tomb1269

You could shift weight around. You said you could not put the grill in the trailer, what about installing a receiver to put one of the racks on or seeing if a slidout rack on the back of the trailer is an option for it. You could then put the grill, propane, generator (depending on its weight, or 4000 watt weighs a ton) etc on it verses in the bed? It would also lift a small amount of the trailer tongue due to the leverage effect. I assume, as with most RV trailers that your tongue weighht % is around 13% (or at least estimated based on dry trailer weight vs dry tngue weight). If this is the case (or you get an actual weight to confirm) putting 200-250 lbs on the back of a a trailer of that siae and weight should have minimal effect, but would decrease payload by 250lbs (tongue weight could change as well but I would not expect more then 10 or 20lbs less if any). There is one other item, it can be a pain in the butt but it will give you another 50 to 75 lbs (depending on its weight) and that is to put the spare in a large trash bag and place it in the trailer while towing. You go plenty of space in the trailer, just need to think outside the box on how to shift weight from the truck bed to the trailer, safely, of course. FYI, a medium/large action packer, tote or similar is a great place to put characol and other dirty outside items in but yet be able to store/secure them in the trailer without getting the trailer dirty. The rack/action packer would be a lot cheaper then an axle swap or a new truck................

brulaz

I tow a 7500# trailer (1130# tongue weight) with the Roadmaster Active Suspension. It helps with the wimpy F150 suspension some. Steering is fine. And when not towing, the handling is quicker with less body roll. But I also added heavy duty shocks and LT tires.

When towing I still get some rocking back and forth at stops though. Thinking that the heavy duty front coils that come with the HD Payload pkg would help there. But I'm done with upgrades. My next truck, if there is one, will have the HD Payload option, period.

Last time I weighed, the truck was 200# under GVWR (7500#), 20# under receiver rating (1150#), but 130# over rear GAWR (4050#). Since then I've tightened up the WDH (only 1000# bars) and plan to get heavier 1200# bars, and moved some stuff to the back of the trailer. Pretty sure I'll be under all ratings when done.

Is your WDH returning ALL the weight lifted off the front axle by the tongue? You don't want to go over, and Ford says to only return 50%, but everybody else says 50-100%. Obviously, we both want the max possible off our rear axles.

brulaz

This is good advice and what I'm doing on with our new trailer. But our new trailer's loaded weight is below its GVWR, and it's axle weight is even further below its GAWR.

I couldn't do this as much with our old trailer as loaded, it was very close to both its GVWR and GAWR.

Dunno about the loaded Airstream's GVWR and GAWR ...

In general, I'd feel safer over-loading my truck than my trailer.

smurfs_of_war

As it stands, I drop my trifold, steps, skid plates, spare and jack to cull about 220lbs GVWR. That's only for my peace of mind. I am still stuck over GVWR with my family loaded, but under all axle ratings- even without the weight cull I am under axle ratings. Typically I always follow those rather than the payload since it's impossible to control with a large family of 5- quite frankly I gave up playing weight cop because it was pissing the family off so much. Right now we are going to likely run two vehicles since destinations are close and the oldest two have jobs they have to come back for, but in a pinch I know my axles are under if we decide to take 1 rig.

Do what you can to help what you can- air bags, add a leaf, rubber and shocks- and pilot with the mindset that you are a heavy beast of burden. Nothing will change the sticker, but functionally it can be aided.

brulaz

Yes, I worry more about GAWR than being a bit over on GVWR.

But that's just because I blew a rear axle bearing 'cause of overload.

I was young and listened to the guy who said "Oh, no problem, we can fix that with an extra leaf spring."

smurfs_of_war

We all learn that lesson at one time or another

BIGJIM54

i think i would just bite the bullet and go with a 250 or 350 and not have to worry about whats behind me...it sounds like u are getting close to the tail wagging the dog, and all it takes is one time and u could lose more than the cost of a new truck...just my thoughts...