Over-Thinking About GVWR?

[daemonic3]

Based on experience moving up to the Superduties, and now back down, my sense is that the F-150 will do just fine up to 10,000 pounds towing, with the right planning. And the airbag kit awaits its arrival. Full disclosure: we bought the Florida place mid-COVID (FREEDOM!) and later found that our new-to-us HOA bans any truck over 1/2 ton. They had no interest in the fact that F-150's and F-250/350's are the same size trucks, except 1.5 inches of height. The only thing that mattered is the technicality that a Superduty os called a 3/4-ton truck while an F-150 is 1/2 ton. It'll be REAL interesting to see the reaction when we park the white '21 King Ranch F-150 in the driveway where the white '17 King Ranch F-350 used to sit and they realize there is literally no difference in neighborhood appearance. My wife is betting someone will report us for bringing back the offending truck, since it was such a big deal at three successive board meetings, threatened fines, etc.

Dave, you made me have to double check again, because I did extensive research on this back in 2017 when getting my first truck and I tried to make a Superduty work but I decided I just did not want to park in the weather (it won't fit my garage) for such a nice vehicle. (plus not to mention the 100 degree summer heat)

With my teen girls growing we decided the supercrew was a must, and superduty trucks do NOT come with a short bed - the minimum is 6.75' length. That puts it a whopping 254" length minimum! The F150 supercrew 5.5' bed is 232" length. I park it in my garage with 18" of walking room in front to spare as my garage is 250". Of course there is the supercab option on superduty at 238" but again, I do not need all that bed, we need interior comfort! So we can't go full luxury travel trailer and stuck with the Grand Design Imagine lineup and optimized within that weight range and floorplan, accepting that we just can't make a 3/4 ton work. Our HOA requires all vehicles to be garaged UNLESS they don't fit, so there are several superduties and 2500 trucks parked outside and I feel bad for those owners because of our stupid garages.

I gotta agree that is a STUPID rule by your Florida HOA. They are not THAT much bigger and are beautiful trucks. I can see more of an argument against work trucks with logos (not that I agree) but not for just plain old superduty/HD trucks.

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[DVD]

It does not matter how you play it, GVWR and GCWR do not change when they weigh you on the scales. Ford has tables full of numbers for cab style, 4x4 vs 4x2 and engines that vary by 10’s of pounds, but they fail to tell the consumer they lose 540lbs (almost 30%) of payload capability when you go with a Platinum plus nice options (sun roof, etc). Then there does not seem to be much benefit to adding max tow and a better ratio. Seems a tad misleading versus advertised bragging. Then on the other end, the camper brands are building advertised HALF-TON travel trailers (HT TT) that are coming in around 10,000lbs with heavy/high tongue weights (12%-15% or over 1,200lbs) to limit their liability. F-150 HB or Eco w/ 12,400 to 13,900 tow capability can handle the tow wt, but not the F-150 Platinum HB 1300# cargo capacity (advertise 1830# for Hybrid or 2100# for Eco). WDH will move ~200 lbs back to trailer, but you need at least a driver and it sure would be nice if my wife can go camping too. Having to buy a Half-Ton 2x2 regular cab with a long-bed to make a ”Half-Ton TT” work, seems misleading too. A real train wreck (or car wreck) waiting to happen.