2009 Ford F-250 Super Duty

The truck you see here has 350 horsepower, but it's not a racehorse. And though it is a 4x4, with straight axles and low-range gearing, it's not a mountain goat, either. A Super Duty is more like a Clydesdale - stout, gentle, and enormously willing to pull. This pickup was made to haul something that probably already burned down a lesser truck. Chances are, you wouldn't buy a Super Duty unless you had a problem load. This is the kind of truck that takes your big problem and makes it go away.

You can get Ford Super Duty pickups with Gross Vehicle Weight Ratings all the way up to 16,500 pounds on the F-450 or, for that matter, 19,500 on the F-550. With one of those and a fifth-wheel hitch, you can tow up to a 24,000-pound trailer, making a rig that could weigh up to 33,000 pounds and still be within the recommended capacity.

As Super Duty pickups go, our test unit is one of the lightest-duty configurations, a 10,000 GVWR model, with single rear wheels, 6.5-foot box, four-wheel drive, and 3.73 axle gears. It's rated to tow up to 12,500 pounds with a weight-distributing hitch. With a conventional weight-carrying hitch, the max towing recommendation is 6000 pounds and, according to the tire label, the front axle can handle 5600 pounds and the rear 6100 pounds of load. The third critical factor is that the Gross Combined Weight can't exceed 23,500.

That sounds like a lot of weight, but actually staying within these requirements can be problematic for any trailer owner.