I would ask what is the rearend gearing? There are a few options with any truck and gearing does make a difference. Being an "old farmer" you know what it takes tow a load, you do not get out the little tractor to handle a wagon load of hay you get the big one, especially if there are hills involved. I think that the rearend gear may be your problem as there are plenty that tow the 2600RB with a 1/2 ton truck. I am in the "bigger is better" camp when towing an RV, if a 1/2 ton will do it a 3/4 ton will do it better. I towed our first and second RV with a 1/2 ton and changed to 3/4 ton on the second RV and the difference was night and day. Next truck was the 1 ton and I will probably never go back from here. The weight and handling of a larger truck makes towing a more pleasurable experience.

Brian

I'm with Brian, bigger is better simply because it makes it a lot more fun to tow if you have the extra power. There are trailers that will do fine with a half ton but they are probably going to be smaller than you like. A 28' travel trailer will do fine on short trips in flat land, but you start getting in the hills and things change.

As for as 40 mph headwinds...............that's going to stall most of us!

I would have the truck checked. I noticed the biggest problems on Mom's truck many many years ago and it turned out to be a worn set of timing gears causing issues. Your truck may be experiencing some slight performance losses with the extra load that you may not notice without the load (remember the old analogy of the frog and boiling water).

As for those head winds, as mentioned, that much wind will slow down most of us. Think of it as trying to drive 100 mph, 60 mph ground speed plus 40 mph head wind. I don't think you would do that, but that's about the equivalent (not this was done as a land speed record and it took close to 1,000 hp in a diesel) https://www.autoblog.com/2012/10/31/...t-141-998-mph/

North Texas around Palo Duro canyon pulling a 23' bumper pull (Ultra light) with the 3/4 ton (06 GM) was not a challenge for the truck, but was a bit white knuckle for me. You may have found it already, but be aware the grain silo's south of Stratford on US-287 have been know to cause accidents with the cross winds catching people off guard.

Hi Bill & Annette:

As you have learned . . . all half ton trucks are not created equal. There are very few that can handle an 8000 lb trailer. Ford does make a version of the F150, but they keep it rather secret. It is called the HDPP (Heavy Duty Payload Package) and this gets you the suspension, axle ratio and tires needed to tow a large trailer.

Oddly enough, the best engine for towing a trailer with an F150 is the Ecoboost turbocharged V6. It has more torque and a far wider maximum torque curve than the V8. I can understand that you would be downshifting to try and keep the V8 above 4000 RPM to find some torque (the blue curve), where the Ecoboost has more torque than the V8 ever reaches, beginning at 2000 RPM (the green curve). See the attached torque chart for these engines.

We hauled a 10,000 lb 5th wheel for thousands of miles with an F150 HDPP Ecoboost and while that truck worked hard, we never encountered the issues that you describe. A trailer is a different loading situation than a 5th wheel, with the weight on the bumper rather than over the axle, but the wind resistance is greater with the higher 5th wheel.

As you can tell from my signature, we have recently stepped up to a significantly stronger truck. My biggest learning it doing this is realizing how well that Ecoboost HDPP half ton actually performed . . . in comparison to a one ton diesel.

Rob

While my 5.3L 3.42:1 final drive half ton towing our 2600RB has done extremely well in the hills of PA, I feel it may struggle if we ever get to take a trip to the Rockies. So I'm moving to the GM light duty diesel half ton. Tow rating on this truck has been moved up to 13200lb with a payload over a ton. 460 ft-lb of SAE certified torque at 1500 RPM and up to 30mpg empty HWY. There is no need for us to move up an HD truck since we will not move to a larger rig.

Ford and Stellantis also make light duty diesel half ton trucks. Who wants to feed too much truck these days?

Also comments on final drive and health is warranted. My 5.3L rarely moves to 4th gear (6 speed) and is at 2000-2800 RPM (62mpg) most all the time....even on grades. The Ford is just as capable so it may be worth taking a closer look. Timing chain issues will set a mil (check engine light) with only having one tooth off and would not result in a gross performance reduction FYI.

Also with a straight on 40mph head wind and grades, you would need to slow way down since any truck would be working hard in those conditions.

Jim

We just completed our first trip with the 3.5EC engine pulling at 2500RL for about 1000 miles. I'm very impressed with that engine/transmission combo. Ford currently claims the peak torque is spec'd at 500 ft-lbs, while your chart shows 420, but whatever. Normal, modest accelerations won't even run the engine up to 3000rpm. At 68mph on the level it runs about 21-2200 rpm in 7th or 8th gear. Up modest hills I did see about 3500rpm a few times. There is minimal downshifting when travelling up and down small hills. That is probably the most startling change from previous vehicles I've had - it takes a lot of throttle before downshifting.

IMO.......the term half ton towable gets people to buy trailers that are tooo heavy for their half ton. It's marketing.
To me......a half ton towable trailer is up to 5 or 6000#. (UVW)

AlexPeterson

You are correct that the Ecoboost now has more torque than shown on the graph that I posted. That chart is from 2014 which is the vintage of Ecoboost that I had and would also be the correct curve for the 2013 V8 that the OP has. Your description of Ecoboost towing is very similar to my experience. I would lock out top gear of the 6 speed transmission to keep the engine at about 2000 RPM when towing at highway speed. This eliminated the 6-5 downshift on moderate grades and the engine seemed more comfortable pulling in the boosted torque RPM range.

Rob

A big part of the problem is the wide range of payload capability in "half ton" trucks. Anywhere from less than 1000 lbs to over 2500 lbs. It still amazes me that many owners do not realize that this important number is written on the tire label at the driver's door. Then the truck manufacturers throw in marketing names like "Max Tow" . . . which gets you a trailer hitch and not much more.

Rob

The EB is a great engine indeed, but unless the plots are from SAE they can be taken with a grain of salt. Torque curves can be smoothed, highly filtered or other techniques applied for marketing purposes. The official SAE torque curves are done in the manufacturers dynamometer facility and witnessed by a representative from SAE, signed off and registered with SAE. They can be purchased through SAE as well. Also keep in mind these curves are without a transmission where the vehicle in most all cases will not follow these curves but rather will downshift to move higher on the curve in pulling a load.

For example, you will not pull in low gear at full throttle at say 1500rpm where the transmission would force an upshift. The curves show the maximum capability of the engine and does not represent the tractive effort of the vehicle.

Here is a J1349 L83 5.3L NA torque curve (Regular 87) as an example.



Jim

Scott,

The same can be applied to the F250 or 2500 trucks. Many folks will buy a 5th wheel that is far beyond the capability of the 3/4 ton truck. The issue in buying a trailer that is too big for the tow vehicle largely falls on the dealer and to some extent the manufacturer.

For instance, why show the unloaded GVW of the trailer and the associated tongue weight? The estimated tongue weight should be advertised based on min and max GVW and the range in tongue weights for trailers at 10-15% and fifth wheels at 15-25% This information would provide the necessary information to not overload a TV.

With full water and loaded for a week long dry camp trip we are at around 6500lbs for our 2600RB. Well within the 9400lb 1740 payload capability of our half ton. I based the capability of the TV when purchasing our Imagine at 80% of the trucks capability even though it is SAE certified at 9400 lbs up the grades out west and up Bakers Grade. We are running slightly above 80% so there were no surprises.

Jim

Thanks, everyone. We are home after 5679 miles and finally breathing easier. Our truck handled grades of less than 3% without too much trouble. Those long western grades of 4-7% were tough.
I will have to check my final drive ratio to see if a gear change would help. All in all, the new shocks and careful driving kept us going.
Thanks again,

Bill & Annette

I recall a trip out west where we were in the truck only with a cap on going around a long right hand curve, like a few miles long, and the wind was blowing from the left, I actually had the steering wheel turned to the left to keep in the lane. I can not imagine doing that with a trailer on the back.

Brian

That's great y'all got to enjoy a long trip in the west. There are some beautiful areas to see. The best part is you made it home safely and have great memories of beautiful places.

I have an F250 diesel with the exhaust brake. I pull about 9000-10000# trailer. Going down some of those 8%+ grades made me pucker a little. The exhaust brake was useless.