My brother borrowed my 2016 F-150 XLT 4x4 3.5 eco,towing package(no trailer brakes yet) 3.55 gears.to tow a bob cat skid steer on a heavy duty trailer.He said the truck felt like it was bucking the whole way.Anyone have this problem? My '11 had no problem towing cars on a trailer. My one thought is that there was a 1/4 tank of gas (90mi to empty) with the 38 gal tank and back sagging maybe wasn't getting enough gas?

 

I've towed a 4500 lb TT with no bucking or any other weird behavior. I'm going to guess that the skid steer was not balanced correctly on the trailer. It may have had too much or too little tongue weight.

 

^^^
Agreed, the trailer was most likely improperly loaded which was causing the tongue to pull up on the hitch. With enough upward pressure, the traction control would intervene and cause exactly what you described.

 

Should there not have been load leveling bars?

 

My brother is renting the bob cat Friday Ill tell him to load it better. Thanks for the tip.

 

Sounds like he needs his own truck, instead of misusing yours.

 

Tell me about it! I have to brothers without trucks.

 

You technically don't need WDH up to about 5,000 lbs. OTOH, a WDH would have eliminated the trouble too.

 

If I had to guess, the starting weight with trailer and all is 7000lbs.
Most rental places will stipulate that the tow vehicle must be 3/4 ton or higher.

I promise you this, no way would I let anyone other than ME borrow my vehicle to take an unknown load, trailer, company's equipment anywhere.

There are just too many variables..... condition of brakes, whether or not they (the rental company) employ zit popping teeny boppers to load heavy pieces of equipment that are likely already tongue heavy.
That is an awful lot of liability that is ultimately tied to your name going down the road.


EDIT: I just realized that you were towing without trailer brakes (think because you are saying there is no controller on the truck). I don't want to talk down to anyone, but that is plain dangerous.

My recommendation as a human being to another: DON'T TOW A SKID STEER WITHOUT WORKING TRAILER BRAKES. I am willing to bet that the trailer and said rental is OVER 7000lbs. That is clearly unacceptable without a WDH and grossly negligent without working trailer brakes.
Again, my apologies for such strong language, but my interpretation of your posts has me believing that you are about to let your brother use your equipment to put innocents at risk.

 

Your right,you should use the trailer brakes.The rental place was only 7mi away and he didn't go over 50 mph,so he figured he'd be alright.I have the trailer tow package,you think Ford would include tailer brake,instead it came with trailer back up system I won't use.

 

the brake controller is around a $100 and the dealer programed mine for free. I have the same trailer back up gizmo.

 

I have an aftermarket controller to put in,but I might get a factory one.

 

Way better option, even if it costs more. The factory controller is integrated with the dashboard display, and the output to the trailer is modulated relative to the pressure on the brake pedal. All of the aftermarket ones that I'm aware of use an inertial sensor to modulate output to the trailer. That's good, but it has the trailer brakes being applied after the truck brakes, which is potentially dangerous.