Towing with the new Ford 2018 Expedition

[Marqui]

Hello everyone,

I would like to hear from folks that are towing with the new Ford Expedition. Your first impression and what size and weight of trailer you are towing.

My wife and I have just retired and just recently got a new to us 2014 Rockwood 2608WS trailer and new 2018 Ford Expedition. Our first outing was last weekend. The Expy has more than enough power to tow the trailer but found the handling a little squirrelly on the road. When we got back I made a few adjustments on the Fastway E2 hitch (lowered the head a couple of inches to better match the height of the trailer tongue and better weight distribution). The trailer weighs in at approximately 6500# on the axles and about 700# on the tongue. I am thinking of upgrading the tires on the trailer to a higher load range (prensently Westlake load range C) to the Goodyear Endurance load range D.

Will be heading out for the second time this weekend on a 600 mile trip. Hopefully the adjustments will have made it better.

Any input greatly appreciated.

Marqui

[Desert Flyer]

I cant tell from your picture (nice lookin’ rig!) but is it the regular wheelbase or EL extended length wheelbase?

[Marqui]

It’s a regular wheel base. Should have mentioned that in the original post.

[Normal_Dave]

Nice looking rig.

This is just the view from the cheap seats, but does anybody else think the trailer sits a bit "nose-high" in the picture?

I'm assuming your weight reports are from the scales, if not, do the full scale test, you might be surprised. Sometimes "visual level" = not enough tongue weight, and then the squirrels get loose, and, well you know how that goes.

Properly set up, the Expedition should make a fine rig. I'm kinda partial to the color as well.

[happycamperz]

We used to tow with a 2013 expedition (5.4) before upgrading to a newer ecobeast f150. The 5.4 lacked power in my opinion but it still pulled well. The weight numbers loaded and wet were getting close to the gvwr and rawr. But it did decent considering. One huge difference with stability and sway was upgrading the tires on the expedition to 10 ply tires. Well worth the money. Made it a lot more solid in the wind and with trucks passing us.

(30 ft keystone bullet. Around 5800 lbs loaded)

[Marqui]

Hi Normal Dave,

You are right, in that picture the trailer is a little nose high but not as much as it looks like in the picture. That was rectified this week by lowering the ball head to match the tongue height. I needed to buy a longer shank to get to the proper height.

As for the weights, they are from the scale, but when I weighed it I was not fully loaded so I am guesstimating at this point but don’t imagine I am to far off. I am planning on weighing it again as soon as I can. Should still be well within the Expedition’s GAWR and GCVW.

[shane_the_ee]

Hi there! We're pulling a 22'3", 5400lb trailer (960lb CAT scale tongue weight, WDH bars removed). My first impression, after replacing the shank on my WDH with one that would actually let the trailer sit level, was the Expedition sagged too much and porpoised too much. That was somewhat resolved by going up another link on my bars, but they're a pain in the rear to get connected. First trip out, we went by the CAT scale and did the recommended 3 pass weigh: Expedition & trailer with WDH connected, Expedition and trailer without WDH connected, and Expedition by itself. That was when I found out that we're right at our rear axle weight rating, even though the trailer is only 5400lbs. The previous owner of the trailer threw in the WDH, but it only had 800lb bars, so I've ordered 1200lb replacements.

We've currently put ~1500 towing miles on our rig. Random impressions after that mileage... "~" miles because sometimes you have to go into the trip computer to deselect the trailer to keep from running up the trailer odometer. If you start up the truck and the screen defaults to the towing screen, you need to manually select "no trailer connected". Gas mileage is really eco-or-boost as, while towing, we average low 10's to high 9s, although I do tend to keep up with traffic at 70mph. Tow/haul mode does a fantastic job of using the transmission to keep the brakes cool during descents.

[shane_the_ee]

Here she is:

[Nut4speed]

Don't have a 2018 but we do have the 2017 Expedition EL. Haven't found a hill yet that'll slow it down. As far as stability goes we haven't had any issue, ours has been very stable pulling our 30' 6800lb (wet and loaded) Keystone Passport. One thing is we do have the auto leveling rear suspension which I think adds to the stability and an Equalizer E4 hitch.

[Demiles]

The first thing that stands out about that trailer is the location of the slides. Slides are heavy and since they’re forward and aft of the axles it creates high yaw inertia. Think of it as a dumbbell with the heavy parts at each end. Trailers with high yaw inertia have a tendency to sway more than others. By design heavy things like slides, kitchens, AC units etc. should centralized around the center of gravity. The more centered axle location on the trailer means they’re trying to compensate for its design flaws.

[puttin]

We have the 2014 regular wheel base unit. Besides the auto leveling, we use the "trailer sway" selection. We don't use a weight distributing hitch. I tow two diffrent tt's with it: a 29' Springdale and a 25' (forgot the brand). I have only a small amount of sway but don't travel much over 50 miles with either one. I just wondered if the sway selection was available and if any of you used in on later models.

[shane_the_ee]

Originally Posted by puttin

Besides the auto leveling...

There's no auto leveling available for the 2018 Expeditions (or even the Navigator for that matter...)

Originally Posted by puttin

We use the "trailer sway" selection... I just wondered if the sway selection was available and if any of you used in on later models.

Careful, there... Ford's "Trailer Sway Control", is a bit of a misnomer. It's really "automatic emergency sway recovery". It does absolutely nothing to prevent sway. What it does do is use the rear parking sensors to detect when the trailer is swaying enough to be dangerous. If the vehicle concludes that the trailer is swaying violently dangerously, it will automatically apply the trailer brakes (and accelerate the tow vehicle, if required) and then slow down and provide a warning message to the driver.

[Marqui]

Well here we are in Willowbunch Saskatchewan at a small music festival hosted by some long time friends.

The tow here was not to bad still have a little bit of the tail wagging the dog, but I think that lowering the hitch ball head helped. Took quite a bit of fiddling around to get it right. We had near perfect towing conditions on the way out here nice sunny days and almost no wind to speak of. In the prairies that’s almost unheard of. No issues with oncoming traffic including semis, but can still really feel the odd gust of wind.

I’m with you Shane the ee having to manually enable and disable a trailer is a bit of a pain as well as having to select to haul mode every ignition cycle. You would think that it could be done automatically when a trailer plug is connected.

As far as towing power goes, this little engine never ceases to amaze me. It feels like it could tow a trailer twice that weight and not complain. The gas mileage on the other hand is not so amazing. 9.8 miles per gallon imperial calculated, computer says 10.3. I was hoping for between 11 and 12.

The rear slide is a wardrobe only so not that heavy, but I get your point. I am not thrilled with the design of the trailer. It was built on 3000# pound Dexter torflex instead of the more common 3500#, which gives this trailer very little CCC. 750#. (I am looking into possibly upragrading to heavier axles) I figure I am probably a little over the limit on the axles. Also they put the water tank all the way at the back of the trailer, it tows real bad with water in the tank ( why do they do that?).

Hopefully Iwill have a chance to weigh it properly next week, see what the tongue weight and axle weight are.

I’m just hoping we didn’t bite off more than the Expedition can chew.

[Marqui]

The other thing I forgot to mention about the Expedition is the size of the fuel tank. The non EL Expedition has a tank of 19.5 gals (23.5 us), which give us a towing range of 300 kilometers (180 miles), not much, especially if your thinking of driving up to Alaska some day. I wish they would have had a larger fuel tank as an option like they have on the F series. You con order them with a 35 gal us tank. Has anyone looked into whether a larger tank is available or if the larger F series tank would fit on the Expedition?