Looking to own a Hilo again!

Hi! My wife Lynn and I (Dan) are former 88 Hilo 22’ FunLite owners. We then went to a 33’ class A motorhome that we sold after 5 years of enjoyment but excessive maintenance and fuel costs . We now are in the process of buying a new to us 18 F150 rated to tow just over 10,000 lbs. I am hoping to be able to tow a 28-31’ C not T model Hilo. We are concerned about the true dry weight and the available cargo weight. I don’t have the other specifications on the truck yet but if anyone has experience or insight on this we greatly appreciate any help.

Hi again, Dan. Trust me, an F150 will NOT work for the kind of trailer you are considering! You will need a SuperDuty and will need it with a good towing package.

As I said in another thread, the tongue weight of the trailer you are thinking of is too heavy for a 150. It will overload the truck's axles, tires and wheels. The truck will "pull" that trailer weight, but it does not have the suspension for the increased load.

- Jack

Not trying to be disagreeable but if you told me I could pull a 10,000 lb. trailer I would check the numbers myself for that too.
I’m not seeing the weight issue you mentioned.
Can you give me more information on how you came to your weight limit.
Thanks

You have to look at the Gross Axle Weight Rating (GAWR) of the F150 you are considering. You can find that on a sticker inside the driver's door. Then, you have to know the actual weight that each of the truck's axles is supporting when it is "empty" - just you in the truck with full gas and other fluids but nothing else. You CANNOT trust the listed or advertised weight ratings for this. You have to take the truck to a CAT scale or other "certified" scale and measure the weights on each axle.

Then, you add in the weight of the tongue of the trailer you are considering. That weight is being supported by each of your truck's axles. Add in the Weight Distributing Hitch (WDH) you are considering too - mine is 70#. Add any passenger's weights you are planning to take with you. Add the weight of all your camping gear that you are planning to put in the truck. If you are filling the fresh water tank in the trailer, it will add at least 100# to the tongue weight.

If you do all this, you will discover that you have weights on each of the truck's axles that exceed the GAWR of the truck. There is a reason that F150s are classified as 1/2 ton (1000#) pickups! Yes, you can overload that truck for short trips - I do it all the time, hauling concrete, or at times, trash to the landfill. But, you do NOT want to do this on a long camping trip.

An F250 should be able to handle that trailer, but not an F150. I have a cap on the bed of my pickup, and with its weight, I can only add about 700# to the "empty" weight of my truck, if I want to stay under the GAWR.

As I said before, that truck will easily "pull" a 10,000# trailer. It just won't safely support the additional weight on the axles.

- Jack

Here are a few tools you can use to help figure out if you can tow or not....

TowCalculator.com

Trailer Towing Calculator - McNeills on Wheels

https://changingears.com/weight-calculators/travel-trailer-towing-weight-calculator/

I’m looking at the numbers I can find online. We don’t pick up the truck until Easter weekend. And hopefully get to see the RV and weigh everything together on the trip back home. Currently looking at what information is available online from Ford and Hilo it’s hard to believe the specifications can be so far off. Without accurate weights I’m not going to proceed but with the information I’ve been able to research I am going to be very disappointed if I’ve cannot safely pull a 28 or 31 foot Hilo.

Get it weighed at a certified scale. None of the numbers you will find anywhere online are accurate. We just went through this and are now getting a transmission cooler added to my Acura MDX to I can tow 5ooo lbs. We were shocked to find that our empty 19 foot towlite was actually 3660 pounds!

See if you can rent a truck close to what you're looking to buy and try it out first, I wouldn't go far though on this test run. I don't care what they say I wouldn't trust such a small engine to tow that much....

Tow vehicle

Jack has given you a beautiful detailed explination. We encourage forum members to weigh their HiLOs. The weights are more than what is published in the brochure. Look in the reference library for more info. Welcome to the forum.