Not really virgin but am to this truck and trailer. (I've towed a 20 something foot wells cargo with a 460cc Ford when I did roofing). 

Anyway, here are my questions. I just picked up a 33' fifth wheel travel trailer. Dual axles, 8400lbs dry. 

My truck. 98.5 24v with a bhaf and 4" straight pipe. 285/16 tires. 

1. On the way home the truck had a hard time on hills. For example. Went from 65mph down to 45mph on a moderate grade hill. About a half mile long hill. Rpms were about 2800 the whole way up the hill and I was slightly worried about what egt's might have been. I do not have any gages. 

2. I had adjusted trailer brakes from my controller to just shy of lockup. I hit my brakes on the freeway (light to moderate pressure) and the truck pulled hard to the right halfway onto the shoulder. Kinda scary. Then right by my house I have a medium slope hill coming down to the house and it's only a 1/4 mile long, yet when I got to the bottom, there was a very strong brake smell. I inspected the truck and trailer, and my driver front wheel was very dark with dust and smelled horrible. Other side was fine. 

So, I need some input. 
1. I would love to upgrade my brakes, but after researching a bit, I guess I can't put the 3rd gen calipers on my truck. Sad. What's the next best thing? I wanna get new calipers pads and rotors. 

2. Should my truck struggle this hard towing at my power level and weight? If yes. Then what can I do and how much? I was thinking about getting a smarty and some 75lbs injectors. What other supporting mods do I need. Brands and prices? Probably an egt and tranny temp gage? (I don't really hot rod the truck so will my 47re take it?)  
All input is welcomed. Thank you. 

BUY THEM!!! Worst case you can quadruple your money.

 

265/70R17's are about the same as 265/75R16's which are about the same size as 235/85R16's.  So yeah, decent size to tow with.

Edited March 20, 20178 yr by Cowboy

UPDATE: I put new to me wheels on today. They're 1" smaller. But in the process of removing my front wheels I noticed that both of the front wheels are REALLY hard to spin. Right side a little harder than LH. Both were pretty hard to spin though. I had to use both arms to rotate the wheels. So obviously this explains some of my towing issue. 

So, any ideas what's causing BOTH calipers to drag? I understand 1, but both? I'm ordering new calipers, pads, brake lines, 1 ton GM cylinders for rear, and rotors from napa tomorrow. But I'd like to find/know the cause of this so I don't have it happening again in 10k miles. 

Also, I'll probably flush all the fluid too. Any tips on that? Thanks y'all. 

Wheel bearings? 

 

Can you physically see the pads dragging? 

 

I tend to think bad pads and/or warped rotors before bad calipers.

 

If you can afford the truck to be down a bit longer maybe just change pads and rotors and see if that fixes it. If not then you can look at either bad calipers or bearings. 

On ‎3‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 2:16 PM, Florin1 said:

 .................

 

Another thing you might check is your brake controller.  For some reason mine was really sensitive with our new trailer.  With our older late 90's 5thwheel , no problem.  With 2012 trailer it took some time to get it set right.  But in the mean time the front brakes kept lighting up ABS light in city traffic. And I have no idea why.

8 hours ago, notlimah said:

Wheel bearings? 

 

Can you physically see the pads dragging? 

 

I tend to think bad pads and/or warped rotors before bad calipers.

 

If you can afford the truck to be down a bit longer maybe just change pads and rotors and see if that fixes it. If not then you can look at either bad calipers or bearings. 

Yup. The pads have contact with disc the whole time. 

Your calipers could be full of debris and other garbage.  Make sure to bleed the system really well and rebuild the calipers or replace them.  Don't bleed the system after you put to calipers on you run the risk of flush debris back into the calipers. 

Hmm. So you think I should flush my system first thing before I even pull off the old parts? That's a good idea. Probably waste 1 pint of fluid... but no biggie

yea simple steps first! New fluid, pads and rotors are all relatively cheap compared to brand new calipers.

30 minutes ago, Florin1 said:

Hmm. So you think I should flush my system first thing before I even pull off the old parts? That's a good idea. Probably waste 1 pint of fluid... but no biggie

I would absolutely flush it first.  If you were to put new calipers in the system and flush debris into the piston, you could end up with the same problems that you have now.  An extra bottle of brake fluid is cheaper than brake parts.

What fluid? Just dot-3,4? Or some expensive stuff?

 

Also, should I be looking into new wheel bearings? Since it looks like I'm gonna be tearing into he hub?

17 minutes ago, Florin1 said:

What fluid? Just dot-3,4? Or some expensive stuff?

Truck calls for dot 3 but I've been used dot 4 fluid for the past 6 years with no problems.  I wouldn't use dot 5 or 5.1.

 

24 minutes ago, Florin1 said:

Also, should I be looking into new wheel bearings? Since it looks like I'm gonna be tearing into he hub?

Is there anything wrong with them?  If it ain't brook don't fix it is my policy.