Surely if the trailer has brakes then the trailer is doing most of the braking of the load? It shouldn't be putting a lot of extra load on the truck's brakes, certainly not enough that it's going to be pushing out braking distances more than a slightly smaller load.Wherever you live I don't want to be in front of you and have to stop quickly because you won't.
I'm in NZ (mostly same vehicles as Aus). Our Ford Ranger (not the same as a US Ford Ranger) has 3500kg tow rating. No weight distribution hitch or other magic, you just need trailer brakes. 3500kg is 7-8,000 lbs. An F150 can definitely tow more than a Ford Ranger, it'd be a good 20-30% heavier and larger, and substantially more powerful.
As for the trailer, on paper the excavator weighs less than the maximum capacity of the trailer. If you need a bit of extra gear you'd be over, but if you don't, then it works. Whilst going with the heavier trailer gives you more headroom in trailer capacity, the extra trailer weight eats into your GCVW. So that's the tradeoff I guess - more headroom on the trailer, less headroom on your all up package. I think I'd probably go with the larger trailer, just because I'd probably rather be over my GCVW than over my trailer capacity, but it's your choice.
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