Quote:
Originally Posted by timbo2
Does Anyone Know How To Calculate The Trailor Towing Capacity On An 03 F300 Drw Psd. Or Any Truck.
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Ford - and most experts - say you should never exceed any of the manufacturer's weight limits for your tow vehicle.
On most pickups with single rear wheels (SRW), the GVWR is the limiter. If you stay within the GVWR of your SRW tow vehicle, you probably won't need to worry about the other weight limits (GCWR, GAWR, tires, wheels, frame, suspension, axles, etc.)
But on a pickup with dual rear wheels (DRW), the GCWR is usually the limiter.
For a 2003 F-350 DRW, the GCWR was 20,000 pounds. To determine the real towing capacity, load the pickup with everything you'll normally have in it when on the road with the trailer, including
hitch,
spray-in bedliner,
toolbox full of tools and extra fluids and parts,
cooler full of cool,
sweetheart,
kiddos,
pets,
floor jack and bottle jack(s),
whatever.
Go to a truckstop that has a certified automated truck (CAT) scale. Fill up with diesel, then weigh the wet and loaded truck. Subtract the wet and loaded weight of the pickup from the GCWR and the answer is the maximum gross wet and loaded weight of any trailer you might want to tie onto.
For example, if your wet and loaded pickup weighs 8,500 pounds, that leaves 11,500 pounds as the max weight of any wet and loaded trailer without busting the GCWR of your truck.
GCWR is an indicator of how much weight you can gross without becoming a rolling roadblock to other traffic when you get in some situations, such as climbing a steep hill or mountain grade. And without overheating anything such as the engine, transmission, or axle(s). It's basically a function of engine power and torque combined with final drive ratio, along with engine and transmission cooling capacity. Unlike GVWR, which cannot be increased, you can probably increase the GCWR of your pickup by causing the engine and drivetrain to put out more power/torque without overheating anything, or by changing the rear axle ratio to result in shorter legs for hill and mountain climbing.
So if you really need to tow more weight than 11,500 pounds, then hot-rodding the engine, along with replacing the automagic tranny cooler with a bigger one, might be the answer. However, if you began messing with Ford's weight limits, you'd best know what you're doing. Part of your hot rodding should be gauges to be certain you never overheat anything, as well as the go-fast mods that result in more horses under the hood.
And if you tow a heavier trailer, then you'll need to worry about other weight limits too. Your GVWR is probably 11,500 pounds. That means the max weight on your two pickup axles should never exceed 11,500 pounds. If your wet and loaded pickup weighs 8,500, that leaves 3,000 pounds for max hitch weight. With 20 percent hitch weight, that's a max trailer weight of 15,000 pounds. So you're limited by the GCWR to 11,500 pounds, but if you properly hot-rod the rig you might be able to increase the weight over 11,500 pounds without becoming a rolling roadblock when you encounter a steep grade.
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