Understandable, especially since it's not a cheap investment lol, but the stereotype did get a bit out of hand with the "weak frame" deal, yes it's weak when driven like a trophy truck across kickers taller than available suspension compression. When used within reasonable limitations, and when used at what it's rated at towing from the factory on highway roads, it's just fine.
Also that tow rating is with no additional supporting mods, it's for a bone stock raptor. Doing the weight dist hitch and if you add helper bags it will help even more. All of my towing to date has been with a NON-weight dist hitch, just a regular receiver/drawbar/etc. and without bags, just bone stock raptor. I got a programmer last year and it has a towing tune, but honestly I notice zero difference over the factory tune and using the tow/haul button. I'm really interested to see how it does this year once I get the helper bags on, and with my enclosed I may add a weight dist hitch down the road.
Yes because Ford rated it for ZERO margin. I'm sure you also follow every single instruction in the user manual too, and every single law in existence. No tint beyond allowed, no driving above posted speeds, no modification of the vehicle, no driving beyond the exact limitations listed in the raptor supplement.....right?
He doesn't know.....I'm at 42k miles, factory springs, factory shocks, lots of towing at or near the 8k rating, once in a while above, no spring issues. Disregard half his comments, he also tried to swear up and down in one thread to me that these trucks are not 12v systems, they're 14.x v, blah blah blah, NOT 12v....shut him up pretty quick digging up one of his old posts where he was asking where to find a 12v source under the dash and said "huh, thought you said these trucks weren't 12v systems, shouldn't you be asking for a 14.x v source instead?" *****
Another thing to keep in mind about guys who are scared to death about towing anywhere near the limit because they're afraid it'll break the truck or that a Raptor should never do such a thing even though it was built to do more than just offroad, keep in mind what they do with their own trucks.
Half of the guys who say you shouldn't tow that much because it's close or at or slightly above the ratings, are also the ones who flog the living snot out of their truck offroad beyond what the manual may recommend to do. Then they'll justify "oh well I changed shocks/tires/whatever so it can do more now".....well the same argument can be made with towing adequately with supporting mods.
Another chunk of the guys who are all scared that an occasional payload that will make the rear squat a bit will destroy the truck, and heaven forbid if the truck isn't dead on level when towing, are ones who themselves lug around an extra thousand pounds worth of crap like their MacGyver going on a rescue mission for 21 days from civilization crossing the Sahara and carrying 2 spares, a jack, 2 tool chests, 24 straps and chains, winch, 20 gal extra fuel, 10 gal water, and 2 cases of spare parts....to drive the damn trucks to walmart to pickup milk for their wife lol. But because it's cool offroading stuff, even though its 1,000+ lbs of extra crap lugged around allllll the time, it won't have any long term effect on sagging the suspension....but towing a couple hundred miles once a month with a few hundred lbs tongue weight, OMG you shouldn't do that bro! *****
