How the 2025 Ford Expedition tows more, with less vibration

While tariffs are front and center in the news, Ford isn’t worried about its Expedition SUV. Every Expedition is made at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant, where the automaker uses a combination of high-tech machinery, software, and a skilled labor force to build the Expedition, alongside the F-250–F-550 Super Duty trucks and the Lincoln Navigator SUV. Inside the plant, workers on the production line are operating as smoothly as a choreographed ballet. Under the vehicles in a trench, technicians install HVAC lines while above, horns and revving engines punctuate the constant hum.

It’s here that the new, fully redesigned Ford Expedition is built, boasting several improvements for 2025. The Expedition includes a new front suspension and shocks as well as enhancements to the frame and stabilizer bar, rear end, and body mounts. Plus, the new Expedition can tow 300 more pounds than its predecessor, for a total of 9,600 pounds, a benefit to those who like to travel with other people, pets, and camping gear or motorsports equipment.

Weight management for towing improvement

Ford also unveiled the Expedition Tremor, a new off-road version of the SUV, which includes 33-inch all-terrain tires, available hands-free Blue Cruise driving, and a new split tailgate. Every Expedition comes with a twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6 and a 10-speed automatic transmission. The standard output is 400 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque, while a high-output version (standard on the Tremor, optional on Platinum trims) generates 440 hp and 510 lb-ft of torque. All that power propels the big SUV forward and supports its towing prowess. 

The towing experience is important, because 40-50% of Ford customers tow between two times a six times a year, says Expedition vehicle engineering manager Kartik Ramanathan. The need isn’t frequent, but consumers tend to buy SUVs and pickup trucks for the possibilities of what they can do, just in case. (If that’s you, just remember that means that friends may call on you to help them move, or rope you into towing a camper for the weekend.) 

To increase the towing capacity for the 2025 model, Ramanathan says the engineers “watch the weight of the vehicle like a hawk.” The heavier the vehicle, the less towing capacity is available for the same set of components. 

“The way towing capacity works is this: You have the gross combined weight rating of the vehicle, which is a combination of the base curb weight of the vehicle, trailer, and passengers,” Ramanathan explains. “As you increase the base curve, the combined weight rating stays constant. Now, you can change it by changing the components, but then you get into the circular loop of making the components heavier so they’re more durable and then, because you have more weight now, you have a higher base curve and you can tow less. It’s a balance.” 

Another factor is thermal management. If the cooling system overheats and isn’t working right, the vehicle won’t be able to tow as much, so there are multiple restrictions. 

“When we do a towing analysis, we actually look at multiple components at the same time and try to determine what is our weakest link, and then we make sure that we shore up that weakest link,” Ramanathan says. “In this case, to increase our max towing we had to up our cooling system capability.”

Ford opted to replace the 16mm radiator with a 26mm radiator, which allowed the Expedition engineers to achieve the higher towing number. 

New body mounts absorb vibration

For the new Expedition, the entire upper body sits on flexible rubber body mounts that attach the body to the frame and absorb up-and-down motion. As such, the mounts need to be much softer than the frame and the body so it can compress and convert that energy into heat and dissipate that energy.

“For example, when you take a stress ball and you squeeze it, then let it go, you’re taking  energy from your body and you’re squeezing it into the ball so the ball takes that energy,” Ramanathan explains. “When it compresses, you’re not able to sense a temperature change, but essentially what’s happening is it absorbs that energy and converts [it] into heat.” 

Ford changed the damping properties of the body mounts, adjusting the stiffness of the rubber and how “squishy” it is, he says, which results in improvements in how much squish is converted into heat energy. It’s also more complicated than just making the rubber mounts softer; the results depend on the frequency response to the vibration.  

Engineers used an accelerometer, a device that measures the vibration or acceleration of motion. Ford uses high-tech mannequins inside the vehicle that can measure sound coming from all directions, and accelerometers are positioned on the floor pan and the seats. Essentially, this set-up measures how much acceleration passengers will feel. Once that measurement is obtained, the team uses a mathematical process called the Fourier transform to identify any problematic frequencies that might be causing undue vibration. From those measurements, the engineers tune the damping and make improvements.

“Tuning changes the stiffness and damping coefficient in the mount so that at that location on the frame, it’s absorbing the most energy possible, and you’re getting the least amount transmitted into the body,” Ramanathan says.

All in, the 2025 Expedition is better suited for both on- and off-road use than previous iterations. The body mounts and shocks make for a smoother ride for the driver and passengers, and towing improvements mean you can bring more gear or a bigger camper in the process without feeling every bump on the road.

 

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