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| Travel Trailer Towing Report http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=56058 |
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| Author: | Wobbly [ Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:39 am ] |
| Post subject: | Travel Trailer Towing Report |
We took a short camping trip from Portland, Oregon to Revelstoke, British Columbia last week. Our travel trailer is about 20 feet long and weighs around 5100 pounds. Fuel economy was about 15.3 miles/ gallon. Fuel prices varied from $2.99/ gallon in Portland to $4.40 in Canada. The US dollar has sunk to almost par with the Canadian. The Canada Customs agent we had was rather hostile and searched our trailer for about 10 minutes. When we returned the US Border Patrol confiscated our home grown tomatoes and warned us that they should have taken our firewood, too. They were a bit more pleasant than on the Canadian side. Luckily we didn't stop at any of the hundreds of fruit stands in the Okanogan. Our fruit would have been seized at the border. Our Washington State Park campsite cost $28 and the water was contaminated with faecal coliform. The BC Provincial campgrounds were already closed. BC RV campgrounds cost around $30 for a full hookup including wireless. Weather was excellent. After one long down grade the brakes smelled hot. The trailer brake controller showed that the circuit to the trailer was open. The trailer electrical connector that I had forgot to replace was not making good contact, so I used electrical tape to keep the two connectors together. Luckily I fixed the trailer brakes before we descended to Trail, BC. This grade has several runaway lanes and is very severe. We noticed that to use one of the runaway lanes a vehicle would have to cross in front of traffic ascending the hill. With all the mountainous terrain the CRD was downshifting quite a lot. At times the temperature gauge was on the 3/4 mark or a bit over. We decided to take it easy rather than stress the drivetrain on the hills. The Hensley hitch performed well. As well as eliminating sway, it allows very sharp turns. This can be handy when fueling and trying to find the diesel pump or when doing a U turn on a busy highway. Before we left, I noticed that the head of one of the 'shear bolts' which attaches the hitch to the trailer frame had popped off. When I checked the other three bolts they all broke off at the head. After I replaced them with bigger and stronger bolts, I read that they were supposed to be weak so that they would shear and prevent damage to the hitch in jackknifing situations. In any case, Hensley told me that the stronger bolts would be fine. Maybe they see a new hitch sale in the future, or maybe the "shear bolt" design was overkill. |
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| Author: | Joe Romas [ Wed Oct 06, 2010 6:35 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Travel Trailer Towing Report |
Since my torque converter has been replaced and the Eco full torque tune the constant shifting is a thing of the past  Our trailer is around 3500#Long ago when traveling from California entering into Arizona we were stopped at the border and they confiscated a nice big red apple 
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| Author: | dieseldoesit [ Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:10 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Travel Trailer Towing Report |
Joe Romas wrote: Since my torque converter has been replaced and the Eco full torque tune the constant shifting is a thing of the past Our trailer is around 3500#Is the full tune and new converter that much of an increase / benefit to towing? |
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| Author: | Wobbly [ Thu Oct 07, 2010 2:30 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Travel Trailer Towing Report |
Put this out of my mind: Outside of Wilbur, Washington we came upon flashing police car lights and saw a Chevrolet Tracker which had rolled over setting in a field. When we drove by we saw a body under a blanket about 20 feet from the vehicle. Later we read that a woman had been driving the Tracker and had apparently started to go off the road. When she over-corrected, the rig rolled and she was thrown out. She wasn't wearing a seat belt. No drugs or alcohol were involved. The stretch of road was straight. |
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| Author: | Joe Romas [ Thu Oct 07, 2010 10:40 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Travel Trailer Towing Report |
dieseldoesit wrote: Joe Romas wrote: Since my torque converter has been replaced and the Eco full torque tune the constant shifting is a thing of the past Our trailer is around 3500#Is the full tune and new converter that much of an increase / benefit to towing? DEFINETLY    View this page for complete details http://www.greendieselengineering.com/f ... st/20.page Basically pre F37 torque peaked at 301 foot pounds at 2k rpms Post f37 it's limited to 260 from 1400 rpms up to 3k when it starts to drop off naturally. Full torque Echo goes from 290 at 1400 rpms to 335 at 2k rpms a then starts to drop off. When towing up a grade you can really feel the torque below 2k rpms now  I also see no need for any transmission reprogram of any type because with my drving I don't think it could be much better. Additionally on our last trip I got 1.5 to 2 better MPG while towing. That's from 19 to 20.5 mpg. Our trip is from Oh through WVa, Va, and NC for a total of about 700 miles and there's all types of driving from flat land at sea level to I think around 5000 feet above sea level. Also it seems to shifts sooner without the trailer. I've also noticed about the same mpg better from the original TC with the standard Eco tune in my normal driving. When the TC and pump were put in the oil pan had TC clutch material in it at 33k miles.  With my jeep like it should have been I'm now "one happy camper". |
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| Author: | Joe Romas [ Thu Oct 07, 2010 11:01 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Travel Trailer Towing Report |
Wobbly wrote: Put this out of my mind: Outside of Wilbur, Washington we came upon flashing police car lights and saw a Chevrolet Tracker which had rolled over setting in a field. When we drove by we saw a body under a blanket about 20 feet from the vehicle. Later we read that a woman had been driving the Tracker and had apparently started to go off the road. When she over-corrected, the rig rolled and she was thrown out. She wasn't wearing a seat belt. No drugs or alcohol were involved. The stretch of road was straight. When I was around 12 or 13 years old back around 1955 I saw the aftermath of a accident where both parents were taking their daughter back to OSU in the fall. There was crying and it sounded like a baby. It was the daughter trapped in the back seat. It was at a intersection with a traffic light and they were turning left. I delivered the morning paper then and the next morning I read that both parents had died and she was critical. I still remember that crying and it was over half a century ago 
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| Author: | Wobbly [ Thu Oct 07, 2010 11:37 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Travel Trailer Towing Report |
Joe Romas wrote: When I was around 12 or 13 years old back around 1955 I saw the aftermath of a accident where both parents were taking their daughter back to OSU in the fall. There was crying and it sounded like a baby. It was the daughter trapped in the back seat. It was at a intersection with a traffic light and they were turning left. I delivered the morning paper then and the next morning I read that both parents had died and she was critical. I still remember that crying and it was over half a century ago Well, you and I are about the same vintage. Seat belts were optional in those 'good old days' along with smoking on airlines, and asbestos-laden brake shoes. The latter probably had did me little additional harm, since my father was an asbestos worker in Henry J. Kaiser's shipyard, and he probably came home from work covered in the stuff. When I was about 10 years old, my father took me and my brother clam digging on the Washington coast. The early morning fog was impenetrable. As we drove down the highway trying to follow the lane lines at about 10 MPH, we saw a pair of shoes in the middle of the road. About 300 feet further we could see a police car with its flashing roof light and body under a blanket off to the side of the road. |
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