I just completed a round trip up and down the West Coast. I hauled a 5x8 U Haul trailer with a U-Haul hitch and wiring. No transmission cooler or electric brakes. The trailer weighs 900 lbs empty. I brought it back loaded with approx 600 addl pounds for a total tow of 1,500 lbs. The E performed quite well.

I went up and back on I-5 which meant hilly cuts thru Southern Oregon, incl apprx 4,000 ft at Siskiyou Summit, 3,000+ ft at Anderson summit, Shasta curves and hills, and, of course, the infamous grapevine in So Cal. I took most of the climbs in deliberately slow fashion so as to ease my E's pain. But the E hardly felt like it was hurting. It fell to 45 mph is some steep stretches, but might have been able to go faster if I had pushed it harder. I didn't. There were many other places I expected the E to slow down, but it never did. It would crack me up to be whizzing by the V8 big trucks plodding with their boats in the slow lane. Me and my 2.2 liter E just seemed so much more nimble.

When I got to the bottom of the grapevine CalTrans had warnings of high winds and recommended that autos w/ trailers and campers not attempt the climb. I gave it a shot, and all went well. I felt the wind most seriously around Gorman, but it never realy impacted us in any adverse way. I just "felt it". The E is not to be pushed around..apparently.

The E can easily haul this load at 70 mph on the flats, but, in accordance with Calif signage, I kept it all to 55-62 thru ost of the trip.

Thanks to everybody for answering my dumb trailer questions. I'm glad to have this big trip behind us now.

Thanks for the info !! :)

I'm also just starting out on the towing adventure . . . about 1700 towing miles so far and my experience is similar to yours. I am planning on performing the "drain and fill" method of cycling the tranny fluid on a shorter service interval.

My trailer is around 1100 lbs with gear I'm getting between 18 and 20 mpg if I keep it around 55-60 mph. (And, I've got 96K miles on the odometer . . . Yikes :???: )

BigFoot is also doing a lot of towing; I read recently he was thinking of adding a transmission cooler . . . I'm going to follow up with that, it may be in my future.

I just did a 700 mile trip this past weekend with my Coleman Taos pop-up camper. My pop-up weighs in at about 1,000 lbs. I did 80 mph both ways and except for a few bumps here and there, you'd hardly know that a trailer was attached to my E. I put a heavy duty trans cooler in my E last year. I wouldn't tow anything without one.

I just did a 700 mile trip this past weekend with my Coleman Taos pop-up camper. My pop-up weighs in at about 1,000 lbs. I did 80 mph both ways and except for a few bumps here and there, you'd hardly know that a trailer was attached to my E. I put a heavy duty trans cooler in my E last year. I wouldn't tow anything without one.

Any tricks (or tools) on the cooler install ?? It seems pretty straightforward . . . Was yours the U-haul HD or another brand ? I was also thinking of adding a temp gauge when the cooler goes in . . . :confused:

No tricks, just follow the instructions.

I bought the U-Haul trans cooler. There were 3 sizes, so I got the mid-sized one. It does the job quite well. I wouldn't bother with a seperate trans-temperature guage. The stock engine-temperature guage does just fine for letting you know if you're running hot. I towed my pop-up back to Chicago on an 91 degree day and the engine temperature guage never even got half-way up. So I doubt the trans was running hot with that extra cooler on it.

By the way the K-series motor in the Element is a 2.4 liter.

John

By the way the K-series motor in the Element is a 2.4 liter.

John

Oh, NO WONDER it ran up those hills so nimbly...LOL