Took first long trip with camper

[Snidley53]

Just got back from a trip to Southwest Colorado from Southern Indiana and thought I would share the experience. The trip out was mostly uneventful other than crosswinds in Kansas which were expected but damn what a pain. Went over Wolf Creek pass both heading out and coming back and I was really impressed with the Expy's power and handling. Glad I put new pads and rotors on the front and back as they were needed on the way out due to a much steeper descent (more 7% grades) than the other direction. Coming back home the Expy pulled up Wolf Creek with no issues at all and the trans temp never climbed above 210 degrees though the outside temp was only 71 degrees. As I mentioned in another post I ran into an issue where a coil pack went bad so had to get the vehicle towed to a dealership in Fulton, Mo. They were great folks to deal with and found a couple of issues I was unaware of my water pump was leaking which I had them fix and then they noticed the front driveshaft was shooting out grease which since I wasn't using 4 wheel drive I will get fixed back home. We parked our camper on their lot for three days till the water pump came on Monday morning and then got home that night. They let us plug into their electricity and fill our fresh water tank plus give us a courtesy car to use while we were there. Great customer service made a difficult situation bearable and really almost fun. So if you are crossing Missouri and have an issue near Fulton I personally recommend Fulton Ford for how they took care of our situation.

 

[69Rustang]

We will plan our next breakdown in Fulton. ;-)

 

[Frank Swygert]

Do you have the stock sway bar in back or a heavier one? I'm pulling a 30' V-Lite (7000#) camper and am pretty sure I'm right at the 8200# rating (2005 Expy, w/tow package and 4x4) with everything loaded. Mine was bad with a cross wind until I got a 1" sway bar. While I still notice a little "dancing" with the IRS, it's half what it was with that little dinky 1/2" stock bar. You'd think the HD tow package would have a bigger bar from the factory! Did the same pulling my previous 26' 6000# camper with the stock bar. I'm going to add the Sumo cushions in the springs and see if that stabilizes it more. I don't have a lot of tongue weight with the load leveling hitch, but the Sumo inserts supposedly help with a load but hardly affect ride with no load. Assuming that's the case they sure don't hurt! I'll find out...

 

[Snidley53]

My Expy is a 2016 XLT EL with the HD tow package and as far as I am aware it would have the stock rear sway bar. I bought it used as a Certified pre-owned and I don't see that anything has been changed prior to my purchase. I found my best fix for the wind was to cut my speed a bit and stay in the right lane. May look at new weight distribution and anti-sway hitch next year since I am not fond of my current one.

 

[JasonH]

My Expy is a 2016 XLT EL with the HD tow package and as far as I am aware it would have the stock rear sway bar. I bought it used as a Certified pre-owned and I don't see that anything has been changed prior to my purchase. I found my best fix for the wind was to cut my speed a bit and stay in the right lane. May look at new weight distribution and anti-sway hitch next year since I am not fond of my current one.

Check weights before swapping, unless you have some other issue with the setup. Usually when I see people complain about white knuckles, they have no clue how much their rigs weighs or how that weight is distributed.

 

[tmmilam]

Ditto on the Kansas crosswinds.