Hi Jim,

I was thinking about you last night, wondering how your bed build was going. Haven't heard from ya for a few days. Hope all is going well.

Jim, I assume your cc has the little paddle lever on the dash with the + and the - on it. If I remember right, you won't get an indication that you have a trailer hooked up unless - you have a trailer hooked up. That being said, can you back up to your 5er and just hook up the pigtail so your truck thinks you have a tag along? If not it's pretty hard to set the "gain", or amount of trailer braking you desire. Once you can hook up your trailer pigtail, you will see an option to name the trailer and set a "gain" amount. For my 18K 5er, I hav it set at 7.5 gain. If I get in traffic, I reach down on the dash and jack it up to 9 just to give me that little extra stopping power I might need for that guy down in Texas.

You will quickly find the gain setting is very easy to adjust. Whatever you last bumped it to is where it will start off next key cycle. Also, when I'm in heavy traffic, I like to run in tow/haul mode. It keeps the tranny pressures up so I have positive shifts, a little more hmmf when I need it, and a little better braking and downshifts to help gear me down. You are going to love pulling with this thing, Jim. I can't wait to hear about your first tug. Keep us informed, my friend.

Ron

 

Hi Ron. Great to hear from you. Yeah finally got the aluminum flatbed installed Thursday. My RDS tank came last week. So, now I finally can get busy hooking up all the goodies I've been buying. Airtex fuel pump, wix fuel filter/water separator, electric fuel shutoff, rv plugs, twin 36" underbed aluminum boxes, autometer fuel gauge and auxillary bed lights. I've been buying all this stuff during the five months since the truck ordered. So, now I can finally get with it. It will be some time before the first 5er trip. Just started wondering about the brake controller. I kept my BrakeSmart off my last truck, just in case I didn't like the Ford controller. It was a fantastic controller. We'll see how the Ford controller does in a few weeks. I'll get some pictures when I get her done. Can't wait to see how it does with the 5er. I only have 575 miles on truck. Maybe now I can finally get some miles on it, that is when I get all this stuff on. Hope everything going OK with you thanks for the help!!!!

 

I purchased a new trailer a year ago with electric brakes. I tried a few stops at gain 10, and the tires would never lock up, even with the trailer empty. So I went out to a country road and did about 15 high speed stops with the trailer, and by the last stop my tires were sliding at gain 5. I just needed to break in the brakes (if you know what I mean.) You might try this with your trailer. They work great now.

 

Jim, why dont we see any pics in that gallery. Your gonno likethe ibc as its tied into the traction control, trucks antilock, antiskid, trailer sway control, and believe it or not, the integrated exhaust break, everything knows the load and the breaking required. Also, you have to set the ibc once like said above, it will be fine, mine has been on 8.0 for 5 years now. When it doesnt work as good, i adjust the trailer breaks.

Cant wait to see truck, deck, toolboxes, rds tanks ect, need pics, have to live vicariously, as i am not allowed a new truck and trailer for a while.....

 

Hi Mike. I spent this afternoon mounting the auxillary fuel tank's electric shutoff, fuel filter/separator and fuel pump. Still have fuel lines to run and tank to mount and plumb. Then I have to make mounting brackets for the underbed boxes. The boxes are 36L x 20D x 18H. Thou they are aluminum, they are pretty heavy. I havn't figured out how to mount them yet. I want them solid, trying to figure out how to make brackets to go under boxes intead of drilling holes thru the sides. I'm slower than molasses, so make take awhile. When I get it all done I'm going to get pictures. I got some of the bare truck/chassis, so will have before and after pictures.

I got to thinking about the brake controller this week and realized I hadn't even given it a thought about how it works. The only brake controller I've ever had is BrakeSmart. Thou you can adjust the gain on the controller I never touched it, just let it set itself. It always worked flawlessly. I'm sure the Ford controller will be fine, I'll just have a learning process for awhile.

My bed installer did an awesome job making the mounts for the Super 5th hitch, I'll get some pictures of how they did it, you may find it interesting. It was great to hear from you. I'll let you know how the truck project is going. It's nice to be able to finally get going on all this work. Five months was a long wait.