Suggestions for improving towing in an F150?

rhetthughes wrote:

handye9 wrote:

APT wrote:
Spend $15 at a CAT scale and adjust your WDH to restore 100% lost front axle weight. That will likely improve handling greatly. I don't recommend rear suspension aids combined with a WDH.

When it's time to replace your tires, get light truck load rated tires, not passenger.

I'll second that !!


Some things to consider:

Tires - Passenger (P) rated tires are designed more for passenger comfort and have softer sidewalls than truck (LT) tires. This allows more side to side flexing.

Recommended tire air pressure - Also designed more towards comfort, the number listed on your loading sticker is lower than what your pressure should be for hauling a heavy load. Passenger tires, with lowered air pressure, are much more susceptible to sidewall flexing.

WDH setup - If your distribution hitch is not restoring enough weight to your front axles, you may experience some steering and handling issues. Air bags and helper springs may improve the appearance of level towing and may give you a softer ride, but, they do not restore front axle weight, nor do they increase any towing and carrying ratings.

Average tongue weight is 12 - 13 percent of loaded trailer weight, and, it is not a constant number. It goes up and down with every load and during every trip. Depending on location (in relation to the trailer's axles), storage areas and holding tanks can have a significant impact on tongue weight. Looking at your floor plan, your trailer has a front pass through storage area. Most of that weight goes directly onto your tongue weight.

Average camping load (pots and pans, dishes, camp chairs, BBQ equipment, groceries, water, etc) is 800 - 1000 lbs. Ten to fifteen percent of this, adds to tongue weight.

Your trailer started out near 6800 lbs, empty. That doesn't include dealer installed options, propane, and quite possibly a battery or two. With an average load, it could have a loaded weight around 8000 lbs and tongue weight in the area of 1100 lbs. Add 100 lbs for your distributing hitch, and your trailer could be eating up 1200 of your 1960 payload. Now, subtract weight of any aftermarket accessories, your family, and cargo. Are you still "well within" your payload?


Scale weights will give you a better picture of how well your truck and trailer are matched, how well your weight distribution is setup, and a more accurate picture of loaded trailer weight and tongue weight. If you do this, do it while on a camping trip. Get your scale weights with family, cargo, groceries, and water on board.

Fist pass - truck / trailer with WD applied
Second pass - truck / trailer without WD applied
Third pass - leave trailer in parking lot and weigh just the truck with the family and cargo on board.

First time hitting the scales, has been an unpleasant surprise for many of us.

When manufacturers determine their "max tow" rating, they have no way of knowing what or who the consumer will be carrying in addition to the trailer weight. The consumer needs to adjust those "max towing" and payload numbers, accordingly. IE: If manufacturer says your max tow rating is 10,000 lbs and you put 1000 lbs of people and cargo in the vehicle, it's max tow rating becomes 9000 lbs.

Manufacturers will also tell you, your individual "max towing capacity" is limited to the weakest link in your overall towing systems. In most cases, that weak link is either payload or the hitch receiver, but, it could also be tires, axles, wheels, brakes, power train, drive train, or suspension.

Also note... None of us have 100% of the info needed to give you an exact fix. We don't know the size of your family, we don't know the condition of roads you are driving on, we don't know the weather you're driving in, and we don't know what your cargo may be.

A while back, we had a gentleman ask about matching up his truck and trailer. With all the information provided, his numbers looked like he was slightly under his specs. He purchased said trailer and came back with questions about handling issues. Turned out, one of his passengers was handicapped and he was carrying 500 lbs of wheel chair equipment. With the added cargo weight, he was overloaded.

This is all great info. Thank you for that. Now to find a nearby CAT scale... The way I came up with my figure (and when I said 800, I miss typed and should have typed 900, but I still may be way off) is as follows: the sticker on my camper said 650 dry hitch, the stuff in the front pass through plus inside bedroom cabinets, under bed, etc is no more than 200 lbs. My WDH with bars is about 100. I have two 20 lb propane tanks and one battery. I then figured some of that front pass through weight gets distributed to the trailer axels. So roughly 900 lbs. The dealership set up the weight distribution and while this may not be perfect, measuring the ground to the top of the wheel well, the back end sank 1.5 inches and the front end sank 3/4 of an inch. So after reading some thoughts here, Am I correct to understand that one thing I want to do is adjust the WDH to get that front end to sink about the same as the back end - so I need to do adjust it so it presses the front down a bit and lifts the back a bit. Would that be correct? Thanks again for yall’s time and help in making sure I get it right. Truthfully, I want to upgrade to a F350 SRW, but that is not an option for our budget at this time.

The idea for WD is to get the front to original ride hight without going over. Or as close as you can..

Sometimes it is what it is.

I have my hitch head at max angle, and bars chained up level. Thats the best I can do. The front is restored 70-80%. I think 160 lbs back to front The rear is what it is and the trailer got about 80 lbs.

You need to get the 3 weights with the truck and trailer at the cat scale.

Use this calculator..

http://towingplanner.com/ActualWeights/TravelTrailerCatScales

My TW is 14%.

I get no sway..

When these p rated tires wear out I am going to an LT tire.

P rated tires load rating does not change with air pressure. 32-35 psi is the norm. I do air my tires to 40 psi though to try to maintain a stiffer side wall..

LT tires have more plys in the side walls and weight ratings change with pressure..

Since I am cheap, I can get the uniroyal laredo tour LT tires for $130 a tire. 265 70 17 with 60 k mike warranty and 2436 lbs @44

https://www.uniroyaltires.com/products/laredo-cross-country-tour.html