Stinks while towing

My truck stinks while towing my popup camper. It probably doesn't weigh much more than 2000 lbs loaded. I'm not sure how to quantify how it stinks. It doesn't smell like burnt oil, coolant, rubber, gas or a stinky catalytic converter (at least not what I normally think of- it's not a rotten egg smell). I only smell it after I've stopped- like while unhooking from the trailer, and after disconnect and the truck is sitting there with the motor not running.

The weather has been hot- mid 90's. And I've been towing up into the mountains- roughly 8500 feet. Power seems to be OK but might be a little down a little. After a hard climb that involved many extended 3rd gear pulls up the mountain, we stopped for something and the engine was stumbling a bit. It never died, but it wasn't smooth.

A/C has been on.

Fuel mileage- tough to tell. I haven't had a tank that didn't involve towing in quite some time. I did have one 10 mpg tank- but that was towing into the mountains and into a fierce headwind.

No codes thrown.

Ideas?

Normal?

Here's what I think it could be- loose spark plug(s) or plug wire(s).

Bad o2 sensor?

Help! The smell sorta makes me sick to my stomach.

 

[2TimingTom]

Anyone?

 

[skeeter123]

How about road-kill? Have a good look up and around for where some critter may have got stuck or decided to build a nest..... it's hard to troubleshoot odors, esp when you've already checked out the usual suspects....

 

[Joe Dirt]

Are there any Jeeps on the road in front of you while towing?

 

[Ranger379]

Are there any Jeeps on the road in front of you while towing?

even if they are in the near vicinity could do it...


does the trailer have brakes? maybe they are froze up and burning the brakes up - hot brakes make a bad smell... what about the bearings?

does the camper have a holding tank for the bathroom (if a pop up even has one lol) if one would forget to empty that after a while that would stink lol

thats the only thing i can think of towing related

 

[2TimingTom]

No trailer brakes and no toilet. And it's not a road kill type of smell. I'm pretty sure it's coming out of the tail pipe.

If one of the cylinders wasn't firing or if a spark plug was loose would that cause any codes to be thrown?

I've been out of town all week so I haven't been able to look at it, but I plan on checking the spark plugs today. I changed them less than 10,000 miles ago and it could be possible that I didn't tighten one (or more) enough or didn't get the plug wire down all the way.

 

[JCat]

Smells, like squeeks and wind noise can be hard to trace.

You are gonna have to ID it by finding where it is truly coming from.

RE: mis-fires and/or incomplete combustion . . . . if your check engine light is not on, it probably isn't throwing a code. A good Ford dealer or Maintenance and repair facility will have equipment that they can hook up to your vehicle and measure exhaust and various engine operational characteristics.
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[turbolab]

your working the truck so your burning all the built up crap in the motor, if you want proof take any make or model car that some on has babied and floor it on the high way you will get the egg smell. i'm not sure how to fix this problem other then to run your truck hard more often?

 

[jevchance]

Could be a wheel bearing on the trailer.