chimmike

because why give it away when you can make an additional package including it and charge more?

Porsche is king of 'packages', check out some of their options and prices sometime hahaha

smokeywren

I agree, especially with the "at least" part. But if you plan to tow more than a row boat, then why not get the max tow pkg (53C)? It includes everything in 53A, plus the 36-gallon gas tank, electronic-locking rear axle, the integrated trailer brake controller (ITBC), plus a slightly stronger receiver hitch. (The max tow spes say "upgraded rear bumper" with no mention of the receiver hitch, but the stronger receiver is part of the "upgraded" rear bumper.) Max tow requires the 3.5L EcoBoost engine, but you want that anyway for serious towing duty.

Many buyers already have a trailer brake controller that they are happy with, and don't want to pay the extra for the ITBC. The ITBC is much superior to any aftermarket trailer brake controller, but lots of buyers don't know that. Or they already have an ITBC on their trade in, and they plan to transfer it to the new F-150.

Along that same line of thought, the trailer tow mirrors are not part of either the regular or max tow pkg. They were included in the max tow pkg for a few years, but Ford took them out of the max tow pkg and made them a stand-alone option a couple of years ago. Any trailer that's taller and wider than the tailgate needs trailer tow mirrors for safe towing. So you have to be wide awake when you buy your new F-150 to be certain it includes trailer tow mirrors.

acdii

Or have a set of aftermarket slip on/clip on mirrors like **** or the other brand I can't think of. They work just as well, but have smaller mirror area than the factory tow mirrors, in case you find a lot truck that has all you want minus the mirrors.

Lone Star Guy

SORRY - WRONG THREAD - OK, I did go with the Power Stop Z36 pads. Ran into a few odd issues, like crappy metal covered lug nuts that didn't like any size impact socket(!), IMO torqued way too tight (?) by Discount Tire, and first time doing electric brakes, so had to run and get a proper tool for turning AND pushing in on the rear calipers. It was worth it.

At any rate, the only thing that I have some concern about and hopefully it's not a real issue, is that the new rear pads are so thick (of course, they are new!) that the feature that fits into the metal springs, at least on the outside rear pads, sits outside the hole in the spring. See photos. Obviously, once they wear down a bit the will slide into the hole, but I just want to be sure it's not a big issue. Thoughts? I've done pads off and on for decades but don't recall ever seeing this. Thanks!

Flamingtaco

Those holes are there only to remove excess material, nothing it supposed to fit inside them. You lift up on the end of the spring a bit and slide the pad under, and the spring simply pushes down on the pad to eliminate vibration:

Lone Star Guy

Makes sense. I kinda thought it must not be significant. I've had pads kind of 'snap' under the springs sometimes but not these. Thanks!

Flamingtaco

There's only 15,000 different iterations of these noise springs!