Well, I bought a trailer!
It's a '97 Viking pop-up tent trailer with trailer brakes, it weights 1490lbs empty with a 240lbs hitch weight and a 2200lbs max GVWR.
A couple of other questions now, sorry!
Overdrive... My dad and I drove over 2 hours on the Freeway to pick up my trailer and towed it back that same amount. I started out with the overdrive off because I figured you probably should. My dad told me that he personally would leave it on unless it started going in and out and trying to find the right gear. With overdrive, I was able to tow it 100 miles, on flat land on just about 1/4 of a tank! But with OD off the engine is about 1000rpm higher and I can almost see my fuel gauge moving.. LOL!!
Because of our bickering I called the Ford Dealer that I bought the Escape from today and the technician I talked to said what my dad did! He said he would leave the Overdrive on too! I was kind of shocked by this. I said to the dealer, "Then, should I leave the overdrive on when I am hauling on flat land and turn it off in the mountains?". He then said, no, that he would only turn it off, even in the mountains, when going downgrade so that the engine would help with slowing everything down... He added that the O/D drive is not a free floating gear like they used to be and that they are a lot more resilient today. He also added that the computer would control the best gear to be in, so even if I had it in O/D and I started a incline the computer would automatically kick off the O/D.
Does this sound right to you? He also didn't know at what temp my transmission should be when towing. (I have yet to get my Scan Guage though, so it does me no good right now anyway...) He told me I should call the Ford Customer Assistance line and that they I could talk to someone that is specialized in towing.
Anyhow... I also got quotes to install the trailer brake controller into the Escape and since Ford didn't put the "blue" brake wire into the trailer wiring harness, apparently they have to string cable from the engine compartment clear to the hitch. The cheapest I've found somebody willing to do this is $357+tax, but that includes the controller... But that seems pretty expensive to me... what do you think?
Thanks guys!
