Truck Vibrates Periodically During and After TOWING

First of all, I have a 2005 Ford F150 FX4, and tow a 2001 Mastercraft X-Star.

The other week, after I had towed my boat out of the water, I put the boat away where I am normally store it. Shortly afterwards, the truck started vibrating quite a bit. I stopped the truck a couple of times, eventually putting the truck from 2WD into 4WD, and it stopped. I'm not sure if this was a coincidence or not. Anyways, I then put the truck back into 2WD and it seemed ok. The weekend was over at this point and I went home... no problems afterwards. Last weekend, I came up and put a smaller boat in the water (2400lbs Four Winns). I noticed that at the end of the weekend, as soon as I left for home, the truck started shaking again. Again, I stopped the truck a couple of times, messed with engaging and dis-engaging 2WD and 4WD. THe problem stopped eventualy. I went home, I took it to Mister Transmission and they couldn't find anything wrong. Anyways, no problems all week. Fast-forward to today. I was towing the boat and the truck start vibrating while I was actually towing this time. I stopped the truck, I didn't bother with the 2WD and 4WD this time. I simply geared down to 2nd gear (this is an automatic, not manual truck), and the problem didn't come back. I put it back into Drive from 2nd gear eventually, and the problem still didn't come back. I have driven about 100kms after that incident today... no problems!

Anyone had anything similiar to this? I'm not sure if it's transmission, it sounds like it to me but I may be barking up the wrong tree. I'm not a mechanic by any means. The problem definitely seems to surface during and after towing however.

Just a wild stab at this. Torque convert clutch not un-engaging, though you would get a bad engine stumble at idle when stopping. I bet the F150 forum guys have had this problem before. My other wild guess is a sticking universal or seal on the drive line. The boat load on the tongue is binding the driveline up so how, often if your rear axle gets submerged when lunching, it wrecks havoc on the universals and rear gears (water gets in the axle vent tube when submerged).

Good luck,
DC

I got the same thing - the emergency brake stuck. Did you smell anything funny? Check if the hubs are hot.

I had this issue and it was a solanoid trying to engage my 4x4. Same thing if you put in 4x4 and switched it back it was fine. was a $ 200.00 fix. Ford tried to tell me it was my breaks and it wasn't. They found that out after I had already paid them to swap out my breaks and I was leaving the dealership and it happened again.

Our 2005 F150 2wd is having a problem with the overdrive and I did some research. apparently the overdrive band and/or the overdrive solenoid are notorious for causing problems. There is tons of info on Ford and F series forums. I think there is some snap ring that breaks and causes the over. I would of expected the tranny shop to figure that out though.

Thanks for your responses guys!

Mro, yes my emergency brake light is on!!! I figured this was unrelated and just a sensor problem because I can feel the breaks release and there is no resistance that I can feel from the brakes. Wow! That is crazy but makes sense I suppose! I will look into this first.

Thanks again!

Almost Guaranteed it is one of two things... Either your torque converter is shot, or your rear end needs service. Start with the cheap option which is have the rear end serviced and a friction modifier added. If that doesn't cure it, check the transfer case and torque converter. The transfer case CAN go bad, but in my experience, they are virtually indestructible. This is coming from experience with 5 F-150's, and 1 F-350. So not a keyboard warrior. 3 of the F-150's needed rear end service and had the identical symptoms you're describing. I've heard rumors of transfer cases going bad when clutches stick together (only heard this on forums) but I know my '01 lariat was run dry for 5K miles thanks to a repair shop screw up and she survived it just fine.