My towing experience

I just hauled a 5x8 uhaul trailer from Maine to Georgia and wanted to throw my experience out there for someone who might be doing the same thing.

According to uhaul the trailer weighs 900 lbs empty. I loaded every inch of the inside that I could, but most of it was light did like pillows, blankets and my wife's ridiculous collection of shoes. I did have a couch and dresser in there as well. My guess is that loaded the trailer was around 2500 lbs tops. I also had some misc stuff in the bed and back seat of truck. Probably another 500lbs max.

My route from Maine to Georgia was i95-495-290-90-84-684-287-78-81-40-75. The route had a lot of hills and was a bit of a pain. I ran in over drive whenever I could but when I started a hill I would click overdrive off to help keep my transmission temps down and make the hill easier. The automatics feel like a real dog when towing on some of those inclines!

My transmission temps team from 150 to a high of 230. The 230 was when I got stuck in a ridiculous traffic jam because people don't know how to pick a freaking lane and stick in it. Outside of the high 230 I mostly saw it get to 210 on some of the really big inclines.

I started off using the ect power button to help hold gears longer but noticed that really made transmission temps jump.

I kept track of my mpg which I will have to edit into the post in a bit when I find the paper I wrote on. My lowest was 15.5 and highest was around 17. I was happy with that given the weight of the trailer and the amount of hills.

My truck will definitely be going in for a transmission fluid change now that I'm down here. I also plan to get a cooler to help keep temps down for my next big haul.

This was the first time I had ever hauled an enclosed trailer and the first time I had hauled a trailer this far. Normally I haul an aluminum trailer with 2 atvs about 300 miles one way a couple times a year. So it was a fun first long hauling trip. I had ez pass so that made the trip easier. I haven't checked my account yet to see what the cost of hauling the trailer through the tolls was.

I'll be doing another trip soon as I have to go back to Maine and grab some stuff that didn't make this trip. I expect my 2nd trip will go even smoother.


EDIT:
So I forgot to come back and add my MPG for the trip here. I use Fuelly, but I suck at entering the information when I'm actually filling up. I usually get the receipt, write my miles on it and toss it in the center console to enter later. I lost a couple of the receipts from driving down but here are my results pulling the trailer:

First tank was a partial fill up - 15.66 MPG (113 miles - 7 gallons)

The rest of the tanks I generally filled up somewhere less than a quarter tank. Since I was on the interstate and wasn't sure when/where gas stations would be easily accessible, I generally started looking once the needle dipped below a quarter.

16.83 MPG - 264/15.185
16.27 MPG - 239/14.693
16.69 MPG - 252/15.100
16.58 MPG - 252/15.223

 

Glad it went so smooth. My 4 cyl pulled a half loaded 6x12 from northern Minnesota to New Hampshire with a motorcycle on the bed and aside from getting sucky gas mileage, I was really happy with how it did

 

Wow! If I remember right the 6x12 uhaul trailer is close to 2,000 lbs empty. I'm not sure I would want to haul too much more weight the distance that I did. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the hills! I stayed around 65-70 most of the time which had me right around 2k rpms. When I would switch overdrive off I would pick up to 2500 to 2900 rpms.

I'm glad to hear that your 4banger hauled so well outside of the mpg. I almost bought a 4cyl at one point but stuck with the 6 just incase I wanted to haul bigger stuff.

 

I def didn't want to pull a trailer that big, that far but I didn't really have a choice. Until I hit the hills in upstate New York, I cruised in the 65-70 range without major problems. Having a V6 would have been nice tho, that's for sure

 

U haul trailers are pretty heavy-duty. I think more so because of the rental abuse they expect them to take over there usable lifespan. I have a 6x12 enclosed haulmark that one sure doesn't come close ton what a U haul ways. That being said weight doesn't seam to make much of a difference when I'm pulling my trailer. Most of my performance loss is from wind resistance. I use my trailer to tow motorcycle and camping gear and get the same gas mileage full or empty. I did pull my celica on one of those small car dollies once and it was amazing. I barely noticed it was back there. Gas mileage barely took a hit. Braking was the only noticeable set back in that trip

 

What transmission temperatures did you run while pulling that 6x12?

 

I definitely plan to add a cooler. I need to get my fluid flushed again, I did it 2 or 3 months ago but for peace of mind I want to do it again after the long haul. Unfortunately I don't have the means to do it myself right now because I'm living in an apartment and literally don't know anyone down here in the area since I just moved. Planning to take it to the dealership as much as I don't want to.

 

Are you doing a flush or just a drain and fill? Big difference. Unless your fluid looks/smells bad, I'd just do a drain & fill.

You are locking out the OD when towing uphill, right?

 

Yeah, shouldn't have said flush, because all I'm doing is drain and fill.

Yeah, definitely locking out OD. Didn't do it when I very first started the trip but figured it out pretty quick. I run Torque on an extra smart phone that I keep in the truck so that I can keep track of transmission temps and what not.

 

Thanks for the post! I'm going to be hauling an enclosed u-haul in the upcoming months about 915 miles, and this was a nice read. I was a considering buying a scanguage to monitor transmission temps, but from what I've gathered, you don't need to worry about manual trannys overheating and you can't monitor anything anyways apparently.

 

Your manual will probably do better than my auto. Make sure you load your trailer right and that your brakes are up to snuff. You'll be good to go!