Towing with a Ford Ranger

[Tom&Joan]

We towed our 5.0 TA extensively with our 2021 Ranger. Our towing days came to a halt last November when the Ranger was totaled in an accident (not towing at the time). We immediately ordered a 2022 which still has not been delivered at this point. We ordered an identical truck due to how pleased we were with the towing performance of the Ranger. My wife has a pic on her phone of the 5.0 with the trailer hooked up, but we do not know how to put it on the computer. Send me a pm and we can text it to you.
Tom

[gbaglo]

Email the pic to yourself. I assume you have mail on your computer.

[Tom&Joan]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Email the pic to yourself. I assume you have mail on your computer.

Yes, email on the computer, but not on her cell phone. Not everyone does. We just don't tend to do things this way. However, wife is working on setting it up. We'll see.

[Tom&Joan]

Originally Posted by Tom&Joan

Yes, email on the computer, but not on her cell phone. Not everyone does. We just don't tend to do things this way. However, wife is working on setting it up. We'll see.

I have to admit defeat this evening. I cannot download pic without it converting it to a zip file, then it says invalid file when I try to upload it. I tried unzipping it (extracting?) but then I can't find it. I am not tech savvy for sure.

[Radar1]

Jesse on post #24 mentioned he tows a 5.0 with the 2019 Ranger Supercab, perhaps message him to see if he can provide a pic?

[Tom&Joan]

Originally Posted by Tom&Joan

I have to admit defeat this evening. I cannot download pic without it converting it to a zip file, then it says invalid file when I try to upload it. I tried unzipping it (extracting?) but then I can't find it. I am not tech savvy for sure.

Found a workaround (maybe)

[AuthorSP]

Originally Posted by Jesse

I’m towing a 5.0 with a 2019 Ranger. Zero problems so far all clearances are good. Handles well. Adequate power. Cruises well at 110 km per hour on the Inland Hwy. Vancouver Island.

Hi Jesse, we are trying to convince an Anderson hitch installer that this can be done on a Ford Ranger (2020). Can you point us to the folks who did yours, or how you found a rail system that works? Thanks!

[AuthorSP]

Originally Posted by Tom&Joan

We towed our 5.0 TA extensively with our 2021 Ranger. Our towing days came to a halt last November when the Ranger was totaled in an accident (not towing at the time). We immediately ordered a 2022 which still has not been delivered at this point. We ordered an identical truck due to how pleased we were with the towing performance of the Ranger. My wife has a pic on her phone of the 5.0 with the trailer hooked up, but we do not know how to put it on the computer. Send me a pm and we can text it to you.
Tom

Hi Tom&Joan, we are trying to convince an Anderson hitch installer that this can be done on a Ford Ranger (2020). Can you point us to the folks who did yours, or how you found a rail system that works? Thanks!

[Tom&Joan]

SP, I replied to your pm. I would have replied on the forum but did not know the question was there as well at the time. Others may have benefitted by my answer. My computer is driving me nuts, so this will have to suffice for now. Will try again tomorrow.
Tom

[AuthorSP]

Originally Posted by Tom&Joan

SP, I replied to your pm. I would have replied on the forum but did not know the question was there as well at the time. Others may have benefitted by my answer. My computer is driving me nuts, so this will have to suffice for now. Will try again tomorrow.
Tom

Thanks! Though I don't see a message...

[Tom&Joan]

Well, so very frustrating... I sign in, which is verified via the "welcome Tom&Joan" at the top, I put in a long message, post and it says I am not logged in. I do not have this problem on other forums. We'll see if this post goes.
Tom

[YakRV]

Originally Posted by Tom&Joan

Well, so very frustrating... I sign in, which is verified via the "welcome Tom&Joan" at the top, I put in a long message, post and it says I am not logged in. I do not have this problem on other forums. We'll see if this post goes.
Tom

A wise member of this board (gbaglo) once helped me with this annoying problem. When you log in, click the “remember me” box and don’t log out. You can close your browser window, and when you hop on the board again you’re already logged in. You won’t have long messages disappear on you before you can post them. It works.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by YakRV

A wise member of this board (gbaglo) once helped me with this annoying problem. When you log in, click the “remember me” box and don’t log out. You can close your browser window, and when you hop on the board again you’re already logged in. You won’t have long messages disappear on you before you can post them. It works.

While all this is true, IMHO if you have a long message you want to post, type it in a text editor like Notepad rather than within the reply window here on the EscapeForum. Typing in a text editor allows you to put your words down in good order, spell check your work and IF by some weird happenstance you get logged out of the forum, your thoughts are STILL in the text editor and you don't need to retype everything.

[AuthorSP]

Originally Posted by Tom&Joan

Well, so very frustrating... I sign in, which is verified via the "welcome Tom&Joan" at the top, I put in a long message, post and it says I am not logged in. I do not have this problem on other forums. We'll see if this post goes.
Tom

Hi Tom, appreciate your efforts! I've got a habit that I learned from situations like this: once I type out a long post, I highlight and copy it (ctrl-c) before I click submit. This way, if the post had timed-out, I can simply re-open the reply and paste (ctrl-v) the text into a new reply and post it. That usually works.

[Tom&Joan]

SP, On a different computer now. as the posting problem was not the only one. Anyway, to answer your question, I do my own installations. I used universal rails from Etrailer. The hitch is a B&W, of which I've had four so far. I love the way they work, hitching and unhitching is so easy. The 16K capacity is overkill for sure, and heavier than the Andersen, but I made a dummy pin with an eye. The hoist in in my shop pics up the entire hitch and transfers it to a dolly to wheel it out of the way.
Tom

[Tom&Joan]

Next week I will hitch up and check turning clearances and hopefully take a pic of my maximum turn angle. Stay tuned.
Tom

[AuthorSP]

Thanks, Tom. Any chance you have a picture or drawing of how the under bed stuff works?

Have you towed a lot of miles? Any issues? I've gotten some flack from armchair experts about this being a bad idea.
Sean

[Tom&Joan]

Originally Posted by AuthorSP

Thanks, Tom. Any chance you have a picture or drawing of how the under bed stuff works?

Have you towed a lot of miles? Any issues? I've gotten some flack from armchair experts about this being a bad idea.
Sean

I don't have a sketch or pics, now that everything is buttoned up it would be difficult, I would have to remove the rear wheels and inner fenders. I can explain a bit however. I started by locating the center rearmost bolt in the rear rail in the middle of the bed sill. In my previous installation I was about 7/8 inch too far forward which put the bolt in the edge of the sill. I mounted the hitch base on the rails and drilled the rest of the holes keeping in mind accessibility and obstructions. Now, a surprise for me, the 2022 bed structure was different than the 2021. You need an installer who has a bit of engineer in his personal toolbox. I will answer the first part of your question in the following post.
Tom

[Tom&Joan]

Sean, Not a lot of miles towed, probably less than 2000. I have had a few online naysayers, but they seem unable to point to any specifics of why a Ranger is uncapable or for some reason unsafe pulling a 4500# load when it is rated for 7500#. I would welcome an honest discussion in the presence of the truck to get this feedback. No issues have popped up at all. Now, do I have an engineering degree? No. However, I worked at well known corporation as an engineer after working as an electro mechanical technician. In that first role I made a number of safety changes to equipment that was problematic for years. Also designed tools that made some tasks easier. Eventually a promotion into an engineering dept came about. I have two inventions, one fairly significant.
Back to the first Ranger, on one of our trips a truck driver forgot he was towing another tractor and ran us off the road. I made a very evasive maneuver, quite violent really, but I did not lose control of the trailer in the process. My wife and I still talk about it. Thats all for now.
Tom

[Centex]

Perhaps of interest to folks considering a custom in-bed hitch install on a Ford pickup ...

• Ford offers free download of the "Body Builder Layout Book" for many years of trucks (2022 Ranger here, for example). These contain a wealth of body, bed, and frame dimensional data and diagrams. Note these are year-specific, updated annually with each new model year.

• For a mere $22USD subscription fee Ford offers 72-hour access to the complete Workshop Manual for any recent Ford VIN. In most cases this includes sections detailing chassis drilling (acceptable hole size and location guidance and cautions), component-specific chassis material characteristics, etc, etc. Any or all of the data can be printed or saved to PDF using appropriate Windows-system printer drivers for later reference (diagrams / figures are not 'split' across pages). IME one can download and save a huge amount of information in the 72-hour subscription period.
  
  The subscription also provides access to a large amount of VIN-specific vehicle detail from Ford's "OASIS" database such as "As-Built" info (all factory installed options, spring codes, etc), module programming data and installed module version numbers, etc, etc.
  
  This is the same data and procedures manuals that a Dealer accesses (absent certain security and key-code data which requires additional passwords to access) when your vehicle is serviced / repaired, it's 'constantly' updated and current (the latest revision date of each section is displayed in the section header).

Just FYI.