Promoting - Trailer Beginning

Yesterday I went and picked up the rental trailer. It's a 7x16, one that I thought was too small when I walked into a similar size trailer. I ordered the 8.5x20 because that extra 18 inches of width really make a difference. When I briefly polled people I know they told me that 4 feet of trailer won't make a huge difference once I am used to pulling the trailer around. After driving with the 7x16 I realize that the 8.5x20 will take a bit more to drive. It's okay, it's just that I'll be much more engrossed with driving than anything else when hauling "the trailer".

I also got a brake controller installed. It's a Primus IQ. With some scary stuff I've seen posted by bikeforum folks as well as tips from local trailer knowledgable people I decided I should really understand how the controller works, how to adjust it. Basically it mimics your own braking action, boosting brake power based on the weight of the trailer relative to the tow vehicle.

Brake controller.

With the low trailer weight (expected to be under 4000 lbs fully loaded, versus 5500 lbs for the tow vehicle), there's no boost, just an initial "brake power" adjustment. You have to do this so your controller is properly adjusted with factors like tire wear/traction, brake wear, load size, etc.

The brake controller is a big help if the trailer starts to sway back and forth. By applying just the trailer brakes you can (allegedly) bring the trailer back in line. Without trailer brakes you coast (don't brake as it makes it worse!) and hope the trailer doesn't pull you off the road before the trailer stops swaying.

I was nervous about the whole hook up to the trailer thing (backing up until you're not just next to something but the hitch is underneath it??), the starting and stopping, the width, and basically everything around hauling the trailer. With a second person it's not a big deal. By myself? I suppose I'll find out one day, but someone told me that you get used to it after a few times.

Backed up to the trailer. Note the jack is down on the trailer - it's not hooked up yet.

The guy helping me out is getting a different bar as the one I have is the wrong height.

I got to the trailer place okay, they did the paperwork quickly, hooked up the trailer pretty efficiently, and with a final check of the lights I was off. For reference it's a 3000 pound trailer, steel frame, double axle (3500 pound capacity axles so 7000 pound capacity trailer). The Expedition is rated to tow 8900 pounds.

Trailers need to be loaded with 60% of the weight in front and 40% in back. Too much weight in the back and the thing sways. Too much weight up front and it pulls the tow vehicle down by the hitch. The trailer should be basically level, with perhaps an inch or so of droop on the tow vehicle. With an empty trailer this was a moot point, but I am very aware of these basic concepts.

I first fiddled with the brake boost level, setting it to 6.0 (0.0 to 9.0 range), per something I read in the instructions. I could feel the tires locking up as I slowed. I set it to 4.3 (it was set at that from the factory). The trailer seemed to push the Expedition at the next light. Then I set it to something like 5.4 and it seemed to work out. On loose stuff like sand the tires lock a bit but on regular pavement it seems fine.

I missed a turn. I wasn't comfortable trying to turn the whole rig around, especially not at rush hour, so I did a huge detour, touring all sorts of very narrow roads, getting used to the way the trailer felt. Each time I slowed I'd feel a bit of a push as the 3000 pound trailer tried to keep going. When I accelerated away from stoplights the 3000 pound drag felt like I had the parking brake on.

After a good 30-45 minutes I finally got to the highway. I was a bit afraid of the speeds since I'd only hit about 50 mph on the backroads, and that seemed plenty fast.

With a kind driver letting me in I merged onto the highway. I immediately wished for a 55 mph speed limit, not the 65 limit at that bit of I-91. I stayed in the right lane, doing about 55-60 mph. There were some parallels to the video game and bike racing training/practice I've had over the years. No sudden or significant steering movements - the trailer merely amplifies anything dramatic you do with the steering wheel or brakes. It was sort of like I was steering the whole rig with the Expedition's rear tires. Doing nutty things with the front tires wouldn't be good.

I had to keep an eye out on the trailer wheels since the left wheels constantly flirted with either the yellow line or the lane stripes. The right wheels sat almost on the white line or on the edge of the snow banks (for local roads). I just barely missed a bunch of garbage cans - with all the snow folks put their garbage cans on the road. Now I realize just what that does to the wider vehicles.

I also thought about the impossibility of passing a cyclist driving this rig. It would be dangerous on a narrow road because the trailer doesn't allow for quick, succinct movements, something that you sometimes need when passing a cyclist.

I also thought of the difficulty of passing a group of cyclists. Forget about one rider, what about 20, double wide. No way. I'd need 300-400 yards of straight and level road if the group was going 25 mph, and if they were going fast, like on a downhill, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to pass safely without a good mile of clear road ahead of me.

I filed this away for future reference. I know now that if there's a landscaping truck and trailer behind me that I'm going to move as far over as possible and, once on a straight, slow down so the truck/trailer can get past me quickly.

I finally made it to the house area. One road has the narrowest roads allowed by law (I learned this at a local meeting held in part by the DOT). With snow on the right shoulder the left wheels sat just next to the yellow line while the right side tires skimmed the snow. Still someone coming down the hill was literally over the yellow line. The car swerved to get into their own lane. Again, something for future reference. A little daydreaming could be disastrous if there's a trailer around.

I walked slowly into the house, leaning on the kitchen counter, such that the Missus asked me if I was okay. The drive home had been extremely stressful, with absolute and total focus on my part. I realized that this was probably what a new racer would feel during a race. I got shelled so fast in my first race that I never had to deal with a group, just the few guys that got shelled with me. Later, though, I'd go into races so nervous that I wouldn't blink that much - my eyes were dry at the end of races.

I had a few thoughts after I relaxed a bit.

First, power is very useful when towing. The 300 hp 365 ft-lbs engine seems pretty weak when towing the 3000 lbs trailer. I can't imagine doubling that load, to 6000 lbs, and I certainly couldn't imagine tripling that load to 8900 lbs. Now I understand the appeal of diesel (power down low, almost double the mileage) and why all the tow accessory places also sell drivetrain mods to increase power (exhaust, chips, intake, etc).

Second, I want more mirrors. The big mirrors on the Expedition seemed pretty small when hauling the trailer. I have add ons - I was worried that the 8.5 wide trailer would obscure stuff behind me. It will, but that's okay. I know now that it's the side stuff you really want to see.

Third, I want to do some practice brake runs to fine tune the controller. I'll probably note the controller numbers for a given load. I don't know the weight of everything I have but I know some weights, I can guess on others, and at the very least I could make lists of typical load outs and the settings that work for them.

Fourth, folks with heavy vehicles, whether trailers or not, need more space. Trailers need more room because the drivers cannot make sudden changes in direction without substantially risking a crash. As a driver of a normal car or as a rider I have to keep this in mind.

Fifth, I may be upgrading the tires on the trailer to something that matches the Expedition. This way the trailer will handle predictably even on, say, snow, or in water, etc. Reducing the risk of sliding (like the trailer sliding to the curb due to the crown of the road) would really ease my mind. It'll be a bit, first I have to get the actual trailer.

Of course all this is secondary to the primary purpose for the trailer - a solid, somewhat wind proof structure to house registration and, for other races, the finish line camera stuff as well. That's the goal with the new trailer that has yet to arrive. For now we're going to make do with the rental.

Equipment - Tow Vehicle Decided

Over the last year or so, and actually longer than that, I've been contemplating replacing the aging van I use to carry stuff to Bethel. It's a 1998 Dodge 15 passenger extended van with a one ton chassis - capable of carrying a lot of stuff, reasonably easy to drive, but not very stable if anything goes wrong. In fact if you Google phrases similar to "Dodge 15 passenger van" you'll get some hits that talk about the "death van" and such.

I knew this going in and had some ideas about doing a dually conversion for the rear axle (so it would have four wheels in back), maybe a rear axle stabilizer. The issue was that the rest of the van was starting to get a bit rusty. Although I could start replacing parts here and there it'd be a pain and ultimately I would end up with a van that needed some final developmental work (like the dually rear axle set up) and wasn't really optimal for how I used the van.

Right now I have two types of events where I use the van. The first is Bethel, the primary reason I got the van. I need to carry a lot of stuff to Bethel, and in fact I almost completely fill the van with equipment of various sorts. For Bethel I need a lot of carrying capacity.

In the future, if I can hold other races, I'll need similar carrying capacity. I may not need some of the stuff - leaf blowers and shovels seem to be more of a "Spring Series" kind of thing - but I may need equipment I don't have now. Overall, though, Bethel demands the most in terms of carrying capacity.

The other type of events are the smaller ones where I'm not the actual promoter. Instead I'm working one aspect of the event, either the finish line camera or registration or both. In these cases I don't need to bring anything for course prep and a lot of times I don't even need a tent. I've worked a couple races like this out of the Golf so that gives you an idea of the amount of equipment I bring to one of those races.

In the future I hope to have more of such events. I may need a lot more equipment for some events. Others will be relatively low equipment ones, suitable for the Golf.

The van is great but not very modular. It's all or nothing, a huge behemoth of a vehicle, not great in inclement weather, not really appropriate for carrying more than one passenger, and, critically, too tall to fit in our storage garage (by an inch!).

I wanted to get a modular system, a tow vehicle and an enclosed trailer. This would let me use the smaller tow vehicle for doing mid-size events and the trailer and tow vehicle for a Bethel or similar. If it's a smaller event (in terms of equipment) I can still use the Golf or Jetta. Importantly I could leave the trailer behind if I didn't need to bring a lot of stuff.

I also wanted a tow vehicle that would be able to carry the Missus and Junior if they wanted to come along in the same vehicle. This meant a back seat (Junior won't be a front seat passenger for many years) and some modicum of comfort. No working fans up front, no radio, in a bouncy van... that wasn't really ideal.

Like usual I tried to think outside the box. I briefly contemplated a Porsche Cayenne or a VW Touareg, sister vehicles which when equipped with a V-8 are rated at almost 8000 lbs towing capacity. Reviewing the dimensions I realized that both were taller versions of the Jetta Sportswagen (JSW), literally just a few inches longer. If the Missus and Junior were in the vehicle I wouldn't have any room for equipment.

I learned that pickup trucks command a significant premium, typically about 30% more than a comparable chassis SUV. Diesels also bumped the price up - I realized that we'd still have a gasoline powered vehicle in our stable because the big diesels were just too expensive.

I thought about non-garageable vehicles like the Dodge Sprinter or a school bus or another van. I knew that I'd rarely drive the vehicle so on principle alone I tried to avoid them. Driving the van 1000 miles or less a year on average meant that although the drivetrain worked super well the structure was corroding at a higher rate than normal.

To give people some idea of how little I drove the van, I bought the van in April 2004 it had 38,000 miles on it (37, 895 to be exact). On Sunday May 2013 it had 51, 456 miles. I drove the van 13,500 miles in just over 9 years.

I decided I wanted to stay with a garageable vehicle.

I realized that a larger enclosed trailer would weigh 5000-7000 lbs so I needed a vehicle with that kind of tow capacity. I quickly realized that I'd need a true body-on-chassis type vehicle (i.e. a truck). The big chassis would allow me to tow more than a 2000-3000 lbs. A normal chassis , even with a big engine, is limited by the fact that the chassis is a tub of thick sheet steel rather than a grid of steel beams.

This got me narrowed down to pickups or large SUVs. Pickups, by virtue of cost, would be unlikely. I'd want a second row of seats so a crew cab type set up, and I'd need a full size pick up to get the towing capacity.

There are some "mid-size" SUVs with 7000 lbs towing capacities, notably the aforementioned Cayenne/Touareg duo. The newer Pathfinder also came with a Class IV hitch from the factory so that would work as well. The problem with the mid-size SUVs was that they had limited space once I put a couple people in the second row of seats.

For larger SUVs it came down to the Ford Expedition or the Chevy Suburban. Both can tow enormous loads because their chassis are based on the heavy duty pickups from their respective lines. Both have third row seats and significant cargo room behind the second row. Both are large enough so that if they tow a large trailer the trailer won't end up controlling the vehicle.

The Ford Expedition had one significant drawback relative to the Suburban - it had less cargo room. There is almost no room behind the third row seats whereas in the Suburban there was a full width area as deep as a big wagon's cargo area. The Ford would require me to sacrifice the third row if I had to carry anything significant inside the vehicle.

(Although there is a longer version of the Expedition, the Expedition EL, it was out of my price range.)

The Ford had two advantages over a similar year/mileage Suburban. First, the Expeditions had an independent rear suspension (IRS). That may not mean much but the IRS is shorter in height than the live axle rear because the center of the axle doesn't move up and down. This allows the floor to be lower in the Expedition which in turn gives more room inside. In fact it allows the third row of seats to fold down into the floor. This is a common feature in minivans, none of which have live axle rears anymore, but in large SUVs the live axle is a less expensive way of getting a lot of power down to the ground. Interestingly enough the IRS used in the Expedition is stronger than the live axle used before it - the towing capacity actually increased when Ford went with the IRS.

The other advantage is cost - the Expedition is a few thousand dollars less than a comparable Suburban. It may be the shorter platform that gave it less cargo capacity, it may be the less sexy image of the Expedition (who ever heard of the Secret Service cruising around in black Expeditions?), but whatever, the Expeditions cost less.

The Suburban, then, has the advantage of more cargo space (and therefore a lower likelihood of needing a trailer), and the disadvantages of needing to store the third row seat in the garage and costing a bit more.

The Expedition it was.

I wanted to get a 2004 or later if possible. Based on some of the high miles I saw on vehicles for sale (some were over 200,000 miles) I realized the chassis/drivetrain would go a long way, far more than I'd ever drive it. However the 2004 and later came with some electronic stability control to help prevent roll overs - I figured that couldn't hurt. Plus such Expeditions wouldn't be as old.

I also understood that the Triton engines had some plug issues when performing the 100,000 mile plug change. I wanted an Expedition that was a bit below the 100k mark or substantially above it (125k or so) so that I knew that either the plugs would be reasonable or the plugs were already replaced.

I started looking for an Expedition circa 2003 or newer, bookmarking those that looked promising. However every one got sold quickly, often before I could even contact the seller.

I should point out that I couldn't really do anything before the Bethel Spring Series ended because I was too occupied with Bethel. Then my poison ivy really hampered everything in my life and things got put on hold by default.

Finally, towards the end of May (i.e. right now) I felt ready to make a move. For a week or two I didn't see any Expeditions in my price range. Almost all of the Expeditions I found had 110-125k miles, so high enough that the plugs might have been changed. There were a couple at 98k miles and such but they were simply too expensive for me.

Then, on a late Saturday, I saw a new Expedition ad. It was new enough that it had no pictures and not even a color. 89k miles. 2006. I ran AutoCheck and it came back looking good, really good.

I had to wait until Monday to call the place, ironically a Chevy dealership. I went on Tuesday and, after a test drive and some hemming and hawing I left a deposit. Before I left Tuesday I took pictures with my phone, especially of the underside of the Ford. I didn't want to get a bent frame or rusting chassis. I returned Saturday with a Ford friend in tow, a car enthusiast like me. I wasn't sure if he'd be the one to take because he's more about cars than trucks but when I first called him on Tuesday, from the dealership, he immediately asked me the year and engine.

"2006? 5.4 liter? I think they went to the aluminum coolant crossover in the manifold by then. The plastic ones weren't good. The plugs are a pain to replace. It's an F250 chassis underneath so it's a proven chassis. I can't remember any electronic problems with it."

I decided he'd be totally appropriate to drag along to the dealership on Saturday.

We arrived during a bone chilling cold rain fall. The detailed running boards were slippery with silicone. The Expedition felt better than it did before - the salesman said that they replaced the tie rods. (My Ford friend confirmed that one tie rod was replaced, outer, and no inners).

I felt good about the Expedition. My friend felt good about it. I went ahead and handed over the bank check. I signed my first ever car loan. I declined the powertrain warranty.

The new battlewagon, as someone called the van.

A bit more presentable than the van (in the background in this shot)

Overall in pretty good shape.

The other side.

The third row seats, left side folded down into the floor.

The front suspension with the drive axle visible.

Tie rods on this side weren't replaced.

The rear suspension. The silver arms extending out are aluminum.

The center silver piece is stationary on an IRS, it moves up and down a good 8-12" on a live axle.

That's the extent of the tow vehicle stuff, just the tow vehicle. The trailer is a different story, a whole puzzle unto itself. My goal is to have registration inside the trailer (well the staff inside, not necessarily the racers). Such a trailer would use every bit of the Expedition's tow capacity, if not in actual weight then in the size/length of the trailer. I don't want to get into the situation where the tail wags the dog, so to speak, and a long tail, even if it's not quite 7000-8000 lbs, can exert a lot of leverage on the 5400 lbs "dog".

The "small" option would be to have a small trailer just for the finish line camera, similar to the one we've been using at Bethel. This would mean setting up a tent for registration in locales that didn't have a registration area.

The van, just before it left.

On a side note I listed the van in Craigslist on Thursday evening, sort of on a lark. I had no recent pictures of it so I figured I'd add pictures over the weekend. My experience with Craigslist car ads is that you get a few bites and that's it, so when I got 4 or 5 emails in the next 12-24 hours I was a bit surprised. One guy drove a couple hours to see the van on Saturday.

He bought it.

I got home and the Missus looked pleasantly surprised.

"I can't believe you bought the Ford and sold the Dodge in 24 hours."

"I should go into car sales."

The Missus shot me one of those glares.

"Or not."

Promoting - Tow Vehicle Revisted

On the way home on Sunday I watched some tractor trailers as well as a couple pickups towing small trailers. I thought about my trailer and tow vehicle problem. It's something really occupying my mind when there's room in there next to the 2013 Series.

You probably know this but the current Bethel van, an older 15 passenger Dodge van, is nearing the end of its serviceable life. I started looking for a replacement but then thought that if I was buying a new vehicle I should think long term, not just next year.

This made me think of trailers. 

After some thought, a bunch of feedback, and some more research, I'm pretty set on the trailer idea. I figure it would be 2500 lbs or so, 14-18' long, 6'-7' wide, hopefully close to 6' high inside, maybe 4000 lbs fully loaded with race promotion stuff. I realized I wouldn't need as much gear as I have in the van because some of it would be replaced by the trailer itself. So, for example, I shouldn't need to bring two tents, nor a number of tables, etc. A lot of that stuff could sit in whatever future trailer and the one-off things, like maybe a snow blower, could sit in the tow vehicle.

For the tow vehicle it'll be either a cheap(er) pick up, like a Ford F250 type, or I'll trade in the Golf and get a used Touareg. If I got a pickup it'd sit outside and therefore be somewhat disposable like the van. Those are my two options at this point.

I decided against a big SUV, like an Expedition or Suburban, because it would be a pain to own it based on our house/driveway/garage situation. We wouldn't be able to park it in our garage so it would have to sit outside year round. As it is such a vehicle would be hard to keep in our driveway. If we did decide to garage it our storage bay is not close enough for regular access, and it would force us to keep the trailer outside.

The lack of easy access to the SUV means that we'd need to keep two smaller cars as we do now. The big SUV would replace the van as the "third vehicle", becoming the third vehicle in our array, not a replacement for the Golf or the Jetta Sportswagen.

On the other hand the Touareg, being just 8 inches longer than the Jetta Sportswagen (aka JSW), should fit in our very compact bay, and it should be able to tow 4000 lbs (it's rated at 7000+ lbs). Other than its sister SUV the Porsche Cayenne there are no vehicles I can find that are rated to tow 5000-7000 lbs and is in the same size range as the JSW. A few folks have questioned the size of our garage spot in the sense of "Are you sure it won't fit?"

It's small.

The bay is awfully short - there's about a foot behind the back of the car.

The intrusion from the right is the dining/office room.

I took the picture from the right side bay also, a longer bay but more narrow. On the right side we pull in the Golf, turn the wheel to the right so the tire hits the wall, and the only way to squeeze past the car to get to the stairs is to fold in the side view mirror. Another foot of width and we'd have to NASCAR our way in and out of the vehicle, climbing out of the window onto the hood to get to the steps.

Golf in the right side bay. The right front tire is hitting the wall.

I framed the picture so the left side of the frame is the dining/office wall.

Of course there's the whole idea of being more efficient when we drive around for day to day stuff. Although a full size SUV would be great for towing it wouldn't be great for day to day driving. On bad days we get 35-37 mpg in our two TDis, on the good days they're in the mid-40s, and on great days it's over 50 mpg. We wouldn't use the full size SUV to do long trips because even with a few bikes on the roof of a loaded down JSW we're in the low-mid 30 mpg range, much higher than the 12-15 mpg that we could expect from a large SUV.

To be honest the Touareg wouldn't be much better than a larger SUV. Even at the 25 mpg the diesel version would get with no rack on the roof we'd be getting worse mileage than the JSW with a couple bikes up top. Worse still we wouldn't be getting any benefit from the Touareg versus the JSW in terms of space - it's only inches larger inside, slightly wider, but wouldn't fit an exponential amount more stuff like a full size SUV.

So after all my debating internally I've decided that I should go with a semi-disposable pickup truck, one capable of pulling at least 4000 lbs of trailer. A full size F250-F350 type is rated at some insane 10,000+ lbs towing capacity so that would be fine. Although a crew cab would allow me to carry Junior in the back I think realistically saving money and getting the standard cab will work fine. If I have to run "bulky item errands" I'll have to do it when Junior is under someone else's watch.

Of course what happened on my next ride? This rig passed me.

Pretty much what I've been thinking about - 12-14' trailer, pickup pulling it.

Now to figure out a budget and see if I can do it sooner than later. Although the tow vehicle comes first  the trailer should follow shortly thereafter. I could probably get by without the trailer for a bit but for future race promotion plans the trailer is key.