Answered, thank you! - Help me understand if the Maverick can tow a 1,707 pound trailer.

[Barracuda340]

I was driving to work this morning and was behind an explorer sport trak. I thought they coulda named it that, but the original sport trak got crappy mileage. Why not recycle a name that older people like me know, that's as also fresh for the younger crowd that dont know what a maverick is.

A maverick is someone who does things their own way, blazes their own trail, etc. This maverick is like a swiss army knife of trucks. It allows anybody who owns one to do it their way, blaze their own trail, etc. Be a maverick of their own. Honestly, it's the perfect name for it.

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[BlackXL]

As far as I know, the hybrid Maverick has a 1564 pound payload capacity (eSource PDF) and a 2,000 pound towing capacity. I am considering picking up a base XL until the next gen of the Lightning (come on 800V battery system and more payload)

But anyhow, does this setup work, or would it be unsafe?

- Three people, weighing about 600 pounds combined.
- A 1,707 pound travel trailer, manufacturer specifies 160 pound hitch weight.
- Ultralight bed cap with cab over section (antenna removed) for extra storage space. Weight unknown, assuming 110 pounds.
- Up to 32 gallons of water in a tank tied down in the front of the bed, with associated fill/drain/pump hardware.
- Sufficient water for 14 days of off-grid time assuming 1 gallon per person per day.

Payload calculation seems to be 1564 (eSource PDF) - 600 - 160 - 110 - 277 = 417 pounds of payload capacity remaining.
Towing calculation is 1,707 pounds dry weight plus 10 gallons of water (83.4 pounds) = 1790.4 pounds, so 209.6 pounds towing capacity remaining.

I did see the Ford towing guide PDF did include a towing calculator at the end, but it didn't make much sense to me.

I bought a timpte 720 car trailer 150 miles from home and drug it back with my hybrid xl. It got the trailer home. I got 42 mpg on the way over to get it and 12 mpg on the trip home in tow/haul mode. Wished for a trailer brake controller a couple of times on the trip back. Just me and the missus, no payload. Will it do it? Yes. Be prepared to stay off the interstate.

 

[joegreen]

I have a xlt hybrid. Ive been towing a 5x9 uhaul with a 900lb tractor plus occupants probably at 400 lbs so 2140lbs pulled and 400lbs in truck. I have yet to use over 50% power and most of the time im around 10-25% power cruising. Dash mpg reads around 24mpg. It has no issue. If i didnt look behind me i wouldnt know the trailer is there most of the time. The brakes are also very good and have no issue stopping this weight.

 

[Barracuda340]

I bought a timpte 720 car trailer 150 miles from home and drug it back with my hybrid xl. It got the trailer home. I got 42 mpg on the way over to get it and 12 mpg on the trip home in tow/haul mode. Wished for a trailer brake controller a couple of times on the trip back. Just me and the missus, no payload. Will it do it? Yes. Be prepared to stay off the interstate.

Even though the hybrid is not offered with electric trailer brakes, if your handy automotive wiring wise, you can easily add them. Look into RedArc trailer brake controllers. My XLT is on order. Its AWD, and I just got the regular tow hitch. I will wire up a RedArc trailer brake controller, and install a trans cooler cheaper than fords optional 4K tow pak. I know the tow pak also comes with a bigger radiator, and different ratio differentials, but the ratio difference is not very much to make that much of a difference to begin with.

 

[Old Ranchero]

Yeah unless you live in Europe the “towing” limits combined with the mass inside of the truck arent critical, and honestly more weight in the cab while towing is only a good thing as long as you don’t exceed the weight capacity inside the truck itself by tons.

Ford is quite conservative with the hybrid rating but I would add that I would install a transmission cooler and even have a means of monitoring transmission temperature.

It’s extremely disappointing Ford would let a truck like vehicle into the wild without at least a basic trans cooler.

Can’t say I’ve ever owned a truck that didn’t need one, even when they didn’t come with one.

I always use weight distribution hitches even on light trailers, just makes everything much more pleasant and usually backing up goes more favorably as well

The optional 4k Tow package comes with the trans cooler, as well as bigger radiator w/fan, different rear end gear ratio and more. Almost like they were expecting people to actually tow with it

FWIW: do a little research on using weight distribution hitches on unibody vehicles. You may be surprised what you find out- I was.

 

[Rickus]

I completed a trip towing almost 2500 total pounds several weeks back and had no issues pulling the load. XL with Eco-boost, AWD, and WITHOUT 4K tow package. It pulled fine from starting to stopping and passing. NOW, having it in tow mode, with the trailer empty and then loaded, I averaged 19 MPG. That sucked, especially with these Biden Gas Prices. One week ago I again towed the trailer with a trike motorcycle on it and set it for eco mode. Of course I live in South Louisiana where everything is flat! The 250 mile trip with what I figured out to be about 2000 pounds with trailer, again in Eco mode, we got 30 miles per gallon. I have no idea if it hurts the drivetrain or not, but that is an eye opener. It's quite easy to change to tow mode while driving if you need it. I need to mention that during the first trip, a tractor trailer cut in front of me so close I hit the brakes hard, the trailer swayed so bad I knew I was going to flip us, but it didn't, and out the corner of my eye i noticed an alert on the display, TRAILER SWAY. Thoughts? One. NO SHIT, NO SHIT! AS soon as a trailer is plugged in, it detects it and lets you know too! My feelings are, if you don't regularly tow heavy weights the tow package, while I would love to have still, isn't really needed, and the Maverick CAN tow .

 

[DesertSweat]

Yeah unless you live in Europe the “towing” limits combined with the mass inside of the truck arent critical, and honestly more weight in the cab while towing is only a good thing as long as you don’t exceed the weight capacity inside the truck itself by tons.

Ford is quite conservative with the hybrid rating but I would add that I would install a transmission cooler and even have a means of monitoring transmission temperature.

It’s extremely disappointing Ford would let a truck like vehicle into the wild without at least a basic trans cooler.

Can’t say I’ve ever owned a truck that didn’t need one, even when they didn’t come with one.

I always use weight distribution hitches even on light trailers, just makes everything much more pleasant and usually backing up goes more favorably as well

The hybrid doesn't utilize a conventional automatic transmission though. Might be more akin to a manual which doesn't heat up fluid as much.

 

[RicksMaverick]

I was driving to work this morning and was behind an explorer sport trak. I thought they coulda named it that, but the original sport trak got crappy mileage. Why not recycle a name that older people like me know, that's as also fresh for the younger crowd that dont know what a maverick is.

A maverick is someone who does things their own way, blazes their own trail, etc. This maverick is like a swiss army knife of trucks. It allows anybody who owns one to do it their way, blaze their own trail, etc. Be a maverick of their own. Honestly, it's the perfect name for it.

RANCHERO!

 

[rmay635703]

The hybrid doesn't utilize a conventional automatic transmission though. Might be more akin to a manual which doesn't heat up fluid as much.

when towing with a volt or a Prius the transmission does require a cooler and gets quite toasty, still are clutches and drivetrain electronics to cool

The optional 4k Tow package comes with the trans cooler, as well as bigger radiator w/fan, different rear end gear ratio and more. Almost like they were expecting people to actually tow with it

FWIW: do a little research on using weight distribution hitches on unibody vehicles. You may be surprised what you find out- I was.

I have used a weight distribution on a FWD vehicle , it can make tight turns harder but isn’t a concern during normal use especially when you have enough weight up front.

It’s “effect” is proportional to your hitch height, how far to the back the rear axle is, tongue weight and how tight you load the springs.

Never been an issue for me

 

[Wire4money]

Nobody has mentioned the non 4K towing package 20 sq ft frontal limit which pretty much eliminates a normal travel trailer. A pop up would be much better.

 

[Old Ranchero]

RANCHERO!

you rang?

 

[Old Ranchero]

when towing with a volt or a Prius the transmission does require a cooler and gets quite toasty, still are clutches and drivetrain electronics to cool



I have used a weight distribution on a FWD vehicle , it can make tight turns harder but isn’t a concern during normal use especially when you have enough weight up front.

It’s “effect” is proportional to your hitch height, how far to the back the rear axle is, tongue weight and how tight you load the springs.

Never been an issue for me

I mentioned whether it is a good idea on a unibody, not specifically FWD, vehicle (hint: it's not recommended). Can you do it? Sure. Safely and with no bad consequences whatsoever? Not so much.

 

[mav47]

Even though the hybrid is not offered with electric trailer brakes, if your handy automotive wiring wise, you can easily add them. Look into RedArc trailer brake controllers. My XLT is on order. Its AWD, and I just got the regular tow hitch. I will wire up a RedArc trailer brake controller, and install a trans cooler cheaper than fords optional 4K tow pak. I know the tow pak also comes with a bigger radiator, and different ratio differentials, but the ratio difference is not very much to make that much of a difference to begin with.

+1 on the RedArc

I too installed a REDARC Tow-Pro Liberty brake controller in our Highlander Hybrid and can report it works great. We also have a Maverick Hybrid which will get the same brake controller. (for towing our 1,600 lbs teardrop camper)

The main advantage of the RedArc is that the controller itself can mount close to the battery (in the Maverick on the back wall of the cab). The controller knob up front is tiny, so easy to find a location for, and connects to the brake controller via a standard Cat5 cable which is easy to route forward (buy a longer one on Amazon if needed), and I will mount that knob to the right of the headlight switch. The RedArc wiring layout works well with a hybrids like the Highlander and Maverick exactly because their 12v battery is mounted in the rear making for short and easy wiring to the hitch connector.

I also installed this Hopkins 7-pin + 4-pin connector in place of the OEM Ford 4-pin after cutting a hole for it using THIS hole saw.

Looks factory now.

 

[rmay635703]

The optional 4k Tow package comes with the trans cooler, as well as bigger radiator w/fan, different rear end gear ratio and more. Almost like they were expecting people to actually tow with it

FWIW: do a little research on using weight distribution hitches on unibody vehicles. You may be surprised what you find out- I was.

I mentioned whether it is a good idea on a unibody, not specifically FWD, vehicle (hint: it's not recommended). Can you do it? Sure. Safely and with no bad consequences whatsoever? Not so much.

that explains why I’ve always had to oversize the hitch class and mounting

Personally The Maverick hitch mounting system does not appear to be robust enough to tow, give it 5 years in the salt and a bike rack will fall off.

When I’ve made a custom hitch to a unibody the mounting has been beefy going up and attaching several feet forward to the unibody tray with reinforcements/isolators and ideally out to the edges of the rail like channels mounting several places forward, one vehicle I shared suspension mounting points back to the hitch.

The mount looks like a deformed letter E when I’m done.

With a proper hitch unless you manage to bend the axle a unibody handles load distribution fine.

Seems like these days nobody makes correct hitch mounts

 

[Old Ranchero]

that explains why I’ve always had to oversize the hitch class and mounting

Personally The Maverick hitch mounting system does not appear to be robust enough to tow, give it 5 years in the salt and a bike rack will fall off.

When I’ve made a custom hitch to a unibody the mounting has been beefy going up and attaching several feet forward to the unibody tray with reinforcements/isolators and ideally out to the edges of the rail like channels mounting several places forward, one vehicle I shared suspension mounting points back to the hitch.

The mount looks like a deformed letter E when I’m done.

With a proper hitch unless you manage to bend the axle a unibody handles load distribution fine.

Seems like these days nobody makes correct hitch mounts

sounds like you've put a good deal of thought and effort into working around the potential shortcomings of unibody towing. Most people don't have the desire or understanding to do things right. I already purchased a weight distribution hitch 2 years ago and was anticipating using it on my Maverick, but when I mentioned it here I was pointed towards some research on it. Several horror stories of frames twisting and separating over time where "frame" rails attach to passenger tub convinced me to use conventional hitches there and to use my wieght distribution hitch on our F-150 and toybox trailer exclusively .

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