Hi all,

We got our Ex back from the dealer with a new fuel pump. We have been talking about changing out the gears for better towing. Right now we have a V10 with a towing package and a 3.73 axle ratio. Our trailer is a 2017 Keystone Cougar 31SQWBE with an unloaded weight of 7260. We would like to beef things up a bit. We live in California so everything is up hill, big hills, ok mountains! What would you suggest going to as far as axle ratio?
Thanks in advance.

 

Factory tires? A lot of guys are happy with 4.88 gear ratio but they usually have larger tires. I would think with stock tires 4.30 or 4.54 would be great for a v-10.

 

We have Pirelli Scorpion LT265

 

Assuming that's 265/75R16 the stock factory size at 31.6" tall. Hopefully they are at least Load Range D or even LR E.
From the factory the standard axle ratio was 3.73 with an option to go to a deeper 4.30 ratio, the 4.30 would tow better.
Does this EX also see daily driving besides the towing work? If so, and you are planning to keep the stock sized tires then I would stay at that 4.30 ratio. The deeper ratio will have the V-10 revving a little higher at a given speed than the 3.73 gears, since the V-10 makes better power up at those higher RPMs it will pull a load up a hill much better and it will stay in OD more resulting in better towing MPGs.
Investing in a good Weight Distribution hitch with "built in" sway control (or sway elimination) is a very wise purchase in my opinion. A properly setup high quality WD hitch will make towing safer and more comfortable.
Pay VERY close attention to your trailer tires, especially if they are ST tires, ST tires are less than trust worthy in my opinion. (My actual opinion is that they are for the most part dangerous junk!) Nearly all St tires have a maximum speed rating of 65 MPH, exceeding that or getting them hot from running underinflated will lead to premature failure of the tire. When I say "premature" that can mean under the 3 year age when some of the tire makers are recommending replacement due to environmental deterioration that reduces the tire's strength by about a third at that age. Did I mention that these ST tires don't have to meet the same safety specs as passenger car or light truck tires here in America? In case you haven't noticed it yet, I'm not a huge fan of most ST tires, I have had way too many of them fail.
You can verify the manufacture date of your tires by the 4 digit code stamped on the sidewall, the first 2 digits will indicate the week of the year (01 through 52) and the last 2 digits are the year they were built in. The tire below was built in the 31st week of 2013, it failed on my TT in the 29th week of 2016 and one of it's siblings (same build date) died in the 43rd week of 2016.



They are not supposed to do this



Or this......



Do you have the larger dual arm extendable towing mirrors on your EX? If not, get some! You have options too, there are some later model '08+ Super Duty mirrors that have bigger glass than the original rounded style ones.


Custom engine/trans tunes from a vendor like site sponsor 5Star Tuning will wake up your V-10 and greatly improve your transmission performance, especially when towing. They have a lot of different tune profiles to choose from, personally I prefer the 87 and 89 Octane Performance tunes for my towing chores, other members like the Tow tunes better.


Do you already have a good Trailer Brake Controller? Tekonsha makes a great TBC, the P3 is very popular around here. With the proper cable it is really plug and play.

 

Some good reading...https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-88-gears.html

 

We live in SoCal and have been to Washington & Oregon several times with our 7k TH.
Is yours 2wd or 4wd with axle code 31-open or C1-limited slip?
Our stock 3.73 gears have been ok, but lower probably would be nice.
I'm running stock size Load range E tires.
Check the radiator for the in-tank trans fluid cooler, some of the early 2000 builds did not come with it.
The 2000 Ex hitches are rated for 10500/1050 lbs.
In 2002 the bolts were increased in size which ups the rating to 12500/1250 lbs.
Our trailer came with an Equalizer hitch.
I added a Tekonsha P3 brake controller.
I replaced the stock cooler in front of the radiator with the Dorman 918-216 5R100 cooler and the trans fluid temps stay under control, especially when the Central Valley gets to 110 deg.
I recommend adding a rear anti-roll bar and upgrading the rear leaf springs.
The anti-roll bar will help with the 60 mph Santa Ana winds and twisty mountain roads.
Our trailer tows very well and the only issue is slowing down a bit going up hills, but I'm usually not in a hurry - I'm on Vacation!

 

Ours is 2wd and our tires are load range E. We have a weight distribution hitch with an anti sway bar and Air Lift springs installed. She does get a little porpoisey sometimes. If you have gone east up the Altamont Pass, you know that section where everybody comes out of their seat!

 

How many miles on the shocks?
We got our EX with 104k and the stock Ford gas shocks would compress, but not extend.
Put on a set of Bilsteins and it rides nice and smooth.

 

If your WD hitch is one of the very basic ones with the add-on friction style anti-sway bar it is my opinion that you are possibly not setup correctly and asking too much from that hitch. Which may be part of your porpoising issue.
Your TT has a listed overall length of 35' 9" (hitch to bumper) and a GVW of 8980lbs. With that GVW you should be shooting to have your WD setup to handle 15% of the max GVW as tongue weight. That would be 1350lbs of tongue weight, quite a bit more than the manufacturer's listed 820lbs. That 820lbs is about 11% of the empty TT with no options, battery, water, clothes, food, beer, toys or propane. It really does add up. Even targeting a more conservative 13% tongue weight (the minimum amount to plan for as a maximum target) you are still going to have 1170lbs there.
Which make and model WD hitch are you using? What is the current WD spring bar rating? Are you able to return the front ride height to it's unloaded height with the TT hitched up with the WD bars engaged? Do you get any trailer sway at all with the setup as-is?
That is a fairly long and heavy TT being towed with a fairly short wheelbase tow vehicle, with that in mind I would recommend a higher end WD hitch with built-in sway control that is designed to handle the 15% tongue weight to provide a safe and stable combination.
That is a nice TT, I really like the U shaped dinette, I wish ours had that option.

 

I have the simple, friction style sway control on mine. I've read countless warnings on here (maybe they were all just Tom's posts ) about how they don't work that well, but my TT weighs in at 8500 and is 30' long and I think it handles it really well. It does need to be clamped down pretty tight but I don't feel like I have excessive wander at all.

I've racked up about 10,000 miles towing so far, coast to coast twice.

The one thing people haven't touched on much is the suspension. The stock Ex suspension is very weak. I call it a soccer mom suspension. It's meant for comfort, not for work. Pickup truck springs of this era are much stiffer and handle the weight of towing considerably better.

Heck, even driving it on the the stock suspension made me nervous. It pitched and rolled like a schooner in a nor'easter, and I didn't like going over 60mph in it. It simply didn't feel safe, stable, or secure at all. Then I put V/B springs on it, Bilsteins, and a Hellwig sway bar.

Night. And. Day.

It handles 100% better than it did when I got it. I couldn't even imagine how scary it would be towing with it like that.

I got lucky and scored a set of V/B springs off craigslist locally, but a lot of people who can't find them end up going with ATS springs.

I absolutely cannot emphasize how important upgrading the stock suspension is on an Excursion that you intend to tow that much weight with.

 

To clarify my opinion on the friction anti-sway add-ons devices. I think many TTs are well enough balanced and would never exhibit any sway tendencies, some, however can be well behaved for countless miles (or only a few) and have just the right set of circumstances send them into a trailer sway event. I have seen one of these events happen right in front of me, it happens pretty quickly and if not correctly responded to can lead to a highway speed crash, like the one I witnessed. I think the friction clamp bars are adequate for shorter trailers in most cases but I question their ability to control an event with the additional leverage of a longer trailer.
I'm not proposing that everyone with a TT over 30' run out and buy a Pro-Pride or Hensley Arrow either, there are plenty of much more affordable WD options out there with built-in sway control that should provide a higher level of control than a clamp on friction bar should the need for sway control ever arise.
And Andy, I think that any V nosed trailer, like yours should be less prone to a sway event than a same size and weight flat front trailer. Wind drag is a big part of TT handling (or lack of....) that's why you will see recommendations of higher TW on TTs and enclosed trailers vs low flat trailers where 10% TW is the norm.

 

That's true, that V-nose probably helps out quite a bit with stability. I haven't had anything scary happen yet though.

I think that one of the bigger causes of swaying leading to loss of control is too much speed in windy conditions. But I'm still learning about that too.

 

Just wanted to clarify what you mean by "porpoisey" or "porpoising - move through the water like a porpoise, alternately rising above it and submerging".
I was thinking shocks are what dampens the up/down movement.

 

I was gonna ask you what part of Cali, but I see you referenced the Altamont Pass so you must be in the East Bay, yes?

I'm down in Monterey.

Make sure you pop into the NorCal Chapter forum and say hi. The chapter forums are listed all the way down at the bottom of the forums page.

Stewart