Ford Receiver Upgrade

**JohnB** · 01-27-2008, 09:16 PM

Fellow Campers

In case you are upgrading your Ford receiver for more tongue weight rating, here are some pic’s and things I ran into. On my new T310R which is a 10,000# GVWR, 32 foot camper, the rear living area floor plan loads tongue heavy as there is not much aft of the TT axles to offset it. And as such when I fully load the camper I can trip the stock Ford receiver rating. So I went the Reese Towbeast 2 1/2” receiver route.

Here is the Ford stock receiver. It is a very good receiver. I had no issues setting up WD with it, just it stops at a 1,250# WD rating. And I only used it up to that rating. It is also a 2” receiver.

This same rating is on the 2005 Excursions, the F250 and the SRW F350. The DRW F350 has a 2 1/2” 1,500# rated receiver and the F450 has a 2 1/2” 1,600# WD rated receiver.

And here is the Reese Towbeast replacing it.

Here are the rating stickers:
The F350 SRW stock one:

And the Reese Towbeast

Now a few things that came up. First was getting the Ford one off. They used blue removable Lock-tite on the bolts and they fought me to the last thread. All 8 of them. Good thing I have a 3/4” drive socket set. My 1/2 impact would not even touch it.

Here are the 2 side by side.

Next was a surprise. Ford uses 18mm bolts and Reese uses 1/2”. I was not keen on pulling on a 1/2” bolt in a 3/4” hole. And since the frame is riveted there is a clearance hole in the receiver to miss the rivet head. This would mean that the 1/2” bolt would be dead centered in the 3/4" hole. So I opened up the front 4 holes to reuse the Ford 18mm bolts. I would of done the rear ones too but they where slotted.

Here is the drilling and the mount under the truck.

Next was time to hitch up and reset the WD along with the 1,700# WD bars. The new 2 1/2” shank and the receiver height where slightly different so a total WD redo was in order. The receiver worked well in the WD setup. I could tweak the head tilt and the truck would respond no questions asked.

Here is a top shot of how Reese mates the 2 1/2" shank into the 2” 1,700# WD rated HP hitch head.

And now to my last little issue. The safety chains hooks. I wish all the receiver manufactures would make a standard chain hole. These hooks worked fine on my Putnam receiver I had on my older 2500 Suburban but on the Ford receiver the tow hooks had to come in from the side and would not hang right. Since I knew I was eventually going to change receivers, I left them that way until I upgraded. Well now I have a new issue. The safety clasps won’t fit. So I need to go to the next size up hook to get the claps to work. Oh well.

The truck and trailer handle great so having to get 2 new tow hooks is not that bad in the big picture of things. And now I can continue loading the front bed room and front cargo hole in the camper as the tongue weight will go up. Then I can readjust the WD one more time. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this coming weekend and we can go camping. YEH!

Hope this helps someone else doing an upgrade on what to look for.

Happy Camping

John

Steve Collins · 01-28-2008, 12:40 PM

John,

Great upgrade, and nicely documented!

Did you use your old hitch head from your previous setup or did you purchase a new one to go with the 2 1/2" shank for the Tow Beast?

I ask because I can't find any specific breakdowns on the Reese website for the hitch heads, and it appears to me that they use the same head for all the different packages, and the weight ratings are based on the shank, ball, and trunnion bars, not the hitch head (ball platform).

Your upgrade prompted me to check out all of the ratings on my tow system, just to be sure I am in good shape. Interestingly, the factory receiver on the Ram 3500 is only rated at 10K max. trailer weight and 1K max. tongue weight for weight distributing. For weight carrying, it's rated the same as your old Ford hitch: 5K/500. That's a bit of a disappointment given the capacities of the truck.

My shank is rated at 12K/1200 for WD and, interestingly, the same for weight carrying.

So, the last item to check is the hitch head itself. Any info you've got to offer is gratefully accepted.

Given the fact that I am towing (WD always!) a 5,500# GVWR trailer with a tongue weight under between 625# and 800# (depending on loading), I think I am going to be OK, regardless, but I'd sure like to have some real numbers.

**PTHutch** · 01-28-2008, 01:26 PM

Hey John,

Nice job, thanks for sharing and the pictures.

I had a similar issue with the safety chains hooks, here’s what my solution was to it. See how the locking pin didn't give much room for the safety chain hooks.

With chain hook attached - it's made it very easy to attach and remove the safety chains.

Hutch

**JohnB** · 01-29-2008, 09:43 PM

Steve

See this link.

http://www.etrailer.com/pc-WDSP~58167.htm

The Reese HP hitch head, PN 58167 is rated up to 1,700#. It accepts , 600, 800, 1200 and 1,700# trunnion style WD bars. And I have a sticker on my new one that shows this.

If that is the one you have, then you are good. Reese made a number of heads over the years. I only know that one to be 1,700# rated. The older ones may not have.

I did buy a new head for the Tow beast setup, not because of rating, but so I can use the other head on the smaller trailer and have the WD setup right.

The 2 1 /2” Reese shank tapers to 2” to go into the hitch head. It is unique to Reese. It is the only shank I have ever found rated to 1,700# to fit that 2” hitch head.

Your receiver ratings as 1,000# on a 1 ton truck. Yup for sure a problem for us TT towers. All of the big 3 do this in one form or another. They all preach good tongue weight, 10 to 15%. Yet they do not give you the WD receiver rating to ever use 15% at the full truck pulling capacity. Why? Good question.

The way your receiver is setup on your 1 ton dually, you can not hold up any more tongue weight per the sticker ratings then a 1/2 ton Tahoe or Suburban SUV. Something is a miss on this one. Thus the reason I had to upgrade.

Hope this helps

John

**JohnB** · 01-29-2008, 09:47 PM

Hutch

Thanks for the pics.

I will look at something like that or similar if I can find the parts rated high enough. That would help as I have an issue getting the hooks on by the 7 wire plug.

The heaviest 5/16 or 3/8 quick link I have found is only rated to 5,000#. I would need ones rated to 10,000# to meet the safety chain towing requirements that each chain can handle the full GVWR of the camper.

Where you able to find ones rated at 10K

Thanks

John

Steve Collins · 01-29-2008, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

The Reese HP hitch head, PN 58167 is rated up to 1,700#. It accepts , 600, 800, 1200 and 1,700# trunnion style WD bars. And I have a sticker on my new one that shows this.

If that is the one you have, then you are good. Reese made a number of heads over the years. I only know that one to be 1,700# rated. The older ones may not have.

John, I bought the head I have now back in '99 when we bought the trailer. If memory serves, it can handle the 1,200# trunnion bars, so that's probably about its max. rating. Matches the shank I have, so I guess I am OK for now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

I did buy a new head for the Tow beast setup, not because of rating, but so I can use the other head on the smaller trailer and have the WD setup right.

The 2 1 /2” Reese shank tapers to 2” to go into the hitch head. It is unique to Reese. It is the only shank I have ever found rated to 1,700# to fit that 2” hitch head.

I'll probably do the same if we upgrade to a larger TT. If we go 5th wheel, it won't be an issue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

Your receiver ratings as 1,000# on a 1 ton truck. Yup for sure a problem for us TT towers. All of the big 3 do this in one form or another. They all preach good tongue weight, 10 to 15%. Yet they do not give you the WD receiver rating to ever use 15% at the full truck pulling capacity. Why? Good question.

The way your receiver is setup on your 1 ton dually, you can not hold up any more tongue weight per the sticker ratings then a 1/2 ton Tahoe or Suburban SUV. Something is amiss on this one. Thus the reason I had to upgrade.

I suspect that Dodge (and Ford and Chevy) really expect that you'll go fifth wheel or goose neck to take full advantage of the truck's capabilities. But that sure leaves folks with the heavier TT's in the lurch.

Interesting that the shanks and hitch heads are more capable than most receivers.

I also noticed that the prices are through the roof. Receivers are more than double what I paid in '99. Same for shanks and all the rest of the pieces.

I will have to think on this if we look at a bigger TT. As long as we keep the T-2453, we're good.

Thanks for the feedback.

**PTHutch** · 01-30-2008, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

Where you able to find ones rated at 10K

Hi John,

I never thought of checking the rating of the quick links.

I’m sure they’re not rated for 10,000 lbs, probably not even rated for 5,000 lbs. I just picked up a set from the local hardware store (i.e., Home Depot).

You bring up a good point, next time I'm at the hardware store, I'll have to check to see what they're rated for.

However, I’ve always wondered about the “safety” factor of the chains. If traveling and a 8,000 lb trailer comes loose from the hitch and it's being held to the tow vehicle by only the chains, will the chains create a safe environment or will they cause a more dangerous situation, possibly causing the tow vehicle to flip?
Then again, will the part of the receive where the chains hook-up hold up to the type of forces that would be created?
This sounds like it has the making for a fire side discussion

I’ve known people who never hook-up their chains for that reason. I even know of a person who successfully argued his way out of a ticket stating that NYS law only required safety chains, which he had on his trailer, but it did not require them to be hooked-up to the tow vehicle. This was 30+ years ago, so NYS Law may have changed since then wrt safety chains.

Hutch

Steve Collins · 01-30-2008, 10:08 AM

Tom and John:

Here are the best load limit ratings I could find for the quick links that Tom is using:

WORK LOAD LIMIT #:
1/8`` = 220
3/16``= 615
1/4`` = 880
5/16`` = 1,760
3/8`` = 2.200
1/2`` = 3,300

I have a pair of 1/4" links that I use to extend the safety chains on our boat trailer, and they are stamped 880# load limit.

There's another possibility:

which can be found at: http://www.rei.com/product/682510

This particular carabiner is only $8.50 each and is rated at 22 kilonewtons (or 4900# for us non-techie types).

The locking carabiners are a lot stronger:

and can be found at: http://www.rei.com/product/737853
This particular one is $22.95 each and has a strength rating of 72 kilonewtons (that's 16,128#!!!!) Guess that might do the job.

**PTHutch** · 01-30-2008, 11:41 AM

Steve,

Thanks for taking the time to research this and posting the information.

Hutch