What is my bronco's towing capacity?

[hollowch]

I've got a 302, power steering and power brakes, discs front on D30, drums on Ford 9", NP435, 5" lift and 37" tires... what's a ballpark weight that I should max out at safely?

 

[Broncobowsher]

1,000 pounds might still be questionable.

You probably have plenty of power.
Brakes are better then stock (disks help, power is irrelevent) but the 37" tires more then cancel the positive they offer.
5" of lift and 37's do no favors to the chassis. you have a much higher CG but still a short wheelbase.

The Bronco is not a great tow vehicle to begin with, everything except the disk brakes just makes it worse. The real bad thing is you do have enough power, more power then everything else. So people think they can tow. you just can't handle or stop correctly. You can throw massive wight back there, but the smallest of problems on the road will quickly turn into massive problems.

 

[HOJO]

Probably no more that 2/3 the weight of your bronco , or your load or trailer will push going down hill or stopping.. I have not done towing my a bronco so if im wrong , a guru will correct me...This is just a general statement

 

[Desert Dweller]

Like Broncobowsher said, you have plenty of pulling power, just not enuff stopping power...... I pull a 1600# camp trailer (when loaded), never lack for power, but even with FDB's (stock height, only 31's) am very cautious and am always looking ahead, just in case.......

 

[TwoDalesDad]

500 lbs..max...of course that's with your king pin located behind the back seat...LOL.....IF YOU WANT TO TOW....NO COMMENT

 

[TwoDalesDad]

With a short wheelbase....A COLLECTOR PIECE OF A VECHICLE....YOU CAN TOW ABOUT THE SAME AS YOUR SON CAN WITHHIS RED RYDER WAGON.......SAFLEY....THAT IS

 

[Bronco Brian]

I always think its funny how every one say you can't tow safely with a Bronco I know and have followed a guy that would tow his Aristocrat trailer to Co. and Wy. every year to go hunting. And never had a problem.

 

[broncnaz]

A full ice chest and thats pushing it;D. Lifted vehicles are not suitable tow vehicles especailly when your way up there with 5in.(period).
Stock from the factory the bronco was only rated to tow 2000LBS. And while some of your upgrades have improved performance others have degraded towing capacity to nearly nothing. Drop it back down to stock hieght and even with the other mods your still only rated to tow 2000lbs. Even though it could probably handle more than it could back when it was new.
Now many of us have towed over the rating and are still here to talk about it. but as was stated you need to use common sense are you towing on the hiway? or just across town? Only you know how your bronco handles currently do you really think it can handle much weight behind it safely?

 

[broncnaz]

I always think its funny how every one say you can't tow safely with a Bronco I know and have followed a guy that would tow his Aristocrat trailer to Co. and Wy. every year to go hunting. And never had a problem.

Nobody is saying you cant tow safely as common sense comes into play but really you tow over a broncos rating no matter what you have modified or not its max legal rating is still 2000 lbs. guess what happens when something does go wrong the insurance company figures out you were towing over the rating and your SOL.
It would be stupid for any of us to reccomend anything other. Just because so and so has done it for years means little. All it means is he's had good luck along with a little common sense. And I do mean "little" common sense.
As I said earlier many of us have towed over the rating and are still here but I dont recommend towing over the rating on the hiway to anyone as the bronco is just not as safe as a vehicle that has a rating for the load you intend to tow.

 

[BronCowie]

Nobody is saying you cant tow safely as common sense comes into play but really you tow over a broncos rating no matter what you have modified or not its max legal rating is still 2000 lbs. guess what happens when something does go wrong the insurance company figures out you were towing over the rating and your SOL.
It would be stupid for any of us to reccomend anything other. Just because so and so has done it for years means little. All it means is he's had good luck along with a little common sense. And I do mean "little" common sense.
As I said earlier many of us have towed over the rating and are still here but I dont recommend towing over the rating on the hiway to anyone as the bronco is just not as safe as a vehicle that has a rating for the load you intend to tow.

Thanks broncnaz

 

[Broncitis]

Years ago when I lived in FL when I was in the Navy I used to tow a 3500# tournament bass boat with one of my 76 Broncos.

It had 33x16.50 Cepek Fun Country's on 12" wide wheels. Before I modified the Bronco it was a totally stock Ranger and it was rather squirrely towing the boat. It was much more stable with the wider tires.

However, braking was marginal. It would have been fine if the trailer had brakes. It was pretty much only used on side roads from the base to access various launches in the area, so it was all low speed non-highway.

I also picked up the 20' car trailer I still have with another 76 Bronco. Picked it up in Ohio when I was out there working on a job and also got a load of parts that filled the back of the EB. I also got an electric brake controller installed in Ohio. Drive it up to MI for a vist to Jeffs, then to Ontario, Canada to pick up a Bronco rolling chassis and extra Dana 44.

Needless to say, the Bronco was overloaded but was manageable with cautious driving. The bad part was when the electrical gremlins hit in the Queen Elizabeth Expressway at night and the dash lights and brake controller went out during heavy traffic.

I did not tow with a Bronco much ever since that trip.

The short wheelbase and light weight do not have the makings for much of a tow vehicle.

I like my F-350 and Volvo VNL 610 much better for those tasks nowdays!;D

 

[patterdale]

I'm curious as to where people are finding the tow capacity of 2000 lbs. I just combed over my owner's manual and couldn't find one thing about pulling capacity. Trailer brakes for me would be a must also to be pulling much weight at all. I had a 16' enclosed trailer almost pass me in my f-150 when some jerk pulled out in front of me. The brakes didn't work very good. The truck went sideways in the road and the trailer started pushing. It took me @ 1/2 mile of white knuckling to get it straightened out. Everything was wobbling so much I could not reach the trailer brake to remedy things. Only took a month or so to come up with an f-350. The trailer brakes were gone over the next day. Of 4 only one was fully functional. It saved me from total disaster, barely.

 

[Bronco Junkie]

It won't be safe if you try to tow something considerably longer than your Bronco!!

 

[rjrobin2002]

I found out the load capacity that my half cab bed had during a flood several years ago. The National Guard was giving out sand bags and I started loading them in the bed of my half cab and drove them to my house. It was sitting REAL LOW in the rear when I made my 2 mile drive home. I unloaded 85 sand bags and I weighed an average one that weighed in at 35 lbs. The grand total of the half cab load capacity with 4 pack 2" lift leaves that were on it when I bought it is 2975lbs!! Glad I added power brakes last week. It was almost popping a wheelie.

 

[u10072]

I could have been easily killed as a kid pulling with my bronco and I got lucky! An EB cant towbar pull another bronco safely, cant pull an 18 foot trailer with a load safely--been there done that and its a white knuckle 25mph ride. To me a pair of jetskis would be fine, a small trailer to haul some lawn mowers like if that was a side job, a Johnboat flat bottom boat, a camp trailer like you see the companies build for the Jeep crowd--those are really lightweight or a small trailer with some building materials for in-town 45 mph driving at its fastest. If its longer than the bronco the weight must do down, as the weight goes up the length goes down. I would say 1000# max of trailer and cargo safely. Its the length and weight of the pulling rig that makes the difference. I have a really nice 18ft flat trailer that I pull behind my Excursion and it pulls very very nicely with an EB on the trailer-- the Ex weighs almost 8000# and is about 20ft long but its also much wider and much bigger brakes. Just dont turn your EB into a pull rig-- as its just not safe unless the weight is pretty low especially if you start lifting it.

 

[patterdale]

I found out the load capacity that my half cab bed had during a flood several years ago. The National Guard was giving out sand bags and I started loading them in the bed of my half cab and drove them to my house. It was sitting REAL LOW in the rear when I made my 2 mile drive home. I unloaded 85 sand bags and I weighed an average one that weighed in at 35 lbs. The grand total of the half cab load capacity with 4 pack 2" lift leaves that were on it when I bought it is 2975lbs!! Glad I added power brakes last week. It was almost popping a wheelie.

That would be the weight that can be carried in the bed. Braking will be much different when that weight is out on the end of a trailer toungue, especially if there are no trailer brakes. Stick something on behind that weighs that much and slam on the brakes. It will whip you around in a nano second. I have ridden with my father in all sorts of situatuions where his criteria were if you make it home alive then you have not exceeded the capacity/ability of the vehicle. At my age now I don't care to experience that anymore. Mine will have a hitch someday and may pull a 16' alumacraft but it will have trailer brakes added for as much saftey margin as I can get.

 

[BahamaBlueFord]

You pull what you feel safe pulling and what you feel your bronco can handle. Ive towed an 18ft Rinker captiva with my 1970 bronco 302 3 speed column, just fine. just back roads though, i have 4:10's.

 

[73stallion]

i towed a 1600 lb trailer cross country, it didn't feel too bad. but it did feel like it wanted to push my back end around on some corners. my teardrop weighed 940 lbs, wasn't too bad. this morning i was towing my 460 lb tent trailer all over town, couldn't even feel it.

 

[Bronchole]

It would be nice to know what exactly the OEM spec for towing with a stock Bronco was. 2000 pounds sounds right to me, but I would like to know what Ford had to say about it.

 

[broncnaz]

It would be nice to know what exactly the OEM spec for towing with a stock Bronco was. 2000 pounds sounds right to me, but I would like to know what Ford had to say about it.

2000lbs is what ford recommended as max straight out of the owners manual. At least thats whats in my 1973 owners manual. basically saying that max tongue weight is 200 lbs. which can only be 10% of total trailer weight hence the 2000 lbs max. They also say that you must reduce your passenger compartment weight by that same 200lbs or whatever your tongue weight is during towing.