As promised in previous threads here is how our 07 did pulling our 24' arctic fox (6000lbs)
Towing was great not allot of shifting in and out of gears but I keep the overdrive off unless I'm on a long downhill stretch. pulling Rodgers Pass (5610ft) is a pretty slow winding road and it did it at 55 the whole way up in 4th so absolutely no complaints there on the way down keeping the overdrive off helped keep it under 65 with a few brake taps toward the bottom.
Braking was excellent I have a prodigy brake controller and it kept everything smooth and steady even in a few quick stop situations the worst being the deer we hit at the beginning of the pass I was at 62 mph and saw it come out of the ditch across from the left and by the time we hit her on the passenger side I was down to 20 mph. the best thing is no damage to the expy at all so I guess those rounded bumpers are good for something it pushed her off into the ditch and out of the way very nicely and she ran off (scared the hell out of the wife though) I was hoping to have an excuse (and some insurance money) to put a grill guard on but no such luck. anyway I forgot to get the milage so when we pull it back I'll make sure and get it for you guys but overall I'm very happy with the whole trip.

 

Do you have the towing package? My 08 does not have it. We bought it used and since we have the truck for our towing needs, we did not see it as a necessity.

However, we are looking at moving cross country soon. The truck will pull our camper, and I may want to use the expy to pull my jeep on a trailer (combined weight of about 6000lb). The expy is rated for 6000lb (w/out the tow pack). I will add a tranny cooler and tbc, but am curious to hear your side.

 

yes we have the tow package if you are going to be pulling that much make sure you do the add-ons you mentioned and maybe consider an OBDII gauge like chuck s has but if your not to worried about the heat just take it slow and I'm sure you will be fine.

 

ok pulled it back today and we got 19.7 mpg without the trailer and at 70-75 mph with the trailer at 60-65 mph we got 9.0 mpg which was about what I expected so no complaints.

 

So 19.7 with no mods, that's not bad. Imagine what you could get with a decent tune. . .

 

That is decent. I got about 10mpg from Charleston,SC to Moab,UT and back. I was pulling my Isuzu, total tow weight was about 7500 lbs or so. I was running around 65 and that is lifted, 33x12.5 tires, and a safari rack.

 

so when you are pulling do you leave overdrive off or do you let it shift on its own? I was curious because when I had my diesel I would only take it out of overdrive if it was doing allot of shifting but with this six speed I figured just leave it out but I did shift into OD a few times on long gradual downhill grades but the steep downhills I kept OD off to help slow everything down.

 

I only turned OD off one time, that was down the steep grade on I70 coming out of Vale, CO. I even maintained 55 going up that pass. I was very surprised.

 

We only have baby mountains over here and I never turn OD off except to get a bit of engine braking on downgrades. Never a need to otherwise. We run in 6th and 5th across Pennsylvania and western Maryland with our Roo 23SS behind the truck several times a year.

Engine coolant never exceeds 200° that I can determine from the gages and the couple of times I ran a data capture device on the OBD2 port. Transmission temp runs 100° - 110° above ambient air temperatures when towing in the summer and warmer in the winter (thermostat in the transmission?), with rare spikes. Highest I've seen was about 205° and only for a minute or two in heavy city traffic where the transmission is shifting a lot.

The HD engine and transmision radiators are standard Ford parts and just bolt on depending on your skills. Not sure what has to come off to get the engine radiator out; the transmission radiator looks pretty accessable.

This gage just plugs in under the dashboard. Velcroed to the top of my dash, I'm too lazy to mount it permanently and I can't find a pillar pod for the Expedition and don't know if the commonly available F150 pod will work. The green LEDs are blinding at night, even at the lowest setting. I switched to red which are barely visible in daylight. Maybe blue will be better?

The gage will scroll both lines to show things like transmission slip (the six-speed locks up quickly in all gears!), selected gear, engine load, throttle position, etc. I usually let it scroll unless I'l towing.

I've always been concerned with this information when towing, but the HD tow package + my camper makes this mostly just an item of curiosity as the temps remain well within range.



-- Chuck

 

And what about the stock hitch receiver? Does it need to be replaced to be HD?

 

The stock hitch shouldn't need replacing.

 

There's a weight rating on the back "bumper" as I recall. Pretty sure it's 900 pounds (or in that range) for the HD tow package. I can't get to mine right now or I'l tell ya,

-- Chuck

 

Rear hitch is the same. Welded on the rear "bumper" assembly. It's rated at 920lbs but I have a feeling that it's really rated at 15% (1380) of 9,200 not 10% since ford claims load should be spread to 10 to 15% of Gross Trailer Weight.

 

Is that different from the standard hitch?

 

The standard rear bumper only has the cutout for the 4-pole boat trailer connector, the HD Tow bumper has cutouts for the boat trailer and standard, round 7 pole outlet. But that seems to be the only difference.

-- Chuck