2002 Excursion 7.3 LT D 2WD + 2012 JayFlight 32TSBH

I tow a 35ft trailer with a GVWR of over 11,000lbs. The last time I weighed the trailer it was in the 9,200 - 9,500lbs range. I did add a Roadmaster Active Suspension kit which helped with the load. I am over my hitch rating which I am fully aware of but so far no issues. As someone else stated there is a fix/upgrade I can do by replacing the mounting hardware but I've yet to do that. My dry tongue weight was 1,100lbs so I am higher now that I'm loaded up. My axle weights were ok if I recall. I think the only two things I was over on were my tongue and GVWR but not by much.

I've pulled my trailer from the mountains of NC all the way to the beach. We just got back from a trip to the beach with all five of my family members plus my mother and father in law for a long weekend. I even had my front bike rack installed with four bikes loaded on it. Overall the combo drove fine.

I weighed my setup on a local wood mill's scale on a recent trip back from the mountains and I was over my GCWR which is 17,000lbs. If I recall correctly I was sitting around 17,500 to 18,000lbs.

The bottom line is I'm comfortable pulling with a X. I did have to play around with my hitch settings to get it dialed in but I am now all set. We are planning a trip next year to WDW in FL. That will be over 1200 miles round trip. I would not hesitate to leave out tomorrow with my rig. I let my wife drive it for the first time on a trip out last weekend. She did great and said it drove fine. No issues.

I tow a 10,000 lb trailer (1200 lb tongue weight) with an Excursion for many years without issue. I recently added air bags and that took the bounce out of the back of the truck and stiffened up the whole back end. It will tow fine without the air bags but definitely better with them.

*****No truck tows well if suspension components are worn out or out of wack*****

I owned two X's prior to my current vehicle. I towed a 11K GVW TT typically loaded to about 10K. The 2001 7.3 PSD X aor the 2000 V-10 X had no problem towing my TT anywhere I cared to go.
The X is a very capable TV. It can be a bit finicky getting it dialed in due to the soft/weak/weird rear suspension however many have found a cure using roadmaster active suspension, air bags or rear sway bar.
I preferred to use a Hensley hitch, however others may think the Hensley is overkill. I was not 100% satisfied with the overall towing performance in all conditions until I installed the HA.
Bottom line is the X is a beast of a tow vehicle more capable than its mysterious rating however it is a bit tricky to dial in and requires a bit of effort to do it right. I strongly suggest your friends take the time to know all their weights and dial in the hitch properly. A few trips to the scales will be required to do it right. Do not guess at or assume any of the weights
Once the X and hitch are set up correctly they will have a rock solid combo.

I have a 2005 Excursion and they have known suspension problems.Spring wrap is the main proplem.get as much info you can .I corrected my problem but it was expensive.It drives like it should now.

I would like to add a huge thank you to all of you out there who help. If you hadn't taken the time out of your lives to help others and hadn't answered my original posts, it is very likely my friends would have hooked up that trailer, had too light of a TW, gone way over the GVWR, possibly overloaded the TT and gone on their merry way, very likely spelling disaster for their family. I don't even want to imagine what may have happened. I know there is still fear of what could happen, but they are armed with much more knowledge now and have made/are making/will make real changes based on your advice. You may have saved their lives and/or TV/TT. I don't know if all of you realize how much you really do help. Thank you for taking your time that you could be sitting back, relaxing at your camp sites/homes to help us little guys.

Jennifer

I totally get it and understand and am VERY concerned for my friends. I have relayed all of the info, trust me. Thankfully, they will be making short, 4ish hour trips for the first month, staying at each site 3ish days. Then, will park for three months. Then will park for two months and so on. They are not trying to hit every state as some homeschoolers do. They are staying for long periods in several locations and work camping. They are going to put as little as humanly possible into the trailer. They understand the ramifications of this. That will keep the tongue weight needed by percentage a little lower. They know not to go over 1200 on the tongue weight for this vehicle and that this # will vary throughout the trip. I told them about the TW scale and have encouraged them to purchase it. They will load everything up and reweigh & play with heavy dog's location vs. tongue weight at the scales. They will keep the gas tank at 1/2 & take as little in the car as possible. The mom is tiny (100lbs?) & each kid is 40lbs as an average. They range from 4 to 10. I have told her not to exceed the TW limit for the X, the GVWR, and the axle/tire ratings (which I don't know yet - need to find that out). I have told them to be vigilant about these #'s throughout the trip as ages/weights change. I have told them everything you guys have told me. The rest if up to them.

At this point with all the latest info. It sounds like your friends are not ready for an extensive cross country trip. For that kind of trip it will take hundreds of miles to understand and appreciate how a truck and trailer will handle in certain situations, let alone getting the hitch dialed in (that took me at least 500 miles of adjustments to get it where i was comfortable with it). And going from never towing anything to towing a combined weight of 17k plus pounds is a disaster in the making. Towing over the Excursions GVWR is not as big a deal as the complete lack of experience your friends have towing anything. I say either they start doing some local trips to get accustomed to towing or forget the trip altogether! Sorry, but that is as candy coated as i can put it. Not being mean, just honest!

Good luck!

Yes, thank you very much. I understand all of it better now and have communicated this to my friends. I think they fully understand the possiblity of them being at/over their GVWR and TW limit for this vehicle once the hitch is on properly. I have stressed the importance of this info to them.

4johnsonsandadog wrote:
Yes, the WD hitch was on during the weighing - if the TW is now 600 because of the WD hitch, is that still too low, still possibly causing fish tailing? Or is it fine, now that you know the weight was distributed?

The answer is a qualified yes. If the WD hitch was on an over-tensioned (as you describe), it is likely that the tongue weight of the trailer will end up showing that it is in the safe range of 10-15% (as mentioned before, empty trailers usually fall in this range, so it probably will).

That said, you have to also note that this is going to adversely effect the GVWR of the TV. At the initial weighing, there was only 700 pounds left for family and gear. By reducing the torsion on the set-up, more of the tongue weight will be on the TV, which will result in lowering that number even more. If you transfer 200 pounds from the trailer axles back to the TV axles, for example, your 700 is now 500.

As discussed earlier, the simple truth is that there is very little chance that trailer is going to stay within the published ratings of the Excursion. The numbers you are sharing are displaying that truth very quickly. Whether or not that is a problem is an argument for others who are more mechanical than I am, and a decision that only your friends can make.

Good luck!

I asked for the info on the WD/sway system. He told me it said "Pro Series" and had the numbers 113913 and a "B5" on it. I scoured the internet with these #'s/names and THINK this must be the Reese All Pro Series RB2 with the V-5 rating, but I am not sure on that. I tried to call the company, but they are closed until Tuesday. My friends will try to get their hands on the paperwork for me. The TT is parked at a RV park right now.

When they started talking about this trip about two years ago, I did tell them not to buy anything until I passed it by you guys and made sure everything matched up properly. All of this was completely new to them and I am sure they got so much advice and information from so many places and people that they forgot I told them that. I remember being in their shoes. We were completely new to all of this, too - never even towed a U-haul before! It really feels like trying to jump into brain surgery with no prior knowledge and trying to learn by asking the experienced surgeons one little question at a time even though you don't even know what is important to know and ask in the first place. :)

I will get better info on the WD system/sway bars and pics if I can.