4.6L DC towing a travel trailer

Hey folks. i have the opportunity to buy a travel trailer at a good price. ive seen a lot of folk talk about towing a 5k trailer with the 4.6 and that basically being right on the edge.

This trailer is a 2004 palomino hybrid 22ft. first glance said dry weight (uvw) was 4106lbs. so i figure, ok. higher than ideal, but doable. but then the gvwr is 7500 lbs. which seems super extreme. after adding about 350lbs of water and propane, it still has 3k of carrying capacity? is there any way i'd actually haul that much?

looking at my truck manual it says i have 7900lbs of trailer weight rating(TWR). so i suppose technically id be legal if i had the trailer maxed out, but im not trying to be at the edge of what i can do.

im mostly hauling from SE pennsylvania to north central PA. no rocky mountain type long mountain passes, but quite a bit of quick but steep incline/declines.

IDK. ive seen people say 5k is fine, but ive never seen a trailer that light empty with 7500 gvw. not sure if my truck can still handle that.

 

I'd have no problem doing it.

Just stay in 4th gear and enjoy the drive.

 

Same. My buddy had a 4.6 tundra that he used to pull similar sized trailers right up to that max 7900 lbs. Never an issue, even being in Rocky mountain pass type situations. He did use 4th gear a lot. His camp trailer was about 5500 lbs dry and a 24 footer.

 

I agree, that's a CRAZY amount of cargo capacity, are we sure about those numbers?

For comparison, my Lance has a fairly close dry weight (3,800 lbs.) and has storage out the wazoo, and the GVWR is only 5,500 lbs.

Unless you're hauling gold bars, I don't know where you'd put 3,000 lbs. of stuff in a trailer that size!

I towed my Lance 1685 for 6 years with my 4.7L 1st gen, and it performed adequately. Had to take some of the grades a little slow, but much of that was gearing related. (Screaming in 2nd, but can't quite hold 3rd.)
I just slowed down, drove more by the tach than the speedo, she did fine.

Your 4.6 has better HP & TQ numbers than my 4.7 did, so I think you'd be okay if you go easy on those gold bars, and don't get up near that 7,500 lbs.

 

i know right?! they sent me the sticker, and i even checked the brochure to confirm

https://recreationalvehicles.info/2004-palomino-ultra-lite-travel-trailers-fifth-wheels/
https://recreationalvehicles.info/2...-trailers-fifth-wheels-brochure-page-002.webp

from everything i can tell it is the sd246. all of that length trailers have the 7500 gvw.

so who knows, but it sounds like id never get close to that gvrw. so i think ill go take a look at the trailer tonight and see if its in decent shape. people love omitting the fact that they diy'd a roof seal and they are only selling it because its leaking!

thanks all!

 

Looks like a cool trailer! I hope you find it to be in good shape.

Something else to keep in mind, if you do start approaching that 7,500 lb. GVWR, your tongue weight will probably be well over 900 lbs. Our Tundras typically run out of payload before towing power.