An answer for Felix Chiu:
I used a Ford F-150 for towing a 25 foot Featherlite (2500 lbs.) equipped
with a tilt rack (400 lbs.) to carry two race cars (about 3800 to 4500 lbs.
depending on which cars) plus tools, wheels, spares, etc. (maybe 400 lbs.)
for a total of 7100 to 7800 lbs. I took several trips from Calif. to as far
as Watkins Glen, Road America, and Seattle for a total of, at least, 90,000
miles. The truck performed reasonably well, and towed well with load
distributing bars, but bogged down on the steep hills and I could tell that
the automatic transmission was getting tired toward the end. The end came one
hot day while coming up the long hill from Ashland, Oregon toward the Calif.
border in first gear. The transmission burst into flames and the truck, and
the contents of the bed, were totally destroyed.
So, my experience shows that you can get away with pulling a heavy load for a
while and probably for a long while if you don't have to climb a lot of long
steep grades, but there are limits.
I now use a Ford F-250 with 7.3 liter diesel to pull the same load and I can
cross the country, seldom slowing on a hill, and get 3 to 4 mpg better fuel
economy. All around a better choice for the job.
As for whether the discretionary load should be placed in the bed or the
trailer, I don't think that it matters much except that some of it should be
used behind the trailer axle to decrease the tongue weight to a proper level.
Bill Watkins
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