adding a tow hitch to a 1998 v8

[Alexp08]

so i am looking at a 1998 limited, AWD V8. my question is how much it can haul. i looked in the manual an it said something along the lines of 6700, then i check the plate on the door and it said, "front... 3250, rear... 3000" and it has the litte hole in the back attached to the bummer that said something along the lines of 500lbs and somthing else that said 3500lbs. now i know this is all a little vague but im doing this off memory. i talked to 3 different people and the one guy said that, the if i put the ball in the hole on the bumper it can hold 3500, Im highly sure that is wrong. and that it can only hold 500lbs. but what is the 3500lbs for. the 2nd guy i talked to said to go by the sticked on the door which said "rear 3000lbs" because thats all the rear axle can handel. and the 3rd guy i talked to said go by the owners manual which said 6700. so who is right? now i know its gonna be a pain in the ass to put a hitch on this a hard wire the lights/brakes in but i can find a explorer that has a hitch on it.

so anyways what can this explorer handel with a class 3 hitch, also ive heard something about a weight distriburtion hitch, what is that and should i consider it.

thanks for the help.

[FIND]

It can handle the capacity of a class III hitch just fine.

[4rd4life]

and its not a pain to wire at all... theres a plug under the bumper right near the left tail light that has a cap over it. i got a stranded 4 pin trailer plug kit and the other end pluged right in

[RomeovilleIL]

Probably the best way to answer your question is to first define what you plan to tow. There is an entire section of the forums dedicated to towing & recommend you check there for ideas and answers.

Generally speaking, how much you can tow is dependent on what you add to the vehicle and whether your v8 is an AWD or just the rear 2WD (which has higher capacity). If you are towing anything heavy or plan to tow on a regular basis, get a receiver hitch. (Adding a receiver hitch isn't a difficult job. There are plenty of pre-made units that will line right up with the frame holes and bolt in for under $150.) As noted, a simple plug-in wire adapter will give you a 4-flat connection from the outlet behind the drivers side rear bumper. Explorers are not set up for electric brakes, you will need to run a controller and wires from scratch.

[bronchole]

You gatta lotta different terms going on there.

Bumper rateings:
The 500 pounds is toung weight. It means that the maximum ammount of weight that the trailer toung is allowed to put down on to the bumper. The 3500 pounds is the maximum weight of the trailer being towed. These numbers are what you said the bumper says on it. Typically for toung weight you want about 10%-15% of the actual weight of the trailer being towed.

Class ___ tow hitch:
Adding a receiver hitch is almost always is supperior to towing from the bumper. This is due to toung weight rating, maximum trailer weight allowed, ball height options, ball size options..... They generally bolt on and a class V hitch will be approaching the Ford specified maximum ratings. That way you are limited by the Explorer, not the hitch. I probably wouldn't bother with the receiver hitches that are smaller than 2".

Your Ford tow rating:
This is the maximum weight of the trailer you are allowed to tow with your Explorer. Notice that the toung weight is not specified in this. That's because the toung weight is driven more by the hitch design rather than the vehicle design. The 3000 pount rear axle weight must be payed attention to. This means that if your Explorer weighs 2800 pounds at the rear axle befor you hook up the trailer, and you hook up a 2000 pound trailer with 500 pound toung weight that you may be under the trailer weight specification, but your rear axle will be seeing 3300 pounds, 300 pounds over its rating.

TRAILER BRAKES:
Keep in mind that if you are towing a trailer over a couple thousand pounds you should look in to some type of trailer brakes. Some states have regulations on at what weight you must have trailer brakes and what type of brakes they need to be.

[Alexp08]

ok wow so im so confused. I am planning of putting a reciever hitch on, a class 3 which is i think 5500lbs. heres where im confusedm the owners manual says this

Trailer Weight
Range-kg (lbs.)
0-3039 (0-6700)

and

Maximum
GCWR-kg(lbs.)
4990 (11000)

so whats the deal, all the stuff about 3000lbs and 3500lbs, and the owners manual says 6700?

[FIND]

He was providing those as examples to explain how towing works

[colintrax]

You can tow 6,700 lbs assuming the hitch is rated for it. The bumper can tow 3,500 lbs. Tongue weight is the weight the trailer is putting on the vehicle (since most of the weight is supported by the trailer) this is also the limit as to what you can put on a hitch carrier.
Honestly if you're still confused, please don't be towing.
Also, hook up the saftey chains EVERY time...

[bronchole]

Originally Posted by colintrax

Honestly if you're still confused, please don't be towing.

What he said!