If you've watched some towing reviews, you'll quickly realize that 9k pounds for the turbo max is extremely generous. I'd put it closer to 6000-7000.
You can check out Alex Getty on YT, he does a far better job with towing reviews than TFL. He's compared almost all the half ton engines now using the same trailer and trailer weights, IIRC the little 4 was screaming pretty hard at the end of the review, almost flat road and doing 4k+ RPMs. That was at 110 km/hr, if you tow closer to 100 km/h (60 mph) then it might do better but it was wrung out really bad.
These are the only half tons I'd consider at this point:
- Ram 5.7 hemi with ZF 8 speed (lifter tick a very small possibility, best transmission in the segment)
- Ford 5.0 coyote with 10 speed (5.0 has DoD system now too unfortunately, 10 speed can be problematic)
- Ford 2.7 EB with 10 speed (turbo is a con for me, and there is that same 10 speed)
- GM 3.0 diesel with 10 speed (transmission can be problematic)
- 5.7 Tundra with 6 speed (very old school, rides rough, old tech, low tow rating and payload, but will run 1 million miles)
Those are about it. If you didn't need to tow, the NA v6s from Ram and Ford are probably worth looking into, but they're definitely not doing 9k pounds.
Here is the video from Alex towing 8k pounds with the turbo max in case you're interested: