Followup and big thank you's are due. Wicked Ace many thanks! And other's with ideas and a desire to hep, thank you too.

Armed with this information (including SSM 47589), I took to Battlefield Ford and explained the issue. Which is slight with truck only, but decidedly worse while towing or loaded to about 600 lbs or so. I offered to bring the trailer or find a way to load it up. Plus it needs a rutted or highly crowned roadway. US 29 in front of the dealership is not the road to try it out on. On a beautifully flat and smooth roadway, most people would not detect an issue. I can, knowing what to 'look" for. Their response after driving it, was they couldn't duplicate my concerns. The SM did say they looked at alignment, but the ticket doesn't show it. They also performed a routine oil change service.

What kind of surprised me (not really) was they couldn't find the SSM. Again turning to the links Wicked Ace provided, I copied and attached to an email back to the the service manager and they kept it another day.

I had explained it would be decidedly worse while towing or loaded to about 600 lbs or so. I offered to bring the trailer or find a way to load it up. Plus it needs a rutted or "properly" crowned roadway for evaluation.

They apparently performed an "IVD calibration" and the problem is solved. It towed the cargo trailer over 1000 miles just like it should.

What I know now... Tire pressure should be at or near 35 psi as showing on sticker... raising or lowering only makes the issue worse... raising much more so. Tire rotation / tire location doesn't matter either. It is possible that the rim and tire size makes the problem worse, but I don't think the tires are at fault. Bottom line, until the truck systems were adjusted or calibrated, I didn't want to throw money at the issue. I had already wasted money having the Airstream aligned and $1700 on a Hensley hitch to make towing the Airstream more tolerable. In fact, with the Hensley I felt only a slight problem; apparently it so good that it attempted to help the truck drive straight. Like it was battling the steering fault.

My cargo trailer - toyhauler, (maybe 5000 lbs - 550# tongue weight), which I tow "on the ball" was horrible. It was a constant fight to keep in centered in the lane. Towing it to VA, was the last straw that drove me, literally and figuratively to that Ford dealer.

Again, thanks for the help.

 

I saw what you said they did "IVD Calibration" and had to do a search as I hadn't heard of it before. What I've found looks interesting and I'll look further when time permits. I'm still running with the PDC disabled as the last time I took had it active and pulled my fifth wheel the 12 miles to the dealer was enough to tell it wasn't good. Thanks for the update.

 

Dirt roads? (just kidding)

My 70 Mustang did that until I put a set of Michelin's on.
As most say - look hard at the tires...

 

That calibration cured it.

 

I'm sure your happy that it's fixed but I'm trying to grasp the reasons why. Did you have a code set or something they found that they needed to perform the calibration? I was reading through this.....https://www.midtownautoservice.net/b...ics-ivd/.....a pretty good explanation of the ABS system. everything I have seen, including Forscan threads points to DTC codes being set for one reason or another and the IVD calibration needed to reset the entire ABS system. Funny thing is you are the only one I've even heard about needing the IVD. All the searches I've done turn up Explorers, expiditions and even rangers all of older vintage. I can't find any recent vintage posts or web pages.

 

No codes. Apparently the electric steering assist that compensates for road crown was fighting me rather than helping. IVD calibrate is what they wrote on the ticket / invoice. Didn’t charge me for that work. All I know is it was horrible about pulling left and right and now it isn’t. I am curious exactly what they did. Or what IVD actually is all about.
thanks

 

Nice to know. makes me wonder if newer models and update to EPAS throw a code for this sort of condition. IE if it fights with the driver input for some period of time it should recognize there is some conditional fault.


Glad it's resolved.

 

AdvanceTrac is the PR name for IVD.

IVD does not 'fight' the driver. The system looks at user input to determine where we want the vehicle to go, and various sensors to determine where the vehicle is actually going, and engages ABS and steering bias in an attempt to make the vehicle go where it thinks the driver wants to go. If it is not calibrated correctly, it will not go where the driver wants, but that's not the same as countering the driver's inputs. In the OP's case, sounds like it was over-reacting to one of the sensors, maybe steering position or an accelerometer, as ruts tugged on the truck.

 

What I call fighting me is a figure of speech. It was like driving an old POS. Ruts caused the truck to steer right, let’s say, I countered with a graceful and measured left. It then steered too far left, so I brought it gracefully back right. And so on and so on for thousands of miles. The white knuckle aspect was when making a lane change combined with ruts it would rattle me. I am not talking severe ruts either. Ive owned dozens of new cars and trucks and this takes the cake. Ford can take this high tech crap and put it where the sun doesn’t shine. Apparently they don’t know how to build it and set it up correctly, then the service people tell you there’s nothing wrong. And to get it fixed we have to find their own SSM and practically force them to do something. I bet there won’t be a next Ford for me.
Clint

 

hmmm.