Singing in the Rain

TrickTruck

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This truck is a towing MONSTER. We loaded up the toyhauler (a 34' Work and Play) last Thursday and headed for a funeral in Indiana and then on to visit my family 50mi west of Chicago.

Bought the Propride hitch to control sway because prior trips with the Reese Straightline anti-sway sucked. White knuckle driving.

Coming out of Greenville, SC, truck all warmed up we were going up the Hwy 25 pass, passing trucks doing 64mph, 5th gear, power level two and the turbo was just a singing at 35psi. Like a symphony. Sounded so good.

Coming down the twisty I40 pass out of Asheville they combo felt very stable and under control, not pushing me around at all.

At our first fuel stop (around 500miles) we found some CAT scales and the gross combined vehicle weight was 24k+ lbs. That trailer is very noseheavy even with a 1000lb toy in the back. But with the airbags set to 70psi and maximizing the load leveling bars it was pretty level.

Going thru Cincinnati sucked big time. Those roads are really rough. I swear we caught air at one point and I was not going that fast.

Sadly this is where we had our only problem. We stopped at a Kroger near my wife's brother's house so we could visit in the morning and as we pulled into the parking lot we heard a big bang. One of the J hooks on the hitch let go. In the morning I bent them back up, but this clearly wasn't going to hold so we hunted up a welding shop and fixed them for good.

I'm still getting a very little bit of push going around semi's, but it's quite manageable. Trailer is a little nose down I'm hoping to level it a little better and maybe that'll help. Also maybe put a little more load on the leveling bars...also, we'd normally have our Maverick in the back for counterweight and it's 1000lbs heavier than the outlander we had in there this time - so more counterweight.

Up to Indiana, we spent time with wifey's family. Snaking this monster rig into their house was a challenge, but it turned out to be no problem.

Truck ran great, on to Chicago, no issues. ROUGH roads.

Coming home we hit 30-40mph cross winds on the way to Indianapolis and it was pushing me around pretty good. I don't know if this is just expected in these wind conditions or if there's some tuning of the hitch we can do.

We also hit some pretty severe rain. Going up S of Lexington I could barely see the road. Truck didn't blink, took it all in stride. Good thing I rainX'd the windshield

Truck ran great the whole way. EGT's briefly peaked at 1240°F according to the GTX on power level 2. Pulling passes it had zero issues keeping up to the speed limit. No issues slowing down, though I do wish the exhaust brake worked better, seems like it's all on the trans/engine. Sway control is vastly improved by the Propride and I think I can make it better with some tuning.

Oh, and the average MPG for the whole trip was 10.5mpg

Overall a really good trip. The F350 is a towing MONSTER and it loves to WORK. It seems to like 'singing in rain too' Git er done!
 

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HeavyAssault

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Awesome report for sure! Love the way mine sings along just putting the miles under the wheels. 35 PSI is impressive!
 

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