2016 Ford Transit Towing Capacities

The 2016 Ford Transit is an impressive, full sized van and it had a decent towing capacity attached to it as well, having a maximum capacity of 7,500 pounds! That sounds great but one thing you need to keep in mind is that on the low end, the capacity was only able to pull a maximum weight of 2,900 pounds so quite the range in between!

I lay out everything in this article so you can easily see what 2016 Transit models have the higher towing capacity numbers and which ones fell short. I hope it helps!

2016 Ford Transit Towing Charts...

Here are the two towing charts for the 2016 Ford Transit models and the main one that most people will want to take a look at is on the top and it is for the van (cargo model) and wagon (passenger model).

I also included the chassis cab model below that for those of you out there that may want the specs on those models too. These are rarely used by most people though and are usually bought by companies.

Note: Be sure you are looking at the correct towing chart when doing your research, as there are very different specs in each, along with different engine options.

Van/Wagon Chart

Cut Away/Chassis Cab Chart

How To Read The 2016 Ford Transit Charts...

The 2016 Ford Transit Towing charts were quite small in size, overall but there was a lot of information to sift through and for the average person, can come off as very confusing. This is especially true if you have never looked at a towing chart before and have no idea about certain towing related terms like axle ratios.

In this section, I explain what these terms are and where to find them on the 2016 Transit tow chart, so let's get into it.

Van VS Wagon: The first two columns in the 2016 Transit tow tables are divided into two separate sections, one for the Transit Van and the other for the Transit Wagon. These are indicated by the red and black outlines in the example image below and to clarify, the van is intended for transporting cargo and the wagon is geared towards transporting passengers.

T150, T250 and T350 Columns: There are different series Transit models and are labeled as: T-150, T-250 and T-350, much like the Ford trucks (F-150, F-250, F-350, etc.) and these can be found in the 2016 tables towards the top portion of the chart, right below the main "VAN" and "WAGON" columns.

Medium (Standard) and Long Wheelbases: There are two different wheelbase options for the '16 Transits' and these are basically just a standard (regular) wheelbase and a long wheelbase. The wheelbase will make a difference of about 100-200 pounds for most models, the shorter wheelbase having the higher capacity numbers.

Roof Heights: The roof height options for the 2016 Ford Transit were similar to other model years and the three main options were the low roof, medium roof and the high roof options. There was also an extended high roof option available for certain models but not as standard as the other three roof height options.

Engine Options: The engine you had equipped in your 2016 Transit is definitely the most important variable that affected your overall towing capacity. The engine options that were available can be found in the left-hand side of the tables, and they make up the major rows in the chart.

Axle Ratios: The last piece of information you need to find in the 2016 Transit tow charts are the axle ratios and these can be found just to the right of the engine options, in the same row but form their own rows and make for substantial differences in the towing capacity numbers, if you compare similar models with different axle ratios.

Axle Ratios For The 2016 Ford Transits:

You will need to know your axle ratio and plug it into the tow chart in order to get an accurate towing figure but it is not clearly stated anywhere on the vehicle, so you will have to do a little bit of detective work.

The easiest way to figure out your 2016 Transit's axle ratio is to look on the safety certification label, which can be found on the door jamb (driver's side) when the door is open. It will look like the image below.

Once you find that sticker, you need to locate the label that states "AXLE" which is usually located at the bottom of the label towards the center. It will have a two digit figure listed under that section that you need to jot down.

Take the two digit figure you wrote down and plug it into the table I found in the 2016 Ford towing guide. That code will correspond with the axle ratio that was installed on your Transit van.

Hitch & Tongue Weight Ratings:

I found this hitch and tongue weight ratings chart in the towing guide and thought it was a nice overview of the maximum trailer weight and tongue weight capacity for the 2016 model Transits.

This is the maximum weight for properly equipped Transits, not all of them, so refer to the tow charts for your correct maximum weight rating.

Tow Packages & Options:

There wasn't a whole lot of towing equipment options for the 2016 Transits, as you can see by the table below but worth mentioning, nonetheless. It looks as if you can have the trailer wiring hookups, a hitch receiver, an electric brake controller plug in and a tow/haul mode on the console.

So the tow options are basically just the basics when it comes to towing but it did have the tow/haul option which was not an option for the 2015 Transits.

What Engine Do I Have?

Of course, the most important thing that affected the towing capacity for the 2016 Ford Transit was the engine, as I have stated many times in this article already. Finding out what you have is pretty simple if you pop the hood open and take a peek inside. For those of you who have trouble finding that information in the engine compartment, there is another way to go about it.

You will first need to find your VIN to be able to decipher the data within it. The VIN is located in several places but the three easiest places to find it are on the 1) safety certification label, 2) on your registration card or 3) on your dashboard (on the driver's side).

Once you have your VIN, plug it into a deciphering website like this one and it will spit out all kinds of very useful information about your Transit. At the top of the results, you should see a column that has the engine equipped and in the case of the below example, this Transit had the 3.7L engine equipped.

Van, Wagon and Chassis Cab:

In 2016, Ford made three types of Transit models and these are: the van, the wagon and the chassis cab. These are each different in their own respect and have different tow specs associated with the different models as well.

These three styles of vans are basically designed for different purposes, that is really the difference between the three, which I will explain...

Roof Heights Explained:

Finding anything on the 2016 Transit's roof height options is nearly impossible for all model years so I had to improvise and put together a little something. I grabbed screenshots of the Transit Van and Wagon roof heights, along with the exterior height specs to give you a better idea of what to expect.

One thing that I did notice is that the low roof (LR) and medium roof (MR) heights were more available for most models, while the high roof (HR) was only available for a couple of different models with specific wheelbase lengths.

Additional Safety Notes I Found:

I included all of the most important towing related specs for the 2016 Transits, mainly the tow charts and other specs, but I did find other helpful and important information in the owner's manual that is shown in the couple of images below.

There is a lot of other information that you need to know about in all three of the resources I have linked to at the bottom of this article. I recommend doing your own research as well to get familiar with what Ford recommends, your Transit's limits, etc.

Helpful Links:

I like to include links to all of the resources I used so others can research the information for themselves and for the 2016 Transit's, I gathered all of the information from a couple of different sources. I used Ford's towing guide (2016), the Transit owner's manual and the 2016 Transit brochure for all of the information in this article.

• 2016 Ford Transit Owner's Manual
  
• 2016 Ford Towing Guide
  
• 2016 Ford Transit Brochure (third party resource)