to SE Kansas, pulled it great. No idea how much it weighed, it wasn't very heavy. I didn't need a jack to hitch/unhitch it lol.

 

[JoshT]

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

You can do something with a rabid raccoon and your user name too. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should, or that you should talk about it publically if you do.

I'd really recommend listening to the advice you were given in the other thread about interacting with this forum. Or don't and keep it up. If the latter is what you choose, you probably won't have to worry about it much longer.

 

[superj]

my little 3200 pound 21 foot camper. i moved it around the yard with the ranger.

it would have been a heck of a deal trying to pull it on the highway because of the parachute it becomes at highway speeds

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

my little 3200 pound 21 foot camper. i moved it around the yard with the ranger.

it would have been a heck of a deal trying to pull it on the highway because of the parachute it becomes at highway speeds

The general rule they said in pilot groundschool (it was in relation to wing icing) was the square vs cubed rule.

Basically if you double speed you quadruple drag. Basically you hit a point where you kind of hit a wall where it takes A LOT more power just to go a little faster and then A WHOLE LOT MORE power just to go a little faster yet and you really can't get ahead of it.

Frontal area is a concern if you look in your manual for towing.

Our troop trailer in boy scouts was the back end of a old UPS truck made into a trailer. It was cool but it was heavy and a brick, like you say it was like a parachute. Also regarded as a sort of a rolling dyno for all the dad's pickups by the gear headed kids.

 

[Shran]

I haven't towed anything real heavy with most of my Rangers, for the simple fact that I am worried about stopping. I think my record was a bunch of yard waste/compost/dirt from the dump in my old '88. I had the bed completely full and towed a little 4x8 trailer that had 3' tall sides on it that was also full. IIRC the scale at the dump said I had about 3000lbs. I only needed to go about 5 miles and I'm glad it wasn't any further, the rear fenders contacted the tires every time I went over a bump.

 

[JoshT]

Our troop trailer in boy scouts was the back end of a old UPS truck made into a trailer. It was cool but it was heavy and a brick, like you say it was like a parachute. Also regarded as a sort of a rolling dyno for all the dad's pickups by the gear headed kids.

LOL! You bunch of lightweights.

Our Troop trailer was literally a storage building that our scoutmaster bolted an axle (and hopefully frame) under. This thing was either 7'x8' or a square 8x8, and the walls were at least 6' tall. He kept it stuffed. I mean stuffed, there wasn't enough room in the trailer for everything, so it spilled over into the back of the truck. All of that for 5-6 scouts on any given camping trip.

He pulled it with a crew cab long bed GMC 3500 IIRC. Even with that truck and the highrise camper shell breaking the wind, you could definitely tell it was back there. If at all possible, no one else would even attach that thing to their vehicle.

Unfortunately Dad had to one time, it was after I'd made Eagle and wasn't going much due to work. He wasn't even on the trip. The scout master drove across a mud pit in the dark and got stuck. They even stuck a big Cat or John Deere backhoe trying to get it out. They unhooked the trailer, managed to get the truck out, and they all waded in to retrieve the gear. Next morning Dad had to go out with the F-100 to rescue the trailer and backhoe. If they hadn't unpacked some of the trailer, it never would have gotten out. Apparently he put on a good show for them with the truck, before hotwiring the backhoe and crab walking it out.

Few years later he acquired an old utility bed and used it to build a smaller and easier to manage troop trailer.

 

[sgtsandman]

The general rule they said in pilot groundschool (it was in relation to wing icing) was the square vs cubed rule.

Basically if you double speed you quadruple drag. Basically you hit a point where you kind of hit a wall where it takes A LOT more power just to go a little faster and then A WHOLE LOT MORE power just to go a little faster yet and you really can't get ahead of it.

Frontal area is a concern if you look in your manual for towing.

Our troop trailer in boy scouts was the back end of a old UPS truck made into a trailer. It was cool but it was heavy and a brick, like you say it was like a parachute. Also regarded as a sort of a rolling dyno for all the dad's pickups by the gear headed kids.

I've run into that, but on a smaller scale with the utility trailer. More when it isn't covered than when it is. The tarp I use for a cover makes a huge difference. This is more with the 2011 than the 2019. The 2019 really doesn't seem to know the trailer is back there and the fuel mileage really doesn't drop too bad.

The same with the 2019 when it is loaded for overlanding. All that gear hanging in the slipstream really puts the ecoboost into boost mode.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

LOL! You bunch of lightweights.

Our Troop trailer was literally a storage building that our scoutmaster bolted an axle (and hopefully frame) under. This thing was either 7'x8' or a square 8x8, and the walls were at least 6' tall. He kept it stuffed. I mean stuffed, there wasn't enough room in the trailer for everything, so it spilled over into the back of the truck. All of that for 5-6 scouts on any given camping trip.

He pulled it with a crew cab long bed GMC 3500 IIRC. Even with that truck and the highrise camper shell breaking the wind, you could definitely tell it was back there. If at all possible, no one else would even attach that thing to their vehicle.

Unfortunately Dad had to one time, it was after I'd made Eagle and wasn't going much due to work. He wasn't even on the trip. The scout master drove across a mud pit in the dark and got stuck. They even stuck a big Cat or John Deere backhoe trying to get it out. They unhooked the trailer, managed to get the truck out, and they all waded in to retrieve the gear. Next morning Dad had to go out with the F-100 to rescue the trailer and backhoe. If they hadn't unpacked some of the trailer, it never would have gotten out. Apparently he put on a good show for them with the truck, before hotwiring the backhoe and crab walking it out.

Few years later he acquired an old utility bed and used it to build a smaller and easier to manage troop trailer.

There were usually about 20 kids + parents when we went out.

It seems slightly smaller than this:

It had a big rear bumper, we put down a plastic pallet, the step to the bumper and another set up to get in. Could easily stand inside with shelves on both sides. Single rear wheels but still had a floating rear axle. The box and all the shelving was galvanized steel.

It was heavy even empty and it was so tall was its big issues. They were careful with it because they knew if they sunk it it would be a brawl to extract. After I made Eagle and got out they replaced it with a regular enclosed trailer.

I don't think anyone pulled it with anything bigger than a half ton but it made them work for it. Thinking more about it a new 5.3 died trying to drag it back from Arkansas.