Your brand new truck will pull and support the trailer fine, even if you're on the margins. Make sure you tow at least a few local trips before you attempt cross country next year, you need to test and prove your setup. If you have squat address it first with WDH tension and if still problematic look into rear suspension helpers like RAS or helper spring. Note that your 9.75 axle is rated for 4050lbs on some configs, the difference is solely the rear spring code. Check under your driver side door for the frame sticker. It is almost certainly HD but check just in case it is HPP. I'd go full synthetic oil and rear diff fluid for your cross country trip along with 91+ octane. Your truck will survive without but you want it to protect it as much as possible from the severe duty you'll be putting on it. Consider an oil change at 2000-3000 miles if those miles are all towing. When loading your trailer with heavier cargo the best place to put weight is over the tandem axles and as low to the floor as possible. Adding weight at the back or towards the tongue is worse than over the axles. Use tow/haul mode but experiement with locking out gears on the highway to reduce boost and help keep the engine coolant circulating. With 3.31 gearing 7th gear might be perfect for this, it is direct drive 1.0 ratio so mechanically efficient and should put you in the sweet spot of low-mid 2000 rpms. For towing inflate your rear tires close to their maximum cold psi if that value is higher than your door sticker says. Front tires don't need it unless you've dialed your WDH to transfer a lot of weight to the front. Use a cat scale to check.

 

At 12% tongue you should have around 750 payload left. Some documentation says you can add 150lbs for a driver. I would encourage you to load up and scale it at a truckstop, you can get the phone app and drive onto a CatScale for a few $. That way you can adjust anything without guessing. The picture you posted shows your weight capacities. If you are getting close to max consider adding a few psi to the rear tires.

As far as your 3.5 ecoboost 3.31, it should have the heavier duty 9.75 axle. I definitely wouldn’t increase the tire size over stockish height of 33” and would stick with a tire under 119 load rating because of the deadweight. The raptor tires are 34.4” tall and pretty heavy.

If you want my opinion I would put some Bilstein 5100s on all 4 corners and set the fronts to around 1 inch or less. Run some offset 18s and the Tremor 275/70 general grabber tire. That and your WD hitch should work ok. Close enough to stock height 20s and 18s that you probably do not need any extra tuning etc.



Also the 3.5 F150 goes to 3.55 unless you option a certain heavy payload package and then goes to 3.73. That package is pretty restrictive on options, its for work trucks.
Your expedition had 3.73 gears.

 

The tow rating calculation includes a 150 lb driver. There is no allowance for it when calculating payload. Realize too that all the stuff you add (RAS, Bilsteins, heavier tires) eat even more payload. All great enhancements, just be aware of their impact.

Also, not all trailers are created equal. Mine runs tongue heavy at just over 14%. My 8500 lb loaded trailer's scaled TW is 1200 lbs.

As mentioned, you really need to load up fully for camping, including all passengers and gear in the truck, fill up the gas tank and hit up a CAT scale. Take 3 weights: Truck & trailer together with WDH bars disconnected, truck & trailer together with WDH bars connected and truck only. After that you can do the math and take all the guesswork out.

 

I’ve been researching, after hearing some suggestions, what do you guys think about RAS, Ras with sumosprings, ras with bilstein 5100’s all four corners vs airbags?

I’ve done research Firestone, air lift which people say are the best which would cost around $1100 with wireless compressor. Then also saw the rough country airbag kit with compressor which isn’t wireless but costs around $710. The cost of RAS and bilsteins is around $1000 and RAS with sumos is around $1100 if not more.

Just wanted your opinions. Like I stated before my expedition towed my trailer with no issue, I live in NJ and traveled to Boston, Maine Rhode Island last year. Couple weeks ago I went to West Virginia on Virginia boarder and the wind and the truck squatting had me white knuckling the steering wheel. So I wanted to switch for f250 but you can’t lease them and the buying payment was way too much. I’m stuck with the trailer that’s why I’m looking for options with f150. I took a hit on the expedition but I’m willing to invest some money into this f150 to make sure it’s fits out needs for next 3 years.

if you have any insight please share, thank you.

 

The cost of 3 weighs at a CAT scale is about $25. Since you have both the truck and the trailer, why not make that your first step in trying to resolve the issue? It could simply be a loading and/or hitch setup issue.

 

Yeah don’t do any mods try it first.

 

 

So today I towed the trailer, the truck did sag, not as much as my expedition but more than I expected. The truck was also more bouncy than my expedition. When towing on the expedition the steering was lighter because of the sagging.

The f150 also feels little light but not as much as the expedition. The pick up is obviously not as fast because it’s not a 3.73 rear end like expedition was. I’m just comparing it to the expedition because that’s the only thing I have towed with.

But other than that it’s towed the trailer with no issue.I like the f150 feels stable definitely has the power.

Now for the sagging, should I still do something? If yes then what? The ras or Ras with timbren or airbags? Or what else do you recommend ?



Also did anyone else ever regear their rear axle?

 

Something is not right with that printout. Both the steer axle and trailer axle weights look way off (presuming you were towing your 8k gvwr travel trailer), especially steer axle just no way it's only 300lbs lol.

 

There is something wrong with that scale tag, your from axle can't be 320lbs.

You also need 2 and ideally 3 passes over the scale, Truck by itself, truck and camper with WDH engaged. and the 3rd truck and camper without WDH engaged

I strongly suggest getting the hitch properly set before considering any mods