Any ideas to enhance my existing truck?

 

thanks for time. Looks like I go truck shopping. LOL

 

A lot of us with heavy trailers have upgraded the suspension with helper springs or airbags, put on heavy duty shocks, and replaced the P-rated tires with LT-rated. These all help with the ride, but don't increase your payload, rear GAWR, or receiver hitch rating.

But for two trips a year, that might just be all you need.

Unless, of course, you really are just looking for an excuse to get a new truck. Then I'd recommend an F150 with the HD Payload option, since you don't like the F250s.

 

Well I did some checking to upgrade the truck we went down to ford dealer and not to bad to upgrade items. so I think I will go that way. Already got LT tires. So now I am getting heavy duty package installed and 14000 equalizer hitch.

 

Curious what the Heavy Duty package includes.

 

According to them it was Springs, Struts and Shocks and few other items I forgot I will update when I call them again.

 

Well after going to our local ford dealer that we have bought three cars from. They said like you all said to go with Air Lift. So we are doing that with the 1200 equalizer/stabilizer hitch and we are good to go. While I was at it I upgraded the brake trailer from stock to the curt reflex one. Want to thank everyone for suggestions. They said with these upgrades we should be good to go.

 

The frame is not fixable at a reasonable cost. You can go with LT tires in load range E, but your wheels are not rated to handle the additional weight. So you need new wheels as well as new tires.

So you need new wheels that will each handle over 3,200 pounds@ground. The Ford 7-lug wheels that came with the HD Payload Pkg won't fit your 6-lug hubs, so you'll have to find 6-lug wheels that will handle 3200 pounds of weight per wheel. Good luck.

The heaviest-duty tires Ford offered as an option other than the load range E tires that came with the HD payload pkg are LT275/65R18C. You can mount those on your stock 18" wheels, but those tires have only 2,535 pounds weight capacity @ 50 PSI. That's no better than your stock P-series tires, which have 2,601 pounds weight capacity @ 44 PSI.

So if you change wheels, tires, shocks, springs, etc, you'll spent a lot of money but still won't have the frame that's part of the HD Payload pkg.

Best idea is to give up and order enough truck to handle your max expected load.

 

I don't know what he has, but the SCREW has the same heavier frame as the HD payload. The rear axle and bearings are about the only part not easily upgraded. I have Max Tow, added SuperSprings and Bilstein HD shocks for a much improved towing experience.

 

As SkiSmuggs says, the same frame is used on some models.

But you'll be missing the 7 lug axle which has a higher GAWR rating.

Agreed that its definitely a better proposition to just get the right truck from the get-go.