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21 PB with leveling kit.. Considering removing

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ponterpitt

ponterpitt

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I ended up buying a fast way WD hitch. Have yet to get back out on the road though. Got a nice deal from a guy on Facebook. $125. Lucked out
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c35cannon

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I have a 21 powerboost w max tow and I had a 2 1/2 inch leveling kit installed for about $750 at the dealer last summer. Ride quality is not great over the smallest pot holes here in pa. It almost feels like a crash thunk..
I have been towing a small 21 foot camper about 4000 pounds and I noticed that the back and sinks a little and looks silly..

I am considering longer upper control arms in the front and a roadmaster active suspension kit in the back to level out the back. That’s about another thousand dollars in parts. Plus install.. I am considering doing those upgrades to improve the ride quality and reduce sagging when towing.

The other direction would be just to go with a 2 inch lift kit and ditch the level kit.. although I don’t know that all of my issues would resolve.. maybe you guys have similar issues and know better?

Thanks

510CDC18-F304-4A52-BADC-91959160AEC0.jpeg
I say get the 2in sporttow/haul kit from falcon. I think that might take care of both problems

https://www.falconshocks.com/2015-ford-f-150
 

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Hi, I have a 2021 F150 with offroad and max tow package with the leveling kit and air bags. I am towing a 36ft travel trailer that weights 9,000lbs. Even with the weight distribution hitch, the handling is horrible. White nuckling at 45 mph. Can this issue be resolved with new suspension? If so, what do you suggest?
 
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Hi, I have a 2021 F150 with offroad and max tow package with the leveling kit and air bags. I am towing a 36ft travel trailer that weights 9,000lbs. Even with the weight distribution hitch, the handling is horrible. White nuckling at 45 mph. Can this issue be resolved with new suspension? If so, what do you suggest?
If you look through this thread you'll see some suggestions for this..
What does your truck look like when it is hooked up? Just curious.
Ive done a lot of research, and found that when you do air bags, it adds a lot of weight to your rear axel, and you want to make sure that weight is equally distributed over all the axels for the best control. That is a big trailer and a lot of weight, sounds like you might not have enough weight on your front axel and any issue you have is probably way more exaggerated due to the size and weight.
 

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I would love to see your Yellow sticker.
While I'm 100% sure you are not taxing the tow capacity of the truck, I have my doubts about the cargo capacity.

36' is a skyscraper in horizontal state. Lol

That just can't be fun. At least not until you get to the lake and unhitch. :)

I'm not saying that you couldn't improve the towing experience considerably, because you certainly could. But you will have to inve$t in the truck to get it good and planted. It does NOT come from the factory "planted", in my opinion.
 

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Hi, I have a 2021 F150 with offroad and max tow package with the leveling kit and air bags. I am towing a 36ft travel trailer that weights 9,000lbs. Even with the weight distribution hitch, the handling is horrible. White nuckling at 45 mph. Can this issue be resolved with new suspension? If so, what do you suggest?
Like Snakebitten mentioned, that's extremely long for an F150. Been there, done that. The only hitch that got rid of the white knuckle was the ProPride hitch. Its not really the weight, its the length. That's a lot of real estate that gets hit by wind on the sides which leads to the tail wagging the dog. I had to be very meticulous with weight placement and sway bar settings in order to maintain that perfect weight distribution for best handling.
Not sure of your procedure for setup but your bags should be at minimum PSI while setting up the WD bars for weight balance. Then use the bags to level the remaining. There is a video out on the tube to confirm that bags do not transfer as much weight as a WD hitch.
 

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Hi. Thanks for your replies. I have a pripride hitch which i hope to install this weekend. Here are some of the details from the truck and tt.

Ford F-150 21 PB with leveling kit.. Considering removing 20220320_065027


Ford F-150 21 PB with leveling kit.. Considering removing 20220320_065019


Ford F-150 21 PB with leveling kit.. Considering removing 20220525_063355
 

HawkeyeOD

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Hi, I have a 2021 F150 with offroad and max tow package with the leveling kit and air bags. I am towing a 36ft travel trailer that weights 9,000lbs. Even with the weight distribution hitch, the handling is horrible. White nuckling at 45 mph. Can this issue be resolved with new suspension? If so, what do you suggest?
GVWR for the trailer is 9600 lbs per the sticker. At 36 feet that’s just too much trailer for an F150. That’s at least F250 territory in my opinion. Even if the tongue weight is calculated conservatively at 15%, you’ve only got about 400 or so pounds left over before you exceed payload. And that doesn’t account for the length of that trailer either.
 
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I wanted to thank everyone that replied with wisdom on the thread. I did end up getting an Fastway E2 WD hitch and it raised up the rear end and put weight back in the front end with little to no sway at highway speeds. It's absolutely solid now. I had to put some time into calibration and also testing.
Here is an updated pic of truck and trailer.. and my pup attempting to take over the wheel for me.

Ford F-150 21 PB with leveling kit.. Considering removing IMG_5754


Ford F-150 21 PB with leveling kit.. Considering removing IMG_5703


Ford F-150 21 PB with leveling kit.. Considering removing IMG_5745
 

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Nicely done!
A WDH is a tunable piece of engineering.
I suspect that there's a considerable percentage of them installed and "guessed" at. While probably an improvement over no weight distribution, there's still untapped improvement.
 

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Did you end up taking out the leveling kit or did the WDH solve the issues?

I'm debating a 1.75 or 2" level (I think it would still have a bit of rake with either of these)
but don't want to be nose high towing.
 

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I agree with the weight distribution hitch before anything else. It’s a game changer for towing a wind sail…..and much safer too. Essentially, it pushes the weight to the center of the vehicle as opposed to the bumper. Your TT does not appear heavy enough to need airbags.
Regarding your level, did you use pucks instead of adjustable shocks? If so, that’s a big difference in ride quality. If you used pucks, did they go on top of the coil or on top of the shock inside the coil? What people fail to consider is when the puck is in the coil, you have less travel for the suspension. If the puck is over the coil, then you have less up travel and more down travel.
On my 17’, I replaced all 4 shocks with billstein 5160s. The front were adjustable up to 2 1/2”, however I adjusted mine to raise the front end 1 3/4”. The ride was more planted….still very cushy and nice…just more planted. The back end no longer hopped going over railroad tracks and the front end no longer dove down under heavy breaking. Was the best upgrade I did on the 17’. This was done at around 15k miles. The factory shock I could depress with hand pressure.…..more like dampeners than shocks. The new shocks I could not depress with all 220lbs of my weight.
My 22‘ has the continuously controlled dampening suspension (CCD) on the rear and I still haven’t found any info on an adjustable shock I can use to level the front end without affecting the bluecruise and ccd. Hopefully more info will come out soon.
 
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I have a 2.5 inch puck above the strut to level the truck..I would probably have done 2 inch in hindsight since if you have a few hundred pounds in the bed it does make it look like it is squatting a half inch.. I try to take measurements of the wheel well heights to see what is going on.

I did not remove it, just using the WD hitch to bring up the rear and it points the front end back down.
It's fitting my needs at this point. I don't feel like I'm high nose anymore. Much more planted. The puck being above the strut did decrease the travel and when you hit bumps it is a little more rough than stock. I would like to replace with a 2 inch leveling lift kit eventually just to get all the travel back in the suspension.

My truck is not equipped with CCD but, it sounds like you may not want to mess with that system too much?
If it is just on the back, I bet a leveling puck like I have would not effect it too much.. I have assisted cruise and it was not effected by the puck install.
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