Tow Upgrades and Guidance - 2021 Expedition XLT

[shane_th_ee]

What’d you miss? Rear springs, the HD tow package includes different rear springs. (And now that Ford has the non-eLSD version of the 3.73 rear differential available, it might be do-able to change out the rear differential/axle.)

 

[sjwhiteley]

Without HD tow you will be at MAX towing capacity.

I recommend having the brake controller installed by the dealership - it's pretty cheap to do - unless you are very familiar with doing that work. The Sumo Springs (rubber donuts which go between the coil springs on the rear) will help a little. Make sure the weight, spring rate and height of the WDH is set perfectly, since you are at max capacity.

Those are the easy things, barring serious replacement of radiator, diff, etc.

 

[duneslider]

Your shocks are going to leak so when you replace them put in some better shocks, I put bilsteins on and they made a noticeable difference when towing for me. I tow a camper that is about 5k and don't feel like it is even working hard most of the time.

 

[Av8r]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned in a few of these "can my Expy tow this" threads is. Charging for your TT battery!

I have the max tow package on my 2019, so I can not check for this. But on my 2005 Expy I did not have any towing package on it. It had the 4-pin connector but not the 7-pin. After researching how to add the 7-pin to it I found out that some of the 1st gen Expys had a 7-pin connector but did not have the fuses and relays for charging the trailer battery. I wired in the power for the 7-pin but didn't add the fuse or relay. After a "short" 100 mi trip, approx 3 hrs, it almost completely drained my TT battery.

Just check with a volt meter to see if you are getting power from Pin 1 (Ground) to Pin 4 (Charging +12V). IDK if they include the necessary fuses and relays in the Expys w/o a tow package. You don't want to lose power for the trailer brakes.

 

[lurch]

Besides the content of the max tow package switching to LT tires with an E load rating really helped my towing experience. The stiffer sidewalls and high PSI helped reduce sway when pulling in heavy wind.

 

[chuck s]

I believe, based on posts here, the Ford OEM brake controller will physically "snap in" where the little bin sits on the dash and electrically "plug in" to the connector under the dash. 20 minutes.

The Prodigy proportional brake controller I used with my '07 was wonderful; the Ford controller in my '17 is even more wonderful!

-- Chuck