# Safe Speed For Towing



## photojax (Jun 23, 2005)

I just picked up my new 30' Outback fron the dealer this weekend. I am towing it with a Ford Excursion V-10. The TV seems to pull it fine however I did notice some sway that concerns me. I did have some gusty winds here in North Florida probably from Hurricane Dennis approaching. The only "white nuckle" experience I had was when the highway went into an S-Turn for a detour. I did notice the sway was worse when I went over 50mph even on the straight parts of the highway.
I am using a Blue Ox Equalizer hitch with sway control bars on both sides. The dealer hooked up the hitch and leveled the vehicles. I spoke to others here in town that spoke highly of the Blue Ox Hitch system. The Installer did say that the sway may need to be adjusted by way of two nuts on the hitch. However the adjustment nuts are real tight. 
Does anyone have any suggestions as to a safe speed for towing with my setup?
I know I will need to be going over 50mph on the interstate.
I love the Outback and am looking forward to using it often since I just retired.
THanks,
GH


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Going up to 65 mph on the inter-state should be possible and safe as long as you are set up correctly.

You have a really big trailer and a relatively short wheelbase on the tow vehicle.

Recommend a better hitch/sway combination in the Reese Dual Cam.

The nuts you are talking about are used to adjust the head tilt. These are required to be very tight and if you do not have the correct wrenches you can get them at Wally World or most RV centers. Before you adjust the head do read the installation instructions to see what you are trying to accomplish.


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## johnp (Mar 15, 2004)

Sounds like you need more tongue weight or does your Excursion have passenger rated tires or LT's with a load E rating.

John


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

If I'm not mistaken the Excursion is fairly soft in the rear end to give a better round down ride. Air bags may do the trick to help stiffen things up. I had a similar feeling with my Avalanche/Outback, never felt the Av was good over 60. Now with my F350/Raptor even as large as it is I've been cruising at 75 and felt sold as a sports car.

I'm not sure which of the Blue Ox setups you have, http://www.blueox.us/hitches/index.html but knowing that may help us to narrow the problem down.


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## photojax (Jun 23, 2005)

I am using the Blue Ox Sway Pro. I did read in the instructions, that the sway control bars had to be parallel with the hitch. The shop put had them at a noticable angle. I lined them up better with the hitch and will take it on the road tomorrow and see how it does. The tires on the Excursion are 16 inch with an "E" rating. I chose the Excursion as a TV because of the Excursion's weight, V-10 engine and storage area. It certianly has the tow rating for the 30 RL-S. 
Thanks for the replies and if anyone has any other comments, I would appreciate them. I am just getting started in the RV scene and welcome any help.
GH


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

You may also want to drop by RV.net and search on there to see if you can find more Blue Ox owners to see if there are any tricks or adjustments you need to make for better performance. Good luck, hopefully some other Ex owners can comment on the tow characteristics too.


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

I don't know much about the Blue Ox, but I would suspect that the sway control may need some adjusting. The Excursion has a 137" wheelbase, which is the longest in the SUV world to my knowledge, it is longer then the 133" on my Avalanche (same as Suburban) so I don't think the WB is the issue.

I have heard of the Excursions being soft in the rear, like Y-Guy said, so you might try the air bag route too. Hopefully, another Excursion owner will post in with some help too. I don't know if anyone else here has a Blue Ox though?

Tim


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## Fire44 (Mar 6, 2005)

The set up of the hitch is the main thing. We towed our 27RSDS to Flordia right after we got it and 65 mph was a fast as I felt comfortable pulling it. I pull up a post here on proper set up of the Reese Dual Cam and spent about 2-3 hours playing with the set up....huge difference. We just came back from a weekend trip and I was running late last nite, 75 mph on the interstate was no problem. We had no sway at all. The big difference was when the big rigs passed us before, you could see the trailer get pushed over and then the Suburban would go with it, now the whole rigs moves as one. The big rigs still push us around but it is as one unit. I try to keep my speed at the 60 mph range for two reasons, safety and gas mileage. At 60 mpg I get around 10.5, at 70 mph I get about 8.5.

Gary


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## vdub (Jun 19, 2004)

Ditto the rest of these guys. I have, on occassion, gotten up to 67, but it was by mistake (I-80 thru Nevada and totally void of other vehicles). I try to stay at 60-63 for a couple reasons.

First, fuel savings -- my fuel consumption is noticably more when my rpm's are above 2000. At 60 mph, I'm at about 1700, so I get pretty good mileage (12.5).

Second, is wind gusts. The darn things are just to hard to predict. I've passed thru cuts in the mountains where I was suddenly hit by a hard gust of wind on the other side. It makes for a couple of seconds of concern even with the 5 -- if it was with a TT, then the concern would be even greater.

And, finally, stopping. I have never had to do an emergency stop with my rig and I really don't want to test it. I have a hunch that it would take a long way to stop. Stopping is also one of the reasons I don't drive at night. Your site distance is so low and the changes of a deer jumping in the road or having something else such as a rock laying in the road are so much higher, that it simply isn't worth the risk. If I did get caught in a situation where I had to drive at night, then my speed would be reduced accordingly.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

VDUB - Just noticed your udated signature. When and why did you add the disclaimer????? Did someone give you a hard time??


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## photojax (Jun 23, 2005)

Moving the chain up one notch made the sway bars more even with the hitch. I pulled the Outback today and noticed a great improvement. I did not get it to the highway, however on the local roads I did not have the problem of sway when I drove over rough roadways and curves as I previously did. I hope to have the same results on the highway. I would be fine driving 60mph. As mentioned previously, a careless lane change by someone into your path could be a major problem. I keep my distance and am much more alert when towing. 
GH


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## vdub (Jun 19, 2004)

> Just noticed your udated signature. When and why did you add the disclaimer????? Did someone give you a hard time??


No hard time from this forum. This forum is the most polite, helpful, and courteous forum I have ever been associated with. Outbackers is great and I'm proud to be a member! I don't think it is necessary on this forum but, this is not the only forum I am on. You may have noticed that my sig block is hosted on my personal site and not Outbackers. This is because I use the same sig block on several forums, some of which I don't trust one bit.


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## drobe5150 (Jan 21, 2005)

hi everyone action 
one thing that i have read from ex owners is the absents of a rear sway bar, most owners who had considerable handling problems with trailers had rear sway bar installed, and the difference was night and day, also the stock shocks are $hitcaned in favor of the rancho 9000's that are stock on the f350's, some owners go with bilstiens. again the difference is night and day when towing.
now myself i have not had any problems with sway, the ex tows like nothing is back there, it seems to perform even better when we are cruising at 65 or faster,
i have had it up to 75, still no problem, i would not advise that all the time though.
and i just have a basic w/d with springbars and a friction sway bar. now if i do start getting squirley and its more and more noticeable, i will switch to a eq or a duel cam, but for now i am happy.
i don,t know if this is okay or not, but i belong to a forum that is for ex owners.
www.fordexcursions.com, i don,t log on much because i am mostly here.









darrel


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## Howie (Jun 19, 2005)

_*I guess this is as good a place as any..... speaking of sway. I hear that no matter what you have if you start to sway from no matter what the best thing to do is to pull on the brake controller a little and the trailer will come right back inline. Is that what you've all experienced? I looked for this in the forums but couldn't find any comments on the action to take.........thanks*_


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Howie said:


> _*I guess this is as good a place as any..... speaking of sway. I hear that no matter what you have if you start to sway from no matter what the best thing to do is to pull on the brake controller a little and the trailer will come right back inline. Is that what you've all experienced?Â I looked for this in the forums but couldn't find any comments on the action to take.........thanks*_
> [snapback]45070[/snapback]​


When sway starts you want to do a combination of actions.

1 - Manually apply trailer brakes as needed but do not try to lock them up
2 - Give it gas to maintain current speed
3 - Once under control begin to slow down
4 - Once speed has reduced release manual control of the trailer brakes
5 - Avoid use of brake pedal during this event - it can lead to jack knife
6 - Avoid hard steering reactions - it can set up an over corrections situation.


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

Howie said:


> I guess this is as good a place as any..... speaking of sway. I hear that no matter what you have if you start to sway from no matter what the best thing to do is to pull on the brake controller a little and the trailer will come right back inline.


Before I started towing a camper I was involved with trailer sway of a flatbed loaded with 8 huge college campus bookcases. Trailer was a 4 wheel trailer. Knowing what to do both to deal with minor sway and how to save your bacon is something every driver should think about, I hadn't. The sway started on a bridge and of course I didn't have trailer brakes. Not much you can do, tried to slow down and it got worse, sped up a bit and calmed down a bit but only to start again. Finally we got across the bridge and when the trailer tracked right behind my truck I braked hard and tried to maintain control, but didn't. Ended up doing a 450 spin and found myself about to slam in to some concrete barriers. After coming to a stop we pulled off the interstate facing the wrong way into the center divider. Looked back over the bridge and the plywood laying around and knew there was a higher power looking over me. We got things cleaned up in time for a Trooper to drive by, nice guy. Just asked if we needed to have a shorts check!

I learned a lot from that. Good trailer brakes are a MUST. Well balanced tow vehicle that is capable of the load is a MUST. If I'd had and smaller SUV I know we would have flipped, but the F150 did great.

What Camper Andy posted is right on. But just reading it really isn't enough. Learn what its like to apply the trailer brakes at a higher speed (not high speed) but I did practice some around 45. Know where your trailer brake lever is without having to look it it or fumble for it, ideall you should be able to reach right for it with one hand firmly on the wheel and your eyes on the road. I've seen a few setups that would require fumbling around CB's and other things, hardly something you could apply quickly.

I hope you never get in the situation but you had a good question.


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