2020 Ford Escape Hybrid

[k9dad]

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? Any info regarding this vehicle would be appreciated.

[belisba]

Thanks Two Jays!

[belisba]

Mike,

To your point about AWD vs.FWD. There isn't any distinction in my owners manual, the dingy tow guide, or anywhere else saying 2.5L AWD only or 2.5L FWD not four-down tow-able. Seems the only distinction I'm finding is with the transmissions between the 1.5L, 2.0L, and 2.5L. I agree, it seems contrary to orthodoxy but I think Hybrids kind of run to their own tune sometimes. I would like to here from someone who has a FWD like I do and here their experience.

Brad-Texas

[Two_Jayhawks]

Here is a lot of reading to catch up on from a few that are already towing the 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid. 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid

[mike_brez]

I thought only the awd was able to be towed 4 down with the 2.5 and the H4F45 trans

[belisba]

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

[Home_Skillet]

Ford says YES to 4 down towing.

Look on page 13

[Y-Guy]

For those casually looking at what they could tow four down the Motorhome Magazine Dinghy Towing Guides is a great place to start. It provide a great overview, but doesn’t get into many details.

For those that know more details; make, model, transmission, engine, etc. Then the REMOCO Towing Store is a great resource. It will tell you more details about towing; if you can, limitations, if you can’t or if a Lube Pump might solve the limitation.

But the ultimate authority is the actual Owners Manual that came with the vehicle. In most cases you can do a Google Search with the year make and model to find one online. Bu you will want to verify with the actual owners manual of that vehicle to be sure.

There are users that find out that they can tow four down just fine, going against what the manufacture states. If you go this route you’re on your own if there are any damages, this is why many won’t risk violating the warranty by towing against the owners manual recommendation.

Even vehicles that could be towed one year might not be recommended the next year, either changes to electronics, transmission, engine or the bean counters can all influence the change.

[rjstractor]

The older-gen Escape hybrids are towable but the new one is likely a different animal. Like was said, get the word directly from Ford. FWIW, we had an older one in the family for quite a while. Other than a couple of hybrid component cooling issues that were covered by recall it was dead reliable and my kids could not kill it. It was still running well at 175K miles with no degradation in battery performance, despite naysayers at the time who said the battery would need to be replaced at 80K miles at 7 grand a pop.

[Lwiddis]

I’d confirm with Ford before doing anything else.