Long Distance Towing With A Stagea Rs4

[KiwiRS4T]

Only the old stand-by - keep the speed down. Have plenty of music and food and try not to put anything on the roof. Either use the aircond or have the windows open - not both!

[910trx]

Either use the aircond or have the windows open - not both!

i'll try, but when i road trip i smoke - bad habbit - but keeps me busy

i usally just hit the fresh button, crack the window and go my hardest - the vacume under the weather shields sucks the smoke out and i can wind em up and hit recucle again.

unless the missus puts her foot down this time

checked out the trailer we are towing and it is the most inefficient shape possible

imagine towing a massive cube twice the height of the vehicle - must be thankful of the wagon shape to at least cut down the trailer's drag a little

here is the most direct route possible with 2,300 kms

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&sou....418945&z=5

can someone suggest a better route or a change which may have better roads, more towns or better scenery?

keep in mind its 4 days to get where i'm going

Edited November 18, 2009 by 910trx

[BensDR30]

Try to get 2x20L jerries and wedge them between the back seat and the privacy blind.

It's been a long time since I travelled anywhere near your route, but I expect that you're going to have plenty of 'non-scenery' in outback NSW. 4 days from Gladstone to Adelaide with a full trailer could be a bit tight - it depends on your average speed and how many flat tyres the trailer has

If you choose the Newell highway route, you will have no issues getting 98RON once you get to Hay, and there are more 'bigger' towns along the route (Mildura, Balranald, West Wyalong, Dubbo, Narrabri).

Forget economy, it ain't gonna happen...

[910trx]

had a chat with the miss's old man

he towed a van from adelaide to come and see us

took him 4 days but blew both rear tyres at the same time (wrong tyres for towing) and stalled him for half a day

he seems to think that 4 days is plenty, 3 is doable, 2 can also be done but not worth the pushing of both trailer and car - especially in heat

so we have rerouted and plan on the following approximate route

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&sou...ie=UTF8&z=6

we are avoiding broken hill as the old man suggsted there is about 400kms with nothing, atleast if you go the more southern route you have people around incase shit hits it.

also he mentioned that is only saves about 2 hours... no point when you are already doing 25 all up

at this stage we are estimating about 3 and 1/2 days with 9 hours of traveling. averaging about 100kms an hour with no stops

we may do more less but guage it as we go

the stag at the moment gets about 450kms with aircon doing nothing but hwy miles, a little faster than what we should be.

the trailer will not be very heavy, we are planning on the trailer to have the jezza cans, queen mattress (reason for the enclosed trailer) treadmil and fishing gear. clothes after space bagging and suitcases will be in the vehicle only

with this weight i can only assume we will average about 300kms at worse (worse than naughty city driving)

therefore about 7 - 8 stops in total for fuel.

if we can jezza can it, it may be less but if the above works out right it should be about every 3 hours we stop for fuel (3 hours at 300kmph) per day

almost $1k in fuel alone, but with the trailer ($600) its still cheaper than a removalist where we would have to drive back anyway.

its getting interesting as its a test of strategy, economics and forward planning...

[GoldZilla]

Get a few bottles of Octane booster just in case you can't find 98 RON fuel at any point - with that and the jerry cans, you should be good to go.

[Duncan]

yeah your main issue will be stopping every 250klm for another tank of fuel. and once you leave the coast/main roads you will be unlikely to find it. so take as many jerry cans as you can get your hands on. and if you have to run 95 or 91 just use partial throtle to keep if off the aggresive parts of the timing map. and if the boost is adjustable turn it down as far as you can.

don't worry about the actual towing - other than the fact the hire trailer is 90% likely to be bent and therefore will sway there is nothing to worry about. almost all hire trailers run mechanical brakes but if you have an electric controller and can get an electric trailer it will be much better (you can normally trigger trailer brakes in-cabin to stop a sway). generally swaying starts at a certain, predictable speed if it is going to happen so if it sways at 105 just stick to 100 and tough it out.

[910trx]

doing some research on geting the tyre pressures on the trailer right

apparently you fill the tyres when cold to their recommended pressure and drive for an hour (to heat them up)

check tyre pressures, at "hot" they should be 4psi higher to what you set

if too low, you need more pressure

if too high too much.

^^^ good advice to consider?

also we have begin the packing process.

looks good so far that we can keep most of the weight in the car instead of the trailer

thank god for spacebags!

[Duncan]

yeah good point re pressures - I always run them high when under heavy loads. check the rating on the actual tyres first but generally 35ish on the car and 35-40 on the trailer.

btw also make 100% sure you haev a spare for the trailer, and it is in useable condition. and that you have a wheelbrace and jack that can change the tyre (often the jack won't go high enough). I've been very careful with this the day I had to drive a car trailer home on 3 wheels

[910trx]

the clause on the terms and conditions of trailer hire state that i am required to carry my own spare. how piss poor is that!?

there is a half decent tyre out the back of my unit on a typical ford stud rim - the rim has taken a kerb really badly in the past, but it may be enough to throw on to get to a town - then i can roll on the decent tyre if its the same diameter and save a few $$$

i'll throw that in the trailer as well

the stag has a great spare on it too with the same 5 stud pcd to get us out of shit.

also an raa premium member who will recover the cost to tow the trailer to place of repair and put us up for one nights accom if the vehicle or trailer requires serious work.

i dont want to rely on it, but you never know...

i might call into a wrecker the day before i leave and see if there is a rim/tyre combo i can have for $50 the exact same as the trailer i'm hiring

Edited November 23, 2009 by 910trx

[910trx]

another question

with the series 2 stagea and the tiptronic

if i select 4th (overdrive) manually (not "d")

it should stay in 4th no matter what unles sthe revs drop too much and it grabs 3th

would it then be safe if the foad was flat to keep it in 4th at about 90 - 100?

or is it too low for the trans to be fully locked up?

research has revealed to me what kills the trans with towing is the auto constantly grabbing 3rd and then going back to o/d

if this can be overridden then less of chance of cooking the bands right?

Edited November 24, 2009 by 910trx

[BensDR30]

research has revealed to me what kills the trans with towing is the auto constantly grabbing 3rd and then going back to o/d

if this can be overridden then less of chance of cooking the bands right?

That's right - but you won't know exactly how to drive it until you're driving it (if you get what I mean...)

You're aware what to look out for, now you just have to deal with it when it happens to reduce any undue stress on the gearbox.

(I'm sure it would take the abuse of an 'ignorant' driver who didn't care, but why wear things out faster if you don't have to?)

[910trx]

well we made it back no worries.

left gladstone and went straight to banana to the liechardt hwy

this was probably the worst part of the trip

tight single laned roads and mountanous driving and 36`c in 80% humidity

got to gondowindi that night (lovely place) and then west wyalong the next (not so nice a place but still delightful people)

it took a while to understand what the trans wanted to do and trying to get the car to do what i wanted

the best method for towing at speed was to use the steering wheel tiptronic and slowly wind up the speed untill 100 when you hit 4th, keep accelerating to 110 (please dont fine me) and back off, this tricks the trans into thinking there is no load, it locks up and sits at about 2250rpm at 100kms - set cruise and forget. otherwise if the steering wheel is not switched on it locks and unlocks constantly in 4th, or in in drive, hunts through everygear - and with cruise activated has no worries shifting back to second at 90kms to maintain speed - just get it into 4th and shift to 3rd for hills - repeat above...

a bit of advice for anyone to try and tow massive loads long distance in the future...

have plenty of money nearby

we stopped every half an hour to ensure there was enough premimum in the tank at main towns - needed because every 1/2 hour of 100km driving consumed almost 3/4 of a tank

the best consumption was about 220kms 3/4 a tank

worst was 100kms for half

we averaged in total fuel economy - scrap that - fuel CONSUMPTION was at about 4.3kms per litre of precious premium.

the car also sat on boost non stop in top gear with the turbo whistle rivaling that of the cicadas on the side of the road in the bush

the car had plenty of power to spare to overtake and the brakes stopped us fine in some emergency emu and kangaroo encounters

increadible that we managed to do the trip easily in 3 days

total weight of the trailer was estimated at around 3 tonnes and the trailer resempbled a small garden shed.

despite the fuel cost (still cheaper than removalists) the stagea series 2 is a capable towing vehicle - very impressed

few pics to come when we have settled down a bit more