Prospective new owners of the legacy ll from Ohio

[Mark willett]

My wife and I did the Oliver tour last Tuesday. It exceeded our expectations. We will be ordering the legacy II after the first of the year. We will be using the F150 2.7 ecoboost as our TV. With the tow package I'm seeing 7600 towing max. With the payload of 1680 it will leave us around 500 to 600 lbs of crap to put in the truck. Any thoughts or others using this set up?

[topgun2]

I suspect that since you are already aware of most of the important numbers, you already are aware of the pluses and minuses of this engine and payload problems.

Many professionals advise to not exceed 80 percent of the max towing capacity in order to give you a firm safety margin.  If you observe that then you are looking at a total Ollie weight of about 6080 pounds.  Most LEII's are right at 5,000 pounds when delivered (depending on the options on/in it) which therefore leaves you with roughly 900 pounds that you can put in the Ollie.  While the 2.7 engine if surprisingly good, it can only do so much.  If you intention is to tow in the eastern US and only rarely go into its mountains then you should be fine.  But, this engine will struggle a bit in the Rockies.  Give yourself plenty of time and space both for speeding up, hauling up and slowing down,

Bill

[Mark willett]

Thank you for the input. 

[Mike and Carol]

I agree with BIll.  I initially towed with a marginal tow vehicle (2012 Tacoma).  Aggravations included lack of towing range due to lousy gas mileage and small gas tank.  Looking for a gas station every 200 miles wasn’t fun.  Lack of payload was another aggravation.  It sounds like you’ve got that figured out.  Tongue weight, your body weights, Andersen hitch and stuff in the bed (including tonneau cover or cap if you have one) means being careful about what you load.  If you plan on towing in mountains you will find your truck straining.  I towed about 6,000 miles with my Tacoma.  Your half ton is a little more capable.  You can always pick up your trailer with it and get some miles with it before you decide you need more capability.  Mike

[Jim and Chris Neuman]

We now have towed our Legacy II over 22,000 miles since we picked it up in May of '21.  Our tow vehicle is a 2021 canopied shortbox F150 FX4 3.5 Ecoburst with max tow package.  This truck has plenty of power and has pulled several 11,000' plus passes as recently as last month.  The truck has yet to struggle on any thing we have taken on in every lower 48 western state.  Your 2.7 will not have the pull of the 3.5 but I doubt you will find traffic stacking up behind you.  The only thing I have beefed up was the rear suspension with the addition of air bags to cut down on porposing as we anticipate a trip to Alaska in the near future.

Our truck is rated for about twice the weight of a loaded Legacy II and is set up a bit beefier than many F150's and we make it a habit not to  load the Oliver heavily or carry too much heavy junk with us in the pickup bed.  We do use an Anderson as the hitch load is North of 500 pounds.  I believe you will find your truck is very well matched to the Oliver II.   

[Geronimo John]

I fully concur with Bill, Mike and Jim.  

Mountains out West:  Get the 3.5 EB or equivalent.  Driving Canada to Alaska:  3.5  EB.  Back East:  Your call. 

Due to porposing, I replaced our 3 year old stock rear shocks with Bilstein 5100's.  I had hoped that they would be enough to cut down on porposing.  They did help.  However, during our trans Canada (especially) and Alaska (somewhat) I many times wished I had also installed a set of air bags as my Brother had recommended.