You are here: Forums Wagons Subaru Crew Subaru Forester Towing with a Forester

Towing with a Forester

97 messages,  Last post on Apr 21, 2008 at 6:24 AM

You are in the Subaru Forester Forum. Your Host is kcram

What is this discussion about? Subaru Forester, Towing, Wagon

Messages Page 5 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 11 Prev Next Last

Go To Msg # Search This Discussion

#36 of 97 Re: Forester towing misc. [paisan] by aatherton Oct 21, 2007 (12:05 pm)
Replying to: paisan (Oct 07, 2007 6:01 pm) "... As for the rear suspension, the easiest thing to do is to move anything inside the trailer to the rear to reduce the tounge weight."   This page shows the tongue weight for the TB trailers is 110 to 145 lbs. http://www.tab-rv.com/specs/dimensions.php   TB has probably balanced the trailers to have enough tongue weight so the trailers pull in a stable manner, and the weights do not seem excessive for a Forester suspension. I would be careful about loading the rear of the trailer to reduce tongue weight, as it might be dangerous. Replies to this message: xtop (Oct 21, 2007 12:20 pm)
#37 of 97 Re: Forester towing misc. [aatherton] by xtop Oct 21, 2007 (12:20 pm)
Replying to: aatherton (Oct 21, 2007 12:05 pm) Thanks for that information. I should have looked on the site myself, duh! It pulled perfectly off the dealer lot so I will try to maintain the tongue weight it has at this point. I would not change the tongue weight balance with loading and I will be weighing it soon. It has been snowing so much that I haven't been able to do that yet. We are taking it on an inaugural 1,000+ mile trip this week to get out of the snow for a bit. We hope the mileage improves as it only got 13.3 MPG on the trip home. I should mention that we gained 4,000 feet in elevation and passed over a near 11,000 foot crest to get here from the Colorado plains. Most of the trip this week is much flatter than that so it should be a good indicator of the fuel economy we will get in future.
#38 of 97 Checked the tongue weight today. by xtop Oct 22, 2007 (8:52 pm)
The bathroom scales registered 225 lbs. I think I will try to balance it out at around 150-175 lbs on this first trip and see how it tows. There is lots of storage in the rear of the trailer so it should be simple to lighten the tongue load just a bit. I can see where the load is coming from as the heat pump is in front of the trailer axle along with the water tank, LP tank, and battery. After this trip, we are planning to store the trailer for the winter so we hope to find out a few things about it before that.   Thanks to everyone for all your help. Fred
#39 of 97 Re: Battery Isolater on Subaru [xtop] by kayakingsue Oct 23, 2007 (6:32 am)
Replying to: xtop (Oct 12, 2007 9:03 am) How did your trip go? What does a battery isolater do?
#40 of 97 Leaving tomorrow on the trip. by xtop Oct 23, 2007 (6:50 am)
The trip starts in the morning.   A battery isolater allows me to charge the battery in the trailer using the tow vehicle alternator without risking discharge of the tow vehicle battery. It's a one-way switch.   Fred Replies to this message: ateixeira (Oct 24, 2007 7:50 am) xtop (Oct 26, 2007 6:39 pm)
#41 of 97 Do alternators charge trailer batteries? by kayakingsue Oct 23, 2007 (9:17 am)
Do you have to add an isolator, or does it come with the trailer connection?   I thought the car's alternator automatically recharged the deep-cell battery on the trailer through the electrical connection that lit the trailer's exterior lights and activated the trailer's brakes. Replies to this message: xtop (Oct 26, 2007 6:34 pm) kayakingsue (Oct 26, 2007 7:28 pm)
#42 of 97 Re: Leaving tomorrow on the trip. [xtop] by ateixeira Oct 24, 2007 (7:50 am)
Replying to: xtop (Oct 23, 2007 6:50 am) Have a good trip, Fred! He's probably off already. Replies to this message: xtop (Oct 26, 2007 6:39 pm)
#43 of 97 Towing trips; redesigning a small pop-up by kayakingsue Oct 24, 2007 (7:58 am)
Yes, Fred's off on his first TB trip and I'm back from my camp-hosting with my pop-up trailer, full of insights about trailing and pop-up living. I'm going to write Fleetwood a long letter about how they could re-design that rig to be more useful for a single person.   Does anyone know anything about retrofitting a pop-up for someone who isn't interested in sleeping the maximum number it (in theory) could hold? Replies to this message: xtop (Oct 26, 2007 6:37 pm)
#44 of 97 Re: Do alternators charge trailer batteries? [kayakingsue] by xtop Oct 26, 2007 (6:34 pm)
Replying to: kayakingsue (Oct 23, 2007 9:17 am) Hi, we're back. The isolator is not strictly necessary. It simply protects your car battery from discharge through the trailer. If the wiring were in place, the car would charge the battery in the trailer. Most trailer harnesses that are built into the cars will only run the turn signals, tail lights, and brake lights through a 4-pin harness. The 7-pin adapter that I bought has three more wires and a ground if you want to send power to the trailer battery. One of the three wires is the 12-volt charging wire which someone has to add on to the system along with the aforementioned isolator. I can't remember what the other two wires are for.   The trailer towed beautifully. MPG ranged from 13-17. A high-pressure water line leaked but we found a replacement at the local Ace Hardware in Socorro, NM. The LP-gas alarm went off last night but we couldn't find any leaks. We had the heat on again today and no alarm. Hmmmmm. Replies to this message: kayakingsue (Oct 26, 2007 7:28 pm)
#45 of 97 Re: Towing trips; redesigning a small pop-up [kayakingsue] by xtop Oct 26, 2007 (6:37 pm)
Replying to: kayakingsue (Oct 24, 2007 7:58 am) Sounds like an owner refit to me. We found out a lot of things too. I will be making mods as we go along. Our max sleeping capacity and max number of sleepers is in agreement so we don't have that problem. How about a home theater in the other end of your rig? Just kidding. Good luck working it out.   Fred

Messages Page 5 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 11 Prev Next Last

Go To Msg # Search This Discussion

You are here: Forums Wagons Subaru Crew Subaru Forester Towing with a Forester