Towing a tractor

[Bucknaked]

A 40hp with FEL will probably be between 4-5k pounds. Not an issue for a half ton, my wife’s uncle pulls around a 40 something hp John Deere with a Chevy Colorado. Lol

Hold my beer and watch this ?

[panhandlehunter]

Hold my beer and watch this ?

He’s never had an issue, and he pulls that thing around a lot. I give him hell for it all the time because he has an almost brand new F-250.

[Kenner97]

Used to pull a 16ft cattle trailer with 2 full grown show heifers with my Ford ranger. Pulling it wasn’t a problem but did slide through several stop signs!! ��

[Bucknaked]

He’s never had an issue, and he pulls that thing around a lot. I give him hell for it all the time because he has an almost brand new F-250.

Lol- You should give him a hard time, it Makes no sense at all! It’s all good until a quick light catches him and he runs over another vehicle with a family in it! It can happen in a blink of an eye! It can happen just running into town to have a tractor serviced. Can it pull? Yes! Should it be done No! ( this has nothing to do with you by the way)

[Mudcatz]

That sounds like quite a chore for a half ton pickup.

Lol, ya that maxes out my 3/4 ton diesel.

[Rubi513]

Lol- You should give him a hard time, it Makes no sense at all! It’s all good until a quick light catches him and he runs over another vehicle with a family in it! It can happen in a blink of an eye! It can happen just running into town to have a tractor serviced. Can it pull? Yes! Should it be done No! ( this has nothing to do with you by the way)

Do you think a 3/4 ton pulling 15-20k will stop faster than a Colorado pulling 4-5k?

[M16]

That sounds like quite a chore for a half ton pickup.

It is. Just answering the question. Which was how big a tractor can you tow with a half ton truck. It didn’t ask how far or how safe.

Now if the question was my truck has a towing capacity of x pounds and my trailer weighs x pounds. How heavy a tractor can I safely tow? A legitimate answer could be given.

[Kong]

You can pull a 40 hp tractor easily but for gods sake make sure the trailer is rated for it and it has brakes as well as your truck having a brake controller. The trailer rating really doesn’t matter so much on the weight IMO, the rating has more to do with the axles, tires and brakes that are on the trailer for stopping. Pulling heavier things is rarely the issue, it’s stopping them so as long as you have a good set up I’d pull a 40 horse with a S10 if I needed to.
I routinely pull 40,000 plus pounds behind a Ram and it’s the same thing, pulling it is easy, stopping requires some expense though.

[HogHunter34]

My dad pulled his 53HP JD with front end loader with his old Ford F100 1/2 ton. Straight 6 & 3 on the tree. He was sweating it lol

[HogHunter34]

I have a Tundra crew with 5.7 V8 & I believe it’s rated at 10k lbs max towing. Pretty easy to pull specs on tractor model & get gross weight with fluids. Add trailer weight and there you go as a good general rule of thumb

[ken800]

Trailer with brakes. We always see people looking for max tow capacity. It needs to be max stopping capacity. You truly don't know high pucker factor until you are towing near max and some numbnuts pulls out right in front of you. I believe Texas requires trailer brakes over 4500 lbs total or something in that ballpark. If you are planning on towing 5K worth of tractor and 2000 lbs of trailer with a 1/2 ton, legally your trailer must have brakes.

[BrianL]

Many of the smaller 30-40HP tractors are on the same frame and weigh about 3500 #s without FEL. With trailer you will be about 5K which is about the max I would pull with a 1/2 ton.

Figure 1000-1500#s more with a FEL

Here is a good site to find your tractor weights.

https://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/001/8/5/1852-kubota-l3830.html

[Fordnandez]

Figure out what your payload is. Below is a picture of what you need to look for and it is usually on the door jambs. In the picture below payload is 1,586 LBS which is the max wieght that will be on the truck which includes yourself, passangers, cargo, anything in the bed and most importantly the tongue weight on your hitch. 1,586 sounds like a lot but you hit it pretty quick. Fore example if the wieght of the tractor, any attachments and the trailer is 10k lbs and the rule of thumb is that 15% is on the hitch you are at 1,500 lbs already and I think it safe to assume you dont weight 86 lbs which is the weight left over to stay legal. With all that said it will pull it but you wont be legal and if you get in a seroius accident where something really bad happens you can be in trouble with the law and your insurance company can leave you high and dry.

[HogHunter34]

Trailer with brakes. We always see people looking for max tow capacity. It needs to be max stopping capacity. You truly don't know high pucker factor until you are towing near max and some numbnuts pulls out right in front of you. I believe Texas requires trailer brakes over 4500 lbs total or something in that ballpark. If you are planning on towing 5K worth of tractor and 2000 lbs of trailer with a 1/2 ton, legally your trailer must have brakes.

Yeah that ain’t fun when idiots pull right out in front of you. However specs are based on tow capacity & normal conditions. Can’t really build specs around sudden stop potential and weight control. Too many unknowns & factors. Trailer breaks may be hopeless at that point. Variables such as truck tire condition, trailer tire condition, truck & trailer breaks condition, speed at time of hitting breaks, gradient, road conditions, etc.