First time towing- worried!

[davidtg7123]

Thanks everyone for all the great advice. As former president Bush once said- Mission Accomplished. Ended up taking 9.5 hours start to finish so quite the tiring day. Just gotta drive an additional 5 minutes through town today to unload and then another 10 to drop the trailer off and I’ll be home free! (Besides the 4 hour drive to the beach, but I may make her help out with the driving now that the trailer will be gone ).

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[Frenchy]

Thanks everyone for all the great advice. As former president Bush once said- Mission Accomplished. Ended up taking 9.5 hours start to finish so quite the tiring day. Just gotta drive an additional 5 minutes through town today to unload and then another 10 to drop the trailer off and I’ll be home free! (Besides the 4 hour drive to the beach, but I may make her help out with the driving now that the trailer will be gone ).

Thanks to the photo I have another piece of advice. Get a different ball mount that has the ball lower. This will let the trailer be more level or more front heavy helping stabilize the load

 

[34TL34D]

I recently bought a teardrop camper (~2200 pounds) and the company said to get a brake controller. I had our dealer install it. They said that they were unavailable for awhile but are now able to be ordered (this was spring 2025). It’s a great feature to add if you’re towing; I’m a novice at towing and was kind of upset since the sales rep said it can “tow up to 7500lbs!” not knowing that a brake controller is needed for larger trailers. In my 23 XLT Sport 4x4, the truck asks for the trailer length the first time I plug it in and once it’s set it remembers that and adjusts the blind spot indicator whenever the trailer is plugged in.

 

[34TL34D]

Thanks everyone for all the great advice. As former president Bush once said- Mission Accomplished. Ended up taking 9.5 hours start to finish so quite the tiring day. Just gotta drive an additional 5 minutes through town today to unload and then another 10 to drop the trailer off and I’ll be home free! (Besides the 4 hour drive to the beach, but I may make her help out with the driving now that the trailer will be gone ).

Oops. I guess it’ll only take a few more years to actually finish the job. What?fourteen?

 

[TruckBox]

I recently bought a teardrop camper (~2200 pounds) and the company said to get a brake controller. I had our dealer install it. They said that they were unavailable for awhile but are now able to be ordered (this was spring 2025). It’s a great feature to add if you’re towing; I’m a novice at towing and was kind of upset since the sales rep said it can “tow up to 7500lbs!” not knowing that a brake controller is needed for larger trailers. In my 23 XLT Sport 4x4, the truck asks for the trailer length the first time I plug it in and once it’s set it remembers that and adjusts the blind spot indicator whenever the trailer is plugged in.

If you don't mind, what about di the brake controller run you installed? I hear they're a pain to install.

 

[34TL34D]

If you don't mind, what about di the brake controller run you installed? I hear they're a pain to install.

I paid the dealer to have it done. 2hrs labor plus the part. It was about $500.

 

[WOADKIL]

If you don't mind, what about di the brake controller run you installed? I hear they're a pain to install.

I was in shock as well when I purchased my 2021 XLT and there was no plug and play like my 2005 F150 Lariat had. Just plugged in a $100 Tekonsha under the dash and off I went!

The Ranger needed wiring which included tapping into the CHMSL 3rd brake light wiring... This included dropping the headliner!

Not wanting to mess up my new Ranger I opted to go factory and have it installed, not wanting to lose the ACC. My local dealer did not even know how to install it, so I went to the next closest dealer. And my truck was the third year they were selling 5G Rangers.

Paid about the same as 34TL34D.

Good luck!

 

[Tom_C]

FWIW, you don't need to drop the headliner to tap into the CHMSL.

https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/chmsl-3rd-brake-light-strobe-module.13282/

 

[TruckBox]

Thank you all! From what i've seen of the install, $500 is worth it!

Hope finding a dealer that'll do it won't be hard. Where I got mine they wanted nothing to do with even a hitch install.

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