Tuesday night we got arrived home from a 3,500 mile trip starting in central MN to Liberty, MO, to Colorado Springs, Delores CO, and finally the Grand Canyon.
The trip was originally planned to go to CO and then AZ. My son's baseball team qualified for a world series tournament in Liberty, so that changed the plans a bit.
I purchased a sherline scale just before we left. Good thing. The morning we were set to go I had two additional players in the X and their gear in the TT. My first tongue weight reading put me at over 1,400lbs. After some re-arranging, we got it down to about 1,150.
We left for MO around 9:30 am on the July 21st. Temps quickly reached the mid 90's. I had installed a 6.0l tranny cooler just before the trip. What a difference. My tranny was about 25-30 degrees cooler (per scan gauge), than with my original cooler. Temps averaged about 160-165 until noon. After our first stop at a rest area, they climbed to 175-180 for the rest of the trip. With the original cooler I would see temps ranging from 190-205 pulling through MN with outside temps in the mid 80's. I averaged 6.9 mpg driving at higher rate of speed than I should have (trying to keep up with the caravan).
From Liberty we left for Colorado Springs. It was a 580 mile day. Averaged between 7.390 and 7.45 mpg at just under 70 mph. Winds were minimal. Tranny temps stayed at 180 or under for that portion of the trip.

From Colorado Springs to Delores we started to encounter some steep grades. We had a couple 7% grades that were 6-7 miles long. For the most part, tranny temps were 185ish. I did hit 203 for a brief period before the temps dropped back down. I did hit two grades where I had to drop into 1st gear to hold 40-45 mph. At 45 mph rev limiter started to kick in. I did however maintain a 7.4 mpg average through these passes.

After Delores, we headed to Williams AZ to visit the Grand Canyon. In AZ we encountered our first heavy winds while towing. I'm not sure what the wind speed was, but I had to really get into the gas pedal to maintain 50-55 mph. MPG were between 7.3 and 7.4 with speeds again just under 70 mph when terrain would allow.

We started our 1,500 mile trip home on Sunday August 5th. We planned on 3 days. Original plan was to stop at rest stops and Walmarts for the nights. 5 hours into the first day, I told the family we would be staying at campgrounds and would stop driving by 7:00 pm. Know that we had 3 day and not as anxious to get home, I dropped speeds to 60-65 mph for the first two day. We saw a high of 9.5 mpg while traveling through Nebraska on one tank. Most of the time it was between 7.9 and 8.2 mpg.

Long story short, I was quite impressed with the V10. I did get passed by some diesels ( and one F150 eco boost) that were towing when traveling long uphill passes, but for the most part I could hold 60+ mph. Would have prefered to have been closer to the 9.5 mpg I got on the one tank than the 7.4 that most tanks averaged, but am guessing most of that had to do with the speed. I did add about a 1.5 quarts of oil during the trip. Total mileage for the trip was probably 4,200 miles with day trips added.

I did have my coolant temps in the 200 range for most of the trip. Back home, and before installing the new tranny cooler (not sure if there is a correlation), my coolant temps usually would run about 190 while towing. Not sure if the mid 90's temps and/or mountains contributed to the higher temps. Most of the time the radiator fan wold kick in around 210 and cool the temps down. I did hit 220 degrees for a brief period while traveling through vail. Traffic was down to one land gong up the mountain and speeds were under 5 mph with stop and go due to construction and a vehicle with mechanical problems.

 

My coolant temps went up ~10-15 degrees after installing the 6.0 tranny cooler also.

 

What a awesome excursion trip! No problems make it even better, good thing our trucks have a 44 gallon fuel tank.

 

Sounds like a really fun trip and I'm glad the Ex performed so well.

 

I had a similar good experince on my last 4500 mile trip to Wyoming in July. This sort of thing is what the truck was made to do and it does it well.

 

I got a 10 ft jon boat i can put on top when towing tt and get 2 mph better. Its just like a air foil over trailer i have got over 10 mpg. Wife made me paint it black to match EX

 

Got any pics with it up there? So did you buy the boat to have a boat or just to improve airflow and gas mileage when towing with the Ex? I have seen them on the tops of truck with toppers towing big trailers, but I figured they were guys heading off to camp and fish. I never thought of that as a way to improve gas mileage...

 

In Sept 2011 I pulled a 4000# trailer through the passes west of Denver and has some serious performance issues so I decided to check out the forums to see what others have experienced when pulling through the mountains with the v10 Excursion. From everything I've read, I shouldn't have any problems with my setup. Short story is with OD off, I was only able to maintain a speed of 30mph by the time I reached the pass. My guess is I have some undiagnosed issue (no codes, compression is fine) that is causing this underperformance. I have a 2000 V10 Excursion. Back in the flats of the midwest it pulls my 7000# TT just fine. Once I hit the mountains though, things get ugly. Any thoughts on what might be going on? Thanks - Mike.

 

Nice trip, Mrad. Must have been some awsome scenery!

Closest we can get here in the east is up in the hills around vermont and Maine. I have not seen the Sierras and Rockies since I was a little boy.

So, I have to say..... envy envy envy covet covet covet....


Anyway, since you are away from the Reese lovers website/forum, (RV.net) you have anything else to share about the new Andersen Hitch? Mine won't be here until Friday, so I'm chomping at the bit!!! CAMPING TIME!!!! My trailer has been down for far too long due to the Reese problems.

 

Interesting!.. Mine went down. Could it be a flow problem when going to the bigger unit? I did notice that the fittings from home depot to change/adapt hose sizes actually were smaller id on the barbed part. So I got parts from elsewhere. (can't remember where right now.)

 

I have a picture but do not know how to post pictures??? I already had boat actually its a 12 ft. We carry a canoe on top often vut it makes no change to mpg

 

Go to the user CP tab at the top of the page. Open the link called "edit gallery" on the left menu.. Make a new album there. Uploading is pretty easy. Then, after it is uploaded to the album,, there are various posting codedsunderneath the picture. Copy and paste the one that starts with [img] into your thread posting

 

I have been using my old EQualizer hitch the past two trips. During the last 100 miles of our trip out west, we heard a loud "boom". At the next gas station I noticed one of the bushing had exploded. If I knew how to post pictures, I would.
I called anderson and they sent me two new bushings 2nd day air. We were scheduled to leave for another trip two days after arriving home. I didn't think the bushings would arrive so I put the Equalizer back on.
As we pulled out of the driveway, I exclaimed, "Whats that noise". She had become so accustomed to the Anderson and how quite it was that she had forgotten how loud the EQ was.
After using the EQ on the last two trips, all I can say is I miss the Anderson. I hope to get time to put it back on soon.

I was compressing my bushing down to 2 1/4". The bushings are 3" when not compressed. The rep told me not to compress more than down to 2.5".

Hooking and unhooking the Anderson was also much, much easier, faster and cleaner. No grease. The hitch is also about 80 lbs lighter than the EQ.

I have about 1,100-1,200lbs in tongue weight. I am hoping I will be able to pull more weight off my rear axle. The rep thought that by over tightening the bushings, it may have been counter productive due to my quick bite coupler.
I plan on calling Anderson and talking to one of their engineers to get some pointers. I am really hoping I can get this dial in in terms of WD.

The anti sway was fantastic. I had some moments during the trip where I panicked momentarily thinking the trailer was not behind me.
I got scolded on the RV.net forum and was told that was impossible, or that was not aware of my surroundings. But honestly, it performed that well at times. On the few instances where I felt the push of a Semi, it was the TV/TT moving as one, not the tail wagging the dog.

What is the tongue weight of your TT?

 

Maestep1,
What rear gear are you running? It looks like these guys are running 4.30s

 

I keep my tongue weight at 1250. Seems about the lowest I can go right now, Having a heavy conventional front kitchen model Jaco 322fks. all 34 feet of her.

I'm pulling with 4.56 ratios and never have any problems with the weight. I seem to pass everybody on the hills.