F-250 towing capacity

Jay, It would be a brave engineer who would certify a late model vehicle to have its tow rating and ballweight increased by some 29% up from the factory rating ........ Wow !!!! I am certainly no engineer but some areas for attention would be .... Engineering and fabricating a towbar to suit 450kg ballweight 4500kg tow and fitting the F250 chassis. Is the chassis of the F250 where this would be attached be capable of the increased forces that the 450kg/4500kg would bring. It might need strengthening in this area ....engineer again ! I would be using the F350 as a base for this for a start as the payload is 1981kg for an F350 as against 1026kg for the F250. The F350 has the springing to handle the 1981kg payload and I believe would be better handling the increased ballweight with say 1300kg of load in the vehicle. The other area might be braking .... the Gross Vehicle Mass for the F250 is 4173kg so combined with the 3500kg tow rating gives a Gross Combined Mass of 7673kg for the van and vehicle .... (the GCM on Ford Brochure is 7323kg ..go figure). You are now looking to increase the GCM from 7673kg to 8673kg an increase of 13 %. The extra braking required would be borne by the van but the engineer might want the braking increased on the vehicle. This is neigh on impossible to get certified in a modern ABS equipped braking system ...needs another brave engineer. Let us know if it can be done thats for sure !!! I did hear a rumour that Ford were increasing the tow rating of the F-truck range but I dont think anything has eventuated .... Regards Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ...Tow a Bushtracker

BT Steve wrote me that some BT owner - not necessarily a Bogger - was working on this issue. Anyone know whom? tgintl

Ye Gods! How long before somebody imports a US Army surplus tank-recovery vehicle to tow his 35-foot BT? BT road trains, here we come...(wink)

If you really want a vehicle that will tow up to 4.5 tonne then do as Conrad has done and import a Dodge RAM, have it converted and you have an excellent tow vehicle for up to 4.5 tonne. Apparently the same F250's in USA have a similar tow rating to the Dodge RAM, but in OZ Ford have down rated them to 3.5. Brian.

Most interested to learn the outcome of this. One further point is that the GVM is also governed by the mass the vehicle can accelerate from rest up a specific gradient. This may not be an issue with the grunt those things have got - but could be for the transmission. Collyn

Dear tgintl Have you thought of asking BT to produce your van as a "Fith Wheeler", this would overcome the weight hitch problem, failing that carry 200to 300lts of water in the back of the Ford, we do. Roger & Cherryle

Tgintl Prior to buying my F250 I read an article on Ford undergoing testing on a new 4400kg tow rated tow bar. My local Ford dealer at the time of ordering informed me that they expected this to be approve sometime early 2004 for use on F250, dont know if this helps but I would try Ford and see if there is any updated info on this. Rod