Bought a new 2014 F-150 Ecoboost 4x4 with tow package last month.
Spent Sunday setting up the Equalizer WD hitch on the Rage'n toyhauler.
I hooked it all up and did a 16 mile test drive and noticed the steering wheel was canted to the right while towing up the freeway. It does not do this when not towing. The brake controller was preset at 10 on the gain and I did not do any further adjustment at that time. The trailer brakes were checked and adjusted after my last trip with the old 2006 F-150 and the trailer tows straight.

My question is has anyone seen this before? With the brake controller could it be dragging a brake? Or with the Ford sway control could the truck somehow be dragging a break or compensating for something? At a loss here and am headed to the mountains on Friday morning for a 4 day trip.

 

If you have access to an IR temperature gauge, drive it again, then check all brakes on the trailer and truck. If one is much hotter than the others, start there.

 

I take a heat gun with me and do that each time I stop. Was hoping to get some ideas before heading out Friday morning though. Just thought someone has seen something similar. The trailer pulled fine last trip with the old 2006 so the new F-150 is the only difference.

 

I've seen this with my old truck and my trailer.

I think it's a side effect of the Weight Distributing Hitch. My guess is, you either have too much transfer of weight to the front of the truck or too little. And, this is effecting your alignment.

Ideally, you want an equal amount of additional weight from the trailer applied to both the front and rear axles of the tow vehicle. The Equalizer hitch directions say to measure the drop in the wheel well openings and try to set things up so that there is an equal change in height when the trailer is connected and set up for towing. Ideally, the trailer should be level too when it is hooked to your truck.

That's a pretty good way to estimate the weight transfer, but to get it better, you need to weigh things on a CAT scale. You'd need to take two weighing to check things out. Take the first weighing with your truck connected to the trailer and the WD hitch set up the way you think it is transferring the weight properly. Make sure you are loaded for camping, in both your trailer and truck - that means all people and camping supplies aboard. Your truck can sit on the front two scales and the trailer will be on the third. This will tell you the axle loading on the truck's and trailer's axles.

Then, disconnect your trailer and drop it on the third scale. Make sure the tongue jack is on that scale too. Leave your truck on the first two scales. Now you have the axle loadings on your truck without the trailer and you are able to get the total weight of your trailer too.

From this, you'll know how much weight has been added to each axle of your truck, and, it will tell you if any axle is overloaded too, when you tow.

If you tell the folks that do the weighings what you want to do before hand, it will eliminate confusion when you get on the scale. And, they may offer some helpful suggestions at that time too.

- Jack

 

Towed 350 miles last weekend up to an elevation of 7700+ feet and it was an enjoyable experience compared to my old 2006 F-150 5.4L.

The steering wheel corrected itself so it must have been the equalizer bars not centered. Toyhauler was completely loaded with my 4 seat full cage Arctic Cat Prowler, 80 gallons of fresh water, two batteries, full propane and food and supplies for 16 people plus the truck bed was loaded with all sorts of cast iron dutch ovens, skillets and griddles, camp chef stoves, dutch oven tables, camp tables, coolers with 80 lbs of ice and more.
On flat ground it was 60MPH in 6th gear at 1600 RPM and never tried to up and downshift unless we encountered a grade. In the hills it never dropped below 50 in 4th gear at 50 MPH. Between the Ecoboost, 6 speed tranny with tow/haul mode and the built in sway control there is no comparison to my old 2006. Even when going through canyons with crosswinds I was never white knuckled and could actually feel the sway control doing its thing. Amazing.
I ended up with the brake controller gain set at 7 and it felt right.

The Ecoboost is amazing for only 218 cubic inches!