Towing a Sunline Solaris 1998 T1950 with a 1995 Ford F250

[JaimsBeam]

I'm trying to figure out if I can tow my son-in-law's 1998 Sunline Solaris T-1950
with my 1995 Ford F250. As I understand it, the T-1950 has a dry weight of 3450 lbs, a loaded weight of 5000 lbs, and a hitch weight of 415 lbs.

My F250 is a 3/4 ton truck as I understand it, but it's only a six cylinder with
a standard tranmission.

My big questions are what kind of a hitch do I need? I assume the bumper
hitch won't cut it; will any frame mounted hitch do, or do I need anything
special, stablizers, sway bars etc?

The other thing is that my mechanic seems to think I need some kind of
special brake system added to my truck that costs a bunch of money. I
thought most of these trailers had a 'surge brake' on the trailer tongue that
put the brakes on if there was any pushing force on the hitch; or that the
trailer had a brake system that ran off the truck's brake lights.

Any advice? Anything else I need to worry about?

I'd like to take this trailer from ME down to the Outer Banks in NC in the
early spring...

Thanks, Jim.

[pwb01]

The best advice I can give you is to see a local camper dealer for advice. He can look up your towing capacity for you or you can check with a Ford dealer. There's no question that you will need to have a frame mounted receiver installed (if not already there), a hitch with equalizer bars, sway bar and a brake controller installed as well as lights. He can do it in a day but expect a bill for $500 or $600. A dealer would be able to make the proper adjustments for your trailer. Shop around a little if you have more than one dealer nearby.

You see surge brakes on some trailers under 2000#. The T-1950 is one of the smaller campers but big enough that you will need the full hookup.

[EMD_Driver]

According to the 1995 Ford Recreation Vechicle and Trailer Towing Guide, Your truck would only have come with 4.10 gears. The maximum combined weight of the camper and truck (Fully loaded with fuel, passengers, camping supplies, etc..) is 10,000lbs. The maximum loaded trailer weight is 5,200lbs. Those weights are for the manual transmission.

As far as the brake controller goes... Your truck may have come pre-wired for a brake controller. There would be a black or brown 4-pin plug, under the dash and right over the transmission hump. Unfortunately, the only brake controller connectors available for Fords today, are the newer 6-pin models. I was able to convert one of the newer 6-pin plugs, to fit in the 4-pin truck-side plug and it only took a Dremel tool, with a cut-off wheel. I moved one wire and it fit and works perfectly!

If your truck is pre-wired for it, all the wires you need to access from the cab are already there. It's a fairly easy install. If your truck does not have the factory 7-pin RV connector, there will be two unused plugs near the driver's side frame rail and where it meet the bumper bracket. You will have to cut those two plugs off and determine which wire is which. It's really not that hard to do.... Really. You would then wire each wire, to it's corresponding terminal on a new 7-way RV connector.

This is what I had to do, on my last three Ford pickups. I did it on a 1993 F250, a 1994 F350 and a 1997 F350 and they were all the same way.

Gary