Truck advice needed for 5.0 Single Axle

Jim & Debbie

Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2023
Messages
10
Location
Hampton
We recently purchased a 2009 Escape 5.0 Single Axle trailer. We loved the layout and build quality (first time we ever saw inside an Escape). We don’t have a truck to tow it with, but the sweet couple we bought it from graciously agreed to deliver it to our house about 1.5 hours away. We figured it was a lot harder to find an Escape near us (Virginia) than to find a suitable truck. We have a Reese Pro Series 15000 hitch with universal rails that mount in the bed.

As we started researching suitable trucks, we discovered that most of the newer 1/2 ton trucks have bed rails that are > 55” high from the ground. Our single axle 5.0 has the frame under the loft area that is 56” above ground, so this doesn’t allow sufficient clearance above the bed rails (I read that 6” is ideal). The previous owner as well as original owner towed the 5.0 with a Nissan Frontier (46” bed rails for the 2017 that the previous owner has). With the pin box set at 45” above ground, they had a good 7” of clearance above their bed rails.

We started looking at Frontiers with 4.0/3.8L V6. We would need the Crew Cab to take grandkids along with us sometimes. Would also want the 6’ bed to provide maximum clearance to cab. Not many of these around. The payload was only 1360 lbs for 2WD or 1220 lbs for 4WD. I could see us approaching or exceeding that fairly easily. The other issue is that this truck is not rated for 5th wheel towing, so there is no custom frame mounting brackets for the in-bed universal rails. I was having a hard time finding a trailer shop that would install a fifth wheel hitch even though I told them my trailer was < 3000 lbs. (probably for liability reasons, which I can understand).

We started visiting used car lots to measure older trucks.

My dad has a 2002 Tundra access cab 2WD with 50” bed rails. That seems like a good fit, so 2000-2006 Tundra could work, but these trucks are almost 20 years old. I don’t know what the payload is on his truck since it doesn’t have a yellow sticker.

We saw a 2001 Chevy Silverado access cab 2WD with 49” high bed rails. So 2000-2006 GM trucks would probably be a good fit. Same concerns as Tundra with age and payload.


We recently found a 2017 Ford F-150 XL 3.5L natural aspirated 6-speed AT 2WD SuperCab 6.5’ bed with only 16K miles. The Carfax showed it was a local dealer truck. This truck has the Tow Package with 7300 lb 5th wheel tow rating and 1580 lb payload (6100 lb GVWR). This includes 3.73 rear e-locking axle, integrated brake controller, hitch and 7 pin connector, backup camera. I can buy a universal rail installation kit for F-150 that bolts to existing holes in frame (actually all I need is the under bed mounting brackets since I already have the above bed rails, but I can’t find just the brackets yet). This truck has 53” bed rail height.

In my scouring the forum, I found a post from aldertree2 on 10/26/2012 in which he contacted Escape to ask about tow vehicle dimensions for the 5.0 SA. They said minimum 29” from cab to axle and 54” maximum bed rail height above ground (or 56” with lift kit spacers). My 2009 5.0 has a square tube welded to a gusset that raises the frame 2” above the axle. I don’t know if I could add the Dexter 2-5/8” channel with stiffeners to raise it further if needed, but I think it would look funny.

I think the F-150 non-turbo 3.5 V6 would be fine for towing the 5.0 SA. However, I am trying to plan ahead in case we decide to upgrade to a 5.0 TA with 1000 lb extra weight.

We are leaning toward buying the F-150 since it already has the tow package and payload is adequate for what we need and I could install the hitch myself with the custom brackets. I know many people tow with F-150 Ecoboosts, but I haven’t seen much experience with 3.5 non turbo trucks. One thing that is not great is this truck is not as comfortable a daily driver as our Odyssey. It is 232” long, so would not be nearly as nimble getting around town. I’ll ask my wife her thoughts about this if we test drive it.

Any advice regarding any of the options above would be much appreciated. We’ve never towed a fifth wheel or anything larger than our popup. From reading the experiences of many forum members, it sounds like fifth wheel will be a very comfortable easy tow.

Thanks,
Jim & Debbie
 
Congratulations on the new-to-you Escape! (y) :)

My 2009 5.0 has a square tube welded to a gusset that raises the frame 2” above the axle. I don’t know if I could add the Dexter 2-5/8” channel with stiffeners to raise it further if needed, but I think it would look funny.
Just FYI, the later 5.0TA all also have that square tube between the main frame rails and the Dexter torsion axle mounts. The optional Dexter lift kit installation is unrelated / in addition to that tube, so likely could be a method to gain more clearance for your 5.0SA and perhaps increase the number of tow-vehicle candidates if desired ('funny looking' notwithstanding :cautious: ;)).

Good luck with your tow-vehicle search, and Happy Camping! :)
 
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My dad has a 2002 Tundra access cab 2WD with 50” bed rails. That seems like a good fit, so 2000-2006 Tundra could work, but these trucks are almost 20 years old. I don’t know what the payload is on his truck since it doesn’t have a yellow sticker.
Re: the 2000-2006 Tundra- my brother has a 2006 Tundra and looked into adding a fifth wheel hitch. His Owner's Manual told him it is not recommended.

...One thing that is not great is this truck is not as comfortable a daily driver as our Odyssey. It is 232” long, so would not be nearly as nimble getting around town. I’ll ask my wife her thoughts about this if we test drive it.


Any advice regarding any of the options above would be much appreciated. We’ve never towed a fifth wheel or anything larger than our popup. From reading the experiences of many forum members, it sounds like fifth wheel will be a very comfortable easy tow.

Thanks,
Jim & Debbie
Re: daily driver- although my 2013 Tundra is my daily driver and I'm completely comfortable with it my wife doesn't like to drive it around town and so retains her little car instead. She was fine driving our Tacoma when we owned one. We yearn for a mid-size truck capable of towing our 5.0TA so we can downsize to one vehicle but until one comes out we'll be keeping two.
 
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We are leaning toward buying the F-150 since it already has the tow package and payload is adequate for what we need and I could install the hitch myself with the custom brackets. I know many people tow with F-150 Ecoboosts, but I haven’t seen much experience with 3.5 non turbo trucks. One thing that is not great is this truck is not as comfortable a daily driver as our Odyssey. It is 232” long, so would not be nearly as nimble getting around town. I’ll ask my wife her thoughts about this if we test drive it.
I feel your pain. I am a huge fan of the Nissan Frontier. We used a 2016 to pull and Rpod for over 50K trouble free miles and purchased a used 2019 with a 6' bed and crew cab to pull our 5.0TA. That plan was quickly derailed when I could not get a 5th wheel hitch installed. So we purchased a Ford F150 3.5 EcoBoost with a crew can and 6.5' bed. The F150 is a complete pain to drive around town where the Frontier was nimble enough to squirt through traffic and fit in the typical parking space. All of that said, The F150 is superbly comfortable on the highway while pulling the 5.0TA. Plenty of power and payload and it get's better mileage than the Frontier while towing. Good luck on your quest.
 
I wouldn't worry about an older Tundra from an reliability perspective if you could find one in great shape. It would be more than capable for the single axle 5.0. The earlier 2000 and 2002 4.7L engine were built in Japan, 2003 on the 4.7 was built in a plant in Alabama. I think they are all good engines however all the 4.7s through 2006 have a timing belt that need replacing every 90K which is a $2,000 job. 2007 on it has a timing chain which lasts the lifetime of the engine. There are several articles about this 2007 Tundra with 1,000,000 miles on it's 4.7L https://www.motortrend.com/features/million-mile-tundra-the-tear-down/#google_vignette
I don't believe there is any difference in reliability with the timing belt as long as you change it every 90-100K.

We used to tow our 2018 5.0 TA with a 2002 tundra and it was a great truck. I found it to be a bit under powered for our 5.0 but we live at 8,700 elevation and tow in the mountains. There was no specific rail kit for our truck, I had to use a universal kit that required drilling and bolting to the frame.
 
My two cents worth. The Ford F150 (or any full size pickup) pulls the TA with ease and so I would imagine would do even better with the SA. One suggestion I would make if you're worried about GVWR on the vehicle is to sell your Reese hitch and purchase an Anderson Ultimate hitch which will shave over 100 lbs of weight out of your truck bed.
 
We first towed our single axle 5.0 with a 2010 F150 2wd which worked fine. If you could find something of that vintage in 2wd that would certainly work. We switched to a 2015 4wd and had no height problems with it but had the raised axle on the trailer.
 
My two cents worth. The Ford F150 (or any full size pickup) pulls the TA with ease and so I would imagine would do even better with the SA. One suggestion I would make if you're worried about GVWR on the vehicle is to sell your Reese hitch and purchase an Anderson Ultimate hitch which will shave over 100 lbs of weight out of your truck bed.
I agree. I switched to an Anderson hitch last year for that exact reason- weight saving. Although fully capable of towing our 5.0TA with ease, the configuration of my Tundra results in it being payload-challenged. 100 lbs less weight in the box helps me stay within it's payload rating.
 
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! After taking a break for Christmas and family vacation, we continued our truck search.

Update on 2017 F-150 XL:
We test drove the F-150 and liked it.

We put the hitch in the bed with spacers to locate it per the Reese installation instructions (28-3/4” from lip of truck bed to back rail). The 5.0 SA has an Atwood AB-34 pinbox that is adjustable from 41”-47” height. There are 8 bolts/nuts that allow the internal hitch plate portion to slide up/down the external part that is welded to the frame. Each adjustment increment moves the pinbox down 2” and forward 3”. I slid the pinbox out one hole from where it was so that the hitch plate portion was 13” below the frame under the loft and 43” above ground with trailer level. This allows about 3” clearance between the 21.5” tall tailgate and frame with the tailgate down.

The Reese hitch plate has four adjustment heights from 13-5/8 to 17-3/4. I set it to 16-1/2” above the bed and hitched up the trailer. With the empty trailer pinweight only (listed as 480 lbs) supported by the truck, it dropped about 1-1/2”, but the bed rail to frame clearance was at least 6”. This resulted in the trailer being a little “nose up” (about 3/8” over 2’ level). My yard is not level and the ground is kinda soft, so this is bit difficult to trial fit.

If I lowered the Reese hitch plate down to 15” above the bed, my “theoretical” clearance between bed rails and frame would be (15” hitch height + 13” pinbox hitch plate to frame - 21.5” box height = 6.5”). If I lowered it to the 13-1/2” height, I could still have 5” clearance. So I think there is sufficient adjustment range with the Reese hitch and F-150 with 53” bed rails to make it work. I’d need to take the trailer to a level hard surface to figure out the best hitch adjustment height.

Unfortunately, the truck had an electrical problem that killed the battery (new battery was installed in Oct) that the dealer couldn’t duplicate/diagnose. So we continued our search.


The "Solution" we found:
We found a well cared for 2016 F-150 XL 2.7 Ecoboost RWD Supercab with 6-1/2’ bed locally on Craigslist. We looked at it today and talked with the original owner and it seems perfect for our purposes. It has the towing package with 1764 lb payload capacity, integrated trailer brake controller, and 8000 lb tow rating. We gave a deposit and will pick up the truck Monday. It was surprising to me that this little engine had such a high tow rating, so it should be fine if we do decide to upgrade to a 5.0 TA at some point. I will say it was quite challenging to find a RWD 6-1/2' bed. Vast majority of the trucks I found were 4x4 Crew Cabs with 5.5' bed. So we felt very blessed to find a perfect match locally.

So, our plan for now is to start with the Reese hitch. I like the simplicity of being able to just back into the kingpin and not worry about safety chains. I can manage taking the hitch out for storage for a while if needed. I did research the Andersen Ultimate hitch and appreciate the recommendation. If we decide at some point to change to the AU, we will already have the hitch rails installed so it should be a fairly easy change to make.

Thanks again to all for your suggestions and shared wisdom. Hope I can pass along my experience as we get going camping!
 
Congratulations. That’s going to be a great tow vehicle. You’ll like the added volume of the 6.5’ bed and the 2.7 EB motor will pull the Escape effortlessly. Happy travels and be safe.
 
We had a 2015 Supercab 2.7EB with our single axle 5.0 and got our 5.0TA in 2018 and it was no problem switching and you'll find the 2.7 has plenty of power. Our B&W hitch has been used in three trucks now. We've traveled with one or the other trailer from NW BC (near Alaska) to FL, from ME to AZ and will get to CA this year.

Enjoy your 2009. We loved our 2007 and only moved to TA when we thought we needed a little extra room.
 
I will say it was quite challenging to find a RWD 6-1/2' bed. Vast majority of the trucks I found were 4x4 Crew Cabs with 5.5' bed. So we felt very blessed to find a perfect match locally.
I think that's pretty much the case, even on a Ford lot. We had acres of 4x4s with Crew Cab but not one 4x2 SuperCab with a 2.7. Had to order it.

The 2.7 tows our 21C like there's no tomorrow. That, with the 10 speed, is amazing. Don't know what folks with the 3.5 do with all that extra power. :)

Ron
 
That, with the 10 speed, is amazing.
Just FYI, the 2016 F150 the OP found has a 6-speed transmission (ZF sourced, with a pretty good reputation I might add). Still, that truck should prove to be a strong performer with their 5.0.

I own two F150 SuperCabs with 6.5' boxes (2005 2WD & 2021 4WD) so my bias in favor of that configuration should be obvious. ;) (y)
 
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Thanks for the feedback guys.

My initial reservation with Ecoboost was a paradigm of "turbo = complexity = expensive to maintain". After reading up on it, it seems the 2.7 EB is pretty reliable and robust engine. I figured the 6-speed AT has been in service for many years with all range of engines and has proven itself. I did read that the 10-speed worked great for towing by having an appropriate gear to be in regardless of conditions. This is the first Ford we have owned so hoping for many years of dependable service. Sounds like there are many owners here who have F-150s. We always had a great run with our Honda Odysseys, but we are really looking forward to putting the truck and 5.0 to use.
 
That sounds like an excellent rig. Good find.

Certainly if you already had the traditional hitch and have enough payload for it you may as well stick with it. I had no issues with our Reece hitch whatsoever and would not have switched to an Anderson if I didn't have to watch the payload. That truck and hitch should be just fine if you decide to switch to a 5.0TA as well.

Enjoy.
 

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