Put the raptor to the test.

Back in the beginning of November, I put the raptor to test. I moved from Va to Ca. Towing my new to me 7x18x 7 foot tall enclosed trailer. While I did not weigh the trailer I'm sure I was close to its 7gvw. Set up with a 10k equalizer weight distributing hitch. I traveled south to see a friend in Gerogia, and then west threw Dallas, and on to San Diego. I kept my speed around 65mph. The truck got 9.3 mpg and handled everthing great. I did get pushed around a little if a big truck past me, but for the most part it was a an easy drive.

Eating at Jack's though is going to make you stop more frequently.....

EdgeR6 said:

Back in the beginning of November, I put the raptor to test. I moved from Va to Ca. Towing my new to me 7x18x 7 foot tall enclosed trailer. While I did not weigh the trailer I'm sure I was close to its 7gvw. Set up with a 10k equalizer weight distributing hitch. I traveled south to see a friend in Gerogia, and then west threw Dallas, and on to San Diego. I kept my speed around 65mph. The truck got 9.3 mpg and handled everthing great. I did get pushed around a little if a big truck past me, but for the most part it was a an easy drive.

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Sounds like it was a great trip. Is that a the penthouse behind you in the first image?

That was an RV, of course they pulled up after I got there. This was the section of the highway where they don't have rest stops just these pulls offs with no services. The pictures don't really show the size and height of my trailer. The trailer is a 2001 and I picked up for 2800, but it need 4 new tires. I didn't stop at jack in the box until the trip was almost over, I do pretty well with Jack in the Box. I barely ate any food on the trip. I was going to get the mirrors that you clip on but didn't really need them. And I think the ford tow mirrors look horrible on our trucks. I put the tow mirrors on my 11 f150 and really didn't like them function or look.

Did you watch the transmission temps during the trip?

Curious how high they could get when carrying that type of load.

I kept an eye on everything, and everything stayed in normal range. However the temperature outside was no higher then 80 degrees. I also kept the speed at about 65 mph.

Did you ever hit the bump stops in the back? Looks like it sagged at least a couple inches with the load. Glad to hear it performed like a champ!

7x16 tandem axled enclosed normally list a shipping weight (empty weight) on their Manufacturers Origination Sheets at ~2,200 lbs with a GVWR of 7,000 lbs (based off of 2 3,500 lb axles) which gives you a payload capacity of 4,800 lbs (GVWR - Shipping Weight = Payload Capacity). Yours looks like an older Wells Cargo by the front end and falls into all of the above. I say all that so you can kind of estimate how much you had in it (full, half full, lite stuff, heavy stuff) and guesstimate how close to 7K you were. Never know, you may have been overloaded and your beast just muscled it the shit out of it.

Trailer is a 2001 tnt ignitor 7x18 v nose, it's also tall a 7 feet. 3500 pound axles. Really surprised that with the way the trailer was built that it doesn't have the heavy duty axles. I don't think I was over weight but pretty sure I was close to trailer max. she was pretty full, with all my tools, street bike, dirt bike, motorcycle lift, 60 gallon air compressor. Plus house hold stuff clothes, and kitchen stuff. No furniture except matterss. Washer and dryer. I watched my tire wear on both truck and trailer and it all appeared normal. Obviously our tucks can pull just about any amount weight, our weak point for towing is the suspension. I went threw the city of shiverport (sp?) and the road was pretty bad, however I don't remember hitting the the bump stops. The truck also handled everthing very well, steering was not light and driving down the highway way was not nerve racking, braking was also fine.