How to Access and Use the Ford RV and Trailer Towing Guide
Chelsey:
Before we get on the road, I think it's best to go over some basic yet important numbers when it comes to your truck and your trailer to see if you can even tow what you want to tow before you go.
Anne:
Oh yeah, that's a big question for people, right?
Chelsey:
Yeah.
Anne:
Okay.
Chelsey:
It's probably the number one question. So a tool that I like to use often is the Trailer Towing Capability Calculator, and that can be found online in the Ford RV and Trailer Tow Guide.
Anne:
Okay.
Chelsey:
And I think ahead of time, I kind of pre-calculated for you and we have it set up, filled out to what we have matched here in the studio.
Anne:
And I've got that. I'll follow along as you talk me through it.
Chelsey:
Yeah. So step one is just going to be all about what's in our trailer. And the nice thing about this calculator is it's going to do most of the work for us. We just got to put in a few inputs where prompted, and the first one is going to be about our trailer. So you may have heard the term dry weight, and that just means how your trailer usually is going to come from the factory. Nothing in it, on it, completely unloaded.
Anne:
Okay.
Chelsey:
So that's going to be input one. Input two is going to be all the weight that you're going to add to your trailer. So in this case, we have nice ATV, that's going to be that weight. So if you want to read those numbers out for what we have in the studio-
Anne:
It looks like our dry weight is going to be 830 pounds. And then our content weight is also 830 pounds. So that makes it easy to remember. So then our total trailer weight, I'm going to have to do math here, is 1,660 pounds, right?
Chelsey:
Yep, that's right. And the calculator will do that for you.
Anne:
And then I'm also looking at our particular kind of trailer that we have here, and I remember you talking about this. We have a conventional hitch, right?
Chelsey:
Yep, that's correct. It's going to ask you to check what kind of hitch you have. And here in the studio we have a conventional hitch. So step two in the calculator is all going to be about the payload.
Anne:
And that's what goes in the bed of the truck.
Chelsey:
No, that's actually a common misconception. Payload is going to be anything you add to your vehicle. So passengers, your camping gear, any extra cargo. If you bring your dog along, he's going to be part of your payload.
Anne:
So Ruffles and I are part of the payload?
Chelsey:
Yes, that's right.
Anne:
Okay, well, that's good to know. All right.
Chelsey:
So we're going to want to know this payload of what we add, but we're going to want to compare it to our max payload rating and we can actually find that in the door jamb.
Anne:
Oh really? Okay.
Chelsey:
Let's go take a look and see if we can find it. So right here on this sticker, it is rated to 1,238 pounds. So we're never going to want to exceed that number with whatever we add to our vehicle.
Anne:
Okay, that's good to know. And we can always find that sticker right there?
Chelsey:
Yes.
Anne:
Okay, excellent.
Chelsey:
Pre-calculated numbers that we have already, what do we have for what's in the studio?
Anne:
All right, we have our max payload rating of 1,238 pounds and our payload is 550 pounds.
Chelsey:
So based on that, we're good on this step. We do not exceed that max rating.
Anne:
All right, great.
Chelsey:
So step three is going to come to our gross vehicle weight rating and that also can be found on a sticker here on this one. So it looks like here our Maverick in studio is rated to 5,205 pounds.
Anne:
All right, and then we also need to know our-
Chelsey:
Gross vehicle weight.
Anne:
Okay.
Chelsey:
So that's going to be what our payload was, plus the weight of the vehicle. And that number is there in the sheet, if you have that.
Anne:
That looks like it's 4,517 pounds.
Chelsey:
Perfect. That's under the 5,000 pounds, so we're good on the step as well.
Anne:
Okay, fabulous. So we're all good on that. So let's head on back here and start kind of doing the big numbers at the end, right?
Chelsey:
Yeah. So our last number in step four is going to be your gross combined vehicle weight rating. And that is going to be your total weight, weight of your truck, your trailer, everything combined that your vehicle can safely handle. So that number, you'll have to find that in the Ford RV and Trailer Towing Guide. And I think we looked it up.
Anne:
So our rating is 8,145 pounds, but our total was 6,011 pounds.
Chelsey:
So that checks as well. We don't exceed the max and that means we're good to tow.
Anne:
Now we also have a tow rating on here and that's going to be something slightly different again, right?
Chelsey:
Yes.
Anne:
Okay. So what I'm seeing is we can always find that in the RV and Trailer Guide, right?
Chelsey:
Yep, the number one resource.
Anne:
Okay, so what is ours here?
Chelsey:
So that's just going to be your gross combined weight rating minus your vehicle weight. So the difference is going to be what you're able to tow.
Anne:
So ours, it looks like the Maverick can tow up to 4,000 pounds.
Chelsey:
Because we have the conventional hitch with the max tow package and that allows it to do 4,000 pounds.
Anne:
But obviously that varies by vehicle.
Chelsey:
Yes, of course.
Anne:
And you always kind of want to know what your particular rating is.
Chelsey:
And you can always reference that towing guide online, ford.com/towing.
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