Idaho33

The trailer is a 2012 Springdale 189fl. The brochure specs are 23'7" length, dry weight of 4179lbs, and dry hitch weight of 455lbs. The GVWR is 5955lbs.

My truck is a 2011 F150 XLT Screw W/5.0 and 6.5' bed. It has the 4x4 Off Road package so it's got the 3:73 elocker and it does have the factory trailer break controller. It's not max tow or HD payload. The only upgrade has been adding factory tow mirrors. The ratings for the truck are GVWR 7350lbs, Tow 9100lbs, and GCVWR 15100

For these weights we were loaded up and on our way camping. This is my wife, daughter, and I in the truck. Full tank of fuel (36 gal worth). In the bed is more than enough firewood for 3 days, a generator, a small BBQ and some other misc light weight items. The trailer is basically packed to the gills. Full fresh water tank (that is forward of the axles), 2 brand new 6v golf cart batteries and 2 full propane tanks on the tongue. Full of more than enough food, clothing, games for the 5 yr old daughter, etc.. Basically everything we always take camping.

This was the first trip with the truck so I stopped by the CAT scale and I am concerned that I am right at my limit. I would like some other people's input on the load and the set up of the wdh.


1st weight is truck only (with occupants, stuff in bed, full fuel, WD hitch head in receiver).

Steer Axle = 3700lb
Drive axle = 3040lb
Trailer Axle = 0lb
Gross Weight = 6740lb

2nd pass is truck + trailer without WD bars engaged.

Steer Axle = 3420lb
Drive axle = 4100lb
Trailer Axle = 4760lb
Gross Weight = 12280lb

3rd pass is truck + trailer with WD bars engaged.

Steer Axle = 3660lb
Drive axle = 3660lb
Trailer Axle = 4920lb
Gross Weight = 12240lb


My observations are that the trailer weighs 5500lbs, the tongue weight is 780lbs = 14.2%. And I am at a GVW on the truck of 7320lbs, only 30lbs under the GVWR of 7350lbs. Also, that the WDH did in fact transfer 160lbs of tongue weight back to the trailer.


My questions are does it appear that I have the proper amount of tension on the bars? I'm not sure how I pulled it off but is having exactly the same weight on front and rear axles ideal (it drove very nice)? Also, would it be prudent to try and load the trailer in a way to reduce the tongue weight slightly (say to 13%) since I am close to my GVWR on the truck?

I don't anticipate "needing" much more in the truck, but bicycles or a canoe may be wanted for future trips. I expected the payload limitation so I am just trying to fine tune things. For this trip I was within every single possible rating. From tires, to axles, GCVWR, Truck GVWR, Trailer GVWR...etc. It seems like a perfect fit IF I don't want to take anything else with me. But I hate to feel that I can't take anything else, like a canoe, or maybe even a dirt bike with me in the future.

I would like some opinions on the weights since there is far more experience with F150's here than I have. Does it seem that the WDH is set up as well as it could be?

I have seen many photos and read many posts of people hauling larger trailers than this with an F150 but it seems like this 24'er has me maxed out for boondocking, which is pretty much all we do.

driver444

Your "3rd pass" over the scale is fine. Both axle weights are under what you're rated for, and you're not over on the gross. That's the way I'd run it. Plus, you said it handled great, and that's the whole idea.


Yeah, you could try and tweak it a little to lower your tongue weight, but first, a little heavy on the tongue weight isn't a bad thing, and second, anything you change in weight distribution is gonna affect all those other weights you mentioned. I think you'd be running a little close on your front axle if you did. I'd leave it alone. JMO.


Maybe just load any additional cargo in the trailer behind the axles.

brulaz

Agree with Driver444, that setup looks fine to me. A lot of people run their truck's over-loaded, but IMHO (and Ford's ) it's better not to.

But I've run my truck right at its limits for many miles and the only complaints are the soft suspension and the Ecoboost's poor compression braking.

The suspension thing is sort of a personal preference, with your lighter trailer, there may not be an issue. And with the 5L v8 you'll have better compression braking on steep downhill runs.

And sadly, there's no magic way of increasing your truck's GVWR. It is what it is. You can try to lower your tongue weight a bit, maybe increase your tension on the WDH a bit to put ALL the weight taken off the front axle by the tongue back on (but no more). We're not talking hundreds of pounds though. That won't happen. If you want more payload, you'll need a different truck, or just run over-loaded.

Alternatively, maybe leave some of the firewood at home? That stuff's heavy! Or, if your trailer frame is strong enough, and you're not exceeding the trailer's GVWR or GAWR, build an rear extension and put the firewood there.

Idaho33

The suspension thing is sort of a personal preference, with your lighter trailer, there may not be an issue. And with the 5L v8 you'll have better compression braking on steep downhill runs.

And sadly, there's no magic way of increasing your truck's GVWR. It is what it is. You can try to lower your tongue weight a bit, maybe increase your tension on the WDH a bit to put ALL the weight taken off the front axle by the tongue back on (but no more). We're not talking hundreds of pounds though. That won't happen. If you want more payload, you'll need a different truck, or just run overloaded.

smokeywren

Steer = 3660 minus 3420 = 240 = 31% of 780 hitch weight
Drive = 4100 minus 3660 = 440 distributed off the rear axle, so 340 or 43.6% of hitch weight remaining on the rear axle.
Trailer = 4920 minus 4760 = 160 or 21% distributed to the trailer axles.

So 41/31/21. Ideal is 50/25/25. I would probably play with the tilt of the ball and try to move al ittle bit of the weight from the front axle back to the rear axle.

With the ProPride hitch with a screw adjustment for spring bar tension on my TT, I could probably back off a hair to reduce the weight distributed off the rear axle, to get closer to 50%. But with the Reese Strait-Line dual cam hitch with chain link adjustment on my cargo trailer, one chain link difference would probably be too much, so I’d leave it along. So it depends on how adjustable is the spring bar tension on your WD hitch.

Idaho33

Thanks for the respones about the scale results so far, please keep them comming.

As far as suspension and engine braking go. I had a couple observations on this first trip. Like I said this is TV #4 for this trailer trying to find the perfect fit (v6 SUV, Chevy 1500, Chevy 2500HD) so I have a pretty decent basis to make comparisons.

When I first hooked the trailer up the truck sagged quite a bit from the weight so I was a bit concerned. But after setting up the WDH it was pretty much level and it didn't seem to bounce up and down nearly as much as the other SUV and 1500 did when going over bumps. I was pleasently surprised because that is one of my least favorite sensations while towing and one of the major reasons I went to a 3/4 ton for a while. Secondly, I hauled a couple decent grades on this first trip going over a summit. The truck had plenty of power on the way up (way more than the year 2000 5.3). Then on the way down I played close attention to the engine braking in tow/haul mode.

The F150 did awesome in that aspect. I literally didn't touch the break peddle once going down a few mile long grade. My 2500HD W/6.0 gas had pretty good engine braking also but it seemed to wait for you to apply the breaks to tell it you wanted to slow down. This truck just "seemed to know" you were going downhill and held me at about 50mph the whole way. That was the first time I had ever gone down that hill without using the brakes at all. I would use them a bunch with my old 1500.

Idaho33

Thank you. I appreciate that kind of detail. I have not seen the 50/25/25 guideline yet. I have noticed that most people's scale results show more weight on the rear axle where mine were equal. My wdh has chain links so they make a fair amount of difference. I had all the heavy stuff in the bed forward of the rear axle. Do you think shifting the generator for example rearward would help to achieve that balance? Or is that like trying to fix X with a Y?

Edit: Now that I am looking at the numbers more I think you meant I am at 44/31/21? Would it be possible to increase the weight to the trailer and decrease the weight to the front axle of the truck at the same time? It seems they would go up or down together with more or less tension.

xcntrk

You have all the data necessary to populate this tool that I built which will compare your truck scale numbers to your factory specs and provide some useful easy to read results. All you're missing the front & rear GAWR from the payload sticker on your door. Once you have that, combined with the data you've already posted you can complete the entire calculator and plot all this information out including handy comparisons between the with WD vs without:

https://www.f150forum.com/f82/traile...tility-244126/

xcntrk

I found your specs in the 2011 catalog, so I ran these numbers through the tool for you (see attached).

Some interesting observations:

1. With the WD in place, you're at 100% of your GVWR.
2. Your WD is dialed in very well, some might say too much tension as you're redistributing 26% of the original tongue weight AND your steer axle weight is within 40lbs of being returned to the unloaded weight.

Otherwise everything looks great. If it were me, I would shoot to redistribute some of the payload in the truck bed to the trailer where possible. The trailer GVWR has some room (455lbs) and your truck payload is maxed out (100% GVWR). So you could benefit by shuffling some of that truck payload to the trailer.

Wannafbody

Why did you downgrade from a 2500 HD to a F150? The 2500 HD will ride a lot rougher unloaded but is rated to tow about 16,000 pounds.