Late model F150 “towing” mirrors (packages)

[SmokeyWren]

Originally Posted by kone

So with a properly adjusted good wdh tongue weight wouldn’t be as much as an issue in my case? 1200 is a no-no but 750...?

The TW doesn't change, but the properly-adjusted WD hitch distributes about half the TW off the rear axle and to the front axle and trailer axles. You'll still have some rear end sag, but not enough to cause the rear axle bump stops to come into play except with too much speed over too much of a bump.

When on the road with the wet and loaded TT, stop at a truck stop that has a CAT scale, fill up with gas, then weigh the wet and loaded rig with everybody and everything in the truck. Compare rear GAWR to the weight on your rear axle. Add the weights on the front and rear ales to get GVW, then compare GVW to GVWR.

If you don't exceed GVWR or rear GAWR of your truck, and with a good WD hitch properly adjusted to return front unloaded height to near unloaded height, you should be good to go.

[kone]

Talked w seller and he has a 3/4 ton. Trailer scale numbers for him are

6300 uvw
7500 with all gear and half tank water
1220 hitch (fully loaded WITH wdh)

So a half ton won't cut it.

[Wilde]

Originally Posted by SmokeyWren

Depends on the WDH. With a cheap or undersized WDH, you're right. But with a good WDH such as an Equal-I-Zer or Blue Ox SwayPro or Reese Strait-Line rated for a max of 1,400 pounds tongue weight, properly adjusted to return the front end height back to near the unloaded height, you won't have that much sag in the rear end. A properly-adjusted WD hitch will leave only about 50% to 60% of tongue weight on the rear axle. So that 1,250 pounds of tongue weight gets distributed so that at most 750 pounds of weight is on the rear axle.

I'm speaking from 1st hand experience working with a 2016 and a 2017 F150 wiith a 1050lbs tongue weight, using an equalizer hitch and an Andersen hitch.

With 1050 lbs of tongue weight, using the WDH to reduce rear end sag to the point where it isn't so low that you look like you have a ton of bricks in the bed (2.5" of sag) puts way too much weight on the front axle, so much so that steering is adversely affected. Properly adjusting the WDH and reducing tension to bring the front axle back to stock weight leaves you with 3.5" of sag in the rear. At that point, bumpy roads cause the bump stops to hit the axles. Not good.

The solution? Air bags. Air bags in the rear solves the sag problem, but still doesn't stiffen up the rear end enough to handle the other effects of a heavy trailer. It's a decent ride, but not great.

So no, the standard F150 is not built to handle 1000lbs of tongue weight, even if it looks fine on the internet.

Also, max tongue weight is limited to 1220lbs, so that 1250lbs is over right from the start.