Wagnbat

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest. Not new to F150's as a series, as I had a 2001 F150 from 2002 to 2007 as a family vehicle in Maryland. It was a Supercrew Lariat 4x4 with an offroad package and a camper shell. It was pretty awesome. We sold it because the military moved us to Guam and would only move one standard sized car.

So the misses drives a 2011 Edge and we decided I should trade my 2016 Camaro in for a truck so we can get a family boat. We are 1 mile from a huge lake and less than 5 miles from Puget Sound (huge protected seawater bay).

We were set on a used 2015 Lariat or King Ranch, but found a 2018 STX Supercrew with no miles for a much better price than the used, no warranty, fancier trim trucks we were originally focused on. We (the misses and I) have accepted that this will be more of a leatherman (multi-tool) than an additinal travel vehicle (what she wanted out of the King Ranch) because we already has a nice SUV (2011 EDGE SEL) the family can use for travel purposes.

Kirkland Ford is working a recall on the truck, so I pick it up Friday. I plan on buying and towing a 2.5 ton boat from Portland to Seattle with it this weekend. Is there anything I *need* to know and check before hooking the boat up or doing the towing?

I've not owned a proper truck in 11 years, so I am open to all tips and critiques.

dodgeman1

Hopefully the truck is coming with some kind of tow package. I would say the boat is right on the fringe of needing a weight distributing hitch also. If it weighs less than 5000 lbs you probably don't need one. Anything more than a 5000 lb trailer or 500 lbs of tongue weight should have a WDH.

Also a boat that big should have trailer brakes. A lot of boats come with surge brakes. If not you will want to make sure you have a brake controller on the truck.

You can also set up the trailer when you first hook it up with the menus. You put in what kind of trailer, what brakes etc in the menu. Also you can put stickers on the trailer so the backup assist will work.

Wagnbat

I am not 100% versed on the towing aspects of the STX... but it comes with the class IV hitch with the 4 and 7 pin connectors... It does not have the trailer brake controller on the dash which has me a little concerned (maybe the brake control is automatic, even without the manual control?)....

The boat that I am looking at has a weight of 4200 lbs, as reported by the owner. 1983 Bayliner Ciera 2452.

dodgeman1

A lot of trailers for boats have what is called surge brakes. They are hydraulic and just work of the stopping action of the truck on the hitch of the trailer pushing on a hydraulic reservoir and powering the brakes. If not its heavy enough it should have electric brakes. The weight varies by state but it is usually any trailer over something like 2500 lbs. If you have a tow package its easy to add a brake controller at the dealership. You just need to check on the boat trailer and figure out how its setup.

Phil48315

Welcome to the forum !
Share a pic of the truck.
The dealer installed the factory brake controller in my truck when i bough it for under $150 if i remember correctly.

Wagnbat

I did confirm the boat trailer has surge brakes. That was quite a relief.

Don't have a proper pic to share yet. Working with Ford Exec and my dealer to get the correct equipment installed to support the OEM TBC.

Franchi Motorsports

iTrader: (9)

Welcome to the F-150 forum! Glad to have you join us.