My F150 & 2021 International

[SteveSteve]

Hello everyone!
I am a newbie posting here, but I’ve been researching topics on this forum for the last 3 weeks. My wife and I got excited about camping while on a road trip from the Tampa area up to Maine visiting friends and family. We have always wanted to explore the country and thought a motorcoach would be the ideal way to travel. Well, after having owned a motorcoach (another story) we decided on an Airstream. I didn’t want to buy another truck, so I searched what would fit with what I already have.

I have a 2019 F150 3.5L Eco Boost with a 6 1/2 foot bed, full towing package. It’s certified to pull 13,200# and a tongue weight of 1320#.

I decided on getting a 2021 International 27FBQ with a rear hatch. I had to drive to Tyler Texas to bring her back to Florida. Long story short, my F150 pulled her as I had hoped. I averaged 10 mpg at 72 mph on the interstates - the sweet spot speed where the transmission would actually shift into 10th gear. I tried all sorts of different speeds; 70, 65, 60, and lower. Lower speeds off the interstate was worse on the gas mileage.

I watched a few videos where a couple of guys said to try your setup for yourself and see how it goes and ignore the naysayers. Truth. So if anyone is thinking like I was, this setup is perfect for me. Happy trails and I look forward to meeting you on the road.

 

[T’sOVR&Explore]

Welcome, and thanks for relating the actual experienced results - your choices are working well!

 

[turbopilot]

I decided on getting a 2021 International 27FBQ with a rear hatch. I had to drive to Tyler Texas to bring her back to Florida. Long story short, my F150 pulled her as I had hoped. I averaged 10 mpg at 72 mph on the interstates - the sweet spot speed where the transmission would actually shift into 10th gear. I tried all sorts of different speeds; 70, 65, 60, and lower. Lower speeds off the interstate was worse on the gas mileage.

Welcome. I have a lot of experience towing a 25' Airstream with an F-150. The best I would see was 12 MPG at 62 MPH. Your International and my Globetrotter have the same frontal area. Towing a trailer with the same frontal area 10 miles a faster will increase aerodyanmic drag by 35%. So you would expect 9.5 to 10 MPG at 72 MPH. The problem towing a 25' or 27' Airstream with most F-150's is the tongue weight versus the useful load available. The lower trim level F-150's generally have enough payload available, but you need to measure your hitch weight fully loaded ready camp. It is not unusual to see a 25' or 27" Airstream ready to camp come in with 1,100 lbs or more on the hitch. If you cabin load and bed load allow it you are good. Generally a higher trim level F-150 can't carry a heavy hitch because of GVWR restrictions.

I have a lot of miles towing my 25' Airstream. I have found handling is not optimum above 65 MPH pulling an Airstream at that speed. Since you have a long bed F-150 you should be able to get a good FALR on your front tires weight distribuition hitch. Harder with the short bed F-150's.

 

[SteveSteve]

Hi Turbo, By any chance you were an airplane pilot, too? Thanks for the good information. I failed to mention that I was also equipped with a Blue Ox. The gent that sold me the unit said he only used 6 links instead of the recommended 9. Granted my AS was mostly empty, but it was impressive. I’m going to do 9 links before she travels heavy. I was able to get home a day faster than I had originally thought it would take. I know that goes the AS code, but I wanted to get her home ASAP so I can organize and get the essentials in her. I can’t wait for a real camp out. I plan on keeping ALL of the heavy stuff, including the ground power cable, tools, etc., in the bed of my truck. Next I’m getting new truck tires. Only 30k miles on them, but they’re original. After I’m having fun supporting the local economy, I’ll get her weighed and see where my plan went south. In my favor, I am a retired commercial pilot and very familiar with weight and balance. Lastly, I’m going to slow down. I did grip the wheel a lot harder when encountering 18 wheelers. I guess my point of the post was to let others know that trucks like ours are plenty big enough to pull these rigs. I never considered getting any AS rigs longer than 28 feet.