So we just purchased a Jayco SLX Ultra lightweight camper for the family. I purposely avoided the heavier models and settled on a 15 ft 2400Lb dry weight trailer. From extensive reading online and talking to people who tow/camp everyone seems to be fairly confident that with WD, sway control, class 3 hitch and trailer brake control I should have NO problem at all with my 2010 GT AWD CX9. I understand I will be driving in Manual mode and never taking it into overdrive but was hoping for some insight from others who have towed this size trailer with their CX9 AWD. I have preemptively installed a transmission cooler and replaced my fluids with synthetic. Thoughts? comments? Anything else I should be doing?
Hi, newbie here. This thread has some great info in it and I appreciate everyone sharing what they know.
I have a 2013 CX-9 AWD so it has the towing package. I recently bought a small hybrid trailer that weights 2620. With my gear loaded I estimate it weights 3100 or 3200 lbs. In the car is just my wife and I, under 300 lbs combined. I also have a weight distribution hitch and sway bar. Hitch weight is just under the 350 lb limit. So everything is under the towing capacity. On our first trip everything worked great, no issues other than the crappy gas mileage that I expected. But I noticed the transmission temperature is a little higher than I expected. On hills the temperature would hit 235 degrees. Flat road was around 220 at 60 mph. I'm manually shifting and leaving in 5th for flat roads. Does this seem normal? Does anyone know what the max temperature should be before I should get concerned and slow down?
I'm using a bluetooth ODBII sensor to monitor the transmission temperature with my cell phone.
Thanks,
Greg
My 2008 has an external trans cooler (oem)
I found out the feature I mention above is called Trailer Stability Assist (TSA). It uses the Dynamic Stability Control with Traction Control System to adjust braking and torque to reduce any sway.
As I said above, it does a great job and is an under-mentioned feature on the CX-9. It takes some of the mental workload off the driver when towing and allows the driver to concentrate on the road ahead.
I've never towed anything larger than a small pop-up so I probably don't don't realize how good the TSA...
The transmission temp on my CX-9 runs around 220 degrees on a flat highway when I'm doing about 60mph in 5th gear. With small hills it will quickly climb to over 230.
Yes, but...PTguy is not correct about tire pressures. The "Max" listed on the side of the tire is not the ideal pressure, especially not the ideal cold pressure. Your trailer should specify the correct tire pressure