I have a new 2022 F350 diesel SRW truck and am picking up a boat this weekend. The boat, trailer, etc comes in at <9000 lbs. The trailer is aluminum, dual axle, and brakes on both axles. I'll be using a standard hitch. I know about tongue weight and things like that....but should I air up the tires, or do other things to make the ride safer and better? I'll be bringing it mostly down interstate, and the trip is around 300 miles one way.

Thanks,

 

That boat/trailer is well within what your truck can handle. It will be an easy tow. Air up to 80 PSI in the rear if you want, since you don't know what the actual tongue weight is going to be. Make sure you have the right ball mount (2 5/16" ?). Otherwise, there isn't much to do other than enjoy towing with a great truck.

 

I would ensure the trailer tires are full air'd up.

Drive a bit, then pull over the check the lug nuts on the trailer. Those trailers are usually shipped without the wheels, then put on for the sale.

there is not much of a boat there so no other concerns.

 

Thank you.

 

Late noticing this but in addition to the above, keep an eye on the trailer brake’s until you are sure the adjustment suit your towing/hitch set ups. You didn’t mention the type of trailer brakes but the surge / coupler activated types of brakes can be sensitive to terrain and hitch height. Towing mine on steep mountain roads took some adjustments to find the happy spot for mostly level and 6 to 12% grades all in the same trip.

 

If it has surge brakes, make sure you can lock out the surge mechanism for backing flat and uphill. Otherwise you will probably end up fighting the trailer brakes.

Then, remember to undo this for normal towing.

 

I tow my 8000 pound boat and trailer about 3540 miles one way twice a year to my lake house. I tow it with a 2004 Dodge 3/4 ton diesel and hardly know it's back there. Keep your speeds in checks as it will take longer to stop plus the trailer tires are usually rated at 70 mph or below speed rating. Speed will kill a trailer tire if you go over the rating. Also check your boat on the trailer part way as the boat may have slid up on the trailer during traveling. If so crank the winch for the bow strap and tighten up your stern tie downs. Also make sure your trailer is riding level and is not tilted up. This may require an adjustable draw bar to get the correct position.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I learned some things towing the boat the 300 miles or so home. I'm not experienced towing something of this size for any distance.

First, I definitely knew the boat and trailer were back there. Perhaps knowing I had nearly a quarter million dollars of my personal property (truck and boat) rolling down the interstate had something to do with it. I was a bit tense, particularly where there was road construction going on and the interstate narrowed with Jersey barriers on both sides of the road and 18 wheeler s all around. The truck however had enough engine to pull it fine. Fuel economy towing was less than expected by a bit. If you can believe the trucks computer, I was getting about 21-22 mpg on the way down, and about 10.5 to 11.5 on the way home. I went from about 800 ft to 80 feet above sea level on the way out and then back to 800 ft on the way home. Not sure if that really makes much of a difference; it was mostly flat with rolling hills closer to home. I did place the truck in tow mode, which seems to change where the truck shifts more than anything. It felt like it held gears longer.

I did have the trailer pretty level for the drive. The truck squatted a bit when the trailer was added and it looks like no adjustment would have been needed. The trailer hitch and receiver were pretty much level when loaded. The surge brakes will take a little getting used to. It felt like the trailer and truck would sway a bit on a couple of occasions where I had to apply them a little more aggressively. My truck doesn't have a rear sway bar. Would this help? Is there an anti sway setup for an aluminum boat trailer available? The boat was mostly unloaded, with twin outboards on the rear of the boat and perhaps 80 or so gallons of fuel onboard. I'm guessing a little more weight in the bottom (ie a full fuel tank) and other items that would weigh it down more might change the ride and shift some of the weight forward. As I recall, the engines on the back are about 600 lbs each. Next time I tow it, I'll get a scale and measure the tongue weight. Also, the trailer is new and has the 5 pin connector, so it (at least for now) will allow me to back up without having to get out and lock out the hydraulic brakes.

I did heed the advice of a couple of posters on here and stopped a couple of times, once at a rest area and another to fuel up. Both times I walked around the trailer and eyeballed things. Straps and whatnot were tight, the tires didn't feel hot or overheated, the lights all seemed to work, etc. I will have to get a lug wrench for the trailer to ensure the lugs stay snug and I'll also be getting a spare tire.

Thanks to all who contributed.

 

While it can be done, surge brakes usually don't work nearly as well with weight distributing hitches. Equalizer brand claims not to interfere with surge brakes, but I can tell you from vast experience, braking performance is noticeably diminished.

Also, aluminum trailers generally require tongue modifications to accept a WDH, but it is definitely doable.

The first thing I would do is verify you have adequate tongue weight (5-10% for boat trailers). If you have sway and are under 10%, increase it some and retry.

 

I have two pickups. One with front and rear sway bars, the other with no sway bars. Both pull the boat trailer without any problems. Without the camper it stays centered in the rearview mirror With the camper on, we have the rearview camera constantly on and we've never seen any sway from it.

Is your boat trailer disk or drum brakes? Pure hydraulic surge or electric over hydraulic system?
They do make WDH's specifically for surge brake applications, by their very application, they can't help but interfere with the surge brake actuation. Where you said it seemed like you noticed it with "more aggressively" applying brakes, it could be nothing more than a brake adjustment correction. As mentioned above there is tongue weight, weight distribution on the trailer/in the boat, axle adjustments on the trailer...in short, a number of things that can be looked at before going the WDH direction. If you notice sway of the pickup and boat trailer upon 'heavy' application of the brakes, but not under normal driving, especially going through curves on the highway, I'd be looking at my brake adjustment before anything else.

 

Sounds like you are just not used to towing. You can't put a band-aid (WDH, sway-bars) on lack of experience. No offense meant.

Sway bars are primarily to combat body roll. Think of a slide-in camper...tall and heavy. They will not help with towing a bumper-pull trailer.
WDH? I've never seen one on a boat trailer. You would have to unhook it before launching the boat, and reset it after retrieving the boat.

The more you tow the easier it will become. Good luck!

 

Respectfully, I disagree. Sway bars will make some improvement, though generally not profound. And WDH’s work just fine with boat trailers. There are some complications with set up, and brake performance will be diminished at least slightly if it has surge brakes.

No need to do anything with the WDH when you offload the boat.

 

 

I will add my 2 cents. Legally some states require weight distribution hitches when towing over a certain amount of weight no matter how much weight your truck is rated to tow. Not following the law in this area will be an issue if you are ever in an accident. The weight you mentioned is for an empty boat and maybe the weight of the trailer? When you have the boat loaded for the lake it will weigh more. I highly recommend a weight distribution hitch. However, I will also recommend up grading the trailer brake system to an electric over hydraulic set up. This allows you to use your electric brake controller to add or subtract as much braking power as you want all while still having the advantage of hydraulic brakes on the axles. You do not want to be backing a boat trailer with electric brakes in the water frequently. So this combination solves both problem, you can have great braking and be able to use a weight distribution hitch.
Almost all of my towing is on mountain roads. I have two boats and an Airsrteam both boats had surge brakes one with drum brakes and one with disks. The drums you could back off the adjustment manually at the wheels and control the braking power to a point. However, on long really steep down hill roads the weight of the trailer pushing on the back of the truck would still apply to much brake and over heat the brakes to the point of boiling the grease out of the bearings. I had to open the brake lines and let all the fluid out to continue. This same event occurred with the disk brake boat trailer but much more sever as you can not adjust disk brakes. The disk brake trailer is the one I converted to electric over hydraulic. Love this set up.
Another issue you touched on was checking tires. Go one step further and check the wheel/rim for heat starting with the farthest part away from the center as they can get very hot and work you hand toward the center. This can give you an idea of either how hot the brakes are getting after use or if the brakes have not been use much it can tell you if you have a bearing problem.
Hope this information helps Sway bars will help with trailering when on mountain roads with lots of turns. As was mentioned above the sway bar is attached to your axle and frame of the truck. Yes they help with top heavy loads but they also help with all cornering. Sport cars use them front and rear as they help transfer weight back to the un-loaded tire. Do you need a rear sway bar for the load you are carrying? No. Will it help? Yes, a little. If you dont get the factory Ford bar. Go after market.

 

Thanks again for the info. I am a newb to towing an ~10000 lb load. As it was on this trip, it was something less than that. I'll look into the electric over hydraulic conversion. I do like having the best of both world option. I'm not sure how much that would cost or even where to have it done. The trailer that came with the boat has disk brakes on the front and rear axles. The lake I go to is a short drive and mostly flat. Charleston may see a visit or three when I take it to the coast. The trip I have planned for this summer is towing the boat to Miami and then heading over to the Bahamas. I'm sure I'll get some practice towing.

Thanks again for your replies.