Thought I posted this here too but it looks like I didn't.
Thanks for all your advice and suggestions. Gave me a lot to think about and go over with the wife. Also found an interesting towing whitepaper written by the RVIA that echoed a lot of points made here.
Ended up pulling the trigger on the F150 on Friday. We both really liked the truck, at 43k it is practically new and with the max tow package should serve us well. Been driving it the last few days and it's a great truck and almost as smooth of a ride as the SHO (which I am keeping).
We looked at a lot of floorplans in the under 30 ft range and around 8k GVWR. We're both confident we can find something that will work with the truck and allow us to tow safely.
Thanks again - it is greatly appreciated.