camper towing with 2001 exp limited ?'s

[trailhead]

i have a stock 2001 explorer limited with the 5.0v-8 and 3.73 gears. i have a classIII hidden hitch and airlift air bags mounted in the rear. it does have a factory trans cooler. what else would be helpful?

question is tomorrow we are going to pick up our new camper. its a 99 layton 249lt. 26' tip to tail and it weighs in at 4265dry and its max weight is 5590. will i be fine towing this? i know i'll need a sway bar, but will my bags hold the weight or do i need weight distribution bars? i have heard that wd bars and air bags conteract with each other.

from what i have found my GCWR is 11000. GVWR is 5540. and the trailer is 5590maxed out 4265 empty. am i too close to my limits.

the dealer wants to sell me a dual cam weight distribution set w/built in sway control - any comments or users of this product vs a normal wd bar set.

any comments will appreciated, the sale is contigent on a test tow tomarrow morning.

 

[Mbrooks420]

With that weight you'll need the weight distributing hitch. I'd get another larger, transmission cooler, and an external filter, with temp gauge would be nice insurance. I assume a camper that big has it's own brakes?

 

[trailhead]

Yes the camper has its own brakes on both axles and i have a brake controller. Will air bags work well with weight distribution hitch or work against each other.

 

[Mbrooks420]

I'm not really sure if they work against each other or not. What's the tongue weight of the camper?

 

[CDW6212R]

The Explorer weighs about 4500 pounds, the rating on the door is the loaded rating. If the camper has good brakes, then your weak link will be the transmission, if the weight ratings are okay.

The 4R70W trans is very good, but not the biggest like in full sized trucks. You can help it with another cooler, the gauge etc, but also with a valve body kit. You can't have any slippage in gear or when shifting, and a VB kit helps that. Regards,

 

[gijoecam]

Will air bags work well with weight distribution hitch or work against each other.

Neither.... they serve two different purposes. Air bags help support the rear suspension, while a weight distributing hitch redistributes some of the tongue weight to the front axle of the tow vehicle and the camper's axles. They can be used together, but neither is a substitute for the other.

You will need a weight distributing hitch for that much tongue weight (should be between 10 and 15% of the trailer weight). However, I don't have your owner's manual in front of me... What is your tow vehicle rated to tow? If my memory serves, the GCWR is somewhere around 11,000 lbs, correct? Weigh the tow vehicle with the family, the dog, and a couple full suitcases in it, and I think you'll already be around 5500 lbs (which is right near the GVWR for the truck, its passengers, and gear, and tongue weight), which won't leave much of a margin for loading the trailer. If the published dry weight of the trailer is 4265, you can figure on a loaded weight of around 5000 lbs or a little more. That's going to put you right near the Explorer's limit... You'll have to be careful how much you load in the tow vehicle to avoid overloading the rear axle, as well as set the weight distribution bars properly. It'll likely take several trips across a scale before you get the load balanced properly... Plan on taking a Sunday afternoon at the local truck stop with the family to get it all set up.

IMHO, I wouldn't do it... It's pushing the limits of the vehicles. On paper, it's capable, but it's probably not the ideal rig for it.

 

[CDW6212R]

You could ask Aaron or some other members who do tow a lot with their Explorer or Mountaineer. They could say in more detail how to judge the load and how to set the tongue height/weight.

 

[trailhead]

Thank you for all the responses. Here was the outcome.

We loaded up the truck as if we were going camping, then headed to the dealer for our "test tow". They set me up with a drawtite dual cam weight distribution hitch. We put all of our stuff in the front of the camper and then filled the fresh, grey, and black water tanks full of water. It took about 2 hours for the dealer to "tune" in the wieght bars with my airbags and ended leaving the airbags at their min. Psi of 10. We drove around the dealership a couple time to adjust the brake control and got it set just right. The off to the highway. The dealer has a pretty nice incline to just get out of the lot and my truck yanked it right up the hill. Driving around town for a half hour didnt feel no different than with my 1800# popup. So the salesman, mechanic, and i headed for the highway, she climbed right up to 60 with no hesitation and i set my cruise. I drove some steep hills at 60, maybe bouncing down to 50 if the was a semi in front of me. The trailer pushed and pulled a little but we had strong wind and gusts saturday. After 2 hours of driving we ended back at the dealer and finished signing papers. I probably wont travel out a state with this setup but i was astonished by the power the explorer had pulling the trailer up some steep inclines. We left the dealer and drove 45 min home at 60mph with no prob at all.

Thank you agian for all your responses and for those who are looking into getting airlift airbags dont getting them if you are goin with weight distribution bars. Even though the airbags held the load level fine i had to use wd bars for i was over my wieght limit of the hitch w/o the bars.