RE: stick
Think of your daily drive with the vehicle also. Rush hour or traffic jams are no fun with a manual.I see this argument all the time, but it just plain isn't that big of an issue. Generally when I get stuck in traffic, I just drop to 1st or 2nd gear and idle along fairly smoothly, rarely ever touching the clutch. I see all the rest of the cars brake lights every 10 seconds, but I can idle in 1st gear at about 2mph and generally that is slow enough that I DON'T have to jab the clutch and/or brake every 10 seconds like the rest of the monkeys.
That doesn't work here on the beltline. If you leave an in you will be going backwards. I had 3 Rangers that were stick. Living in the city I will never own one again.
Everyone has a different opinion on what's best for their comfort and use.By freak coincidence, we live in the same area as each other. I've driven the belt line many times, and my technique works just as well there as it does in Chicago, L.A., Seattle or London traffic (all places I've driven). People think they need to ride everyone's back door to make sure nobody skips them, but it just isn't so. Back off a little and you won't be stabbing the brakes every time the guy in front of you does. If someone gets in front of you, back off a little more and let them. The distance of one car-length in time amounts to seconds, so if a few people get in front of you your travel time might increase by a whole 1-2 minutes! {GASP!} The flip side is you arrive calm, cool and collected rather than wound up full of adrenaline and road rage.
You know where I learned this? My Brother in Law drives coast-2-coast cattle truck for a living. That's exactly how he handles traffic jams, and once I saw how well it worked I noticed most of the other truck drivers doing the same. If a 80k pound cattle truck can idle through a traffic jam without touching the brakes more than a couple times, then a small car certainly can as well.
RE: stick
Think of your daily drive with the vehicle also. Rush hour or traffic jams are no fun with a manual.I see this argument all the time, but it just plain isn't that big of an issue. Generally when I get stuck in traffic, I just drop to 1st or 2nd gear and idle along fairly smoothly, rarely ever touching the clutch. I see all the rest of the cars brake lights every 10 seconds, but I can idle in 1st gear at about 2mph and generally that is slow enough that I DON'T have to jab the clutch and/or brake every 10 seconds like the rest of the monkeys.
RE: stick
Generally speaking standard transmissions have a lower towing rating than automatics. this is because the weak ling in a standard is the clutch. If that is what you prefer driving, then by all means get one. Just be sure it's towing rating is up to the task.
What??:? I always thought that the reason all the big diesels were manual is because the manual transmissions were much stronger than automatics! Have I been wrong all these years?Nope, you are correct. That statement about manuals having low tow rating is a blanket statement that isn't entirely true. Sometimes Automatics have higher ratings, and sometimes manuals do. If following the tow rating to the letter is important to you, then you need to examine each and every vehicle and compare auto/manual ratings individually.
RE: Who would change my caliper bolts and why???
When I did changed the OEM brakes on my FIL's 1500 Silverado, the front calipers used torx head bolts. I had to go buy the right bit before I could proceed.
I don't know how your truck got hex head bolts, but they didn't belong and shouldn't have been there.
RE: surge brakes or other?
Now if you were pulling a boat trailer that constantly was getting wet launching ot retiieving a boat the hydraulics would be a better choice.I was surprised to learn a while back that electric brakes work very well on boat trailers. I always assumed that water and electricity wouldn't mix well, and figured this was one application where surge brakes would be preferred.
However, as it turns out, the electo-magnets in the typical electric drum brake are encased in epoxy, and completely sealed. Even after many many miles of braking, the epoxy doesn't wear down enough to expose any electricity to water. So as long as the rest of the wiring is water-tight (not hard to do if you try) then the electric brake is completely safe to submerge in water.
By the way, I learned all this when a friend of mine was buying a boat, and paid a little extra money to have electric brakes installed rather than the default surge brakes. He had surge brakes on past trailers and hated them, and the boat dealer explained that electric brakes are also water-friendly and even gave him a brochure explaining all this. The only reason he paid any more money (as again electric brakes are cheaper) is because the boat trailer was already equipped with surge brakes and they had to remove and replace with electric. So he paid for the electric brake parts, and they did all the work for free in exchange for keeping all the surge parts they removed.
RE: surge brakes or other?
I was under the impression we were not talking about RV trailer brakes. I am not sure you have had experience using surge brakes based on your post or if so you had some that had were not set up correctly. Surge brakes are load sensitive in my experience. I do agree a controller has its place but surge brakes are so dependable and trouble free which makes them a great choice for many and they are so easy to check when you start down a mountain. I think the lower hassle/cost and less likely to fail is the reason they are preferred by many.The "lower hassle approach" if that is what we are calling it is almost never the correct solution for any given problem. Surge brakes are less hassle only because they trade some functionality for universalness.
I have more experience with trailers and towing than most RV dealers. I have towed MANY trailers with and without brakes, and with both surge and electric.
Surge brakes are only load-senstive based on the braking force they provide. In other words, a heavy trailer will place MORE force on the tow vehicle and therefore activate the surge coupler harder than a light trailer will.
The hold-back spring you mentioned is NOT dynamically adjustable, and is set at the factory for a specific weight range, which is why surge couplers come in different weight classes. If you put a 10,000 pound surge coupler on a 2000 pound trailer, the hold-back spring will prevent the trailer brakes from ever activating. If you put a 2000 pound coupler on a 10,000 pound trailer the brakes will be engaged every time you take your foot off the gas. These are two extremes to make a point. More often what happens is that a 5000 pound coupler is placed on a trailer with a dry weight of 2000 pounds, and a loaded weight of 4000 give or take. When the trailer is dry, the brakes will almost never activate because there isn't enough mass to compress the holdback spring. When the trailer is maxed out, the brakes will work very well for stopping, but backing up or driving downhill will compress the holdback spring just enough to drag the brakes.
I have retrofitted electric brakes onto trailers that originally had surge brakes several times in the past, some were my own and others belonged to friends. Each and every one of them was extremely pleased with the upgrade including myself. It is MUCH easier to run wire for electric brakes than bend/bleed/flare hydraulic line for surge brakes. And the $200 surge coupler is much more expensive than even a top-of-the-line electric brake controller.
RE: surge brakes or other?
If the load is within limit design of the surge brake hitch the spring should keep braking action from happening when backing or using engine braking. Sure the surge brakes should catch some of the load when engine braking is causing a drop in MPH speed but once it stablizes (say the speed is 35 MPH and not decreasing) the spring should keep the brake released.
Something is wrong if surge brakes activate within the force of a surge. :)Your information assumes a trailer that weighs pretty close to the same all the time, and a properly adjusted coupler.
Trailers whose weight changes dramatically, like car hauler, cargo trailers...etc. will not work smoothly under all circumstances. If the trailer is lightly loaded, then the spring must also be light to allow any braking to occur at all. If the trailer is rolling heavy, then that same spring must be firm to prevent the brakes from dragging. It's a catch 22 and there is no way to adjust them to work correctly for every given load. If they put in the stiffer spring assuming the trailer will be loaded heavy most of the time, then the brakes just plain won't work when the trailer is empty.
And since it was brought up, if the tow vehicle can't initiate the stop (low traction, brake failure...etc.) then the surge brakes won't do anything. If the tow vehicle can't provide the deceleration to actuate the coupler, your trailer pushes you right into the thing you are trying to stop for.
And since we are now talking about the issues with using surge brakes, I will also mention that a surge-braked trailer is severely limited as too what types of sway control or weight distribution can be applied. I've seen people in the popup forum upgrade their tow vehicle MUCH BIGGER than would actually be required just because they have a popup with surge brakes and the heavy tongue weight sags the back of their existing tow vehicle. Under normal circumstances this can easily be correct with a $300 WD hitch rather than a $40k F-350.
In addition, surge brakes ARE NOT less expensive to install or maintain. The hydraulic actuator on the tongue is much more expensive than even a top-quality electric brake controller, and hard brakes lines are more difficult and time-consuming to route to the wheels. They are used on rental trailers only because they are universally acceptable no matter what the tow vehicle, not because they are better in any way. Some trailer dealers also install them as a "selling feature" to make customers believe their tow vehicle is ready to pull without any modifications. In other words, they are slightly better than no brakes at all, but not even in the same ballpark as electric brakes with a quality brake controller.
And last, I really like being able to look down at my brake controller and see the status of my trailer brakes. It sure is nice as you are cresting a mountain to look down and see your trailer brakes are functioning and ready. Without this feedback, how would you even know if the surge brakes had failed until it was too late?
RE: surge brakes or other?
Surge brakes are fine as long as you remember one things;
Inherently by design, they can never work as well as electric brakes activated by a quality brake controller because you can't manually activate OR adjust the braking while moving.I'll add that in my experience with them, they sometimes try to engage when backing up a steep hill. Can be very annoying. Some can be disconnected to eliminate the problem, but that is inconvenient in traffic.
Other than that, I have found surge brakes to work fine on the trailers and dollies I have pulled with them. Most dollies have surge brakes so it might take some searching to find one with electric brakes.
HHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM backing a tow dolly with a vehicle on it is a pretty good trick! I would be avoiding being a situation where I had to back a dolly. Unload and go from there! I had a boat trailer with surge brakes and backing was never an issue whether level or up or down hill. The surge brakes are inertia activated I believe, not out of level activated. If level activated, down a steep grade would likely be a true white knuckle adventure.No, surge brakes are pressure activated, and inertia while moving is the main way to put pressure on the coupler which activates the surge brakes. Any other force that puts pressure on the coupler will ALSO activate the brakes, such as backing up a hill or engine braking down a mountain. Some surge brake actuators have a reverse-lockout feature that automatically locks out the actuator when the reverse lights come on, which helps that problem. I've also known people who burned out their trailer brakes driving through the mountains because engine braking will cause the trailer to press against the tow vehicle and drag the brakes all the way down the mountain.
RE: surge brakes or other?
Surge brakes are fine as long as you remember one things;
Inherently by design, they can never work as well as electric brakes activated by a quality brake controller because you can't manually activate OR adjust the braking while moving.
RE: stopping sway
There are a few devices around that do the same basic thing. They are all work-arounds for people who avoid using a proper WD hitch. All it does it attempt to support some of the weight, no sway control of handling improvement would result from it.
I'm always surprised to see the lengths people go to sometimes just to avoid the WD hitch. This device is much more complicated and prone to failure (what would happen if that baby tire blew out?) than a simple WD hitch system which can be bought for under $300 and has 50 years of solid, effective road miles behind it.
RE: Can my Van pull this 35 ft Gulfstream Trailer?
PS - your insurance will be invalid unless you have a proper Tow Vehicle.This has been beat to death on the forums and just won't die. NOT TRUE. Insurance pays for stupid, period. That's why it's there, because if none of us ever did anything stupid, there would never be any accidents and insurance would be unnecessary. Running a stop sign and causing an accident is a LOT more negligent than towing a little more trailer than your warranty will cover, and insurance pays for that right? Check your facts on this one before repeating this again, please!
RE: The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have
That's because of the refining methods we use in the US. Because gasoline is a higher-volume commodity in this country, we alter our refining process to extract as much of it as possible.
In Europe and the rest of the world, they use a different refining process to maximize the production of diesel as that it their high-moving commodity.
RE: The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have
I once rented a Fiat Punto in Europe, and was very surprised to discover it had only a 1.1 litre engine! Performance was quite adequate, even at 75 mph, and the engine revved very happily (and efficiently) to 6000 rpm.Funny you mention that, I also rented one of those on my very first trip to the UK. It was a decent car with good power and excellent handling, able to cruise the motorway at speeds well over the 70mph national speed limit. I remember checking the owner's manual in the glovebox out of curiosity and discovered the towing capacity was something like 1000kg (2200 pounds). This was a vehicle about the size of a Honda Fit, for those who don't know.
I also rented a UK Ford Fusion twice, which is a totally different car than the US version. It's a very small "crossover SUV" that is a little smaller than Subaru Forester, and it had a 1.2 liter(?) 3 cylinder engine mated to a nice 5-speed trans. It wasn't a speed demon, but it had plenty of power to move around if you knew how to work the gears and keep the engine spooled up. The chassis was excellent and the suspension and tire package was well tuned for the vehicle. I drove this vehicle from Manchester to Edinburgh twice and was able to hold 85-90mph most of the way even over the hills. Average mpg was better than 40mpg at those speeds. Even though a vehicle like this is not really meant for hauling much weight or utility, it was comfortable and economical. I would definitely look at a vehicle such as this if it was available in this country and I needed a nice highway commuter.
But again, here is a perfect example. Even though Ford of Europe has this really nice little economy "SUV" available, they wouldn't even consider selling it in this country. And if they did, the first thing they would do is remove the fuel-sipping 3 cylinder (probably under 100HP) and replace it with a large 4 cylinder (150HP) or maybe even a small V6 (200HP) engine, because that's what American buyers want to see when they are car shopping. Then they would remove the 5-speed manual trans and replace it with some sloppy automatic tranny that saps power from an already small powerplant, again because that's what the majority of Americans want. As soon as they modify the vehicle to make it remotely marketable, it looses the one thing that made it desirable.
Hey, this is going to sound sexist, but some of you guys need to just quit procrastinating and teach your wife to drive stick. The main reason automatics are now the dominant transmission is because so many people, mostly women, haven't learned how to drive manual transmission. They CAN learn, and SHOULD learn. It makes them a better driver. Anyway, off that soapbox.
Sometimes I wonder why car makers all desperately try to make the same crap. The market research says 70% of us want Camrys, so every car maker has a Camry knockoff. But what about the 30% of us that want something else? Isn't that still a significant amount of potential sales just left behind while every car-maker ignores us and focuses on "what the majority wants"?
RE: Towing with Suburu
350 pounds of tongue weight on a class II hitch?
wow..The aftermarket class II hitch is rated at 350/3500. I'm probably just a hair under 350 with the Boy Scout trailer, maybe 325 or so.
RE: The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have
I would jump at the chance to get one of the Subaru diesel boxers, but sadly it isn't available here.
Neither is the diesel Chrysler T&C, or the diesel Ford Mondeo (Contour) or Focus...etc. The list goes on and on.
And then consider that just about every vehicle sold outside these borders (including the Chrysler minivan!) is still available with a manual transmission, automatics being optional.
No, what we get over here are the cars that American market research says people want. People want 250+ HP Toyota Camry look-alikes and 300+ HP pickup trucks to commute in. We don't want a car with the right amount of power we want a grossly over-powered vehicle that guzzles gas at unbelievable rates. We want a pickup truck that pulls trailers up hills without slowing down or downshifting, and a 4-door sedan that blows the doors of a 69 GTO Judge. Because of all these things, we will NOT get the fuel-saving vehicles that the rest of the world drives anytime soon. Too many Americans vote against economical cars every time they go car shopping, and for that reason alone the US car dealers will continue to carry the cars that sell rather than the vehicles we really need.
In contrast, the average UK citizen looks at fuel economy FIRST, and everything else second. Yes, their cars still perform reasonably well, but are not terribly over-powered like ours. When fuel is $8-9 a gallon, you quickly re prioritize and economy NEEDS to be the most important selling feature of a vehicle. Sooo, THOSE are the cars that get sold in THAT country.
And yes, I've been to the UK several times and driven more than my share of rental cars. A few of the smaller economy cars were capable of 50+mpg (imperial) and still able to comfortably merge onto the motorway and travel at 80+ mph. The secret? MANUAL TRANSMISSION with correctly speced ratios! Yes, adding an automatic transmission to a tiny 1.2 liter or smaller motor KILLS economy because it takes 25-30 HP just to operate the automatic tranny. Remove that giant waste of metal and replace with a nicely, close-ratio 5 or 6 speed manual trans and suddenly 95 HP is plenty to get around!
So we made our bed, and now we lay in it. Most of us...
RE: Towing with Suburu
Yep, just got back from a Boy Scout trip. Pulled our enclosed 6x10 Pace Work 'n Sport trailer over 200 miles round trip without any trouble whatsoever. Trailer GVW is 2990, but I expect we were only loaded to about 2500 pounds. I love the Subaru. I do have to get my hitch upgraded like I said earlier. 350 pounds on the class II just sags the back more than I like. Gotta use the WD to keep things level. Other than that we kept to the speed limit and got 19mpg, a little worse than the popup, but the frontal area explains that. The other dad that rode shotgun with me was impressed, especially when I made a U-turn on a 2-lane city street without backing up and when I drove up the muddy path to our campsite without even spinning a tire. Before the end of the trip he was asking questions like "How much do these cost?" and "How is it in the snow?" I just smile and answer the questions politely. Subaru should give me a commission.
-Jimmy
RE: Is it legal to leave the drawbar/ball in when not towing?
So are you going to remove and inspect your receiver for damage? At minimum the mounting hardware should now be replaced. Hitches are not rated for impact force, so a 3000 pound car running at 25mph into your draw bar transferred up to 13,380 pounds of force onto your hitch, (assuming your vehicle moved less than 4" at impact and that the accident happened straight-on). It's entirely possible that something bent, cracked or warped in the weldment itself, or that one of more mounting bolts has been fatigued. Remember those bolts are placed in shear, so if the impact moved the hitch relative to the frame of your truck in any way, they would have quickly failed just as if they were placed in a bolt-cutter.
So again, all you tough truck guys who think driving around with your balls hanging out your back-end will save you in an accident, think again. Your ASSUMING that as long as everything looks OK at the hitch after the accident, then it's must be OK. NOT SO.
Well said! I was going to bring up the same question. I wonder how many people even take a good look at there hitch once in awhile?
Considering the 8 bolts holding my reciever to the truck would take over 60,000# in shear for failure, 13,380# is easily a safe working load........I wouldnt worry about your scenario.Assuming 3/8" grade 5 bolts, you are nearly correct. I calculate 66,267 pounds of force to fail them all.
HOWEVER
You aren't seeing the whole picture. That is the force required to fully shear every bolt cleanly off. It would take A LOT less force to simply damage one to the point it no longer carries it's rated capacity.
In addition, you are assuming a direct hit that is evenly dispersed by all available bolts. That isn't real life. In real life the impacting force would not likely be perfectly aligned with the centerline of your draw bar meaning that the impact is going to try and twist the receiver, and some bolts will be tested much sooner than others. Also, there are tolerances to consider. It's rarely true that every hole in the vehicle's hitch is perfectly concentric with the mating hole in the receiver weldment. This is just simple manufacturing fact. To accommodate this, the thru holes are drilled slightly oversized so that all 8 bolts can be started even if the holes don't match perfectly. Once they are all tightened, some of those bolts will be closer to shear than others, and an impact that attempts to move the receiver is going to snap those bolts first.
So the point is, that to truly trust the design and believe it's safe after a rear-end collision, I would need each and every fastener to be rated to withstand the full impact of of the accident. I would never be certain which bolt was going to see the strain first and there are too many variables to try and predict which one is going to see the earliest strain.
And last but not least, this whole diatribe is only covering the strength of the bolts themselves, not the receiver weldment. When a receiver is rated for say 10,000 pounds towing, that is NOT an impact rating. It is only capable of sustaining that load when the trailer is constrained to the receiver without slack. An impact force is another thing all together. It's like this, I can take a 5 pound sledge hammer and rest it on the head of a nail all day long. If I try to push the nail into the wood without removing contact, it won't happen. But if I pick up the sledge and slam it into the nail from a distance I can likely bury it into the wood in one hit.
So every one of you guys who claims their hitch saved them in an accident needs to go home and remove and inspect it. At minimum, you need to replace all the hardware and carefully inspect every hole for deformation or elongation. Failing to do so is playing Russian Roulette with safety on the freeway. You just never know when a partially fatigued bolt or weld is going to finally give up.
RE: Is it legal to leave the drawbar/ball in when not towing?
Mine is locked so I do leave it in ,and glad I do. Recently first On the first day of school I was Taking DW to work. As I was coming up to A stop sign and slowing to stop, I had just stated to DW how close the car was behind me was. As i steped harder on the brake to stop at the Intersection I was hit by the car behind me. I got out to look at the possible damage, Our Ram was tuff and true but the little Neon had a great REESE dimple! about the size of a soft ball, Right in the middle of her licence plate. of coarse when I mentioned about calling the police she quickly declined. By the way I do have reflective red paint on my hitch so it can be seen at all times. I also agree with other posters It is very heavy and it will stay in to help ward off the tail gaitersSo are you going to remove and inspect your receiver for damage? At minimum the mounting hardware should now be replaced. Hitches are not rated for impact force, so a 3000 pound car running at 25mph into your draw bar transferred up to 13,380 pounds of force onto your hitch, (assuming your vehicle moved less than 4" at impact and that the accident happened straight-on). It's entirely possible that something bent, cracked or warped in the weldment itself, or that one of more mounting bolts has been fatigued. Remember those bolts are placed in shear, so if the impact moved the hitch relative to the frame of your truck in any way, they would have quickly failed just as if they were placed in a bolt-cutter.
So again, all you tough truck guys who think driving around with your balls hanging out your back-end will save you in an accident, think again. Your ASSUMING that as long as everything looks OK at the hitch after the accident, then it's must be OK. NOT SO.
RE: Is it legal to leave the drawbar/ball in when not towing?
I have always, and will continue, to remove my ball-mounts and store them inside the vehicle when I'm not towing. Every car I've ever owed had some nifty convenient place somewhere in the cargo area that allowed me to store it. Leaving that iron stuck in the hitch receiver is just plain LAZY, no excuse.
1) SAEFTY! If you've even banged your shim on one, you know how much it hurts! Even when you get used to it and avoid it, others will continue to hurt themselves. One time my wife caught it when unloading the van at a campground (I hadn't got around to removing it) and I felt terrible when I saw my loved one holding her shin with tears in her eyes. Never again.
2) Crashes. I doubt the draw-bar would have any effect on personal injury in an accident, it WILL damage the vehicle that hits you much worse, AND potentially damage your hitch as well. Hey, if someone rolls into you at a stop light, they made a mistake and the low repair cost will come from their insurance. If they roll into your ball-mount and punch a hole in the radiator, the cost of the accident just tripled, and like it or not we ALL pay in the long run for expensive fender-benders. Guys who think they survived an accident without any vehicle damage might be surprised to find out mounting bolts and/or welds have cracked/fatigued/failed and you may not even know until the next time you hitch up and the receiver drops off on the freeway. I wouldn't even trust a receiver after a rear-end collision, and especially if the draw-bar was hit!
3) Corrosion prevention. My ball-mounts are always clean, corrosion-free and protected from the elements. I walk around the Walmart parking lot and see all the nasty-crusty-rusty ball-mounts hanging out of pickup trucks and cringe. And you just know that half of them can never, and will never come out of the receiver again. Good luck changing to a different drop or adding a bike carrier!
Come on guys, this is common sense! They are removable BECAUSE you are meant to remove it when not required. Even the Hidden Hitch instruction booklet states to "Never operate the vehicle with the ball-mount inserted if not towing".
