Phil, Ford publishes a Towing Guide for their trucks available at the
dealers. It is very solid, based obviously on much engineering
experience. Go by that and you won't have any trouble. It is easy to
overload a truck when towing, and eat up the truck fast.
I was advised to get a used full-size Ford, Chev, Dodge or GMC pickup
under 75K with a 350 V8 and factory towing package to pull my 5500 lb
gross enclosed 21' car trailer. I looked around a while and found the
right GMC for half the price of a new one. In 3rd gear it runs 65 mph
at 2700 rpm (torque peak for the SB 350) with no visible strain and
gives about 10 mpg. It acts like it would run forever pulling the load
like that. I was told you must watch out for overheating if you try to
go too fast in the mountains, which will result in boiling the oil out
of the automatic transmission despite a cooler, even if the engine
doesn't overheat. Good luck, ArdunBill in the Great Dismal Swamp,
Chesapeake, VA
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