Was sent over to this site from Forest River Forum. I have a 2014 F150 SCREW 5.0 3.73 6.5bed. Truck is leveled with 295-70-18 Cooper STT Pros on XD wheels. Truck also has 5 star 91 perf/tow tune.
I have a 28' travel trailer GVW of 7500lbs and use a Blue Ox sway pro setup. My issue is once I get over 55mph the trailer pushes the truck all over. Truck also sits low in the rear by at least 2". I have 3 kids and when we go out we have bikes,wood,grill etc in the bed plus the TT. For my 2014 I know tow rating is 9100lbs and the truck has the power to pull but the handling is the issue. The payload is only 1400lbs and with an 800lb tongue weight I think I am over. My question now is will a new f150 be a safer, better tow vehicle since they have higher payloads or do I need to step up to a 250 for better control?

 

At 7500lbs GVW of the trailer, the tongue weight would be 1125lbs. Assuming you're loaded to at least 7,000lbs, I can guarantee you've exceeded your payload rating between WDH, tongue weight, passengers, and cargo. Take everything out of the bed and put it in the camper. Get the manual for the WDH and then set it up per the manual instructions.

Whether a new F150 will handle that depends on how you option the truck. Safest route is a gasser F250, which will have the payload you're looking for. Are the coopers LT's or P-rated? That makes a difference in control too.....but right now it just sounds like too much weight in the bed and WDH isn't set up right.

 

Did you get the TT weighed? Is that the actual or dry weight or GTWR?
Concur with put as much in the TT and out of the truck bed as possible.
Also, get the Hitch manual, paper or download, and walk thought the setup procedure to make sure it is setup right and doing its job properly.
Travel with empty or minimal water in the TT tanks to save weight.
All that considered, weigh your truck empty and loaded for camping, with and without your TT attached (with and with the Weight Distribution, too, if you can).
Note your GCWR is NOT your GVWR + tow rating, it will be less.

 

You are so far over it's not funny.

3 kids plus 2 parents is say 500 pounds?
stuff in bed is say 400 pounds?
wdh is 100 pounds.

1,400 - 500 - 400 - 100 = 400 pounds. At 13% hitch weight, you could tow 3,077 pounds and you're towing 7,000.

You need to stop towing until you understand math, as you're putting your family and others at risk.

Let's say the kids and parents are only 400 pounds, and the stuff in the bed is only 300 pounds. Now you have 600 pounds of payload left. May loaded trailer is 4,615 pounds. You're still way over.

Unload the truck and fill it with gas and drive over to the CAT scales with the trailer. You want to get it weighed with the trailer connected and properly adjusted. Then you want to go back and take tension off the bars and weigh it again. Then go back with the truck only. See this thread - https://www.f150forum.com/f82/cat-sc...5/#post5237693

When all is said and done, IF you decide to buy a new truck, your focus should be on reading the payload sticker. Do the math ahead of time, figuring out with your current trailer and it's tongue weight, and your family, what payload you need to buy. It won't be any of the top end trims...

 

How are you coming up with your numbers? My GVWR is same as yours but my payload is 1449 per the sticker in the door jam.

 

Because your truck has more crap on it than mind does.

I have 194 more pounds of payload. At 13% tongue weight, that means I could tow 1,492 more pounds that you can.

You should also know that your hitch is a limiting factor. If you loaded only yourself in the truck, the hitch would limit what you could tow.

And if you haven't picked up on it yet, your payload is INACCURATE, because you've modified your truck, likely increasing the weight, and thereby having even a lower available payload than the truck says.

 

I get that the larger tires would hurt some. But trucks with much bigger lifts and tires pull much bigger campers than mine. I meant could you explain your breakdown so I can understand how you came up with your numbers. For my knowledge. I wasnt being a dbag

 

Knowledge IS power.
Knowing your weights for sure allows you to make better decisions on loading the truck & trailer.
Haven't CAT Scaled my current rig yet but CAT Scaled my current trailer with my previous TV, 1998 Explorer. Found out without the WDH spring bars installed, I was a little overweight on my TV rear axle, and with the WDH was overweight on my trailer single axle. Both trailer & TV had weight removed, weighed items as removed to track it and get within specs. Stopped carrying firewood in the Explorer That trailer was purposely bought with GTWR at 75% of my tow vehicle's tow rating! It's really easy to overload for camping.
I weighed my previous rig with a Haul Gauge OBD plug in unit so I know that works adequately, pretty close.
I have weighed my current rig with the Haul Gauge, ready for camping and about a week ago fairly empty after repositioning the WDH head after moving the axle under the springs for more clearance. It is well within weight and WDH install specs.

 

Yep, bigger trucks do that. But they're busting weight capacities/limits all the time.

Every F250 diesel king ranch you see hauling a 35' 5th wheel? Guess what? They've busted payload capacity. Power is not the sole measure of towing capacity. this isn't trucks of 20 years ago that made do with 200-250hp and struggled up overpasses. A Diesel F250 has 1000ft-lbs of torque. And a king ranch diesel F250 fx4? It has like 1900lbs of payload.

 

Okay let's start over with everyone in a civil frame of mind.

Is the 800 lb an actual weighed tongue weight or the published tongue weight of a base trailer without propane and batteries?

The typical travel trailer has a real world hitch weight of 13% which would be 1125 lb + 100 lb for the WDH so that's 1225 lb.

Now the tires/wheels. If they are 12.5 lb heavier per corner that's 50 lb of Payload you lost.

Spray I'm bedliner? That's another 60 lb.

Hard Tonneau Cover? That's another 100 lb.

So basically you may be maxed out before you even get behind the wheel.

We really need to talk about fixing that before talking about things like the adjustment of your current WDH or a better WDH.

Given your trailer (and what I suspect your real hitch weight looks like) and the weight of your family you likely need to consider ordering a Screw 157 HPP (Which is limited to no more than a XLT 301A Package). Or an F250 Gasser or F350 SRW Diesel if you want a loaded up truck. Believe it or not Payload can be surprisingly low on a F250 Crew 4x4 Diesel as the engine/drivetrain is heavy.