Towing Travel Trailer

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bruce kelly

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Some comments about pulling trailers over 40 years and 100K miles.
1. set up the spring bars on the hitch (I had a Reese) so both bumpers go down about the same amount. The spring bars will seem unreasonably tight and will protest with turns and going into driveways. Put some grease on the pivots for the bars. My tow vehicle (suburban or Yukon XL) did not have load leveling feature, I would turn it off during setup.
2. My trailers liked to be loaded more at the front, fresh water tank was in front, waste at rear, travel with front tank full and rear tank empty.
3. I did not have a sway-control device. Direction when I started was "if trailer sways, tighten bars one notch"
4. My first tow vehicle was an Oldsmobile big wagon about 1976. It had a 455 cid. After the first trip, I upgraded to a suburban 305. Never found anyplace I couldn't go, but going up the Platte river into a head wind all day in second gear at 3500 rpm got old. after 238K I upgraded to 5.7. When I started, I spoke with Oldsmobile lubrication engineer about towing loads. The Oldsmobile v8 was rated for industrial applications for up to 3500 rpm for continuous operation. I used that limit with all my tow vehicles. With 30 years newer design and lubricants, I would go to 4000 today.
5. Pay attention to transmission. Some models unlocked the torque converter before downshifting. With the torque converter unlocked the transmission will overheat in a short time. My 93 pickup was the first year to do that and I noticed it the first time I pulled. The truck was recalled to reroute the transmission vent so it would not spray oil on the exhaust manifold when the transmission overheated, instead of fixing the control to prevent overheating. The early trail blazer suffered from this. I think it has been fixed on later models. If you run into the unlock issue, downshift, the converter will lock in the lower gear.
6. I never found the need to add engine or transmission cooling accessories for trailers under 5000 pounds with little attention. Olds lubrication engineer said to change engine oil when you get home.

I no longer have a trailer larger than a 3500 pound boat, and my current 18 suburban handles it easily and I don't need the factory installed heavy duty trailer stuff.
 
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Bob2C

Bob2C

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Some comments about pulling trailers over 40 years and 100K miles.
1. set up the spring bars on the hitch (I had a Reese) so both bumpers go down about the same amount. The spring bars will seem unreasonably tight and will protest with turns and going into driveways. Put some grease on the pivots for the bars. My tow vehicle (suburban or Yukon XL) did not have load leveling feature, I would turn it off during setup.
2. My trailers liked to be loaded more at the front, fresh water tank was in front, waste at rear, travel with front tank full and rear tank empty.
3. I did not have a sway-control device. Direction when I started was "if trailer sways, tighten bars one notch"
4. My first tow vehicle was an Oldsmobile big wagon about 1976. It had a 455 cid. After the first trip, I upgraded to a suburban 305. Never found anyplace I couldn't go, but going up the Platte river into a head wind all day in second gear at 3500 rpm got old. after 238K I upgraded to 5.7. When I started, I spoke with Oldsmobile lubrication engineer about towing loads. The Oldsmobile v8 was rated for industrial applications for up to 3500 rpm for continuous operation. I used that limit with all my tow vehicles. With 30 years newer design and lubricants, I would go to 4000 today.
5. Pay attention to transmission. Some models unlocked the torque converter before downshifting. With the torque converter unlocked the transmission will overheat in a short time. My 93 pickup was the first year to do that and I noticed it the first time I pulled. The truck was recalled to reroute the transmission vent so it would not spray oil on the exhaust manifold when the transmission overheated, instead of fixing the control to prevent overheating. The early trail blazer suffered from this. I think it has been fixed on later models. If you run into the unlock issue, downshift, the converter will lock in the lower gear.
6. I never found the need to add engine or transmission cooling accessories for trailers under 5000 pounds with little attention. Olds lubrication engineer said to change engine oil when you get home.

I no longer have a trailer larger than a 3500 pound boat, and my current 18 suburban handles it easily and I don't need the factory installed heavy duty trailer stuff.
Great info. Much appreciated. Plans changed. Not going up through PA to NY so I don’t have to deal with the mountains. Going to southern VA. Should be an easy pull.


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Bob2C

Bob2C

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Well halfway through my trip. Truck pulls this trailer with absolutely no problem. The leveling suspension is great too. Going down steep grades I hardly touch the brake. It downshifts soo aggressively it holds back. RPMs shoot up to around 4500. Highways trans temps hover between 194-199. Side roads about 201 but just yesterday in heavy stop and go it got up to 210. So all in all very pleased.

33b28b62ebe8a2040bf4ed67343ec303.jpg


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swathdiver

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Well halfway through my trip. Truck pulls this trailer with absolutely no problem. The leveling suspension is great too. Going down steep grades I hardly touch the brake. It downshifts soo aggressively it holds back. RPMs shoot up to around 4500. Highways trans temps hover between 194-199. Side roads about 201 but just yesterday in heavy stop and go it got up to 210. So all in all very pleased.

33b28b62ebe8a2040bf4ed67343ec303.jpg


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Great news and sounds like you're having a good time!
 
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Bob2C

Bob2C

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Great news and sounds like you're having a good time!
Yeah. Family had a blast. Towing the trailer was a breeze with this truck. No sway and plenty of power in the 5.3 although I have a tune. The only downside outside my home area premium is almost 3 a gallon where I went. Around me it’s 2.30. Next time I’ll probably go a bit longer with bump-outs on the trailer. It can easily handle it.


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007matman

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Best piece of advice I can give is buy yourself an OBD2 reader and the Torque Pro app.

Install the guages to keep an eye on the engine temps and the trans temp. If it's anything like my rig, you'll be shocked at some of the temps you'll see that don't show up on those idiot guages installed in the dash.

Your rig is new enough that you'll probably be fine for a while.

I never had any questions on if my Esky could pull our rig. In fact, it seemed to do so with surprising ease... 415 HP will do that. However, as the stuff started breaking and then breaking again I eventually got wise.

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tim crow

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All WD hitches should be adjusted with the Self-leveling feature turned off or disabled. The vehicle manufacturer usually doesn't call it out in the owner's manual. Some of the hitch manufacturer's do but not all.. if you call them they'll tell you to disable it.

Without the system on, you should be able to get the vehicle back to almost regular measurements.

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How do you disable the self leveling? Are you supposed to turn it back on when towing or leave it off the entire time?

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007matman

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How do you disable the self leveling? Are you supposed to turn it back on when towing or leave it off the entire time?

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You can either pull the relay or the fuse (or both). You just want to ensure that it doesn't turn on (inflate) when adjusting the hitch. After you have it dialed in, then you can reconnect the system.

The goal is to only have the leveling system adjust to make the vehicle level. Not to support the additional weight of the camper. Doing so is dangerous and will likely lead to issues.

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Sltx1050

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You can either pull the relay or the fuse (or both). You just want to ensure that it doesn't turn on (inflate) when adjusting the hitch. After you have it dialed in, then you can reconnect the system.

The goal is to only have the leveling system adjust to make the vehicle level. Not to support the additional weight of the camper. Doing so is dangerous and will likely lead to issues.

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2018 Tahoe Manual states other wise it says to adjust equalizer after leveling with
How do you disable the self leveling? Are you supposed to turn it back on when towing or leave it off the entire time?

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According to owners manual pain the automatic level control section you should let it level first then configure the WD Hitch.
 

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