First Heavier Tow -- Observations and a few Questions

[Saltwater Soul]

I've now had my 2018 Expedition Platinum with Heavy Tow package for about six months now. I bought it thinking I would get back into larger boats. I've not had the opportunity to tow anything heavy yet. My current boat is only 3,500 pounds and I only go 1/4 mile to the boat ramp. I have a small 4x6 cargo trailer that is less than 2,000 even with stuff in it. It doesn't seem to be noticable when I drag it around.

My brother needed his 30' travel trailer moved about 80 miles over flat terrain. I'm guessing it might have been 8,000 pounds with a 700 lb+ tongue weight. I made a few observations on this tow and sprinkled in a few questions:

• Expy had absolutely no problems at all with this load. I purposely tried to keep it under 70 mph but found myself slipping above from time to time despite the pretty good headwinds. Acceleration from a stop was easy. I feel pretty confident I could drag a pretty good sized boat now.
• Braking seemed just fine and gave me a lot of confidence.
• I used tow/haul mode. I did notice that the vehicle mostly stayed in 8 but did move to 9 more when I changed direction to be more perpendicular to the prevailing wind. Is this typical in this mode? Is there some other strategy I should have used?
• Fuel economy was a little less than I expected. Vehicle calculation was 8.5 mpg for the tow. I know this is optimistic on my vehicle from hand calculation. Real value was likely below 8 mpg. Some of this was likely the headwinds and the fact I was in 8 for much of the highway miles. For those of you that tow travel trailers, is this typical? I was hoping to best 10 mpg. My towing experience is mostly with bigger boats and they certainly seem more streamlined.
• I sure would have loved tow mirrors. I hate not being able to see well behind me and backing up was tough.
• Vehicle did squat quite a bit without the Weight Distributing Hitch. Once I hooked that up, I was quite level. I experienced almost no sway other than a bit of buffeting winds from a brewing thunderstorm. As I won't have a WDH with large boats, I may have to look into some sort of extra support back there if I will have a heavy tongue weight.
• As in another current thread, I to had to mess around to tell the Expy that I no longer had the trailer connected as it was still showing miles later. Finally figured out how to select "no trailer" but it was a bit of a pain.

Anyway, some of this helps those of you considering a purchase or towing sometime soon. I was impressed with the towing ability overall.

 

[Dice Roll]

Thanks that’s helpful as I get ready to start towing. I’m used to an f350 and f250 so coming close to maxing out has me concerned.

 

[AKentPhoto]

@Dice Roll
Well... I guess you will have to roll the dice.


Sorry couldn't help it.

@Saltwater Soul
Congratulations on the new-ish ride and thank you for the notes. I can't wait to get some weight behind mine. As mentioned in other threads sumo springs are a great tool for squat and don't effect day to day driving. I'll definitely be getting a pair.

 

[shane_th_ee]

• Fuel economy was a little less than I expected. Vehicle calculation was 8.5 mpg for the tow. I know this is optimistic on my vehicle from hand calculation. Real value was likely below 8 mpg. Some of this was likely the headwinds and the fact I was in 8 for much of the highway miles. For those of you that tow travel trailers, is this typical? I was hoping to best 10 mpg. My towing experience is mostly with bigger boats and they certainly seem more streamlined.

Were you running premium or regular? You will take a significant (1-2mpg) fuel economy hit while towing if you use regular. It's enough that price wise, it's a wash for us to run premium while towing (our spread between regular and premium here in Seattle is not that great...) If the cost is a wash, why not get the better performance out of the premium?

 

[Saltwater Soul]

Were you running premium or regular? You will take a significant (1-2mpg) fuel economy hit while towing if you use regular. It's enough that price wise, it's a wash for us to run premium while towing (our spread between regular and premium here in Seattle is not that great...) If the cost is a wash, why not get the better performance out of the premium?

I was running premium 93 octane. I am conducting a little study on different octane levels and mpg by mixing it up. I don't have enough tanks through the vehicle yet at different grades to make any statistically significant observations yet but hope to sometime in the future. Anecdotally, it does seem there is a difference though as you indicate.

 

[Zig10]

Were you running premium or regular? You will take a significant (1-2mpg) fuel economy hit while towing if you use regular. It's enough that price wise, it's a wash for us to run premium while towing (our spread between regular and premium here in Seattle is not that great...) If the cost is a wash, why not get the better performance out of the premium?

I saw around a .3 MPG difference between the two on a trip down 95 last summer. I averaged 8.5 MPG with 87, and 8.8 with 93. Wasn't worth it at all for me.

Boat/trailer is 7600 lbs, and had the family and vacation stuff in the car with me. That trip is also when I discovered how small the gas tank really is in that vehicle...

 

[JasonH]

Your MPG is normal while towing. It's mostly dependent on speed. I see anywhere from 8.5 to 9.5 while towing my travel trailer.I don't go over 65. It varies based on wind, terrain, and whether I find an 18 wheeler to shadow. I have a 2017 with a 6 speed tranny.

 

[duneslider]

Your MPG is normal while towing. It's mostly dependent on speed. I see anywhere from 8.5 to 9.5 while towing my travel trailer.I don't go over 65. It varies based on wind, terrain, and whether I find an 18 wheeler to shadow. I have a 2017 with a 6 speed tranny.

Speed and wind make a huge difference when towing a TT. Wind alone can knock a few mpg off, or more. I usually see in the 11ish mpg range when towing from Salt Lake to Moab and back, that is up and down mountain passes. That is on par or slightly better than my Hemi did. I try to keep speeds towing to 65-70. Tow/haul will generally not hit 10, I thought it limited it to 8 actually? On down hills or flat ground with no wind I will take it out of tow and take advantage of the 10 speed.

I have never experienced the trailer connected/not connected thing people talk about? I don't do anything special at all and connect and disconnect running, not running, etc. Not sure what causes that issue.

 

[Big_Mac]

I hauled my 5000lb GVWR travel trailer to from Michigan to Florida and back this February with my 2018 Max XLT FX4 with Heavy Towing Package. MPG ranged from 6pmg to nearly 11mpg, hand calculated on individual tanks. The largest factors, in order, were wind resistance (headwind vs tailwind vs neither, and shadowing Semi's), Speed, Fuel Octane, Grade, and Temperature. I used 93 octane for the entire trip except one fill up in GA where premium fuel was literally double the price of regular.

The 11MPG tank was heading north on I75, US33, US127, US30, and I69 from Walton, KY to Freemont, IN. There was a stiff tailwind almost the entire way, I never got over 65mph due to the speed limits on this particular portion of the trip, and I shadowed semi's most of the way including the entire downgrade through Covington (dash showed 13mpg by the time I got to the north side of Cincinatti). The 6mpg tank was on 87 octane, with a stiff headwind, very few semi's to shadow, generally heading uphill (central GA heading north), and an average speed between 70-75mph. The 6mpg tank came right after an 8mpg tank in similar conditions (87 vs 93 octane). Generally speaking, I averaged better MPG in warmer weather than I did in the cold.

When I planned the budget for the trip I planned 9mpg which I thought was conservative based on my 2 summers of hauling the camper around (mostly flat) Michigan at no more than 60mph. I ended up getting 8.4mpg for the entire trip including about 250 miles driving around Florida with no trailer.

 

[Saltwater Soul]

@Big_Mac
Great information. What mode were you towing in?

 

[Big_Mac]

@Big_Mac
Great information. What mode were you towing in?

Tow/Haul mode the entire way.

 

[Marqui3]

Hi Saltwater Soul,

About tow haul mode and gears. We did a 10,000 miles trip to Alaska last year and averaged 10.5ish mpg (imperial gallons hers in Canada) on a 30 foot 7200# loaded TT. I found that the Expedition had all the power needed to handle all of the hills and mountain passes on this trip (there are some long pulls in Alaska) and found that I could make speed on the worst grades, just depended on how much gas fumes you wanted to leave behind.

For myself when I tow my TT I will tow I tow/haul mode and I will lock out 8th 9 and 10th gear and run in 7th. This seemed to give me best gas millage. I usually tow at 60 mph and in 7th gear this keep the rpm’s 2300 - 2500 range which is the sweet spot for torque on this engine. If I don’t lock out gears it would tow in 8th gear most of the time.

As far as squat, I would not tow anything with a tongue weight of over 500# without a weight distribution hitch. It is just much safer.

By the way, at 7200# my TT is just about max weight for the Expedition, when you consider passengers ( my wife and I) and camping gear in the back.

Hope this helps.

 

[LG_123]

Hi Saltwater Soul,

For myself when I tow my TT I will tow I tow/haul mode and I will lock out 8th 9 and 10th gear and run in 7th. This seemed to give me best gas millage. I usually tow at 60 mph and in 7th gear this keep the rpm’s 2300 - 2500 range which is the sweet spot for torque on this engine. If I don’t lock out gears it would tow in 8th gear most of the time.

Hope this helps.

That’s interesting about locking out higher gears. We have a 34’ airstream and it’s so aerodynamic, the Expy sometimes jumps up to 10th while towing. I have found that the fuel economy gets worse when I’m gears 7-8 than 9-10 regardless.

How can you burn less fuel per mile by making the engine spin faster than it wants to?

 

[Fred Moore]

Saltwater,
I pull a travel trailer with similar weight as the one you describe. My 2017 King Ranch (HD towing package was standard) has no issues pulling it. I do stay around 60-65mph and in tow-mode. It is not the vehicle’s capabilities that define my decision to limit my speed, but the limitations of the trailer tires. Some tires list a max speed of 65mph. I have had 2 trailer blow-outs on the same trip making me very cautious. This speed seems to be the “sweet spot” for overall handling too.

When pulling, I have gotten as good as 14mpg and as poor as 11mpg. Starts and stops make the difference.

I do use a Reese WDH with anti-sway built in. The only modification I have made to the Expy was to add SumoSprings to supplement the rear end support. To sum it up, I find the Expedition to be a very competent towing vehicle.

Thanks to all who have served this country honorably. This day is for you!

 

[Matthew Marlowe]

That’s interesting about locking out higher gears. We have a 34’ airstream and it’s so aerodynamic, the Expy sometimes jumps up to 10th while towing. I have found that the fuel economy gets worse when I’m gears 7-8 than 9-10 regardless.

You are managing to tow a 34ft airstream with an expy? Looking for a new trailer and have been told that 25ft is ideal for expy, 28ft is pushing limits, and 30ft is either unsafe or long term bad for vehicle health.

 

[Dice Roll]

It’s really just if it’s within weight capacity and the aero of an airstream is second to none.

 

[LG_123]

You are managing to tow a 34ft airstream with an expy? Looking for a new trailer and have been told that 25ft is ideal for expy, 28ft is pushing limits, and 30ft is either unsafe or long term bad for vehicle health.

As mentioned above, weight and aerodynamics are much more important considerations than length, although length is indicative of weight. You do need the right hitch setup to tow safely; we had ours done at CanAm RV, internationally renowned hitch experts. Give Andy there a call if you need suggestions or reassurance.