Towing a Firebird with 97 XLT 5.0 AWD -- looking for advice

You could start by looking up your RAWR, GVWR and GCWR which should be on your certification/tire sticker on your driver side door. Then take your rig to a weigh station and pay the few bucks to get a weight. If your actual weights are within your ratings, you should be fine, assuming you have the appropriate equipment on your explorer and it's in good running order.

What he said.
1. Know your ratings. It's not enough to hear from others. Some Explorers are/were geared and cooled for towing over 5000 lbs. Others can/could only handle 3500.
2. You must have functional trailer brakes. Either the trailer will have self-contained surge brakes, or they must have electric brakes, which required a controller in the Explorer (with proper wiring).
3. You will need a WDH kit. Trailer must be loaded properly, with 10-15% of total weight as tongue weight (on the ball). That's at least 550 lbs, which is more than any Explorer should be towing without a WDH.

All of this need to take into account that you will likely be hauling other gear than just the car. Fuel, supplies, luggage, etc. It all adds up.

I tow my camper loaded to about 5200lbs, and a family of 5 in the truck, plus some firewood in the hatch. I'm probably at about 11,000 lbs total weight. But I have 7,000 lbs tow capacity, and 12,000lbs combined rating.

Also keep in mind that tow rating is not a fixed number. It is based off of 1 or 2 passengers inside the the tow vehicle. If you have extra passengers and/or gear, the extra weight comes right off the tow rating.

I would add a 10" fan to the transmission cooler under the radiator, or, even get a real good transmission cooler with a fan on it to replace the stock cooler. I would also ( future project for my truck) install a series of 2 valves with "T's" so you can turn off the flow of transmission fluid to the radiator. The reason for this is to avoid circulating the transmission fluid through 180 degree coolant in the heated environment. The reason transmission fluid circulates through the radiator is to warm the fluid in the cold winter weather.

one valve to the radiator inlet will shut flow to the inlet. A "T" upstream of it will allow fluid to flow to the return line. A valve downstream on this crossover line can be turned on to allow the bypass. Turn this valve "off" and first valve "on" and transmission fluid will circulate as normal, when you need it in cooler weather.

Get a scangauge 2 so you can monitor transmission temperature and other parameters --check trouble codes and clear them. This is essential for heavy duty use.

Also, switch overdrive off. With the scangauge it will be very easy to see the trans temp rise and fall as the torque converter unlocks and locks respectively. On long level road you might be able to switch overdrive back on, but if the torque converter starts unlocking I would turn the overdrive back off. Doing this allows the torque converter to lock in 3rd gear.

Add Monroe Load adjust coilover shocks to the rear. They really help!!

Good luck.

I have a "factory" installed tow package, but it only has the flat four-wire connector, no brake controller. I will look to see if there is an aux cooler attached or not. I know the receiver says it's good to 5700lbs for whatever that's worth.

Ya, that 5700 is just the rating for the receiver, not the tow vehicle. There should also be a tongue weight and should have two sets of ratings - dead weight and with weight distribution. I'm guessing the 5700 is the max with WDH.

You might be able to switch out your 4 pole with a 7 pole trailer plug, if not, then you're left with the surge brake option.

wifes2011xlt said:

Ya, that 5700 is just the rating for the receiver, not the tow vehicle. There should also be a tongue weight and should have two sets of ratings - dead weight and with weight distribution. I'm guessing the 5700 is the max with WDH.

You might be able to switch out your 4 pole with a 7 pole trailer plug, if not, then you're left with the surge brake option.

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I don't know if the harness supports the 7 poke plug. When I bought the new adapter it didn't show one as an option, only the four-flat.

Ya, etrailer only offers the 4 pole for your year so you're probably not pre-wired for a controller and have to do some rewiring if you wanna go with electric brakes. If you go surge brakes, then you can just buy a 4-5 pole adapter and splice into the reverse wire or do nothing and just not have the reverse lockout.

It's $150-200 for the adapter and I'd have to do the wiring. Not afraid of the wiring, but I don't want to pay that kind of cost for it. Also, the last time I towed my car on the trailer, Uhaul only had the 4-wire flat for it.

With your package, I would simply be sure the trailer has functional surge brakes. If this is occasional towing duty, why bother adding all the electric brake wiring.

But be very careful with Uhaul (or other) trailer rentals. My dad rented a U-Haul trailer back in the late-80s to pick up my brother's car which had broken down (ironically....a Firebird!). Found out later that the surge brakes were not functioning at all. Almost killed my dad and brother on a long downhill grade, when the trailer started pulling the van across 4 lanes of traffic!