Hello! Prospective 5.0 Owner

[Paul L]

Hello! My husband and I are newly retired, new to RV traveling. We have sailed for many years, living on our sailboat for days at a time so are used to living in small spaces. We are in line for delivery of a new 5.0 TA, delivery date in April 2021. We have been reviewing all of the comments on the various options, appreciate the feedback. Right now, we are trying to decide on our tow vehicle for the 5.0. We would like to get a mid-size pickup, preferably a Chevy Colorado. Has anyone used a Colorado for towing the 5.0? Do you have the Andersen hitch? We have reviewed the guide on towing compatibility guidelines by ETI, would like some first-hand feedback as well. Thanks!

[escape artist]

Hi: Paul L... No Colorado but I did tug for 4 yrs with a 6' 1" box length 2010 4dr. 4L V6 Nissan Frontier. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[JStaub]

Are you considering the Short or Long bed?

I have a 2019 Chevy Colorado 4WD Crew Cab Z71 (gasoline) short bed and would like to use this as my tow vehicle. We are also newly retired and have a 5.0 TA on order. With a April 2022 delivery date. (BTW - was your delivery date moved up, and if so by how much from your time of order?)

Have you considered the short bed in a Colorado is 5'2"" and the 5.0 TA targets trucks with a minimum 5’6″ bed and suitable payload/tow capacity?

Being new to towing, I'm struggling to educate myself and understand the consequences of this choice. I know my truck can handle the payload. I've taken into account the curb weight, myself, my wife and the dog, Fuel, the Anderson hitch and tongue weight. This leaves us approximately +/- 1200 lbs for cargo.

There are also several that use the GMC Canyon as a Tow Vehicle.

Interested to see what responses you get.

Joe

[camp4528]

Originally Posted by JStaub

Are you considering the Short or Long bed?

I have a 2019 Chevy Colorado 4WD Crew Cab Z71 (gasoline) short bed and would like to use this as my tow vehicle. We are also newly retired and have a 5.0 TA on order. With a April 2022 delivery date. (BTW - was your delivery date moved up, and if so by how much from your time of order?)
Joe

There are quite a few people on the forum who tow 5.0's with Canyon/Colorado diesel trucks.

Here's a few threads involving discussions of TV (tow vehicles) including your GM ones:
https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...les-19339.html
https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...ble-19114.html
https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...gas-18282.html

The Escape 5.0 Towing compatibility guideline is here. You can probably find a hitch to install in the 5"2" short bed Canyon, but you will probably be limited in turning radius.
https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/54742...7-908a7792d9a4

I have no practical experience (yet), but have been doing a lot of reading on the GM midsize trucks since they seem to meet all my and the 5.0 needs including towing and payload capacities.

[Ronn]

Originally Posted by JStaub

I know my truck can handle the payload. I've taken into account the curb weight, myself, my wife and the dog, Fuel, the Anderson hitch and tongue weight. This leaves us approximately +/- 1200 lbs for cargo.
Joe

Hi Joe, if I am reading this right your payload is well over 2000 lbs. I would be surprised if that is correct.

Here is my door sticker showing my payload of 1733 lbs. If I just subtract just my hitch (100 lbs) and Pin weight (806 lbs) that leaves me with 827 lbs for passengers and cargo.

[Paul L]

We put down a deposit in August of 2020 for a spring 2021 delivery. It’s not spring in Minnesota until June, we wanted to avoid the potential of snowy roads on our trip home! We apparently got our order in before the big rush and were able to get a 2021 date.

We are looking at a Colorado with a crew cab and a long box. According to the ETI guidelines, this will give us a turning radius of about 60 degrees. The Colorado seems to meet the requirements as far as towing capacity. We are a little concerned about the weight and size of the truck and whether it’s up to the task.

[JeffreyG]

Originally Posted by Paul L

We are looking at a Colorado with a crew cab and a long box. According to the ETI guidelines, this will give us a turning radius of about 60 degrees. The Colorado seems to meet the requirements as far as towing capacity. We are a little concerned about the weight and size of the truck and whether it’s up to the task.

You will likely be close to the GVWR of the vehicle, and you will need to be careful with how much 'stuff' you bring. Colorado diesel's can usually carry about 1400 pounds but tow more, and the V6 ones can usually carry about 1500 pounds but tow a bit less.

Your Escape 5.0 pin weight will likely be 700-750 pounds.
Your hitch and mount will be another 100 pounds.

That leaves a remaining people / cargo of 550 - 650 pounds in the truck, depending. That's do-able but not a huge amount once you start to mentally tally up the people you will have inside etc.

[JeffreyG]

Originally Posted by JStaub

Being new to towing, I'm struggling to educate myself and understand the consequences of this choice. I know my truck can handle the payload. I've taken into account the curb weight, myself, my wife and the dog, Fuel, the Anderson hitch and tongue weight. This leaves us approximately +/- 1200 lbs for cargo.

Look at the sticker inside the driver's door and you can read the actual cargo capacity of your specific vehicle.

This will be around 1500 pounds, +50 / -100.

Your pin weight, hitch, people, and gear in the truck (including anything you added like running boards) all needs to tally up to this number or less.

[marsman]

Hello there, agree that the cargo weight remaining is very important even in our situation with a 2015 F150 Supercrew and with the tow package my GVWR on the door sticker is 7050lbs ,minus the weight of the truck ~5000lbs leaves about 2000 lbs, the brochure that came with the truck states a max payload of 2060lbs but the sticker on the front door states not to exceed max payload of 1782 lbs! So taking that weight and subtracting the hitch weight of the 5TA (about 800lbs) and my wife and I (about 350 lbs - I'm a pretty big guy!) leaves only about 630 lbs for everything else; not as much as some would think right? I figured on the last two long trips we were carrying about 400 lbs (and we carry a lot of stuff like bikes, bbq, extra propane and water, tables chairs etc...) and the trailer tows like and absolute dream and we crossed the Rocky mountains twice!!

[kavm]

The recent discussion of payload is very relevant to me. Let me share my dilemma:

Minimum payload needed = 1200 lbs

• Driver and passenger weight - 280 lbs
• Estimated tongue weight for E5.0 - 800 lbs
• 5th wheel hitch 110 lbs

Additional things we could carry in the box: tables, chairs. Not a whole lot for two reasons - (a) not very secure, and (b) we are not into taking a whole lot of things. I am sure some of that will change but how much is unclear. We’d like bikes but they’d go at the back end of E5.0 and not add a whole lot of tongue weight. We will have lithium batteries (only), compressor fridge, no microwave or oven. Still considering antenna, but that’s about it. So, our E5.0 ought not be on the high side of weight. And, we lack the competence to do much modifications

Payload on the TV - This is where our scenarios get complex. We’d like to buy 2021 F150 with Power Boost hybrid engine and optional 7.2 kW generator. The bad part is that the payload on these Power Boost trucks seems to be on the low end. [I have seen payload of 1300 lbs on some stickers posted on the internet, though that can be raised some by judicious selection of options. The trucks (with hybrid) are not yet on the lot, and even if they were - to get a good read on the exact payload when ordering and not buying off the lot involves guesswork. We will delay our purchase to gather more info on this.

I am torn between two build alternatives:

• Limited with higher end options (what I would very much like) - but getting to much more than 1400 lbs payload appears difficult. Will try to get to 1450 lbs but the actual number could come lower.
• King Ranch with base options - and something approaching 1500 lbs payload or slightly lower.

The prudent thing is to go for the KR/1500. But, with our generous estimates - we have 1200 lbs min need and room for additional 200 lbs to stay within the lower 1400 lbs payload with the trim/options I’d like. And, the higher but unused payload rating would not buy me nearly the satisfaction as the trim/options I’d like.

What I don’t know is if there is a safety factor in payload/GVWR that is needed. The engine overall is very powerful with pulling capacity in 12000 lbs range.

We are still a month away from decision but any feedback would be appreciated.

[marsman]

Hello Kavm, one thing I forgot to mention is that our F150 came with an option called the Heavy payload package; don't really know what this is but what I can say for sure is that my friend who has the same model F150 but 1 up from mine in trim (I have the XLT Fully optioned out whereas he has the Lariat with no Payload Package) seems to ride lower and is definitely softer riding than mine. My truck seems to sit somewhat up on the back end and when I drop the 5.0TA onto it it levels out nicely. In any case, we have total cargo weight in the 1500 lb range (I have probably overestimated that weight trying to be conservative) and the truck rides very stable. Last year we did a long trek down a very rough road with high amplitude wave-bumps (here in Ontario we call these frost heaves) and the truck was still very stable and we never came close to bottoming our suspension. I believe that even in the new vehicles if you can keep your total weight below 1400 lbs you should be fine. As a last note our truck is equipped with the Andersen gooseneck hitch which I believe weighs about 45lbs with the gooseneck and safety chains, so about half the weight of yours.

[kavm]

Thank you very much, Marsman!

Unfortunately HDPP is only available at XL/XLT trims. So, the max we can do is Max Trailer Tow package. It is good for what we want to do but it only decreases the payload due to heavier axle! Ford does not seem in a hurry to increase the GVWR...

On the hitch - I am also planning Anderson ultimate. The company lists that as 35 lbs weight. But I am adding the weight of chains and rail fitment to the body of the truck to estimate the total ensemble weight of 110 lbs.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by marsman

Hello Kavm, one thing I forgot to mention is that our F150 came with an option called the Heavy payload package; don't really know what this is but what I can say for sure is that my friend who has the same model F150 but 1 up from mine in trim (I have the XLT Fully optioned out whereas he has the Lariat with no Payload Package) seems to ride lower and is definitely softer riding than mine. My truck seems to sit somewhat up on the back end and when I drop the 5.0TA onto it it levels out nicely.

From Ford 2015 F-150 brochure: Heavy-duty payload package (available on XL, XLT 300A/301A and LARIAT 500A; increases GVWR for improved payload and towing; restrictions apply) includes 17" Silver heavy-duty steel wheels with LT245/70R17E BSW all-terrain tires on XL, 18" Silver heavy-duty aluminum wheels with LT275/65R18C OWL all-terrain tires on XLT and LARIAT, upgraded springs, auxiliary transmission oil cooler, 9.75" gear set, and 3.73 electronic-locking rear axle

[kavm]

Thank you, rubicon327! Understood. However, for 2021 - the package is only available for XL, XLT, XLT-Mid trims. It is also only available with 3.5 EB and not the 3.5 PB (hybrid) engine that we are interested in due to the 7.2kW generator option.

https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/mod...ayload-package

There are trims/option combinations with higher payload than what I am trying to optimize on. But - the situation I described was reflective of the trim/option level / payload tradeoff that appeal to us.