Upgrade to rear suspension for towing

[chinks]

Hi All
I will be using the Ex for the first time to tow the caravan at the end of October so I am looking for advice regarding the rear suspension.

At the moment it is standard Self Leveling and looks like the original springs and shocks. Also the springs dont look to have much "bow" on them, they look straight-ish, is this how they are, what will happen when I put some weight on them??

I am of the school of thought that prevention is better than cure so I would prefer to upgrade now rather than wait and see how it copes.

I have read many threads on the forum but I couldn't distill the information into a coherent way forward

What opinions do you have for upgrading the springs and shocks for towing. FYI it is a big twin axle caravan with a noseweight probably of 75-100kgs?

Thanks in advance

Chris

 

[kevin p]

Ay up Chris,
As long as your self leveling pump works ok, just leave it alone mate.
I tow my caravan, horseboxes and trailers regularly, some with nose weights of 150kg, and the pump just levels it. Simple.
Kev.

p.s. I would switch the overdrive 5th off when towing heavy stuff. Much easier on engine and gearbox, and think about putting an extra transmission oil cooler on.

 

[Lacky01]

I second the external transmission oil cooler, and also a transmission temperature gauge. the tranny is the weak link in the system.

 

[GEOFFERS]

Chris, I towed our 25' twin axle caravan 4 times last year, each a 200 mile round trip, without the air suspension even working (wasn't aware at the time!), its now sorted and I towed to Cornwall and back this summer (700 miles there and back) without any problems at all. I did however switch the override off now and again during the journey as previously mentioned, I'm not at all experienced in towing but the explorer seems to cope with ease pulling like a train!

 

[roly123987]

I tow my caravan with the nose weight on about 90 - 100kg, any lighter and it's not stable but it's 23' 10" on a single axle. As previously mentioned the air suspension will compensate for the extra weight with no problem.

Towed about 1000 miles this year so far and last year hauled it to the south of france (from north Wales). Temperatures were over 35C in france and had no problems with air con on full. Did not bother turning overdrive off except when I went up big hills (only to save having to blip the throttle a bit to make it change down). My theory is that if it needs to change down or come out of overdrive it will on it's own given sufficient right foot. Have not fitted any extra g/box oil coolers.

On the other hand, like any vehicle it might break down next week!!!! But so far it's been great as long as the nose weight is sufficient.

It usually drops by about 1 - 2 mpg when towing compared with what I normally get (on LPG)

 

[caravanmad]

hi. i tow my 23 ft caravan weight 1450 no problem all over the uk. without self level suspension working
andy

 

[manaen]

If you ahve many hills to climb be sure to install better tranny cooling and temp gauge. I tow a lot over mountains and such. My tranny temps usually stay below 180 until I climb a big hill and then they can reach into the 200's for a short time. The goal is really to keep temps below 190. These trannies are weak and need lots of cooling.

You will also want to perform maintenance on your brakes make sure everything is up to snuff. Towing demands the best of all the components on your truck. Oh also check and flush your cooling system if it has been a while..

 

[petetheengineer]

i towed an explorer the other day and got pulled by the old bill when they put me on the wiegh bridge and my all up train wieght was just shy of 6 tons but the nose wieght was at 230kg so i had to adjust but the explorer was fine towing like that. My spring dont have much bow on them as well but seem to bounce along fine.
I have a temperature gauge fitted to my gearbox and yes the temps soar as soon as you hit a hill so i have twin radiators for the box just to kjeep that down.

 

[manaen]

it seems as though I cannot say enough about how important it is to keep your transmission cool ("gear box" over the pond). It really will make or break your tranny in the long run, even if your not towing and just climbing a lot of hills.