Picked up a trailer in GA yesterday and drove it today to IN, so the trip was about 16 hours... this is my first ever towing experience so it was a bit of a challenge for me... but I made it safely so I am pretty happy.
I have a Platinum 4x4 with 3.73 gears. So average MPG was around 8.7... not great, but it is ok I guess...
Truck handled well so I am excited! Trailer itself weights around 3k lbs, so can't wait until I'll tow a car next month to Memphis... will have something to compare with

 

Great lookin combo

 

What speed did you average? I pull a travel trailer thats looks a little higher profile and about 5,000 pounds and get around 12-13 mpg on the highway (pretty flat) at 65 mph. The mpg drops significantly just a few mph above 65 because of the high aerodynamic drag. My XLT Screw has the 3.73 rear-end.

 

Aren't you two wheel drive? That alone adds 2mpg doesn't it?

 

That is a lot like my 24ft. It says 4500 empty. How is the highway acceleration and confidence?
Are you using weight dist hitch and bars, sway controller?
Looks like you have a max tow pkg how was the initial squat?
I am considering trading my F250 for a New loaded F150max. Thanks.

 

average speed was around 72 mph... i didn't use the distribution hitch at that time, but I am having one installed next week. Also sales person is trying to pitch about buying additional sway bars for the system, do you guys think I need that? I know there is some kind of a feature on new F-150 but I don't know if that does the same thing or not...
as far as acceleration and all that, it wasn't too bad in my opinion, but of course i don't have anything to compare it to... i am looking forward to testing it with the car inside and see how that handles. but for now the handling was pretty good, trailer didn't sway or anything like that. it was a pretty good experience overall i'd say...
and yes the truck does have a max tow package on it.

 

Yes, mine is 2wd so there would be a difference. I'm not so sure it would be as much as 2 mpg at 65 mph but a difference for sure.

As far as a weight distribution hitch, I cant say enough good thing about Equal-i-zer brand. They're not inexpensive but I've been towing travel trailers for many years and the Equal-i-zer WD hitch is the best WD hitch I've ever used by far. The load bars are free to slide in the brackets on the trailer and act as friction bars to control unwanted sway. very quick and simple to hook up and very effective. I believe Reese just recently came out with their own rip-off of the design.

Keep the speed at 65 mph and you should notice a significant improvement on mileage. Maybe not as good as mine but better than 8 mpg. Its also safer towing such a load at 65 mph and matter of fact illegal to exceed 65 mpg with a trailer in some States. The 2009 F150 makes it easy to tow big loads at 70+ but thats simply too fast for the sake of safety plus it eats gas way faster.

 

How many miles you got on your truck? That sounds like very low MPG for that truck and trailer combo. I tow a trailer than weights in at about 8k lb's at times and around the mountain roads here i get about 12-12.9 MPG. The only thing i can guess is you have below 2000 miles on your truck.

 

i just hit 2k miles when i got back home

 

I would use a sway brake when loaded. I do on my F250.

 

What does is your payload on your driver's door or B-pillar sticker say? 5.5' bed or 6.5'?

 

Very nice setup!

I am also very interested in what your TREAD Act sticker says.

I am stuck between buying a new F150 and a F250. I'd prefer an F150 for daily driving, but I don't think the payload is sufficient. So far, I havent found an F150 with an actual payload rating more than about 1200 to 1300 pounds. Some F150's I have looked at are quite a bit lower, going as low as ~900 lbs.

I have a 24 ft trailer, that is somehere around 7500 lbs fully loaded, with my 1970 Mustang in it and all my gear. That puts at least 750 lbs on the hitch (at 10%) and perhaps as much as 900 (at 12%). With me and one additional passenger (+350 to 400 lbs), I would be real close to, if not over the max payload.

Tim

 

it says 792 lbs and it is a 6.5' bed

 

yeah i was leaning toward the same thing, at least it won't hurt to have it installed, right?

 

yeah i was thinking about 150/250 myself but i choose to stay with 150 because it is much easier for me to drive it daily since this is my first ever pick-up truck.
But you can always put your stuff back in the trailer... that is what i'll be doing most of the time when i'll be using the truck with the trailer to haul my cars around.