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Old 12-01-2022, 11:12 AM   #1
Golf travel
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Powerboost vs 3/4 ton

I am currently interested in the cougar 25rds. I currently own a f150 xlt powerboost with over 1700lbs of payload. With the hitch weight being 800lbs and a small crew I’m confident in the trucks towing ability. I Will be doing long rv trips with my girl friend and dog coming up. So my question is does the towing of a 3/4 ton outweigh the creature comforts of truck with a generator for quiet hours and other emergencies? Being able to run ac and no generator noise = happy girlfriend. But I personally know everyone is going to recommend a 3/4 ton because yanking the trailer around will be nice.
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Old 12-01-2022, 11:38 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by Golf travel View Post
I am currently interested in the cougar 25rds. I currently own a f150 xlt powerboost with over 1700lbs of payload. With the hitch weight being 800lbs and a small crew I’m confident in the trucks towing ability. I Will be doing long rv trips with my girl friend and dog coming up. So my question is does the towing of a 3/4 ton outweigh the creature comforts of truck with a generator for quiet hours and other emergencies? Being able to run ac and no generator noise = happy girlfriend. But I personally know everyone is going to recommend a 3/4 ton because yanking the trailer around will be nice.
Funny, I have a 3/4 ton and I was curious about a Powerboost instead. I am unsure they have enough payload. I also have a 25RDS.
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Old 12-01-2022, 12:01 PM   #3
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1700 payload. The weight of everything and everyone including the dog, camping gear and hitch has to be subtracted BEFORE the tongue weight is factored in. 800 pounds is when the trailer left the factory and does not include the weight of the battery(s) and propane.

DO NOT use the “towing capacity” as it is a very non real world test using a flat bed trailer with little/no wind resistance.

Do the numbers and you’ll have your answer.
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Old 12-01-2022, 12:03 PM   #4
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Funny, I have a 3/4 ton and I was curious about a Powerboost instead. I am unsure they have enough payload. I also have a 25RDS.
The xlt without the moonroof and other options frees up some payload. It has the towing capacity but we won’t have truck or trailer fully loaded. I personally love the truck and my girlfriend is more comfortable driving it. I’d like the find maybe a solar or battery solution and get the 3/4 ton. That would also give the option to bring more gear. But hooking up and boondocking with the powerboost is amazing.
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Old 12-01-2022, 03:11 PM   #5
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Typically, for safety sake, hitch weight can reliably be estimated at 13 percent of gross weight. As has already been pointed out the listed hitch weight is not a real number. Also, tow rating is seldom the limiting factor but payload is. With this 8800 lb gross weight camper, hitch weight will be north of 1100 lbs and even though you claim you won't load much in the truck or trailer, every seasoned camper will tell you that you probably will be up near gross weight limit. OK, you and girl friend's weight, hitch and anything else in the truck will quickly push your payload.

Problem is, most folks don't realize that MANY 3/4 ton trucks don't have much more payload than your 1/2 ton. My sister has a Ram Laramie 2500 with an 1800 lb payload. Keep that in mind and once your gal has driven a heavy duty truck, she might just find there is little difference than driving a 1/2 ton.
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Old 12-01-2022, 03:17 PM   #6
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I had a F150 CC SB 4x4 with the 3.5L EcoBoost engine (not the PowerBoost feature). My camper is a 240BH which is 5,000 lbs unloaded and rated to a tad over 7,000 lbs. loaded. I had a Max Tow package and a cargo capacity of about 2,200 lbs. The truck pulled the camper with power to spare. However, the squishy soft ride of the F150 did not play well with the camper. Adding Timbrens to the rear axle, LT load range E tires, and Bilstein shocks helped a little, but the trailer really moved the truck all over the road in even a slight breeze (not sway, but literally the trailer moving the truck as a single unit). My tongue weight was 980 lbs with the hitch. Adding supplies, dogs, child and wife didn’t get me close to capacity but the handling was terrible. Unfortunately, it is something the 2015 and newer F150’s are known for.

This spring we moved to a 3/4 ton truck for a variety of reasons and it was a night and day towing experience. So yes, my strong recommendation for you is a 3/4 ton. I get that the PowerBoost is nice, and I wish they offered in the HD trucks, but at some point it stops making sense to idle a big block V8 to power the onboard generator instead of using a quiet portable generator. I installed a SoftStart to my AC and my Generac GP3000i running at 58 db can power my camper AC at night and I can’t hear the generator over the AC noise anyway.
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Old 12-01-2022, 03:18 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by wiredgeorge View Post
Typically, for safety sake, hitch weight can reliably be estimated at 13 percent of gross weight. As has already been pointed out the listed hitch weight is not a real number. Also, tow rating is seldom the limiting factor but payload is. With this 8800 lb gross weight camper, hitch weight will be north of 1100 lbs and even though you claim you won't load much in the truck or trailer, every seasoned camper will tell you that you probably will be up near gross weight limit. OK, you and girl friend's weight, hitch and anything else in the truck will quickly push your payload.

Problem is, most folks don't realize that MANY 3/4 ton trucks don't have much more payload than your 1/2 ton. My sister has a Ram Laramie 2500 with an 1800 lb payload. Keep that in mind and once your gal has driven a heavy duty truck, she might just find there is little difference than driving a 1/2 ton.
I like the idea of a 3/4-1 ton super duty or duramax. Again I just don’t like losing the generator. I’m weary of solar and know I can’t depend on it. Maybe some quiet generator solutions would help. Or maybe just a smaller trailer 😔
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Old 12-01-2022, 04:51 PM   #8
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There are plenty of “quiet” inverter style generators. You just have to decide how many watts you need and how much noise is acceptable.
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Old 12-08-2022, 08:20 AM   #9
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I had a F150 CC SB 4x4 with the 3.5L EcoBoost engine (not the PowerBoost feature). My camper is a 240BH which is 5,000 lbs unloaded and rated to a tad over 7,000 lbs. loaded. I had a Max Tow package and a cargo capacity of about 2,200 lbs. The truck pulled the camper with power to spare. However, the squishy soft ride of the F150 did not play well with the camper. Adding Timbrens to the rear axle, LT load range E tires, and Bilstein shocks helped a little, but the trailer really moved the truck all over the road in even a slight breeze (not sway, but literally the trailer moving the truck as a single unit). My tongue weight was 980 lbs with the hitch. Adding supplies, dogs, child and wife didn’t get me close to capacity but the handling was terrible. Unfortunately, it is something the 2015 and newer F150’s are known for.

This spring we moved to a 3/4 ton truck for a variety of reasons and it was a night and day towing experience. So yes, my strong recommendation for you is a 3/4 ton. I get that the PowerBoost is nice, and I wish they offered in the HD trucks, but at some point it stops making sense to idle a big block V8 to power the onboard generator instead of using a quiet portable generator. I installed a SoftStart to my AC and my Generac GP3000i running at 58 db can power my camper AC at night and I can’t hear the generator over the AC noise anyway.
These experiences mirror mine. I pessimistically think the only reason for 3/4 ton trucks is to sell two trucks (the 3.4 ton, and a 1 ton when the 3/4 ton isn't adequate.)

Our 3/4 ton was within +-200 pounds of payload depending on if the kids came along or not...and while the engine and brakes and cooling was fine, the CONSTANT squirm if there was ANY kind of wind blowing made for really tiring driving days. I suspect a SRW 1-ton would have some squirm as well.

Throw the same 12000 lb trailer with 1750 hitch on the new dually, and things got a Whole Lot less dramatic.

Then traded that trailer on a 5th wheel and it got even better. Current truck has a 5200 lb payload and has about 3000 lbs when fully loaded.
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Old 12-08-2022, 08:36 AM   #10
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For safety sake I would get the bigger truck. Ratings set aside, the components of the 3/4 ton are much hardier than the 150. Everything might feel fine with the smaller truck but when things happen fast, you’ll appreciate the larger truck. Sudden swerves or emergency stops will be night and day between those vehicles.
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Old 12-08-2022, 09:29 AM   #11
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My sister has a Ram Laramie 2500 with an 1800 lb payload. Keep that in mind and once your gal has driven a heavy duty truck, she might just find there is little difference than driving a 1/2 ton.
Not all Rams are the same. Your sister probably has a diesel truck. I have a 2019 RAM 2500 Bighorn Hemi and my payload is just over 3000 lbs. Diesel engine trucks always have lower payloads. With the current price of diesel I'm glad I have the Hemi!
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Old 12-08-2022, 09:37 AM   #12
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Not all Rams are the same. Your sister probably has a diesel truck. I have a 2019 RAM Bighorn Hemi and my payload is just over 3000 lbs. Diesel engine trucks always have lower payloads. With the current price of diesel I'm glad I have the Hemi!
My sis's Ram is a Cummins diesel. I am not bashing any brand but just wanted to point out that many heavy duty 3/4 ton trucks, with diesel engines, have little more payload than a half ton. An individual who is purchasing can evaluate the factors more intelligently if they have good info to base their decisions on.
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Old 12-08-2022, 09:56 AM   #13
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Depending on your budget, the newer 3/4 tons have seemed to increase payload drastically (at least in Chevy - GM). I had a 2016 2500 High Country with the Duramax and my payload was only 2250 pounds. My current 2022 2500 LTZ with the 6.6 gas engine has a payload of 3495. So year of vehicle will also play into how much you can carry and/or tow. We also have 2 Honda generators (I think EU3000 or something like that) and when connected together they provide 30amps for any time we cannot connect to shore power. They are so quiet we can barely hear them running from just a few feet away.
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Old 12-08-2022, 10:44 AM   #14
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Depending on your budget, the newer 3/4 tons have seemed to increase payload drastically (at least in Chevy - GM). I had a 2016 2500 High Country with the Duramax and my payload was only 2250 pounds. My current 2022 2500 LTZ with the 6.6 gas engine has a payload of 3495. So year of vehicle will also play into how much you can carry and/or tow. We also have 2 Honda generators (I think EU3000 or something like that) and when connected together they provide 30amps for any time we cannot connect to shore power. They are so quiet we can barely hear them running from just a few feet away.
About an 800 lb difference between the weight of a diesel and a gas engine. I believe GM also elected to 'up' the GVWR on their 3/4 ton truck a year or two ago, suddenly creating 'more' payload. Design wise, not sure what, if anything changed to warrant the bump.
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Old 12-08-2022, 11:06 AM   #15
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About an 800 lb difference between the weight of a diesel and a gas engine. I believe GM also elected to 'up' the GVWR on their 3/4 ton truck a year or two ago, suddenly creating 'more' payload. Design wise, not sure what, if anything changed to warrant the bump.
That makes sense. Old 3/4 ton had a 10,000 GVWR and the new one is 10,650 GVWR. 800# difference plus the lack of a sunroof (about the only option the new one doesn't have that the old one did have) puts those numbers pretty close. I know some things have changed as the truck is taller (a concern with my 5th wheel and pole barn) and a bit wider.
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Old 12-08-2022, 11:08 AM   #16
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About an 800 lb difference between the weight of a diesel and a gas engine. I believe GM also elected to 'up' the GVWR on their 3/4 ton truck a year or two ago, suddenly creating 'more' payload. Design wise, not sure what, if anything changed to warrant the bump.
Some manufacturers went to aluminum body parts.
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Old 12-08-2022, 11:57 AM   #17
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Truck engine vs generator

Friend of ours got the Powerboost F-150 for the sole reason to power a trailer when AC wasn't available. He said it put out 7Kw @ 120 volts so he could even run his AC and Microwave. GREAT IDEA.

Being the curious sort I did a little research. The battery is 1.5Kw roughly the same usable capacity of 2 GC2s (50% of 2.6Kw@25amp or 1.8Kw@75amp). Yes like "towing capacity" it would run it, but how long.

Invited him to Camp, parked in our drive Camp runs on solar (2 GC2s). Camp heater is propane like in our first trailer, no fan, lights all LED, we can run without sun for several days without running the generator.

His truck kept starting up to recharge the battery all night to run his forced air heater. If he ran the AC the truck would have run all night. Wonder how long it will take before CGs wise up and say no idling vehicles during quiet hours.

Not sure if a truck engine with a tiny battery is a better way to power a rig than a generator anyway.

For what it's worth, just put 4.8Kw of Lithium batteries in our trailer to ensure the heater would run all night.

PS: His trailer is bigger than ours and we dumped the Tundra that had more payload than his new F-150 because we were "on the wire". He says it tows fine.....
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