F-150 Hitch Question

[2kwik4u]

......problem is we like to move around to different lakes and would not want to keep it so central to one lake.......

Wife and I are fighting this right now. Good friends and neighbors have a "campsite" just outside the state park at one lake, and are pushing hard for us to get one. We like the idea, but that lake is just OK, not super awesome. We like to roam a bit more than they do, and don't want to tie ourselves to just one lake.....but wow we really like our neighbhors and hanging out with them. It's about 50-60min from home, so if we wanted to go elsewhere, or work on the boat, or whatever, we would have to go retrieve it, and bring it back. Probably a 2.5-3hr ordeal overall. No really ideal for how we like to boat.

 

[haknslash]

Yea the servicing is the whole other thing or any time you wanted to work on the boat. Closest lake I would be somewhat ok being kind of locked to the lake is about an hour and a half away down at Lake Martin. The lake is beautiful, large, deep and has plenty to offer including restaurants and bars. BUT like you said any time I wanted to work on it I would have to set aside 3 hours minimum no matter how small the job I need to do. So yea I don't think we will ever commit like that unless we have a lake house of our own lol. We love the idea of being able to drive a little over an hour in any direction and visit a different lake during the summer weekends. Just changes things up a bit ya know. Next year I'm thinking of taking us up to Norris lake, TN for a weekend as it seems to get great reviews.

 

[MattFX4]

I hear ya on the 1/4 acre lots. I'm in a small garden home neighborhood with nazi HOA which says you can't have a trailer sitting in the driveway. Ironically a few houses down from me is a guy who runs a landscaping business and keeps his trailer full of equipment always connected to his truck so it leaves when the truck leaves. Guess that's one way around it lol. I'd love to build a trailer pad on the side of the house and extend my backyard wood fence around it. I could make it look nice but don't think my HOA would ever go for it lol.

I keep my boat at my parents house during the summer but they live 5 mins away. They might be moving again back down to the beach next year so if they do that means I'll need to find a storage facility near the house. They run $5 a foot in most places around here. What's kind of crazy is the closer I get to a lake the cheaper I can find storage but problem is we like to move around to different lakes and would not want to keep it so central to one lake. I'd love to do indoor storage near my house but the only place near by has pain in the ass time schedule to drop off the boat or leave it parked outside where anyone can access it while it waits until the next day and they will bring it inside. Don't really want to have to schedule my time on the water around a time I need to drop my boat off at storage so we will go with the most flexible and secure place if we can't use the parents house next year.

Good luck on your future purchase! Excited for you! Did you end up going SL?

Yeah, we’ve been in this house 2 years and I regret not getting something with bigger lot and more storage options. Problem is here it’s either an old house on a larger lot built in 1970’s needing a total Renovation, or a new house on a small piece of land. My wife wasn’t even remotely interested in an old house after seeing the new ones. I can’t blame her as it is where we spend our lives, but sucks what you have to give up to have the newer house.

There’s two main lakes local to me we spend most of our time. One is about 25 min, the other about an hour. We have some friends with a lake house on the one an hour away so hope to spend some weekends there. When wet slipped the Yamaha we never left that lake. It was too easy just to keep it there and never worry about trailering it out to different lakes.

yep, going for the ‘18 SL. It’s same price as the SA, but figured the SL is a newer model than the ‘16-‘19 SA. It also has a ton of storage with the sub floor ballast. Stereo sounds amazing, and boat is loaded. Only thing I wished it had was another pair of the JL 8.8 tower speakers. I guess that’s something I can add.

 

[haknslash]

I think you'll love the SL and made the better choice of the two IMO. As you said it just comes better suited especially with the subfloor allowing for more storage. The wave will be bonkers I'm sure!!! Need to ride it lol. I'm sure you'll have that SL modded to your liking before long and make it just how you want it. I don't have a bunch of big plans for the Max next year aside from add some RGB lighting, design and make some custom flag holders to go in where the surf rack clamps would normally bolt to the tower, get a few bags of lead wake and eventually add a custom enclosure/box for the backside of the WS free air sub and add some dynomat in the helm. After that the boat should be sorted to enjoy for quite a while. Really hope we can get together sometime next season and hang, swap wakes, etc.

Yea it's sort of the same here for houses but there is still plenty of land to buy if you wanted to build but problem is school systems if building outside city limits and such. Daughter is in a good school these days but if I could get my way I'd buy us a lake home, get my wife to quit her job at the law firm and home school. Then I could just focus on lake life 24/7 with a nice boat house and dump all my money into that until I die .

 

[MattFX4]

I think you'll love the SL and made the better choice of the two IMO. As you said it just comes better suited especially with the subfloor allowing for more storage. The wave will be bonkers I'm sure!!! Need to ride it lol. I'm sure you'll have that SL modded to your liking before long and make it just how you want it. I don't have a bunch of big plans for the Max next year aside from add some RGB lighting, design and make some custom flag holders to go in where the surf rack clamps would normally bolt to the tower, get a few bags of lead wake and eventually add a custom enclosure/box for the backside of the WS free air sub and add some dynomat in the helm. After that the boat should be sorted to enjoy for quite a while. Really hope we can get together sometime next season and hang, swap wakes, etc.

Yea it's sort of the same here for houses but there is still plenty of land to buy if you wanted to build but problem is school systems if building outside city limits and such. Daughter is in a good school these days but if I could get my way I'd buy us a lake home, get my wife to quit her job at the law firm and home school. Then I could just focus on lake life 24/7 with a nice boat house and dump all my money into that until I die .

I’m really excited about because I feel with this boat I could pick it up and be 100% happy with it from day 1 and never change anything. I don’t even want to think about what I spent on my stereo system on my 242. The Supra comes with JL 8.8’s in cabin, 7” in bow, two 10” subs, JL 8.8 towers etc. The cabin speakers are also built in pods and not free air mounted. It does have full LED package, but only blue. The ‘19s came with RGB which is sweet but big price jump between ‘18 and ‘19. The only things I see myself wanting is 500lbs lead, and another pair of tower speakers. That’s only if it needs it. Won’t know until real world experience. Those sound like solid upgrades to the Max. There’s still a chance I end up in a new moomba if this deal falls through. I had a really good experience with previous boat buying a 1-2 year old boat at a hefty discount so figured I would try to jump up to the next level at a discount. At the end of the day I just want to be on the lake and have a good time.

For sure. Would love to explore new lakes and areas. ESP since it’s really not that far.

 

[MattFX4]

My son wants to know if this is over capacity. We have a love hate relationship with Lego’s.

 

[Ratket]

Never really thought about towing restrictions and weight when I had my 242, but I am looking at wake boats and it got me thinking about my truck. My hitch has the tag below on it. The hitch is integrated in to the bumper so it can't be removed and replaced. Anyone else here with F-150's concerned with towing over 5,000lbs on their factory hitch? A loaded down 242 would exceed this. The wake boats I am looking at are 7,000lbs dry on the trailer. Will be 7,500lbs or more loaded down.

View attachment 109082

Do you have a receiver slot or just a ball in ur bumper?
That sticker looks like a “Ball in the bumper” scenario.

 

[Ratket]

Wake9 guys towed this monster around with a F150.
View attachment 109266

this truck has a receiver, as long as the hitch is rated for the appropriate weight and the truck is as well it will be fine. “ What I mean is it’s not a Class 5 hitch welded to a 1/2 ton thinking it’s going to tow 15k weight/ 2.7k ball weight and be ok. But a class 4 rated for 10k with a ball weight of 1500 or less would be fine. It would be on the bump stops but it could do it.

 

[MattFX4]

Do you have a receiver slot or just a ball in ur bumper?
That sticker looks like a “Ball in the bumper” scenario.

Receiver slot. It’s a factory hitch with 2” receiver. I’m sure it’s fine. From what I gather they don’t want more than 500 lbs on the tongue without a WD hitch. The hitch is rated to 10,500 with WD so I know it can handle the weight. Honestly I’m probably going to use it for a season to see how it performs, then see what my options are the following year.

 

[Ratket]

So 500 Max with no weight distro and 1000 with weight distro... “ Thanks Ford” ...

in my opinion it’s good for up to at least 800 pounds. It’s gonna squat, but it is what it is.

sounds like you got a plan in place.
Sounds like a good reason to sell the wife on a new hd with a 8 or 10 speed... Ram/or Ford... I prefer Ram lol.

 

[2kwik4u]

My son wants to know if this is over capacity. We have a love hate relationship with Lego’s.

Post of the year in the towing sub forum right here!

That wheelbase looks a little short on the tow vehicle. Might have some sway there. Did he check the payload of the truck against the pin weight on the 5th wheel? Make sure he included all minifig weights in the numbers too!



Merry Christmas!

 

[MattFX4]

Post of the year in the towing sub forum right here!

That wheelbase looks a little short on the tow vehicle. Might have some sway there. Did he check the payload of the truck against the pin weight on the 5th wheel? Make sure he included all minifig weights in the numbers too!



Merry Christmas!

Haha, no that was this last of his worries. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

[MattFX4]

So I’ve thought more about this, and decided to just roll with the factory hitch. The 500/5,000 rating is there because Ford doesn’t want more than 500 lbs tongue weight and 500 is 10% of 5,000. If the hitch can handle 10,500 with a WD hitch, then it’s strong enough to handle 8,000lbs of pull. I did upgrade my ball mount and ball though. I went with these. Probably way overkill, but I know it won’t fail barring some freak situation. My current ball mount and ball were rated at 6,000lbs. I feel much better about the new mount and ball.

 

[2kwik4u]

So I’ve thought more about this, and decided to just roll with the factory hitch. The 500/5,000 rating is there because Ford doesn’t want more than 500 lbs tongue weight and 500 is 10% of 5,000. If the hitch can handle 10,500 with a WD hitch, then it’s strong enough to handle 8,000lbs of pull. I did upgrade my ball mount and ball though.

You'll be purposefully overloading the hitch assembly. Tongue weight for an 8k trailer should be 560-800lbs (7-10%). That's between 12% and 60% overloaded. You're putting a lot of faith in the engineers safety factor calculations.

Probably way overkill, but I know it won’t fail barring some freak situation.

Like a purposefully overloaded hitch, and a panic stop?

Not trying to be a dick here, but it appears like you're taking a shortcut, and I'm really unsure why. @haknslash has a proven solution that works. It's neither cost nor time prohibitive. Do you really want to roll the dice with your new boat that you spent thousands of dollars on, and your family in the truck with you, to save a couple hundred bucks and a Saturday afternoon?

 

[MattFX4]

You'll be purposefully overloading the hitch assembly. Tongue weight for an 8k trailer should be 560-800lbs (7-10%). That's between 12% and 60% overloaded. You're putting a lot of faith in the engineers safety factor calculations.



Like a purposefully overloaded hitch, and a panic stop?

Not trying to be a dick here, but it appears like you're taking a shortcut, and I'm really unsure why. @haknslash has a proven solution that works. It's neither cost nor time prohibitive. Do you really want to roll the dice with your new boat that you spent thousands of dollars on, and your family in the truck with you, to save a couple hundred bucks and a Saturday afternoon?

I understand, and not trying to be completely reckless either. More than likely I will go the same route as @haknslash before this summer, but for picking the boat up here in a few weeks I’m going to use factory hitch. I don’t know what the trailer is currently set up at, but everything I’ve seen recommends 5-7% tongue weight for boats. Using that, being under 500 lbs is doable. I’m just trying to point out if it can handle over 10k lbs with a WD hitch I don’t think 8k lbs is going to rip the hitch from the frame. Ideally a heavier duty truck is what I want, but that’s not happening for a few years.

 

[haknslash]

The trailer will be setup at 10% as that is what Boatmate builds them to. The trailer pulls much better than my Shorelandr did albeit it's twin axle vs single but still...it pulls nice and smooth. You'll be fine picking it up but I'd upgrade the hitch eventually if towing a lot.

 

[haknslash]

Also regarding the WDH, Boatmate does not recommend using them on their trailers due to the surge brake system. I know they make WDH for surge brakes but I'd follow the recommendations of the trailer mfg.

 

[MattFX4]

Also regarding the WDH, Boatmate does not recommend using them on their trailers due to the surge brake system. I know they make WDH for surge brakes but I'd follow the recommendations of the trailer mfg.

View attachment 110167

I agree