2020 Ford Escape Hybrid
Looking for a new toad(old one is 10 years old) and saw that the 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid was listed in the FMCA magazine as being able to be flat towed. Has anyone purchased one yet for this purpose? ...
Forum Discussion
I just purchased a 2020 2.5L FWD Ford Escape Hybrid SE Sport. I needed two things from my purchase. First, I must like the vehicle enough to drive everyday to work and also fit nicely in my garage. The Escape Hybrid is a nice vehicle and I'm pleased with its performance, style, and features.
The second thing for me was four-down towing. I don't have a place to store a separate toad car so having my everyday car be my toad car as well is a real must for me.
To date, I'm still reading the owners manual and haven't towed the vehicle behind my Class-C or purchased/configured the vehicle for flat towing so this forum is of great interest for me to learn from you and share my experience.
What I've learned so far:
The owners manual gives flat-towing instructions ONLY for the H4F45 (HF45) transmission.
To confirm your transmission is flat-towable, go to your vehicles Safety Compliance Label (on the driver's door frame) and look for a Transmission Code of: 5. Number 5 crosses over in the owners manual as a Automatic Transmission-Hybrid-H4F45. If it's 7 or 8, its NOT flat-towable.
Now, one somewhat confusion part is that my Escape Hybrid is FWD, not AWD. This seems to go against the orthodoxy that FWD's are not flat-towable. So, I ran through the procedure on my Escape to put it into "Neutral Tow" mode and didn't have any issues. Would appreciate anyone's feedback on this point.
A couple other points: The owners manual doesn't talk at all about strapping down the steering wheel or putting the steering wheel into an "unlocked" mode. I'll need to explore that more on my own or get someone's input in this forum as to what if any straps are needed, etc.
Brad-Texas
The second thing for me was four-down towing. I don't have a place to store a separate toad car so having my everyday car be my toad car as well is a real must for me.
To date, I'm still reading the owners manual and haven't towed the vehicle behind my Class-C or purchased/configured the vehicle for flat towing so this forum is of great interest for me to learn from you and share my experience.
What I've learned so far:
The owners manual gives flat-towing instructions ONLY for the H4F45 (HF45) transmission.
To confirm your transmission is flat-towable, go to your vehicles Safety Compliance Label (on the driver's door frame) and look for a Transmission Code of: 5. Number 5 crosses over in the owners manual as a Automatic Transmission-Hybrid-H4F45. If it's 7 or 8, its NOT flat-towable.
Now, one somewhat confusion part is that my Escape Hybrid is FWD, not AWD. This seems to go against the orthodoxy that FWD's are not flat-towable. So, I ran through the procedure on my Escape to put it into "Neutral Tow" mode and didn't have any issues. Would appreciate anyone's feedback on this point.
A couple other points: The owners manual doesn't talk at all about strapping down the steering wheel or putting the steering wheel into an "unlocked" mode. I'll need to explore that more on my own or get someone's input in this forum as to what if any straps are needed, etc.
Brad-Texas
