Finally Hooked up the new F350 to the Trailer
I've had my '16 F350 6.7 Powerstroke for about two months now and finally had the opportunity to hook it up to the travel trailer yesterday between a break in the rain and not having to work. The main reason I pulled the trailer out was to make sure I didn't have to make any adjustments to the WDH when I transferred it from the old truck. Fortunately I didn't have to touch it at all. There is some fine tuning I could have done, as all hooked up, the trailer is about 1" lower in front than the rear, but I plan on upgrading to taller tires, which should have the trailer set perfectly level.
Since the trailer was already hooked up and I saved time not having to mess with the hitch, I decided to take it for a quick drive to the closest scales about 15 miles away to get a feel for the new setup before taking it on an official outing. The 6.7 pulls like a freight train and is night and day difference from my old 7.3 in terms of power and comfort. I couldn't believe I was merging on the freeway at the speed limit and not even pushing the truck. In my old truck, I would have had that thing wrung out to get up to freeway speeds on that same ramp.
I was surprised by a lot of the weights I recorded, especially the tongue weight of 1,100 pounds for the trailer! This is with the trailer fully winterized, all tanks empty, and no clothes or food onboard. A full fresh water tank would probably reduce the tongue weight slightly since its aft of the rear axle. I find it really funny that this trailer was advertised as 1/2 ton towable when I bought it, yet the 1,100 tongue weight would use up all the cargo capacity of most 1/2 tons before loading people or gear into the truck!
Some other interesting weights include the truck by itself with a typical load of camping gear in the back coming in at a surprising 8,850 pounds and the whole combination weighing in at 14,900. I weighed all the axles individually both with the WD bars installed and removed and found that with the WD bars installed, I only lost 150 pounds of weight off the front axle of the truck versus empty and the trailer axles came in at 2,500 lbs for the front and 2,650 for the rear. It seems odd the rear axle of the trailer is carrying more weight, but I'm well within the 3,000 lb axle rating. With no WD bars attached, I lost 250 lb off the front axle of the truck and the rear axle carried an additional 400 pounds.
I knew I wasn't going to run into any capacity issues with the new truck, but it's nice having a general idea of where things stand. Now I can't wait to take it out on its first real trip!
Below are a couple pics I took yesterday with everything hooked up:
Since the trailer was already hooked up and I saved time not having to mess with the hitch, I decided to take it for a quick drive to the closest scales about 15 miles away to get a feel for the new setup before taking it on an official outing. The 6.7 pulls like a freight train and is night and day difference from my old 7.3 in terms of power and comfort. I couldn't believe I was merging on the freeway at the speed limit and not even pushing the truck. In my old truck, I would have had that thing wrung out to get up to freeway speeds on that same ramp.
I was surprised by a lot of the weights I recorded, especially the tongue weight of 1,100 pounds for the trailer! This is with the trailer fully winterized, all tanks empty, and no clothes or food onboard. A full fresh water tank would probably reduce the tongue weight slightly since its aft of the rear axle. I find it really funny that this trailer was advertised as 1/2 ton towable when I bought it, yet the 1,100 tongue weight would use up all the cargo capacity of most 1/2 tons before loading people or gear into the truck!
Some other interesting weights include the truck by itself with a typical load of camping gear in the back coming in at a surprising 8,850 pounds and the whole combination weighing in at 14,900. I weighed all the axles individually both with the WD bars installed and removed and found that with the WD bars installed, I only lost 150 pounds of weight off the front axle of the truck versus empty and the trailer axles came in at 2,500 lbs for the front and 2,650 for the rear. It seems odd the rear axle of the trailer is carrying more weight, but I'm well within the 3,000 lb axle rating. With no WD bars attached, I lost 250 lb off the front axle of the truck and the rear axle carried an additional 400 pounds.
I knew I wasn't going to run into any capacity issues with the new truck, but it's nice having a general idea of where things stand. Now I can't wait to take it out on its first real trip!
Below are a couple pics I took yesterday with everything hooked up:
