ultralight contruction

bobndot wrote:
Don't only look at how much it can tow. Be concerned with hitch weight and gross weight rating of the Ford with all your personal stuff and people that you travel with. Take the loaded truck to a scale and weight it. See what YOU have left for axle and wheel payload.
How much can the tires support ?
Often, people buy a TT close to gross towing specs and overload the rear axle of the truck.
As an example : My TT shows a hitch weight of 475# and my real weight varies between 730# empty up to 900# depending how much i cram under the front island bed and pass thru storage. I also sometimes carry bikes on my tongue frame which really pushes me to a place where i don't want to be.
When i bring the bikes, i remove a lot from under the bed and pass thru and carry that stuff in front of my rear axle in the trucks bed.

To ans your question, yes .
With the expedition, I would feel more comfortable towing something in the 5-6k pound weight class (22-26 ft) and that's a real scale weight of your loaded up TT NOT a dry weight which are pretty much useless weights. There is no industry standard of which they are weighed.

Im just mentioning the following because i've been down this road already.
make sure you do a complete bumper to bumper on the TV.
On all my older TV's over the years, i installed SS brake lines, OEM fuel lines, new fuel pumps, the list goes on. I once had a mechanic install a new fuel pump inside the tank and leave the 15 yr old fuel line in place. That repair last a month before that old fuel line broke and i needed to be towed once again.
IMO, the TV is under more stress when towing . When you use a TV thats 14-15 yrs old, its not only the mileage , time becomes the factor that breaks things down due to rust and dried out parts.
Its difficult to keep up with things unless you are a mechanic and know what to look for and have the time and money to do it.

I decided to lease a pickup with a tow package then i bought a TT to compliment the truck.
I now lease trucks and prepay a few hundred dollars for extra miles up front . I use the truck specifically for towing and never have to make repairs, it was just getting too expensive to keep the old 04 truck on the road and feel secure about not breaking down . Things were breaking too often due to its age. It was getting too expensive to have repairs done at unfamiliar repair shops.

It sounds like Ive been over confident in the TV.. I didnt even think about the added stress. I think for $5k Im still gonna "go for it" as Christy Brinkley said in "Vacation". It only has 110k on it.. sucks that I cant do this work anymore.. but I may have those brake lines done.. actually I might be able to pull it off.