What does tow rating really mean?

[tomsbrokeagain]

What does this classify as for tow rating???

I think the washing machine puts me over GVW.:redneck:

 

[Boomer]

yea ford never had to :fawkdancesmiley::haha::cheer:

They may not have had a serious enough problem to have recalled them, but that does not mean that there has never been an incident of a factory Ford hitch seperating from the frame.

Bad things happen when you lose control of a trailer at 60mph...

 

[zukkev]

I'll agree with Boomer---Just today I watched an early 90's Ford drive past me in an intersection, and as it crossed in front of me, the ruts caused from yrs of heavy use allowed me to watch the hitch move up and down about an inch!!! All he had on was a 5X10 single axle cargo trailer!!! Unfortunately I was not able to chase him down and let him know!:booo: Hopefully he notices before something drastic happens...

 

[TooRisky]

a quick a accurate way to determined the tongue weight, take the towing capacity, is 10% of the trailer and load weight and you have it. Form my big 3/4 ton burb it has a 1000# tongue weight. So I have a #10,000 cap. trailer (1000#) and 4Runner at say 5000#, my tongue weight would be 600lbs, well with in the 1000lb max.
One can also use a weight distributer to reflect some tongue weight back to the trailer, just keep and eye on the weights, be informed, never speed, and always remeber the trailer is back there.