2018 Expedition vibrates badly when towing trailer

Just trying to weed out the easy questions but you do have the trailer level or slightly tongue down when towing right? If the tongue is high, even slightly it can really make the trailer behave badly. I had an ATV trailer and it towed great in the morning with the 2 atv's and full gas cans but on the way home with empty gas cans there was just enough change in the tongue that it would pull like crap. I got a receiver with a couple more inches of drop and it pulled significantly better.

Thanks for the reply. It's level; I only drove it 35 miles to my trailer/hitch experts to have the WD hitch adjusted for the 1.5" higher Expedition receiver (compared with my lost pickup). It shook the same coming home set correctly, level as it did going. Shook with the bars off as a test. A friend pulled the trailer with a HD Ram that was higher and so tilted up slightly (no WD) and it was as smooth as it always had been with my 2 earlier pickups. My last 1/2 ton pickup had the same rear axle ratio and 100 less HP but no problems. I didn't get the HD tow package because I never expected to tow much with this and it says 6000Lb with weigh distributing hitch.
Waiting to see if the dealer does anything. I asked for reinstalling any software/firmware that affects towing, if there is such a thing. The service manager drove it last week, acknowledged it's awful, but said it was a "personality conflict" between truck and trailer, nothing wrong with either. Gotta love it, it's voodoo towing. Someone on a good horse trailering forum described exactly the same problem, corrected completely by buying better tires for the Expedition! Not ready to go there yet, but...
Stay tuned!

Problem solved! I had the Ford dealership perform what they called PCM and TCM update, basically reinstalling the trans software, and now the horse trailer pulls smoothly. The suggestion came from the truck and trailering board at the Horse.com, a much used and respected site for the equestrian community. Folks that trailer horses worth six figures to competitions have learned a thing or two, I guess!
Thank you everyone that contributed their thoughts, much appreciated.

otrain said:

Problem solved! I had the Ford dealership perform what they called PCM and TCM update, basically reinstalling the trans software, and now the horse trailer pulls smoothly. The suggestion came from the truck and trailering board at the Horse.com, a much used and respected site for the equestrian community. Folks that trailer horses worth six figures to competitions have learned a thing or two, I guess!
Thank you everyone that contributed their thoughts, much appreciated.

Click to expand...

Did they give you a receipt or work order ticket showing what they did? If so could you share it with us? It may help the ones with dumb dealers and service people. Thanks.


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The paperwork said just that, customer reports vehicle vibrates and shudders towing trailer, "performed PCM and TCM update". They didn't have my trailer so they didn't know if it would work - it was my request to do it. I got home and hooked up and found the trailer pulled smoothly. Seems like we need to consider electronics and updates like this more these days.

otrain said:

Problem solved! I had the Ford dealership perform what they called PCM and TCM update, basically reinstalling the trans software, and now the horse trailer pulls smoothly. The suggestion came from the truck and trailering board at the Horse.com, a much used and respected site for the equestrian community. Folks that trailer horses worth six figures to competitions have learned a thing or two, I guess!
Thank you everyone that contributed their thoughts, much appreciated.

Click to expand...

Welp, I'd have lost money betting on the solution to that one. But I'm glad you got it solved.

That is extremely interesting! Just curious but did you ever tow the trailer without having it in "Trailer" mode? My head can't imagine what scenario in the programming would make the vehicle behave that way when towing a trailer.

Very glad you got it figured out!

Seems like I've been seeing this commercial a lot recently, so would be annoyed if there wasn't a fix.

Don't shoot me for mentioning something very different but yet similar. In 2014, I pulled my travel trailer, about 4000 pounds with wdh with my 2010 Silverado 1500 from Texas to Washington state, about 2000 miles one way. On the way up, at about 700 miles, it started vibrating bad at times, I could see the back of the truck jumping up and down in the rearview mirror, it would usually start around 50 mph but sometimes below that. Had all the tires on the truck rebalanced at Salt Lake City and had two trailer tires replaced at the same time with no change. After getting to the campground in Washington, took the truck to a Chevy/Cadillac dealer in Bellingham to be checked out. Took a drive with a mechanic and when he went up a slight incline it started vibrating. He said "it is the lockup clutch, we have replaced many of them under warranty, we have to replace the torque converter", left the truck overnight, drove a brand new (15 miles on OD) loaner truck back to the campground. Picked up my truck next day and eventually pulled the trailer back to Texas with no issues. So the issue was a chattering lockup clutch.