Hey everyone. Anyone have/tow a tent trailer with their Focus? the wife says would do more camping if we had something like a tent trailer. But I don't want to go bigger than her Focus wagon for the time being. I' fine with a tent, but I said I would look around.
DRyanC
(07-05-2011, 08:21 AM)DRyanC Wrote: [ -> ]Hey everyone. Anyone have/tow a tent trailer with their Focus? the wife says would do more camping if we had something like a tent trailer. But I don't want to go bigger than her Focus wagon for the time being. I' fine with a tent, but I said I would look around.
DRyanC
I towed both a utility trailer regularly and a tent trailer twice with my wife's 04 ZTW auto. Generally speaking it was a good experience ... although much better after we put the SVT brakes on the front. With any kind of additional weight the smallish brakes cook real fast, even driving moderately.
I gotta tell you that with 4 of us, our gear, towing the trailer and a/c on the poor thing was okay on even ground, but going up most hills on the 400 it was basically pedal to the metal.
I heartily recommend a tranny cooler - it made a noticeable difference the following year doing the same thing.
If you have a manual, you might get away with it. I'd really not pull more than 1000-1500 lbs all told with any Focus (trailer and load). Also keep in mind when towing a trailer you lose any real capacity in the rear of the car (even the wagon) because the rear suspension will already be laden with the tongue weight of the trailer.
If it's an automatic, I'd suggest against it. The gear ratios were never meant to facilitate pulling loads. Given the spread I recall from the SPI (and it was geared only a bit taller than the Zetec IIRC), You're hitting over 110 KM/H in second gear at WOT. Not much balls there for pulling anything at highway speeds as Ken said.
Ditto, with four adults and gear meant uphills were a struggle for the auto tranny.