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Performance Upgrades - Maintenance - Modifications - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street Trucks. Covering the Explorer, ST, Sport, Lincoln Aviator, Sport Trac, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Aerostar. Featuring H.I. - Human Intelligence.
The explorer doesn't have auto leveling lights. There is no leveling at all with them without popping the hood. Neither does my wife's Acura.
Not sure why everyone always thinks all HIDs auto level.
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i think i remember seeing that if the explorer is equiped with hid's AND tow package, then it has auto leveling headlights. not sure about auto level halogen with tow pacakge.
edit:....i just looked through the standard/optional features and didn't see auto leveling....oh well, it's not like i'll be towing much with my ex anyway...
Just arrived at Sebring a little while ago. The tow down was much better than with my Titan, BUT the FWD really shows when towing. The roads were wet and every stoplight was followed by a some wheel spin pulling out. Also braking was reduced. I need to try less tongue weight or go with a WD hitch. Once moving, the maneuverability and stability as well as comfort were so much better than the Titan. I think the short distance between hitch and rear axle are key contributors.
Nice, good it worked out. Well I learned to quickly accelerate enough to split the power 50/50 on initial take off. Then the power flows smoothly.
Its never slipped on me before and I have had really bad downpours, I think you maybe right about where the weight is on the tongue.
I will agree with you the sway control, it smoothly pulls and handles trailer loads great. It smooth sailing, I sometimes forget the boat is back there until I look in the rear view mirror and think a boat is about to ram me.
Lols, as far as braking I was worried too but after I learned how surge brakes worked on the trailer, it wasn't a problem or bother. They seem to work very well together and it has never locked up on me before even when threshold braking was applied.
The tow home in the dry was better. I set less tongue weight and it think the FWD liked it better.
As for braking...my trailer has electric brakes. They work but the car has to be able to create deceleration and the not tires were often in ABS in an exit ramp situation. If I induced ABS I just stood on the brakes so I can get as much braking from the rear axle as possible. I think my new tongue weight will be better.
Here's something to consider with ebrakes.p and adaptive cruise. The adaptive cruise braking activity does NOT engage the trailer brake. I tried to use the adaptive cruise through a SunPass lane and I noticed my brake controller was just showing "c" for connected. No brake force created. At first I thought I could rewire it to trigger from brake light application, but then I reconsidered. I want to think on it a little more as I'm not sure I want to rely on adaptive cruise while towing.
I will say I sure do hear a lot of creaking towing with the Ex vs my Titan and old Pathfinder.
Where are you guys mounting your brake controller? I mounted mine under the steering wheel which is cool because I can read it through the little hole in the bottom spoke of the steering wheel. Unfortunately I'm hitting my knees on it and the tilt handle hits it.
The tow home in the dry was better. I set less tongue weight and it think the FWD liked it better.
As for braking...my trailer has electric brakes. They work but the car has to be able to create deceleration and the not tires were often in ABS in an exit ramp situation. If I induced ABS I just stood on the brakes so I can get as much braking from the rear axle as possible. I think my new tongue weight will be better.
Here's something to consider with ebrakes.p and adaptive cruise. The adaptive cruise braking activity does NOT engage the trailer brake. I tried to use the adaptive cruise through a SunPass lane and I noticed my brake controller was just showing "c" for connected. No brake force created. At first I thought I could rewire it to trigger from brake light application, but then I reconsidered. I want to think on it a little more as I'm not sure I want to rely on adaptive cruise while towing.
I will say I sure do hear a lot of creaking towing with the Ex vs my Titan and old Pathfinder.
Where are you guys mounting your brake controller? I mounted mine under the steering wheel which is cool because I can read it through the little hole in the bottom spoke of the steering wheel. Unfortunately I'm hitting my knees on it and the tilt handle hits it.
I've had no wheelspin problems when towing, but I also have the 4wd/AWD version, not the FWD version.
You're going to hear more noises with the Explorer than with a pickup or a vehicle with a full frame. Since the Explorer is a unibody, the hitch is now bolted to the body instead of being isolated from the body by the frame bushings, so sound will transmit better.
I don't have my brake controller permanently mounted. I velcro'd it to the lower dash to the right of the steering column and yank it off when I'm not using it.
No towing for me yet, but I have a '74 Charger that will need hauling around as soon as I get around to fixing it up. And maybe we'll try hiring a camper at some point ...
You really had me thinking, but I haven't heard any additional noise as compared to the noise aready present coming from the front end. One thing I can say I am very thankful for is that everything is so tight back there that there is no additional movement on the hitch or ball and trailer arms connections. I'm very happy overall. Whenever you come down, I'll hook up the boat and let you see the difference.
Happy to hear it was a smoother drive on the way back.
Towing a Jayco Jayfeather 228, 25' and 4500 Lbs loaded when we head out. Tows ok, would not want to tow it through the Rockies. It's tough watching your mpg go from 23-24 to 9-10!
Towing a Jayco Jayfeather 228, 25' and 4500 Lbs loaded when we head out. Tows ok, would not want to tow it through the Rockies. It's tough watching your mpg go from 23-24 to 9-10!
What type of hitch do you use out of curiosity. I assume you have a WDH with sway control. How much does the back end sag. I just puchased a Antigua 195CK. It is a fair bit smaller then what you have, but big enough al the same.
Any issues giong down the highway at 60 mph with trailer sway.
I use a typical round bar style WDH made by a local company, DSP hitches. I do not have any sway control on the hitch or trailer. There is little to no sway with the trailer, even passing semi's. My experiance has been that if you need sway control while driving in normal conditions (ie no wind, tow vehicle and travel trailer not overloaded) you do not need sway control. If the trailer is swaying while driving down the highway your either a) WDH not setup properly b) trailer not properly loaded (ie back heavy). As for sag I have the WDH set so there is only a 3/4" difference between the rear wheel well height loaded and unloaded. The Explorer can maintain 60 mph but anything over or any small hill and it drops to fourth gear and has to do about 4500 rpm to maintain which REALLY drop the gas mileage. Flat ground and no head wind it does 60 mph in 5th gear and about 3000 rpm with mileage at 9 - 10 mpg. Ryan
thanks for the info. I was getting worried if the Explorer would be able to handle the weight of a Hybrid trailer after reading and posting on RV forums. The consensus thier seemed to be that it was not really doable. Mind you the mindset on RV sites is a 1/2 or 3/4 ton pick-up is required to pull anything heavier then a feather.
I am getting the WDH and sway professionally set-up, and hopefully will have teh smae limited sag that you experiance. OUr sag on the pop-up was actually greater then what you are getting. Mind you that was with a regular weight carrying hitch and a fairly heavy pop-up with the rear cargo area completely packed with stuff.
It will be a bit of a learning experience where to pack everythign in the new trailer, but my immediate thoughts are to put as much of the heavy stuff (beer) over the axles, and lighter stuff at the ends.
We get it on the 27th and first trip is planned for the Canada Day weekend.
I have purchased a Reese SC WDH with sway control, for towing a 21' TT @ 4100lbs loaded, 1/4 tank of water, tongue weight 348 lbs, rear drop for the ex 1.75 inches. Mounted my brake controller all the way left, above ebrake pedal, knee misses it most of the time.
Towing my our new WDH, Reese SC with Trunion bars, much better now. My only complaint, the tranny just doesn't know we're it wants to be or stay, pulled up some rolling hills through Napa, it would not come out of 3rd gear going back over the hill, I had to push the Tow button off, and completely release the pedal for it to shift into 4th or 5th, even when the road approached level again. Weird
i envy you 5th gen guys when it comes to towing, my 2nd gen drops 4" with my 7k rated trailer and a 95 dodge avenger on it, even with 125psi in my air shocks
Butt squat looks much worse then it really is in this picture, was on a decent grade and rear axle is not on level ground. Think its probably about 1/2in to 1in off when on a level grade, not bad for just AAL.
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