New to towing a Travel Trailer

[Jackpine]

If your Torque Converter is unlocked, you are going to get higher TFT readings than you will with it locked. If the higher readings were observed during your "playing" at the parking lot, I'd say this was normal. You're spending a lot of time in low gears with the transmission doing quit a bit of shifting. This is more stressful than a "cruise" condition to the parking lot. And, it will take a bit of time for the TFT to come up if you start out with a cold truck.

When I had my smaller truck, I could see the engine temp really go up quickly if I spent any time mucking around in low gears doing any "backing and forthing". Since there's little forward speed, there's nothing except the radiator fan to cool things off.

- Jack

[TXWolf]

Originally Posted by JackandJanet

If your Torque Converter is unlocked, you are going to get higher TFT readings than you will with it locked. If the higher readings were observed during your "playing" at the parking lot, I'd say this was normal. You're spending a lot of time in low gears with the transmission doing quit a bit of shifting. This is more stressful than a "cruise" condition to the parking lot. And, it will take a bit of time for the TFT to come up if you start out with a cold truck.

When I had my smaller truck, I could see the engine temp really go up quickly if I spent any time mucking around in low gears doing any "backing and forthing". Since there's little forward speed, there's nothing except the radiator fan to cool things off.

- Jack

That makes sense ... I'm glad I have you guys on here to point out the obvious for me! I've been so nervous about this whole thing that my brain seems to want to shut down at the most inopportune moments!

[Jackpine]

Glad to be of help! I'm still concerned that your hitch is not set up right though. Many RV dealerships don't really know what they're doing according to posts on several threads I've looked at.

I think the hitch ball height adjustment is pretty standard, so here's what mine says:

You need to know your loaded trailer's tongue weight to begin with. If you have a 7500-8000# trailer, the tongue weight should be about 900-1200#. I would classify the truck as having "average" springs, so the difference between the height of your ball on flat ground and the inside height of your trailer hitch with the trailer sitting parallel to the ground should be from 1 11/16 - 2 1/4 inches (the ball is that much higher). Then, the equalizing arms and chains should be able to be adjusted so that the compression at the rear of the truck is equal to or maybe just a small amount more than the compression at the front. (In other words the truck rides "level"). (Measure from the ground through the center of the wheel to the top of the fender opening). The instructions for my hitch say if you can't get this, you need a heavier hitch.

They should have given you a copy of the hitch instructions. I'd study them carefully!

- Jack

[88Racing]

I do have to agree with 408F150 super springs concept.

They do help to stabilize and not make the axle compress as much.

I have them on my work truck and it makes driving it through the unfinished terrain at job sites more enjoyable in the 11000 lb truck I drive. I have been running them for 2 years now and no complaints. Even pulling a 24' job trailer is more pleasurable with them on the truck. But unfortunately I don't use a WD hitch at work.

Lars

[TXWolf]

Well, I now have the new stabilizer springs installed on my truck. They're rated for 3000 lbs. I took the truck over to the RV storage to get a visual ... to see if they hold up to the task at hand. Here are a few pics:

Truck and 36', 7330 lb travel trailer:



Back tire without the full weight of the trailer:



Back tire with the full weight of the trailer:



Front tire with the full weight of the trailer:



The rear of the truck isn't dropping NEARLY as far as it did without the helper springs ... but is it still dropping too far? What do you guys think? I didn't take it out for a quick trip around the block because we had to be somewhere else soon. I'll do that sometime this weekend.


On another note ... we took my brothers 21' boat for a trip down to the Gulf Coast last weekend. For the most part, I couldn't even tell that the boat was back there. We drove part of the way using the 87 Performance Custom Tune, and the 2nd half of the trip in Custom Towing Tune. I could definitely tell that I had more power/responsiveness using the Custom Towing Tune. The temps stayed in respectable levels, although I mostly drove on the highways, without much stop-and-go traffic. My gas mileage took a dump (averaging around 8.8 mpg), which makes me start to cringe when I think of how bad the mileage will be with the heavy travel trailer behind the truck. LOL

[gabeyd]

Did you get a picture of the front without the trailer?

It should go down when your trailer is hooked up if your WD hitch is setup correctly. If it stays the same, or goes up, then you need to put more torque on the WD hitch, which would also bring the rear up a bit, as it transfers weight to the front.

Looks good though, nice truck, and nice trailer!

I tow a 32' Cougar with a 2000 Excursion:

[Kwattro]

Nice set-up TX. I recently bought a 31ft Gulf Stream at 6750lbs dry, and currently pulling over 8000+lbs loaded up with our stuff and people. Below the 9200lbs rated capacity for my truck and below the gross combined rating too. Tows GREAT. I have a Reese weight distro hitch and get 1" to 1.5" sag in the back maximum. Essentially instead of the truck having a slight rake unladen, it sits level with the trailer attached. Handles the weight just fine as far as steering and braking but it's a turd on the hills even with the Edge installed. So I'm on the hunt for a supercharger! Our salesman gave us a funny look when I told him we'll pull with an F-150 but I showed him the worked out numbers and even fully loaded with a person in each seat and more gear than needed I still had very good headroom under the GCVW. I love everything about it, just need power to get up the loooooong hills. Happy RVing TX!