Towing fully loadel largest U-Haul trailer

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TomasX

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Moving from Portland, OR to Bay Area, CA - some 650 miles route.

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We have put all our stuff into biggest trailer you can rent in U-Haul (Link).

It took us over 14 hours to drive the whole distance, mainly because we had to keep the speed bellow 55 mph to prevent swaying which we encountered several time. First case happened when going downhill and it was scary, after that we were rather cautious to slow down when going downhill.

Milleage for first 158 miles was 14.9, next 273 miles at 16.8 and remaing distance at 15.4.

Liberty performed flawlessly perfect10.gif
 

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Gimme Liberty

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Very nice. The trailer looks bigger than your Liberty!

Out of curiosity, do you have the factory tow package installed, with the trailer sway-control module?
 

hyde

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why is it so far back?
 

vaughan1966

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I just towed that trailer w/ my 05 libby. The tong is so far back because this trail has a suto ' trailer breaking system ". The hitch is set up on a spring and then the weight shifts forward when you break it put pressure on the breaking system on the trailer, thus trailer breaks without the BS.

BUT just don't try to back the sucker up a hill fully loaded. This = breaks are on all the time you trying to back up the hill and you will smoke your ****** or clutch..
 

TomasX

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Very nice. The trailer looks bigger than your Liberty!

Out of curiosity, do you have the factory tow package installed, with the trailer sway-control module?

It was probably a bit shorter but definitely much wider.
Yes, I bought the car with tow package but I doubt it has sway control.
 

TomasX

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BUT just don't try to back the sucker up a hill fully loaded. This = breaks are on all the time you trying to back up the hill and you will smoke your ****** or clutch..

Good I did not know about that because when we arrived to destination, I backed it up the driveway which is rather steep. I have switched to 4wd low but more because I wanted finer control rather than anything else (wanted to get it as close to garage door but not through).
 

Gimme Liberty

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It was probably a bit shorter but definitely much wider.
Yes, I bought the car with tow package but I doubt it has sway control.

If one of the options with the vehicle was the Trailer Tow Class III Group option then you have the sway control module.

From the owner's manual:

TSC (Trailer Sway Control) – If Equipped
TSC uses sensors in the vehicle to recognize an excessively
swaying trailer. TSC activates automatically once
the excessively swaying trailer is recognized. When TSC
is functioning, the “ESP/TCS Indicator” light will flash,
the engine power will be reduced, and you will feel the
brake being applied to individual wheels in an attempt to
stop the trailer from swaying.
NOTE: The TSC is disabled when the ESP system is in
the “Partial Off” mode and “Full Off” mode.
--------------

Now obviously it's not perfect and can only do so much, but I'm just curious if you had it and you still had a noticeable amount of sway, or if you just don't have it, which could be why you had the sway. I'm assuming if you have it on your Liberty you didn't disable it by turning the ESP into "Partial Off" or "Full Off" mode...
 

TomasX

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If one of the options with the vehicle was the Trailer Tow Class III Group option then you have the sway control module.

Now obviously it's not perfect and can only do so much, but I'm just curious if you had it and you still had a noticeable amount of sway, or if you just don't have it, which could be why you had the sway. I'm assuming if you have it on your Liberty you didn't disable it by turning the ESP into "Partial Off" or "Full Off" mode...

Yes, I have Trailer Tow Class III group. And you are right, when it got bad, the car started to 'drive' itself so it must have been anti-sway control taking over. Thanks for clarification. I thought that anti-sway would somehow compensate for swaying but it was just my missunderstanding, it would help you do the right thing to slow down so that swaying could stop. It worked quite well then.

Esentially it controls the swaying by not letting you go at speeds where the swaying could be a problem. After all, the trailer has maximum speed of 55mph and that is exactly where the problem started.

I have towed trailer at long distance twice before with my previous car (Rav4) and had no problem with swaying even when going 65 but it was much smaller trailer with only one axle. I wonder what is increasing likelyhood of swaying, whether it is weight or number of axles or both...
 
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