General Towing questions

[wh500special]

I've been poking around on this forum for a while and finally decided to stop lurking and make a post...didn't see these topics covered yet so bear with me if they have.

 

This spring my wife and I replaced our 160k mile 2002 Escape with a 2008 Edge awd. Our vehicle did not come with the tow package but I installed a 2" receiver and 4 pin harness promptly after bringing it home. Finally got around to towing my small fishing boat this weekend and have some questions.

 

This is not my first tow vehicle. For heavy stuff I have my F250. But I intend to use this vehicle once in a while for my 16' aluminum boat (pkg weight ~1500 lb) and a couple small utility trailers with the largest having a GVW of 3500 pounds with electric brakes. Probably will never even knock on the door to the Edge's max capacity since I have the luxury of multiple vehicles and have this phobia of being caught overloaded...

 

So, the questions:

1. WHERE have you folks who have installed brake controllers have them mounted? There really seems to be a lack of suitable spaces to hang one with the exception of in the little storage cubby at the front end of the floor console under the HVAC system. I like the Tekonsha Prodigy and will likely equip this truck with one of them.

 

2. I am reading reports of up to 18 mpg (or better ) when towing light loads. The other night thru IL on flat terrain with the cruise set on 65 mph (max, seriously) and a 5-10 mph headwind (I think the weatherman reported 7mph) I barely broke 14 mpg with my boat in tow. And this is a small boat the almost completely tucks behind the frontal area of the car. I ran with OD off since I'd rather preserve the transaxle than maximize fuel economy, but even when tinkering around I found that even when OD was enabled it would rarely go into the top gears. Should I expect better or does this seem reasonable? (The Escape needed the OD off to pull 75% of the time).

 

I have been towing stuff for many, many years. This car doesn't even "feel" like anything is back there with the boat in tow and it has all kinds of reserve power, but it certainly made a difference in consumption. Our escape didn't take nearly the hit in MPG that this thing does (on the same roads every week I average 23 mpg during my weekly commute w/ no boat) and I have to admit I am quite disappointed that my larger 4wd V8 truck gets better mileage with the boat behind it than this thing does.

 

In most cases it is the aerodynamic drag that a trailer exerts that impacts tow performance as much as trailer weight. My boat is pretty small (16' Lund Rebel, 72" beam, 500# hull weight, 245 ound motor, 300 pound trailer (guess), 300 pounds junk, + 200 pounds stuff to be conservative). But perhaps it catches more wide than I realize.

 

Essentially, I'd like to hear a sound off on whether I am in the ballpark of what is reasonable to expect. If so, I can live with it with no worries. Being an engineer/geek I am a bit fanatical about maintenance/duty cycles/appropriate expectations. But these results are catching me by surprise.

 

Steve

 

West Lebanon, IN

[Goldy]

I've been poking around on this forum for a while and finally decided to stop lurking and make a post...didn't see these topics covered yet so bear with me if they have.

 

This spring my wife and I replaced our 160k mile 2002 Escape with a 2008 Edge awd. Our vehicle did not come with the tow package but I installed a 2" receiver and 4 pin harness promptly after bringing it home. Finally got around to towing my small fishing boat this weekend and have some questions.

 

This is not my first tow vehicle. For heavy stuff I have my F250. But I intend to use this vehicle once in a while for my 16' aluminum boat (pkg weight ~1500 lb) and a couple small utility trailers with the largest having a GVW of 3500 pounds with electric brakes. Probably will never even knock on the door to the Edge's max capacity since I have the luxury of multiple vehicles and have this phobia of being caught overloaded...

 

So, the questions:

1. WHERE have you folks who have installed brake controllers have them mounted? There really seems to be a lack of suitable spaces to hang one with the exception of in the little storage cubby at the front end of the floor console under the HVAC system. I like the Tekonsha Prodigy and will likely equip this truck with one of them.

 

2. I am reading reports of up to 18 mpg (or better ) when towing light loads. The other night thru IL on flat terrain with the cruise set on 65 mph (max, seriously) and a 5-10 mph headwind (I think the weatherman reported 7mph) I barely broke 14 mpg with my boat in tow. And this is a small boat the almost completely tucks behind the frontal area of the car. I ran with OD off since I'd rather preserve the transaxle than maximize fuel economy, but even when tinkering around I found that even when OD was enabled it would rarely go into the top gears. Should I expect better or does this seem reasonable? (The Escape needed the OD off to pull 75% of the time).

 

I have been towing stuff for many, many years. This car doesn't even "feel" like anything is back there with the boat in tow and it has all kinds of reserve power, but it certainly made a difference in consumption. Our escape didn't take nearly the hit in MPG that this thing does (on the same roads every week I average 23 mpg during my weekly commute w/ no boat) and I have to admit I am quite disappointed that my larger 4wd V8 truck gets better mileage with the boat behind it than this thing does.

 

In most cases it is the aerodynamic drag that a trailer exerts that impacts tow performance as much as trailer weight. My boat is pretty small (16' Lund Rebel, 72" beam, 500# hull weight, 245 ound motor, 300 pound trailer (guess), 300 pounds junk, + 200 pounds stuff to be conservative). But perhaps it catches more wide than I realize.

 

Essentially, I'd like to hear a sound off on whether I am in the ballpark of what is reasonable to expect. If so, I can live with it with no worries. Being an engineer/geek I am a bit fanatical about maintenance/duty cycles/appropriate expectations. But these results are catching me by surprise.

 

Steve

 

West Lebanon, IN

 

 

Well, I'm not sure I can answer all, but the 14 mpg doesn't necessarily surprise me w/ the OD off at 65. My guess would be that the milage would probably not be much better driving 65 mph w/ the OD off, and not towing anything...maybe 16 mph???

 

I too am a geek/do-it yourself'r, and also like you, have an F250 ('05 4wd) as well as an Edge ('09 AWD, no tow package). I've already been under the Edge, and it really is not what I consider to be heavy duty at all. I'd maybe tow 1000 lbs w/ it, and save the heavier stuff for the F250 (just my thoughts...). Something to keep in mind...though you can change the transmission fluid in the Edge, the transmission filter is not easily servicable (you can't change the transmission filter unless you remove the transmission). I wished they would have put an external transmission filter on the thing (similar to the external one on the F250), but I don't think Ford intended the Edge to be a real tow vehicle. I was debating on getting an Explorer rather than the Edge (I preferred the Explorer, wife preferred the Edge...you can see which way that went), and being as how I do all my own maintenance/most repairs, I would never have bought the Edge if I would have known the transmission filter was not servicable...seriously...

 

As for the 'drag'...my guess is that the boat doesn't cause too much 'drag'. I think what makes the Edge feel like it's got plenty of power is the gearing, and number of gears.

 

Just my thoughts....I'm really not knocking the Edge (other than having to remove the transmission to replace the filter)...my thoughts are that I just would not make a habit of using it as a tow vehicle...occasional light loads only are my thoughts. I think routinely using it for towing would shorten the life of many components..specifically, the tranny.

 

Good luck.

 

Howard

 

Fishers, IN

[PSUFetch]

I've been poking around on this forum for a while and finally decided to stop lurking and make a post...didn't see these topics covered yet so bear with me if they have.

 

This spring my wife and I replaced our 160k mile 2002 Escape with a 2008 Edge awd. Our vehicle did not come with the tow package but I installed a 2" receiver and 4 pin harness promptly after bringing it home. Finally got around to towing my small fishing boat this weekend and have some questions.

 

This is not my first tow vehicle. For heavy stuff I have my F250. But I intend to use this vehicle once in a while for my 16' aluminum boat (pkg weight ~1500 lb) and a couple small utility trailers with the largest having a GVW of 3500 pounds with electric brakes. Probably will never even knock on the door to the Edge's max capacity since I have the luxury of multiple vehicles and have this phobia of being caught overloaded...

 

So, the questions:

1. WHERE have you folks who have installed brake controllers have them mounted? There really seems to be a lack of suitable spaces to hang one with the exception of in the little storage cubby at the front end of the floor console under the HVAC system. I like the Tekonsha Prodigy and will likely equip this truck with one of them.

 

2. I am reading reports of up to 18 mpg (or better ) when towing light loads. The other night thru IL on flat terrain with the cruise set on 65 mph (max, seriously) and a 5-10 mph headwind (I think the weatherman reported 7mph) I barely broke 14 mpg with my boat in tow. And this is a small boat the almost completely tucks behind the frontal area of the car. I ran with OD off since I'd rather preserve the transaxle than maximize fuel economy, but even when tinkering around I found that even when OD was enabled it would rarely go into the top gears. Should I expect better or does this seem reasonable? (The Escape needed the OD off to pull 75% of the time).

 

I have been towing stuff for many, many years. This car doesn't even "feel" like anything is back there with the boat in tow and it has all kinds of reserve power, but it certainly made a difference in consumption. Our escape didn't take nearly the hit in MPG that this thing does (on the same roads every week I average 23 mpg during my weekly commute w/ no boat) and I have to admit I am quite disappointed that my larger 4wd V8 truck gets better mileage with the boat behind it than this thing does.

 

In most cases it is the aerodynamic drag that a trailer exerts that impacts tow performance as much as trailer weight. My boat is pretty small (16' Lund Rebel, 72" beam, 500# hull weight, 245 ound motor, 300 pound trailer (guess), 300 pounds junk, + 200 pounds stuff to be conservative). But perhaps it catches more wide than I realize.

 

Essentially, I'd like to hear a sound off on whether I am in the ballpark of what is reasonable to expect. If so, I can live with it with no worries. Being an engineer/geek I am a bit fanatical about maintenance/duty cycles/appropriate expectations. But these results are catching me by surprise.

 

Steve

 

West Lebanon, IN

 

 

 

I installed a Prodigy brake controller in our Edge earlier this year. Here's a link to the install along with pictures of it installed.

 

Brake controller install

 

 

At the bottom of my post, you can see the trailer I'm towing. I get ~9mpg while towing it. The car is my wife's daily driver and she gets 15 MPG in city driving and we typically get 18-20 on the highway (doing ~75-80 mph). I tow with the O/D off at all times.

 

The Edge does a surprisingly good job of towing and the Prodigy was easy to set up and works very well. Don't get me wrong, I never forget that the trailer is there, but I'm at the limit of what the Edge can tow and I'm impressed. I only tow this trailer 3-4 times a year on a 300 mile round trip. If we used it more frequently, I would have considered buying a new tow vehicle.

[JayFL459]

Interested in this because thinking of adding the Tow package to my Edge. I also a Chevy Silverado 2500 HD for hauling the Big stuff, but would be able to like to Haul my Harley on my utility Trailer with it probably 1200 -1500 lbs maximum total.. Our 97 Ford Explorer did this very nicely with no worries...

[wh500special]

Thanks guys.

 

I'm not completely unhappy with 14 mpg, but just wanted to do a little sanity check to make sure I was in the right ballpark.

 

I backtracked the same route on the way home last night sans the boat and the trip computer revealed a little better than 24 mpg. Actual (fill up and do the math routine) was about 23. So the hit taken via trailering the boat is pretty hefty.

 

That's OK though since I really don't plan to use this as anything other than an occasional tow vehicle. Tomorrow night I'm hitching up a little flatbed and headed to Indy to pick up a garden tractor, so we'll see how it does on that jaunt. i agree, this being more of a fwd/awd passenger car it just isn't going to be up to the task of frequent towing near its limit.

 

I still need to mount the brake controller but will likely just stick it under the dash as PSU did. I'm already preparing to catch grief from the wife when/if she bumps a knee on it. But I think Tekonsha offers removable brackets so my investigate that as well.

 

This car replaced my wife's '02 Escape and we are very pleased. It has better passenger space, a little larger cargo area, is much fancier, AND gets better mileage from a larger, more powerful engine. I'll admit MY first choice was a VW Jetta Wagen diesel, but I have really taken to this thing...never could have pulled the boat with the Jetta anyway. And there is sufficient room behind the front seats for my carseat sitting kiddos to not constantly kick the front seatbacks.

 

The other two cars in my fleet are a '97 F250 LD 4wd (4.6L, E4OD) and an '06 Mercury Monterey (Freestar clone) van. I bought the truck new, it's never spent a night in a garage, and the age is really starting to show. But it's worth more to me to keep as an occasional use + tow platform that I will probably have it forever and at only 150k miles it still runs well. The Edge marks my wife and my 7th Ford since we've been married...unless you also count tractors and then it's nine. They've all been good ones and this Edge seems to be a good one too.

 

Mom and Dad are currently looking to replace their Explorer with something a little smaller and seem to have taken a shine to our Edge and an Uncle's MKX. Only thing holding them back is Dad's 17' Deep V boat. But they have a pickup too.

 

Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated.

 

Steve

[PSUFetch]

I still need to mount the brake controller but will likely just stick it under the dash as PSU did. I'm already preparing to catch grief from the wife when/if she bumps a knee on it. But I think Tekonsha offers removable brackets so my investigate that as well.

 

 

I was worried about that too, but it wasn't a problem for us. The Prodigy came with 2 different mounts. I used the one that is a "sleeve" mount which lets you disconnect the plug from the back of the controller and then slide the controller out. The bracket stays in the car, but it allows you to take the controller between vehicles easily. It doesn't do too much for freeing up space though. If you're concerned, I'd try using some double sided tape to temporarily mount it and then sit in the seat and have your wife do the same.

 

 

Mom and Dad are currently looking to replace their Explorer with something a little smaller and seem to have taken a shine to our Edge and an Uncle's MKX. Only thing holding them back is Dad's 17' Deep V boat. But they have a pickup too.

 

My In-Laws purchased an Edge after they took ours for a drive. They loved it. They have a Mazda Tribute (Ford Edge cousin), but the like the longer wheelbase and smoother Ride of the Edge for long trips.

[stradt03]

I towed my jetski (~1100) about 460 miles from Michigan to Pennsylvania and averaged 20.1 mpg