How much trailer can a pickup pull?

Legally & for insurance purposes, your truck can haul no more than the manufaturer's rating, which is on a sticker on the driver's door post, or can be had through the dealer at worst case with the vin number.

In some states, it is possible to do agricultural towing for your own farm with bigger loads at slow spewds and be exempt from these DOT regulations. HOWEVER that is getting harder & harder to do - if someone wrecks into you, the insurance & liability issues become large. Unfortunately, but how it is in the USA.

So, look at your driver's door post for the sticker. It lists the load you can tow, the size trailer you can tow, and the total combined weight you can have of pickup & trailer.

_That_ is your anser.

There are special rules on mobile homes, typically they can only be moved on a temp basis, not as a commonly towed around vehicle as others mentioned. It is even getting difficult to convert them into trailers - the axles, and especially the tires themselves, and some of the rims, are not road-worthy for constant use & DOT may fine you for using them on regular use. It depends on your state.

Your state is worse on regulating folks than mine, so doesn't look good for you....

Living & livestock is pretty much always done with a longer gooseneck horse trailer, convert the front 1/2 into living, the back half remains for the cattle/horses/ etc. I see your 'livestock' is a little smaller so maybe a travel trailer would work, but typically those are built very flimsy, and removing any of the upper framing will make them too weak to hold much wieght - the bottom frame & floor are not very strong at all for hooves & so forth.

--->Paul

How big doesnt matter, How much it weights is!. Also How much it will pull isnt as important as how much it can stop.

If you look on the inside of the door it will list the trucks weight and either a tow weight or gross weight. Quick look shows a F-250 with
2WD and 5.4-liter V8 is rated at 8700 lbs Usually a few hundred pounds less with 4x4. Also keep in mind that is NEW truck rating and doesnt tell you bumper vs 5th wheel ratings. Usually its 5th wheel. SInce you didnt list engine that will figure in.

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With an older truck, if your over 3500 under the bumper or 5000 on a 5th wheel I would worry. Again its going to depend if your talking about hauling it across town or across the state, on flat lands or hills. On the highways or back roads.

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Gary in Central Ohio

Plowgirl has the correct answer..... and it not how much you can pull, its how much you can controll when someone pulls out in front of you.

Your registered GVW can vary from the manufacturer's plate on the vehicle depending on the state. Some will allow you to register a slightly higher GVW than the rating on the vehicle plate. Generally the registered vehicle GVW has to include the weight of any trailer you will tow. Of course if you don't get caught...

This is a money maker for the states. So if you have a truck and you plan to haul 36,000lb which is the total weight of the truck and trailer, some states will gladly register the vehicle for that GVW.

I once had a one ton van registered for 36,000lb in PA. It also had a five axle tax stamp on the windshield. Of course you will need brakes and a brake controller that can handle that weight. Going down a hill with a trailer pushing you and knowing you can't get it stopped for the red light at the bottom is not a pleasant experience.

I'd suggest you figure out the weight of the trailer so you know what you're dealing with. I had difficulty loading a 2000 gal. tank on a flat bed trailer once. I trashed a regular come-along even after soaping the skids and the trailer deck. That should have told me something. After I got it home, I found out I had been given 500 gals. of kerosene with the tank. That was around 4,000 more pounds of weight plus the push from the sloshing kerosene. It made for an interesting 500 mile trip.

FWIW, the sacrosanct GVW rating on trucks isn't the holy number you think. Years ago an engineer in Ford's drive line engineering group found out it was set by marketing. Not engineering. The Detroit automakers are run by accountants and marketing idiots.

Save yourself the hassle and the accident waiting to happen. Hire someone with a tow truck or something that can handle the big semi-box trailers and let them have at it. F250's are stout beasts, but they aren't built to haul houses. The worst thing you can do is have your load run away from you and kill someone. YOU would be at fault (vehicular homicide) because YOU made the decision to overload your truck. Please think of others first.