By Cheri Sicard
The team from RV Miles is here with the latest RV news and their lead story is pretty darn shocking. It seems that Ford changed the tow rating on Ford trucks already sold and on the road!
Imagine one RVer’s surprise to see the numbers on Ford’s tow calculator website were about 1,000 pounds less than what it said on his truck!
This discrepancy will affect a lot of different Ford trucks. RV Miles reached out to Ford for comment but has yet to hear back. But they do give the place to check out if your truck might be affected by this most unsettling news.
As a side note, I have to share that Ford did something similar with the Hybrid car I once owned, changing the mileage estimates twice after the car had already been on the market. They gave a refund of about $50, but I did not want a refund, I wanted the mileage I was promised. Likewise, I personally don’t find this ethics breach from this company all that surprising. But I do find it unethical and it is something to know about lest you inadvertently find yourself over your weight limit.
The video host also correctly points out that a decrease in towing capacity decreases the overall value of the truck. He expects lawsuits to be forthcoming.
In addition to the Ford issue, the video also covers other interesting news including proposed changes to South Dakota’s domicile rules that will affect many full-timers. (Update: The bills are dead but another law could cause problems. More from RVtravel.com on this in weeks to come.) And the legal battles from campground organizations facing Harvest Hosts, as well as local camping bans. Some compromises are being made (whew!).
More RV news is also covered, like proposed changes for Netflix subscribers. But the Ford trucks towing ratings is the big story here and one that all Ford truck owners will definitely want to check out.
(Editor’s note: More on this from us soon.)
##RVDT2066
Changing the towing rating after the sale is a fraud, nothing less
Bought the new 5th generation Ford Ranger in 2019, with a highly boasted “best in class” tow rating of 7,500 lbs. The tow package did not include a brake controller, but I was told I could easily install any one of the dozen or so aftermarket controllers on the market. Little did I (or my dealer) know that the month prior, Ford had issued a memo instructing dealers not to install brake controllers because they would not be not aware of the Automatic Emergency Braking system. So basically, I had a brand new truck with “best in class” towing capability that in reality couldn’t tow more than 3,500 lbs. Upon discovering this, I called my dealer to express my disappointment and that they’d better come up with a solution. (Including buying it back if it came to that) Fortunately, Ford was working on a customized controller that solved the problem, and was available weeks before camping season started.
So I can imagine being told after the fact that my tow rating had been diminished.
Manufacturers are always changing stuff without you knowing. I had a chev 2500 hd 2007 model. I had to add height to my Trailer Saver hith when we discovered chev made the box deeper by 2 inches for my new 2011 chev 2500 hd.
Then I had a truck camper that I sold and the box on a 2022 chev 2500 hd is longer by almost 2 ” and we had to put 2″ by’s under camper to put camper on truck.For what purpose is that done. Oh yah, the engineers would have to be let go because they’d have nothing to do.
Regarding the video/article on Ford lowering tow ratings: I just tried to locate the Vin based Tow rating guide on Ford.com per the info in article. It looks like it is no longer on Ford’s site, or at least I couldn’t find it.
Does anybody have a direct link to the tow calculator
You have to log in to your fordpass account, and then you can get it here: https://www.ford.com/support/towing-calculator
Ford seems to have a history of this on the maintenance side, without informing owners. The recommended spark plug part number seems to have changed twice for my 2016 F150. Just try to find out the (currently) correct lubricants for the transfer case. Try to find out the correct transmission fluid and filter for a 2006 F53J motorhome. Sheesh. That took hours.
Ford should issue tracked changes for all operators and maintenance manuals online or just have a web page where I can go, put in the VIN, and get all the latest vital consumables data. Maybe they do but I haven’t found it.
I suppose the Ford garage people are made aware of this changes (I hope). But us DIY’ers must do a lot of internet sleuthing to find this stuff out.
Thanks, Cheri!
RAM did the same thing within 2-3 weeks ago, seems RAM and Ford got caught up in a bragging rights war about who had the baddest truck. Seems like GM was the only one who wasn’t lying. Lol
Don’t count on it, Bob. Ha.