Rear end towing upgrades
#1
Rear end towing upgrades
I recently towed a 21' travel trailer for a friend. Not a real heavy trailer, guessing about 6,000 pounds. And, it was towed with out a W/D hitch. Noticed a lot of rear end sag on my stock 2014 F-150 with the FX-4 package. Is this due to no W/D hitch, or do I need stiffer rear shocks?
Thanks.
Thanks.
#4
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Damon (South East Texas)
Posts: 8,298
Likes: 0
Received 14 Likes
on
13 Posts
I tow a 28' travel trailer with similar weight with my '13 F150 SCrew. I use an Equal-I-zer 4 point WD hitch with 1000# bars and have little to no sway when towing. I also have air bags in the rear, but do not pressure them up for towing. The WD hitch does its job and the truck sits level when loaded.
#5
Reminder: shock absorbers are not weight carriers. There are a few shocks out there with a helper spring; Monroe makes one, but "stiffer shocks" will not help sag per se.
Options for you:
WD hitch for sure (recommended for anything more than 5k pounds anyway)
Add-a-leaf (will decrease your unloaded ride quality)
Air bags (fully adjustable yet somewhat costly)
Roadmaster Active Suspension (bolt on, and once adjusted to your liking it greatly improves the characteristics of the truck...unloaded and loaded)
Hellwig helper spring
Options for you:
WD hitch for sure (recommended for anything more than 5k pounds anyway)
Add-a-leaf (will decrease your unloaded ride quality)
Air bags (fully adjustable yet somewhat costly)
Roadmaster Active Suspension (bolt on, and once adjusted to your liking it greatly improves the characteristics of the truck...unloaded and loaded)
Hellwig helper spring
#6
I tow a 28' travel trailer with similar weight with my '13 F150 SCrew. I use an Equal-I-zer 4 point WD hitch with 1000# bars and have little to no sway when towing. I also have air bags in the rear, but do not pressure them up for towing. The WD hitch does its job and the truck sits level when loaded.
CAT scales are a great place to make these adjustments. I've preached about it in the past. search the phrase "CAT scale" for several helpful threads.
#7
I tow a 28' travel trailer with similar weight with my '13 F150 SCrew. I use an Equal-I-zer 4 point WD hitch with 1000# bars and have little to no sway when towing. I also have air bags in the rear, but do not pressure them up for towing. The WD hitch does its job and the truck sits level when loaded.
Anything over 5k requires a W/D hitch on a half ton. I wouldn't touch suspension until towing with a properly set up WD hitch. More information can be found here: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...hitch-wdh.html
Trending Topics
#8
You don't always need a WD hitch. In some cases if your trailer weight is around 5K and you can move weight around on the trailer and get the tongue weight close to the 10% level you should be fine. In my case it's an open car trailer. It's all in where you place the car when you load it. I load the car on back wards to get that 10% tongue weight and the truck rides great.
I've towed with a Ranger PU, a Suburban, an E250 van, and now a F150. They all handles a 5K load fine if I got the right balance of weight on the trailer.
I've towed with a Ranger PU, a Suburban, an E250 van, and now a F150. They all handles a 5K load fine if I got the right balance of weight on the trailer.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
hillbillyk
Flatbed, Car, Boat, Utility, Horse & Misc. Trailer Towing
2
08-12-2019 11:17 AM
kcexcursion
Excursion - King of SUVs
11
07-20-2011 10:23 PM
mjsparky363
Flatbed, Car, Boat, Utility, Horse & Misc. Trailer Towing
1
01-01-2007 01:08 PM