Ricktwuhk

Lay down, read the sticker on your hitch.

Buzam

Take up another link on your wdh to transfer some more weight to the front. My guess is your front end is too light.

Magnetic157

As others have noted - look under your hitch for the sticker rating. You'll be surprised to see you are over your tongue rating. A lot of people are concerned about payload but seem to forget that the hitch rating is much lower then the payload and usually gets maxed out before payload does (especially with 15+ XLT / Lariat trucks).

You don't have 1,440 left for tongue, you likely have ~1,200 for tongue and 240 lbs left for bed / cab weight. Was your WDH calculated with the 5,560 number? If not then you have even less weight left. It seems like you are for all intensive purposes mostly maxed out with this trailer and the trailer tongue is over the hitch rating.

For it only being a 26' trailer it seems very heavy - 1,380 lb tongue over an 8,020 lb trailer is a 17% tongue weight Do you have a lot of storage up front or something?

SixShooter14

Water tank? Batteries?

My TT has a 30gal water tank and room for 2 very large batteries at the front, along with the 2 propane tanks on the tongue. I only use 1 battery and keep the tank empty most of the time.

acdii

First, is the trailer level when fully hitched, or is in nose down. If so, then you need to tear the WDH apart and reconfigure it for the truck and trailer.

If it is a round bar hitch like http://www.huskytow.com/product/roun...ution-hitch-2/

One the bar ends the weight will be stamped in them. Sounds like you need 1200# bars.

Second, as others stated, you have too much tongue weight, try moving things rearward in the trailer. You want to get between 10-15% max tongue weight. If you can drop to 12%, that would put you under 1000# tongue weight.

Get the WDH setup correctly and the weight off the tongue and it should tow fine.

You might want to consider replacing the rear shock with Bilstiens or the like to improve handling too. the stock shocks are horrible.

Nature77

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. The trailer and hitch are in storage about 30 min away. We should be able to get out there next week and I can check for info. I feel very encouraged to think the truck can pull a TT and feel safe. Thanks. I'll get back with info in a few days. Really appreciate all of this help.

acdii

Where are you located? Maybe one of the knowledgeable members can help with the setup.

Nature77

acid That is a great idea! Thank you. We live in Palm Springs, California. We've tried to find someone local but we have not found anyone yet. So if anyone knows of someone that could help us with the setup that would be fantastic!

acdii

Well thats a little too far for me, but maybe there are others who know this stuff. Maybe Smokey can make the trip!

smokeywren

Assuming that 8920 pounds is the scaled weight on the trailer axles:


TT: 8020lbs, TT tongue: 1,380 = 9400 gross trailer weight (GTW). IMHO, that's too much trailer for any F-150 that doesn't have the heavy duty payload pkg (HDPP).

1380 divided by 9400 = 14.68% tongue weight. That's within the guidelines of 10% to 15% tongue weight, but since your receiver hitch is overloaded I would shift weight in the trailer from in front of the axles to behind the axles to achieve closer to 13% tongue weight.


Ignore hitch drop and concentrate on front wheel well rise. It sounds like you don't have the spring bars nearly tight enough. Tighten the spring bars until you have front wheel well rise of zero to one-half inch higher with the spring bars tight than the measurement of the truck without the trailer tied on.

As you tighten the spring bars, the rise in the front end will come down and the sag in the rear end will decrease. If the sag in the rear end doesn't decrease enough to make you happy, add a few pounds more PSI to your air bags to eliminate the sag.


Sway bars indicates it was a cheap hitch to begin with. It's okay for weight distribution when properly adjusted, but inadequate for sway prevention/control. I would replace it with one of these:

Equal-I-Zer
Blue Ox SwayPro
Reese Strait-Line
Husky Centerline HD (not the new cheaper TS)

Those all list for around $1,000 and can be found online for $500 to $700 complete with adjustable shank. The Husky CenterLine complete with spring bars will probably cost a bit more than the others. I have used a Reese Strait-Line for years, and now have the much-more-expensive ProPride for my TT. I still use the Strait-Line on my 7k cargo trailer.

The Artic Fox is a four-seasons RV suitable for full-timing. So it's well insulated and heavy. Wonderful RV, but most require more than an F-150 to tow without exceeding any of the TV's weight limits.

Probably just the hitch setup and adjustment, and maybe along with weight distribution within the trailer.

First, let's try to "make do" with what we have.

Get your hitch adjusted properly to result in the front wheelwell height off the ground to be the same with the trailer + tight spring bars as without a trailer. If the front end doesn't come down enough, then tighten the spring bars more until you reach that zero to one-half inch target.

And of course be certain the trailer is level, front to rear, after hooking up on level ground with the spring bars tight. If not level front to rear, adjust the adjustable shank/ball mount to result in a level trailer.

The rear tires on the TV should be pumped up to the max COLD PSI on the sidewall when towing.


- sorry. It's over 1,100 miles from my house to SoCal. I'd love to help, but I'm headed the other direction - to Knoxville - next week.