Towing an Explorer?

[jgilbs]

My family has 3 Explorers. A 99 XLS, a 94 XLT V6 with towing pkg (Class 3 Hitch) and a 92 Eddie Bauer. Recently the tranny blew on my eddy, and being the cheap ******* that I am, I decided to get a used tranny from a junkyard for like $850 and install it myself instead of paying $3500 for a rebuilt tranny installed by the shop. Well, right now my car is at the tranny shop, and in order to get it home, I wanted to tow it with my XLT and a uhaul trailer. I went to the UHaul website and they said my tow vehicle is not heavy enough. Has anyone had any experience towing another X? Would it be possible? Or would I end up damaging all equipment involved?

 

[X-1]

Short distance, probably not. Uhaul probably won't help you though, unless you rent their truck and trailer on a daily rental. As far as price 850.00's for a used tranny is way to high. You may be able to find someone in your area to rebuild yours for that, if you remove and carry to them. Atleast you would have new parts inside. I wouldn't go more than maybe 400 for a used tranny.

 

[jgilbs]

well $850 sounded pretty good to me after hearing $3400 for a rebuilt. Everything out here is so expensive, esp when the mean income is like $200,000. When I was originally shopping for my car(Oct 2002) I couldn't find a 92 Explorer for less than $6,000 !! I have a transmission jack, and all the tools I need to do the job, I just want to gain experience now so when I get older and have less time to do these things, I will know how and then they'll go faster. But right now, the main thing I'm worried about is damaging the *new* transmission on my XLT(the towing vehicle) I've never towed before, so I just wanted to make sure I'm not gonnaq break anything more than it already is.

 

[X-1]

If it's local, just call a wrecker to tow it home, then you have no worrys.

 

[jgilbs]

sure i COULD do that, but thatd be a waste of $100, plus, im bringing it to my friends house to do the work. so if i cant fix it there or something, id have to pay to tow it again, itd be a pain, id rather have the freedom of being able to do it myself

 

[01EB5.0]

Hey man..I had the same problem. U-haul has 2,100 pound trailers and your eddie prolly weights like 4,200. That will be exceeding the weight allowable on your XLT. If you XLS has the SOHC engine I would recommend that for towing, even though that kind of weight will overload that truck also. I have a 2001 V-8 and U-haul told me I can not tow since the weight is too heavy for my drivetrain. I told them that I was not worried about my drivetrain and just wanted to be sure the trailer could handle it. they said the trailer could handle it and she said if I tell the U-haul place i will be towing a ford escort they WILL rent me the trailer, but if my tow vehicle gets damaged from towing the trailer/explorer setup, u-haul will not be held liable for any damages. She said I can still purchase insurance on the triler itself and if it has an explorer on it I will still be covered, but if the vehicle doing the towing blows a trans or something it is my responsability.

 

[jgilbs]

yea the only problem is my XLS doesnt have a hitch or ball. I guess ill have to pay the shop to tow it for me and hope and pray to god i can get it fixed by myself. Hell, I may even just pay for them to do it, its so much more fun to do it yourself, but i guess this is one of those things where you have to let someone else do it for ya. oh well, maybe next time.