Towing capacity for older SUV?
I suspect that questions such as the one I'm about to make have been posted MANY times here but well, please accept my apologies for the repetition if so! The question is the following: The tow ve...
Forum Discussion
raydf wrote:
My question is: can the noted SUV safely tow this trailer, loaded as indicated?
Based on my own experience I'd say no.
In 2006 we purchased a 2007 RVision TrailCruiser C21RBH that loaded and ready to camp averaged ~ 4200 lbs. My intention was to tow it with our 1998 Explorer, 4.0L V6 SOHC engine, 3.55 axle ratio. On our first trip to a local campground I was astonished to find I couldn't get over 80 kph (50 mph) so the following weekend just one of my sons and I took the trailer out again, this time as lightly loaded as I could get it. Pretty well the same disappointing result - up to 80 kph was fairly easy but getting from there up to a highway speed of 100 kph (~ 62 mph) took an awfully long time. It soon became apparent this just wasn't going to work at all for a trip we had planned that summer to Myrtle Beach, which from here in Ontario would have us negotiating some significant grades in places like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, etc. A week later we replaced the Explorer with a 5.3L V8 Silverado, 3.42 axle, and went on our trip, no issues at all. We later towed a 5500 lb KZ Spree with that same Silverado for several years. No way, no how would that Explorer have handled that 4200 lb TrailCruiser. :(
