brulaz

Hauled our trailer over the Newfound Gap in Great Smoky Mountain National Park the other day. In the past we've always gone West to East and never had a problem. But this time it was East to West and it turns out the Western slope is *very* different. It has a lot more 20mph hairpin turns. No problem going up it with the Eco but coming down was a different story.

Starting off at the top I left it in Tow/Haul, but soon realized that forcing it into 2nd Manual was necessary. But even in 2nd the truck would accelerate to 40mph between the 20mph hairpin turns unless you worked the brakes. First gear seemed too low, you can't really get much higher than 15-20 mph without the engine screaming.

I had adjusted the trailer brakes just before the trip and the Brake Controller was initially set at 7.5, but that was where warm brakes would just begin to lock up. After the trailer brakes got hot half way down the hill, I set the controller up to 10 and could manually activate the trailer brakes without any lockup. The trailer has two 5200# axles with four 12" drum brakes. Should be enough for our 7500# (less the 1100# tongue weight) trailer.

About half way down the hill, we could smell the truck's brakes as they over-heated. Can't really say that they ever felt too soft or unsafe, but they were definitely cooking. I started to manually use the trailer brakes separately to let the truck's brakes cool off a little bit.

We made it to the bottom ok, without any damage as far as I can tell (?). But I should probably have pulled over and let things cool down.

Next time, I will start in 2nd, have the Brake Controller set to 10 before starting down and look more carefully for a pull-off spot about half way down. The truck is loaded to within a couple of hundred pounds of its GVWR, but it should be able to handle this better. What I'd really like is another gear between 1st and 2nd.

packplantpath

Yikes! Yes I was always taught to alternate trailer and truck brakes. If you had started with that tactic you might have made it with no overheating. Maybe. Maybe not. Let us know if you do it again!

But engine braking is the weakest link for the eco by far as we all know.

A7B2FX4

Do not know if the brakes on the F150 have been improved since my 12 Eco. Shortly after taking delivery I had a 4300# trailer in tow and made 4 stops on level ground from 60 or so within 5 miles and the truck brakes were cooking. No I didn't have any trailer brakes but I thought the F150 could handle it so I could get the trailer to a repair shop. Was I wrong!

xcntrk

Yeah sounds like a scary situation. I too have noticed on large hills, dropping down and using the engine compression to try and slow the rig doesn't really work with a TT in tow. It can still accelerate and you have to be careful not to get too high in RPM as there's no rev-limiter keeping you from overrunning the RPM.

Do you have hill assist on your model? I'm not sure if it helps in this situation as I think it has a 25mph max speed limit and still uses the brakes anyway.

As long as you're not experiencing brake fade then I think you'll be just fine. I don't know what makes up the OE pads, but the conventional organic brake pad material gets slick under high-heat conditions not to mention fluid expansion, rubber lines, etc. So if you weren't experiencing brake fade then I think you still had plenty of brake left.

Norotso

This is a real problem for the EB, we towed to Durango last summer and had the same problem, the engine is too small to really provide any engine braking in low gears. I think Ford was so focused on being able to get to the top of the hill first under load, that they forgot about the getting down part…

raisin

Been there done that. If you could have stopped you should have. But I've been there and sometimes you can not get into a pulloff because of parked cars. Using the trailer brakes alone and alternating helps. Getting on brakes and bringing speed below normal allows more time off to cool brakes. Make sure A/C is on to add engine drag. With after market brake controller I adjust on the fly.

Make sure trailer brakes are adjusted properly. Most don't have self adjusters.

brulaz

Thanks for the good advice/comments, folks.
- No Hill Assist, it's only a 4x2
- Yes, many of the pull-offs were packed with cars. It was the first day of spring down there. And construction took out others. But there was at least one that I should have stopped at, in hind sight.
- Agreed, for the amount of low-end torque the Eco generates to get you up that hill, it sure doesn't have much compression to help you get back down it. A diesel would do much better.
- I put self-adjusting brakes on my old trailer when the originals got greased by a leaky seal. May do the same with these if/when that happens.
- Just occurred to me that I should probably check the torque on all the lug nuts. That much heat might have loosened some.
- Hopefully we'll be doing the same trip next spring so I'll report back then how it goes. Meanwhile if anybody else is travelling up and especially DOWN the Great Smokies Newfound Gap, west side, I would like to hear how it goes. And elsewhere. All I can say is: be prepared!

boostup

Glad nothing bad took place! Time to get those brakes replaced

ANamer

I would definitely upgrade your brake pads at minimum. I always hear good things from Hawk pads throughout this forum. You should look into their SuperDuty line(hey, designed with Ford trucks in mind ). It says the SD line is built for 1 ton trucks and 1/2 tons towing excessive loads. Figure it's a simple thing to try first in your upgrading brake system.

brulaz

Currently the brakes are working fine. But I'll have them checked soon when she goes in for an oil change.

Not sure if different pads would help with the heat. But maybe ceramic pads with drilled/slotted rotors might help.