Four years ago I stepped down from a F-250 to a F-150. I no longer own a grown up truck. I actually love my truck but recently bought a travel trailer and the wind today and yesterday gave me the blues, even with a sway bar set up. Good tires with near max air pressure. The FX-4 suspension is just too soft.

Is air bags the answer? I do have an equalizer hitch but not the bars. I don’t know if that will solve my problem.

I can say the 3.5 and 10 speed tows with authority. I just can’t say specifically where to if the wind is blowing.

I'm keeping my 3/4.

I have a 1/2 ton with air bags and I use an equalizer hitch and my 30 ft trailer pull s great.
The air bags made a huge difference for me

How big is the trailer?

I put air bags on my 3/4 ton, and now have them on my 1 ton.

Nothing would prevent me from putting then on a 1/2 ton.

24’ bumper pull. What I thought was relatively small for me and the wife. 4500 pounds dry weight.

A half ton just doesent have the arse that a HD platform does.

Personally I don’t like towing anything much bigger than a bass/bay boat with a half ton. On real flat land you can get away with it but add in heavy winds/grades/highway speeds and you’re punishing yourself.

Horsepower and torque ratings in half tons are fine, but the trucks themselves need more weight.

As I’ve mentioned before, everyone’s definition of “pulls great” is different.

Yes, sir. That is often the source of discrepancies in shared experiences!

Marc

My last work truck was a F250 utility bed. I liked it. Now I'm in a 2022 F150 with 3 boxes and a rat pack. Rides like a dream even with 1,100 pounds in the bed.

What does that have to do with pulling a travel trailer with a half ton?

I feel your blues.
Truck is through my work, but I had a 1/2 ton 6.5ft bed with FX4 suspension and it handled my stock trailer with cattle pretty well. Now I have a 5.5ft bed with Sport 4x4 package - man it struggles on the highway with wind and big rigs around.

To answer your question air bags will solve your problem and provide the best flexibility. Install a quality system and don’t skimp out on it though, the cheap ones will give you headaches down the road.

My Dad used to pull a 27' bumper pull with a half ton without issue. The key is well adjusted anti-sway AND torsion bars set TIGHT. He made a tool to give him leverage on the torsion chain latches but still clear the ground (a straight pipe tool hits the ground before the latches catch). They need to be set tight enough you can't throw the latches by hand. Torsion bars set tight not only prevent the tongue from drooping, they turn the rig into a big leaf spring.

Now dad pulls a 12K 5th wheel with a 2014 Sierra 6.2L gas/6L90E/3.73 gear with no issue. It's at the tongue weight limit but not the GVWR limit. Now he doesn't have the sway and bounce issues of a bumper pull (or the job of swapping the 100# ball head or the job of latching torsion bars) but does have Firestone air bags for leveling. He put them on himself laying on his back in a campground at Lake Texoma at age 67.

From the comments above, it sounds like air bags will help. I just down sized from a 20,000 lbs 43' 5th wheel to a 11,300 lbs 38' bumper pull. I keep my Ram 3500 dually and am using a 15,000 lbs hitch with 2000 lbs sway bars. So far it pulls like a dream, but I've got a huge over kill with the tow vehicle. I'm now 6" narrower, 2' shorter and 9,000lbs lighter...I gained 3 mpg too.

People concerned with towing ability of a 1/2 ton while I would be much more concerned with being able to stop.

Nope. Trailers have brakes or at least they should. The brakes on a modern 1500 are 3X or better the brakes on a 1990 3500. If the trailer brakes are operating and adjusted properly and the trailer is not overweight for the vehicle specs, the 1500 will stop just as well.

Set the electric brakes correctly and that’s not an issue.

I went the other direction, F150 FX4 to a Ram 2500. The F150 pulled my TT no problem but windy days were no fun. I always figured it was due to the light weight of the F150 being all aluminum, it's strong but it is light. That and steep hills or a headwind sure gave that 3.5 ecoboost a workout.

I added Firestone airbags and that took care of the trailer tongue weight issue.

Had a 2011 F150 Eco-Boost with a towing capacity of just over 11,000 pounds. Loved that P/U until I got to tow with it. Would load the 18 footer with 6,000 pounds of feed with appropriately set trailer brakes and I know how it inadequately responded. No arse is no arse. "Might" be the main reason for getting into the Diesel. Only need it 10-12 times a year, but when I do, it is capable.

I often come back from our weekend spot at the Frio and routinely see 1/2 ton P/U's struggling with travel trailers on the path from Garner State Park to Sabinal. I don't feel safe being anywhere near them.

My TT was around 7k loaded for a trip, never had even the slightest issue with stopping. Same with towing my utility trailer loaded with a tractor or 2 pallets of sod. I would never push a F150 past that tow weight and 11k is a joke, F150s are way too light to do that safely.

I highly recommend gathering all your truck and trailer data and then plugging it into a tow calculator. Then you will know if you are safe or not.

https://towcalculator.app/

https://www.keepyourdaydream.com/payload/

https://www.roadnotes.com/articles/towing-capacity-worksheet/

https://rv.campingworld.com/towguide

Suspension is an important part of stopping. Don’t overlook that. Same as a overloaded 1/2 ton is harder to stop, an empty big rig is also harder to stop.

Easier to stop a semi loaded to max gross than it is to stop one pulling an empty trailer or riding bobtail.

You want the suspension made for towing heavier things to stop with heavier things, and vice versa.

Suspension is not much at all a part of stopping. That makes no sense at all. Weight matters and so does brake capacity. That's pretty much it.

My apologies for throwing you guys off on a bunny trail. Stopping and getting a load moving are only two parts of an incomplete equation.

I used to have a big ski boat (no trailer brakes) and for a short period I had to tow it with a Jeep Cherokee, it towed it down the road just fine. Now when I went to back the boat down a fairly steep ramp that boat drug the Jeep all the way to the water with me standing on the brakes, once the boat floated I was able to stop. It was all within tow spec of the Jeep but real life was a tad different.