Newbie: 1/2 Towable Cross Country Trip Suggestions

[Atticus818]

Hi all,

I need some help and advice. I have a 2007 F-150 2WD Supercrew Lariat 5.4 Triton V8 with the max tow package. It was my mom's before she passed away and only has 27k miles on it. It was already set up to pull her horse trailer.

Some quick specs, it has a GVWR of 7500LBS and a max trailer weight of 9000LBS. So I came up with the following train of thought.

* Buy a new trailer to cross the US, since my wife and I will be working remote (COVID) for the next 6 months at least. It would be a great chance to travel the US and live out of the trailer since we are early 30s, and have no commitments (Mortgage, kids, etc.) It would need to accommodate 2 work stations, since we both still have to work remote. Being new and listening to some dealer suggestions, we had our heart set on a Grand Design Imagine 2670MK. Turns out many hours of research later, that thing is probably too big for our truck and as a newbie completely terrifies me to tow.

Now I am at a loss and looking for suggestions of trailers I can cross the country in, living out of for several months, with enough space to work from. I cannot change the truck, as that is the only thing enabling us financially to be able to do a trip like this. Any suggestions? I appreciate you reading this far!

-- Andrew

[Grit_dog]

MitchF150 wrote:


The 3v 5.4. V8 is a dog of an engine IMO... I would not own one if you gave it to me... 🙂

I bleed Ford Blue, but that engine just plain sucks and if you have to go up any 'hills', you will be hating life... 4 speed tranny and probably only a 3.55 rear gear and you'll be in second gear and foot to the floor on a 5% grade..

Numbers are fine, but I've been towing for some time now with these F150s and you just gotta know what you got and go from there...

Good luck! Mitch

While, from someone who "knows" what you can have in a half ton, I agree, the 5.4 is not my favorite engine and like all Triton engines, only make decent power at higher than average rpms.
However, OP, sounds like you have a great truck and if the 5.4s were bad, they wouldn't have been around for 15 years in pickups and 20 years in vans.
Not including the 1000s in our fleet, I've personally worked probably a dozen different 5.4 Fords since they came out until they switched to the 5.0 Coyote engine and they are good engines.

You have a great truck and hopefully you update on your camper search and adventure!

[afidel]

bstar1952 wrote:
If you're going to need internet to work, you may need to check out whatever RV Park you'll be staying at for good service. Out of the 156 parks we've stayed at over the past few years, I think 3 had good enough internet you could work with. A little exaggeration, but seriously most RV parks have crappy internet.

Nope, that's not at all an exaggeration, out of the >100 parks we've stayed at in the last 4 years there was exactly 1 where I would have had a prayer of doing a video conference from.

[Jebby14]

by your numbers...

1580-700 = 880
-100 for the hitch = 780
divided by 15% (high end of tongue weight)
= 5866.6 lbs.

you should be looking for trailers with a gvwr less than 5867. Also plan your cargo carefully. id expect a trip of that magnitude to require a lot of "stuff"

[treyster]

I can't add much value to the above comments but congrats on doing the math first!

[Bumpyroad]

kellem wrote:

Bumpyroad wrote:

kellem wrote:
Apex Nano 208BHS pay more attention to GVWR of trailer vs dry weight as most of the trailers your truck can safely pull will more than likely have lower CCC and weigh in closer to that GVWR.
.

I believe wet weight loaded is more important than the GVWR, assuming that your weights are otherwise in line.
bumpy

You edited in words I never said......Apex nano???? You drinking ?

I did not edit anything in.

bumpy

[wowens79]

The internet connection can be an issue depending on what you need for work. If just emails, it’s not that big a deal, but depending on what you do and the bandwidth needed it could be an issue.

I’ve had to work some while camping, using campground WiFi, but most of the time I end up using my HotSpot on my phone. It’s slow but works. It’s fine if you just need to logging and do a few things, but I could not be productive doing it. I’ve also had to drive 10-15 miles to find decent cell reception.

[valhalla360]

Use the GVWR as a starting point (since you don't have the trailer, you can't weigh it and get the real wet weight).

Assume 12-15% of the GVWR is the hitch weight. Odds are that creates a limitation that will likely keep you down around 6000lb.

Finding an existing layout that gives you two dedicated workstations without taking over the dinnet and couch is problematic.

You will also have to figure out how much internet you need. If you are on lots of video calls, it becomes more problematic.

[kellem]

Bumpyroad wrote:

kellem wrote:
Apex Nano 208BHS pay more attention to GVWR of trailer vs dry weight as most of the trailers your truck can safely pull will more than likely have lower CCC and weigh in closer to that GVWR.
.

I believe wet weight loaded is more important than the GVWR, assuming that your weights are otherwise in line.
bumpy

You edited in words I never said......Apex nano???? You drinking ?

[MitchF150]

I wouldn't want to tow that with my 2013 F150....

But, in the end, it's all up to what numbers you want to go by..

I'm towing a #7000 GVWR TT with my F150 that's rated to tow #11,000... I have the actual "MaxTow" option as shown below.

The 3v 5.4. V8 is a dog of an engine IMO... I would not own one if you gave it to me... 🙂

I bleed Ford Blue, but that engine just plain sucks and if you have to go up any 'hills', you will be hating life... 4 speed tranny and probably only a 3.55 rear gear and you'll be in second gear and foot to the floor on a 5% grade..

Numbers are fine, but I've been towing for some time now with these F150s and you just gotta know what you got and go from there...

Good luck! Mitch

[Grit_dog]

bstar1952 wrote:
If you're going to need internet to work, you may need to check out whatever RV Park you'll be staying at for good service. Out of the 156 parks we've stayed at over the past few years, I think 3 had good enough internet you could work with. A little exaggeration, but seriously most RV parks have crappy internet.

1 word. Hotspot.


Or maybe it 2 words.

[Bumpyroad]

kellem wrote:
Apex Nano 208BHS pay more attention to GVWR of trailer vs dry weight as most of the trailers your truck can safely pull will more than likely have lower CCC and weigh in closer to that GVWR.
.

I believe wet weight loaded is more important than the GVWR, assuming that your weights are otherwise in line.
bumpy

[bstar1952]

If you're going to need internet to work, you may need to check out whatever RV Park you'll be staying at for good service. Out of the 156 parks we've stayed at over the past few years, I think 3 had good enough internet you could work with. A little exaggeration, but seriously most RV parks have crappy internet.

[Grit_dog]

Atticus818 wrote:
thing is probably too big for our truck and as a newbie completely terrifies me to tow.

Andrew, herein lies the issue. Lack of experience. If you had towing experience, you'd realize that 8000lbs and 32' long is not alot different on the road than 6000lbs and 26' long.
Driving and backing into tight areas, longer trailer may be more of a challenge.
Tongue weight is not an issue AT ALL, within reason. A 1200lb tongue weight with the right wdh will feel like a 500lb tongue weight on a small trailer.
As far as actual camper model with 2 "work stations", idk, never seen a normal camper that would have suitable space for 1 good work station, even including the kitchen table.
Although if I was a camper company, I would make the "executive" line or some **** that offers, hot rod wifi router, 2 big huge desks (that double as bunks or a bar or whatever) with real office chairs, pullout for keyboard or standing work station, anchors for monitors, big battery and inverter setup so you can run the 'puters all day, separate rooms for each work area and sell the chit out of them to those who are using the Rona as an excuse to not go to their office and using as an advantage to vacation instead.

Truck?
Get ALL the fluids changed/flushed. New Thermostat. Get the spark plugs out of it and replaced before they weld themselves completely in. Maybe new shocks. New tires if it has original 27k mile tires and hit the road. It's a good truck and it'll pull all day long up any hill with 8klbs. Not the "best" rig power wise compared to new rigs but I've run the wheels off of many Ford 5.4s and a trip X country and back with a travel trailer wont hurt it one bit.

[Lwiddis]

You don’t have any wiggle room with that trailer...Grand Design Imagine 2670MK...you will be over loaded and wet, and 1580 pounds of payload isn’t that much. Look at lighter trailers. “Dry” weights are useless weights. Stop thinking so much about “Pulling” and start thinking of what your truck can carry.