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What’s the biggest tow behind camper you would pull with your F150?

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Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Travel trailers are the worst thing to tow, because these have high cabinets, top mounted air conditioners. shifting dishes and coolers, sloshing water tanks, lopsided pop outs and a huge front facing wind stopper. the total weight and length is almost entirely irrelevant (tounge weight is relevant obviously).

2. trucks with 0 miles are super solid and will out tow trucks with 100k.

3. Stock travel trailer tires generally suck something awful.

In my opinion length is way less important than height and width.

crawl under the trailer and look at where the white tank is on several trailers and get an idea of how it will affect your load.

be mindful of how you load your trailer, dont put 50 cans of food in the upper cabinets. get paper plates instead of heaver washable solid plates. store most stuff in the lower cabinets. think about what all your going to put in it, how carefully you will load it each time.

tow with your water tank full or empty not half.

im sure if you research trailer specifics you will have a very enjoyable towing experience with your f150 no matter what bumper pull trailer you buy.

lots of trailers cannot be optimized enough, this is where WDH come into play. if that doesn't work truck mods. but focus on getting the right trailer for what you plan to do with it.
Good advice.

Why do you say the factory tires suck? I've never really thought about them. How does changing them affect towing?

I never thought to look at where our fresh tank was located when we bought the trailer a few year ago. But, I believe we are fortunate that it's located just ahead of the axles. I will pay attention to where it's located on our next trailer before purchase. (We always tow with it full as not all locations have fresh water on site to fill our tank)

I 2nd the paper plates and we use solo cups as well. - added bonus, it makes after dinner clean up easier too. Plus you can buy solo shot glasses too..... On that note:
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I have the AirLift Loadlifter 5000 Ultimate+, which is designed specifically to deal with the 2021+ F-150 bracket for headlight and other suspension leveling. They work great, probably overkill in my situation, but belt and suspenders. I've had Firestone on other trucks, don't see quality differences, do like the wireless control system available with the current AirLift models.
do you still like the kit? How’s the ride quality unloaded? What psi do you typically use while loaded and unloaded? Cheers.
 

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With my 2018 F150 max tow, max payload (2,300lbs) 3.73 rear diff. I pulled my 30' trailer likely around 8,800lbs with a 600lbs atv and plus about 500lbs of cargo weight, not including the 880lbs tongue weight.

I took this empty truck and trailer to the scales and figured out my dry axel weights. I keep a spread sheet (excel) on my phone to make sure my loads are within specs.

Ford F-150 What’s the biggest tow behind camper you would pull with your F150? Screenshot_20220909-073633_Photos
 

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do you still like the kit? How’s the ride quality unloaded? What psi do you typically use while loaded and unloaded? Cheers.
I traded the truck in July for the new Lightning, but the system was great, did a lot of towing. I had an equalizing hitch, so it wa likely overkill, but did guarantee level, stable ride all the time no matter what was back there. With full payload, I would use up to 40 psi (with the car carrier box trailer full of wire mesh rolls for our farm). With the heavy boat (9,100 lbs) I would run 25 lbs. with teh equalizing hitch. Before having the hitch, for one 3,000-mile round troop towing the boat, I ran them at 65 psi, and honestly, it did teh same job as adding the equalizing hitch did later. The hitch was still the better solution for what I was doing, as it allowed proper transfer of weight to the truck’s front axle, rather than just pushing up the rear axle. This was all a series of runs back and forth to the truck scales, dialing the F-150 in to its maximum towing capabilities, and tweaking my load (moving the boat bow post fore and aft on the trailer, etc.) to get everything perfectly balanced. That knowledge has transferred over to the Lightning, where I won;t be using airbags, because the equalizing hitch is enough. The thing about air bags is that they keep the “problem” in place - the weight on that axle is still the same, it just compensates and pushes it up anyway. They do make the ride good and make everything look level, but you can still have too much weight there and not enough on the front axel. The key is to also look at you GVAR for each axle too, and use good scales to make sure everything is copacetic. Remember that technically speaking, air bags don;t change anything about the truck’s ratings. I believe that is a technicality and that the truck is actually capable of more, but for legal reasons, the companies involved, and therefore the authorities, won’t push the limits up.
 

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Good advice.

Why do you say the factory tires suck? I've never really thought about them. How does changing them affect towing?

I never thought to look at where our fresh tank was located when we bought the trailer a few year ago. But, I believe we are fortunate that it's located just ahead of the axles. I will pay attention to where it's located on our next trailer before purchase. (We always tow with it full as not all locations have fresh water on site to fill our tank)

I 2nd the paper plates and we use solo cups as well. - added bonus, it makes after dinner clean up easier too. Plus you can buy solo shot glasses too..... On that note:
The factory tire are not actual truck tires. They are optimized for mileage, not heavy use. For real towing, you need a high-ply, heavier, real truck tire. My OEM tire had less than 100 miles when I swapped them out. Also lost about 2 mpg - but THATs the trade off for real capability vs stressing maximum efficiency.
 
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3. Stock travel trailer tires generally suck something awful.
The factory tire are not actual truck tires. They are optimized for mileage, not heavy use. For real towing, you need a high-ply, heavier, real truck tire. My OEM tire had less than 100 miles when I swapped them out. Also lost about 2 mpg - but THATs the trade off for real capability vs stressing maximum efficiency.
I believe they were referring to the stock trailer tires.

Yes agreed, on my last truck I swapped out for load range E Duratrac's.
I'll be swapping out these stockers for load rang E's as well.
 

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I just placed a deposit on a 2023 Grand Design Imagine XLS - 23LDE. This unit is 28' 5" OAL, GVWR is 6,995, dry is 5,690 and hitch is 524. My PB is skinny on payload so I needed something with a light hitch weight. This was a new floor plan last year and we hope it'll be a very nice "couples coach" as they say in the business...
Please do take care about that hitch weight bias. Yeah, you need to respect the load limits of your truck, but you really need to get at least 10% of the trailer's actual total weight when loaded for travel on the tongue (hitch).

A trip to a CAT scale can provide the needed actual weights when loaded for travel. Note that advertised dry and tongue wights are often not at all representative of actual conditions for a variety of reasons (they don't consider trailer options, often don't consider water & propane, they are subject to advertising hype, and can't consider what you put in the trailer).

The 10% (minimum) of total loaded trailer weight on the tongue is to help prevent the propensity for initiation of trailer sway that's inherent when the bias is below that value (immutable laws of physics and towing dynamics at work). This is a long standing and well-proven 'rule' for bumper-pull trailers of the RV / utility type (the target value is slightly different for typical boat trailers where the axle(s) are biased more toward the rear of the total trailer load).

That's all as measured without any WDH (weight distributing hitch) engaged. Use of a WDH does not change this 'rule', but can be useful to correct for excessive 'sag' that may be caused by getting adequate weight on the tongue.

Vehicle 'trailer sway control' is great but it cannot save you in many situations. You will enjoy much more relaxed and safe towing when your trailer has that 10% minimum total loaded weight on the tongue and the 'backup' vehicle 'trailer sway control' never or very rarely comes into play.

Happy trailering!
 
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I just placed a deposit on a 2023 Grand Design Imagine XLS - 23LDE. This unit is 28' 5" OAL, GVWR is 6,995, dry is 5,690 and hitch is 524. My PB is skinny on payload so I needed something with a light hitch weight. This was a new floor plan last year and we hope it'll be a very nice "couples coach" as they say in the business...

https://www.granddesignrv.com/showroom/2022/travel-trailer/imagine-xls/floorplans/23lde
Love that layout with the rear kitchen.
Still waiting on chip hold, so maybe next year or the year after this will be high on my list.
 

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Please do take care about that hitch weight bias. Yeah, you need to respect the load limits of your truck, but you really need to get at least 10% of the trailer's actual total weight when loaded for travel on the tongue (hitch).

A trip to a CAT scale can provide the needed actual weights when loaded for travel. Note that advertised dry and tongue wights are often not at all representative of actual conditions for a variety of reasons (they don't consider trailer options, often don't consider water & propane, they are subject to advertising hype, and can't consider what you put in the trailer).

The 10% (minimum) of total loaded trailer weight on the tongue is to help prevent the propensity for initiation of trailer sway that's inherent when the bias is below that value (immutable laws of physics and towing dynamics at work). This is a long standing and well-proven 'rule' for bumper-pull trailers of the RV / utility type (the target value is slightly different for typical boat trailers where the axle(s) are biased more toward the rear of the total trailer load).

That's all as measured without any WDH (weight distributing hitch) engaged. Use of a WDH does not change this 'rule', but can be useful to correct for excessive 'sag' that may be caused by getting adequate weight on the tongue.

Vehicle 'trailer sway control' is great but it cannot save you in many situations. You will enjoy much more relaxed and safe towing when your trailer has that 10% minimum total loaded weight on the tongue and the 'backup' vehicle 'trailer sway control' never or very rarely comes into play.

Happy trailering!
Thank you, I am quite well versed in the ways of an RV and this is not my first rig.
 

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Love that layout with the rear kitchen.
Still waiting on chip hold, so maybe next year or the year after this will be high on my list.
Yes, it certainly has good kitchen counter space! Originally we had our eyes on a 2600RB (at least that's what she agreed to last year), but this year DW selected the 23LDE. I'm good with a smaller rig, less weight and it's just us two now.
 
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Thank you, I am quite well versed in the ways of an RV and this is not my first rig.
I find having the OnBoard Scale and SmartHitch pretty neat too. It will tell me if I need to add or remove more weight from the hitch. It's pretty slick.
 

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I just placed a deposit on a 2023 Grand Design Imagine XLS - 23LDE. This unit is 28' 5" OAL, GVWR is 6,995, dry is 5,690 and hitch is 524. My PB is skinny on payload so I needed something with a light hitch weight. This was a new floor plan last year and we hope it'll be a very nice "couples coach" as they say in the business...

https://www.granddesignrv.com/showroom/2022/travel-trailer/imagine-xls/floorplans/23lde
When you say placed a deposit, is that for a factory order or a unit they had on the lot?
 

Bluesman

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When you say placed a deposit, is that for a factory order or a unit they had on the lot?
This unit was coming off the line or already built and destined for a sister dealership, just needs transport to my location.
 
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This unit was coming off the line or already built and destined for a sister dealership, just needs transport to my location.
Awesome. Think you'll be able to enjoy it this year?
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