Towing numbers

I respectfully disagree sir. If you were being truly prudent, then you wouldn't drive 80MPH when towing a trailer. Debate me all you want, it isn't safe.

 

You can NEVER eliminate all panic situations, like a deer running across in front of you at night.

 

I was taught not to swerve for anything smaller than a moose...hitting a deer is better than hitting a tree.

 

Hitting a deer is dangerous.

 

The vast majority will.
I’ve actually had a deer hit me in the drivers door.

 

Yeah, if a deer runs out in front of me pulling a trailer, I'm running that fucker over.

No trailer or small trailer, I'm hitting the brakes and hoping he makes it past.

Moose? Don't know, sounds like any option is a bad time (i.e. swerving with a loaded trailer). Probably trying the panic stop in that situation, and hoping we don't jackknife beyond repair.

 

Kinda off topic but...
I have a friend and have know her all of her life.
It's a moonless night at 0dark30 AM. She was on her way to work in Jackson, WY. A Bison was standing in the middle of the road, no time to brake or swerve and hits it. The car ends up in a ditch, upside down. She's pinned in from the roof collapsing on her.
It was determined that when she hit it, it peeled back the hood and laid across the windshield/roof, because there was fur on the underside of the hood. That kept the Bison from entering the interior of her car.
The Bison survived but was put down very soon after the hit. It had 4 broken legs and obvious internal injuries. It was over 2,000 lbs.
The useable meat was donated to the local Native American Tribes.
And the rest was set off to a taxidermist and is now on displayed somewhere in town.
Two years after that, she used her Grandfathers hunting rifle to take down her own Bison. Very proud of her.
She had the skull (no skin) wall mounted and the Bison rug is huge on her living room floor.
And the steaks, burgers and jerky were delicious.

 

Yes, you're better off hitting a deer than swerving off the road. But, sometimes instinct takes over and you make things worse.

I have been hit by a deer, also, LOL. My ex and I were driving through a park at night in an 87 MR2. One deer ran in front of us so I slowed down. Just as we were almost to a complete stop another deer crashed into the passenger side. Trashed the fender and the door and broke the mirror. We stopped and turned around, and it had run off. I got a door from a junkyard and drove the car for another year or two. The junkyard door didn't have power windows, but luckily the car was so small that I could reach the crank from the driver's door.

 

A looooog time ago in my teenage years I was driving home late at night at ~60mph from my summer swing shift job in my Mom’s 2yr old 1970 Nova, I had a out-of-nowhere deer run full tilt into the drivers side door and it also caved in the whole rear quarter panel all the way back to the bumper, bad enough to require her vinyl top on the “C” pillar to be peeled back a few inches for body work. The real stupid thing was about 2 months later I put a Daytona stripe on that same side when I bounced it off a guard rail doing what teenagers do best, drive too fast. Think my dad was MAD… I had to pay for that one.

 

He was doing the right thing. Lugging the engine down to low RPM in high gears is what causes harm. Its a lot easier on everything to downshift and get the revs up - less engine load means less chance of detonation, less rotation torque on everything upstream of the transmission, water and oil pumps flowing more, fan is pulling more air through the radiators, etc. etc.

People need to unlearn this "fast engine rev sounds = bad" instinct. It causes so many people to do the exact opposite of the best thing for their rig.

*IF* your trailer tires are rated for that speed. Many are not, especially the cheap Chinese crap tires that come OEM on most trailers. Please check and verify that the letter after the load index is at least N or higher if you plan to drive the speeds discussed by the OP.

I agree with you bassguy, i don't like going those speeds towing my cargo trailer (i Have electric trailer brakes and USA made, N rated Goodyear Endurance tires on mine, but still wont).

But he is right that trailer sway really inst caused by speed, its improper loading with too light of a tongue weight. That puts the center of mass of the trailer near or god forbid on/after the axles and the effect is like a tail heavy airplane - it becomes aerodynamically unstable and starts oscillating. Slowing down just reduces the symptoms, it doesn't cure it.

 

I disagree. It may not be the only factor, but it can certainly be a factor.

 

I don't think we are in disagreement per say - let me phrase it another way. When you experience trailer sway you are experiencing the destructive symptom of an unstable trailer. At low speed the symptom wont manifest and no damage is caused, but the trailer still is fundamentally unstable having too much weight to the rear.

 

I think we're on the same page. But, this kind of supports what I said. Excessive speed is a common contributing factor, even if it's not the root cause.

 

The problem (weight distribution) is common, especially with rare towers using a rental trailer, and speed makes it worse.

I poorly loaded a 6x12 Uhaul once (possibly overloaded, too), and 64 mph was fine, but 65 was not.

 

Hey! I'm about to do something similar, although arriving into Seattle/WA not leaving. 2022 TRD Pro, absolutely stock, U-haul 6x12 - won't be up to 4000lbs. Movers doing the most of it but they wont' commit to getting there when we do so, y'know, we'll bring some essentials with us so we can at least eat, sleep, cook and stream.

Did you run a scan gauge to monitor ATF temps? I see a lot of people discussing this, worried about cooking the transmission, which is something that never occurred to me to do before. I watch the coolant gauge religiously for movement, and always check at rest stops for smells, leaks and anything untoward but I've always worked on the basis of 'if the manufacturer rated it to tow X, I'll just do it'.

All of my older Land Rovers had in-rad transmission coolers as opposed to dedicated auxiliary and they were all rated to tow 7700lbs. I can't believe that the 5 speed in a 5th Gen 4runner, with an in-rad cooler pulling, say, 3200lbs is at greater risk than a 1998 ZF 4speed in a Discovery pulling 7000lbs!

Sounds like you did ok?

 

Putting the shifter in S4 is 90% of the battle. If there are some long grades on your route, I'd consider buying something to monitor trans temps. That's the only time I see my temps climb (either when 4th unlocks, or it shifts into 3rd), but they have to be pretty long to make a difference.

Otherwise, if it's standard highway driving, you stick to 4th gear, and drive a reasonable pace, it's probably myfine.

 

I've done about 650 miles in the last couple days with my little pup trailer through Washington, Idaho, and currently in Montana. Holding at 65mph on the interstates and somewhat slower on the State routes. Averaging 17.5mpg which is a pleasant surprise as I was expecting worse.

 

I did not use any extra monitoring. I did get a trans fluid change before the move tho. Imo I was well under the tow rating so i didn't worry. Engine temp never ran any hotter than usual.