Last Run. Short Season. Thursday.

Thursday is packing up day, and we'd decided to get a way a little earlier than usual, so we were both up with the lark. Well, I was, not so much DW.

The weather was still good, and the gazebo had dried out, or at least on the outside. The roof inside was wet with condensation, so as we took it down for the second time this trip, we didn't fold it up tightly, just threw it loose into the back of the van.

The rest of the packing up went to plan, and I took special care to put things away properly, given that Towed Haul is headed for her winter sojourn next week. So much to plan were we that it was almost dead on noon when we rolled off the site and made our way to the dump station. It was there that things took a slightly sideways twist, although not in a bad way. I was about to get grumbly because the Park people had decided to change the fitting on the sewer station's water hose which meant that I couldn't connect it up to the black tank flushing system, when we were approached by some very nice people who had apparently been reading these blogs. They recognized the car, and the trailer, and engaged us in animated conversation, and asking us all about the tow vehicle and it viability. I was a bit surprised to meet someone who had read the blog, although these were not the first, but they weren't camping in the park, just visiting. It got me thinking that I should conclude this, the final trip of our thirteenth season, with some well chosen words about the combo they said would never work.

Before I go there, though, I'll just mention that the waste tanks were dumped successfully, I couldn't get the clear plastic hose extender off the hose and had to stow it in the rear bumper storage compartment until I got home. Our run back was without incident, there was virtually no wind (when you live in an area heavily populated by wind turbines, you notice when there's no wind), and the fuel mileage was down to 16.4 litres per 100 kilometres (the smaller the figure the better), so that was a win. We deviated from our regular route after we were stuck behind one of the double-trailer tomato trucks that ply our roads at this time of year (field tomatoes are big business here and French's Tomato Ketchup plant is just down the roan in Leamington), and drive very slowly. Our final backup onto the driveway was good and we were ready for Charlie's arrival home from school in good time. A very good day, I think.

As to the combo they said would never work, well it has worked for thirteen years with nary a hiccup along the way.

As you'll know, we tow our 28' Airstream (around 7,000 lbs loaded) with a 2011 Toyota Sienna Minivan. This tow vehicle offends the sensibilities of just about everyone who tows a travel trailer because, well, it's not a pickup truck. But, you may also know that North America's most respected towing authority, Andy Thomson, set the Sienna up and said it would work. He'd been in the business for 40 years at that point and had set up thousands on non-truck tow vehicles building his entire business on his reputation. He is Airstream's towing consultant after all.

So many people told me that the Sienna wasn't a proper tow vehicle and would either conk out on the road, or have us all killed in a fiery crash. Even friends looked at us pityingly and wished us good luck and hoped we didn't come to regret our choice, all said with drooping eyebrows and looks that said "you WILL regret your choice". But, we had gone to the best for our setup, and as I will elucidate, he was right on everything, everything he said. All of the naysayers, conversely, were entirely wrong.

A tow vehicle doesn't have to be heavier than the trailer, that's the first thing people get wrong. If tow vehicles did have to be heavier, what size would the tractor unit on an 18-wheeler towing a 53' trailer have to be? We were told that the "tail would wag the dog", but after all these years towing I have never felt the trailer pushing the Sienna around, nor have I ever experienced a "sway" event.

The next thing people get wrong is power. The Sienna will churn out around 270 brake horse power, but actually only ever uses about sixty or seventy when under way. At maximum load, I only ever saw 120bhp required (measured using a ScanGauge) once. The Sienna feels strong on the steepest grades. Not fast, for sure, but strong.

Then they told us the Sienna would never stop the Airstream, but that's wrong, too. The trailer has four braked wheels which will stop the trailer on their own. The Sienna's brakes, discs all round, are pretty good for a car, too. 

Front wheel drive can't be used to tow a trailer they said, and again they were wrong. Yes, when towing I can spin the front wheels, but I can do that when not towing as well. In fact I've only ever lost traction twice with the FWD when towing, and that was applying power on steep, gravelly roads in camp grounds. Indeed, where I've seen pickup trucks spinning their rear wheels to get a trailer moving on wet grass, I've never had any wheel slip at all, and have hauled our trailer out of muddy and wet grass on numerous occasions without ever spinning the front wheels.

Apparently you can't use a unibody constructed vehicle to tow a trailer. After thirteen years towing, I think the Sienna has shown that in reality, a unibody does work.

I've had people tell me it's illegal to tow with the Sienna (it's not), and that my liability is too great to be insured (no one has ever produced a documented case of such a thing happening, although the incidence of "I know a guy..." cases is high). I've even had people say to my face that it was impossible for the Sienna to tow the Airstream, despite the fact that it's sitting in a campground, so patently having been dragged there by the Sienna. 

Actually, it all gets a bit wearing and as people newer to towing than us join the online groups, I go through the same loops as I've described above, over and over again. Every one knows what's best for me, and I'm a poor sap who'd been conned by an unscrupulous salesman, this despite a total lack of experience towing using anything other than a truck.

The Sienna is really a very good tow platform with it's forward weight, independent, low-slung and wide stance coil spring suspension, and six-speed automatic gearbox and is a better design than any pickup up the road.

Of course, I didn't just buy the Sienna and a hitch, and drive off. The hitch receiver had been modified to limit the torque at the hitch head and transfer the weight more effectively to all the available axles. There's an electronic brake controller, a second transmission cooler, weight distribution and sway mitigation systems in place, all of which are essential to make everything work safely. There's the key statement, to make everything work safely, and it so patently does as thirteen years of hassle-free towing demonstrate. 

Apart from the additional transmission cooler, and brake controller, the Sienna is bog standard. It has 230,000 kilometres (143,000 miles) on it and still has the original transmission. I'm not sure how many changes of tires it's had, but it's on its second set of shocks, new ones fitted as routine maintenance rather than as a result of a failure. I've just had the rear section of the exhaust system replaced, and one suspension strut was renewed at around 75,000 miles. It's only on it's second fill of synthetic transmission oil.

That's a lot of information, and I wouldn't be surprised if you fell asleep reading it. The crux of it, though, is that despite all the bad stuff that's been said and written about our setup, it's still going strong and has been entirely safe and entirely reliable throughout. I would love to think that we've challenged people's ideas about towing with a non-truck, but sadly If I put up a photo of our combo, I'll be hit with "it'll never work" nonsense all over again.

Anyway, that's a wrap for season thirteen. Hibernation starts next week, and we're looking forward to season fourteen.

No wheel slip pulling off a waterlogged site.
The puddle is formed in dip made by trucks spinning their rear wheels.

Last Run. Short Season. Wednesday.

 Nowhere to be this Wednesday, so it was a slow start for us both.

Surprisingly, not only didn't the promised thunderstorms show up in the night, it didn't even rain. Not a drop. Putting the gazebo away in the fading light wasn't necessary, nor was weighting down the groundsheet we use in the gazebo to prevent it from blowing away. The temperature was even bobbling around 19C. Where had the weather gone?

I consistently praise the campground's "Comfort Station", that is the shower, toilet and laundry block, and today was no exception. Certainly the campground is very quiet this week, so the shower cubical was dry and clean thanks to little usage, but the copious hot water was an absolute delight this morning and really set up the day for me. I could use the shower in the trailer, but why have to eke out the onboard water supplies when I can go mad in the Comfort Station?

On the way to have my shower, I said hello to a couple who are camping with their three under school age children. The kids looked clean and pink, dad looked OK, but mum looked a little ragged around the edges. She said they were good kids, but not necessarily when taking a communal shower. I can't cope with one kid, let alone three. Still, camping is great for the little ones, so well done mum and dad for putting in the effort.

For breakfast we had crumpets. If you're not British you might not know what crumpets are, so have a look at the Wikipedia definition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumpet. There are scads of people who will offer the "best" recipe for crumpets, but you can't beat a shop bought, mass produced crumpet, at least when you've been brought up on them. The problem with these crumpets, though was that they were frozen, and we have the world's worst electric toaster on board the Airstream. For reference, it's a Black and Decker model, and looks quite nice, but it can't toast anything properly to save its life. Even with a regular, unfrozen slice of bread, you have to put it on maximum power, and run the cycle twice, just to get the bread even slightly brown. It's hopeless. I wonder if it wasn't designed by someone who didn't really know what toast is? More likely, though, even when it wasn't cheap, it's made from cheap, inferior components. It's made in China, for sure, but the manufacturers will only build to the specification they're given, and B&D is a Canadian company, shame on them. We have promised ourselves a new toaster for next season. The crumpets, with three cycles on maximum power, turned out to be passable. For the non-Brits, if you ever try them, don't be tempted to add jam, or even Marmite, to the piping hot crumpet. You only need plain butter or spread for the authentic taste.

Just before lunch, and given that the weather was looking far from the rain that had been forecast, DW suggested a drive out to Ridgetown, just to have a walk. We're camped in a place with lots of walks, but Ridgetown promised to be free of bitey bugs, so off we went. The town itself is typical south western Ontario, full of wooden houses in tree-lined, grid-patterned street. We nipped into the residential areas north of Main Street and meandered around to a little park we'd visited before. Then we followed the small stream that flowed though the park, up the hill and onto the south side of town, enjoying seen the start of the autumn colours in the trees, and listening to the bird calls. Ridgetown lacks any modern development, at least in that area around the centre, so the streets are broad and straight and most of the houses date back to the mid nineteenth century. We walked a big square, north and south of Main Street and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Back at the campground, we set up the still slightly wet gazebo again, pulled out the slightly damp chairs, and positioned ourselves inside for an afternoon, enjoying the bug-free environment. I fell asleep in my chair, and for far longer than perhaps I should have because I woke with a very stiff neck and the start of a niggling headache. Getting old sucks.

After supper we put some music on inside the trailer and spent the evening chatting and putting the world to rights. Again, no TV, which is a feature of more recent camping trips we've made. I'm certainly not desperate to be watching TV, and our stay away from home is our chance to do things a bit differently.

Tomorrow, Thursday, is packing up day, and we have decided to get moving a little earlier than usual, thanks to a commitment at home. I hope the weather holds, because apart from Monday night, the weather's been glorious for late September.

Last Run. Short Season. Tuesday

 A different start to the second day's camping, at least for me, as I jumped into the car and headed back into town. At 7am!

I had a breakfast appointment with the world's greatest school bus drivers (it says here), but I wanted to do double up the run with a haircut in preparation for our travel to the UK. It had been raining in the night, quite significantly if the puddles in the campground were anything to go by, and yet I hadn't been woken up by it. Anyone who's been inside an Airstream in the rain will know what it's like to be inside a drum; it's very noisy, but clearly I have become used to it.

That said, on the run back to town, just a few kilometres north of the park, the roads were dry. So, it was localised rain then.

While in town, I dropped in at home to shower and get a change of clothes, then headed over to the Links Golf Course for breakfast. I did get my hair cut afterwards, a process I do not enjoy, although I always like the end result. Then it was back to Rondeau.

We went out for a walk, given that the rain was holding off, but didn't stay out as long as we'd have liked. In the summer it can get very "buggy" in the park, although it's not usually so bad in the autumn. Unfortunately, the east side of the peninsular seemed to be under attack from some horrible little flies that were, to say the least, a bit nippy - as in bitey. We met a woman pushing a baby in a buggy and the poor baby was getting bitten, this despite there being a net over the buggy itself. We put up with the nipping for only a few minutes before retreating to the safety of the trailer and its nip-free environment.

 

 

The remainder of the day was spent in full relaxation mode, doing a whole lot of very little, which was the aim of the trip after all. 

Just as the night was drawing in, and with the prospect of some heavy rain and thunderstorms, we decided to take the gazebo down and stow it in the car, it being largely dry at this point. I say largely dry, but what rain and mud it had on it was quickly transferred to me and my clothes as I manhandled the beast into the car. Still, we didn't want the thing damaged in a storm, nor did we relish having to take it down wet, so it was looking like a wise decision.

The opportunity to spend time simply unwinding should never be underestimated. Sometimes to sit and do absolutely nothing is good for the mind and the body. There are many people who are not happy unless they're busy, and many that think to be constantly busy is a virtue. Well, that's not us thankfully, and we both enjoyed just sitting around chatting and idly browsing the Internet for, well, nothing of any great value. We didn't even fire up the TV for a movie, but put our brains in neutral and relaxed. 

That is the essence of quick and easy camping.

Last Run. Short Season. Monday.

 

Here we are, back at Rondeau, and back on site 16 of the South Campground. Same old, same old, but easy when you're in need of uncomplicated camping.

It's been a short season for us, with other travel at either end of the summer, and our usual self-imposed hiatus when we don't camp in July and August. I say self-imposed, but since COVID it's been impossible to get camping reservations at Provincial Parks during the school holidays, unless you're prepared to get up in the middle of night when the booking system releases the sites, which I'm not. There's the double irritant there of some 44% of booked camping reservations that are never taken up, which is a product of people over-booking blindly, usually to make sure they get something, then being happy to swallow the cost of not taking up the site. But I digress.

We're heading off to the UK in a couple of weeks time so after this trip we'll clean Towed Haul up and put her into winter storage, around a month early. The camping season in this balmy part of Canada now runs into the first couple of weeks of November, but we've opted not to camp late this year,

September's weather has been hot and dry. I was in the pool up until last week, and still watering this year's new tree plantings, such was the fine weather. So, our first real rain came at the weekend, and now we're looking at a very wet couple of days here at Rondeau. Still, a wet day's camping always beats a dry day's working.

We hadn't really cleaned the trailer up since the last trip, but I re-sanitized the fresh water tank, and cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, even if I didn't get the duster or the vacuum cleaner on the job. I had worked hard at maintaining the batteries over the summer, and even though I'd hooked her up to the house's power a week before so that I could run the fridge up ahead of time, I was pleased to note that when I hit the electric jack button, she sprang to life without a hiccup. 

When you've not been camping for a while, there's always a nagging thought that you're missing something, or not doing something right, but we loaded up, and hitched up, all without incident. We use something called a Weight Distribution System on our trailer hitch, and put simply it acts a little like the handles on a wheelbarrow and pushes the weight at the hitch ball both forwards and backwards, to spread the load over all the available axles. In order to get the system attached, I have to drop the tongue of the trailer onto the ball of the hitch on the car, lock it in place, then lift car and trailer up together a couple of inches using the trailer's jack so that I can get the mechanism hooked up. Dropping it back down and letting the weight distribution system take the strain is always a worrying time because if anything is going to break, that's the time it will do it. Happily, it all went well.

All loaded and hitched, we put our grandson into his seat in the back of the car with strict instructions to watch the trailer and let me know if it became detached. He's only four, but even he didn't fall for that one.

On the way down to Rondeau, we usually negotiate Indian Creek Road, just on the south side of town. I think the various tranches of sewer work in the street has made the road sink in places, and watching the trailer in my driver's mirror as it lurches up and down over the dips and rises in the road surface is quite alarming. Still, both car and trailer seem to deal with it.

I think we must have had the wind at our backs this day as the drive down to the park was very smooth and easy. I record the gas/petrol usage as we go, and it bottomed out at 17.4 litres per 100 kilometres by the time we arrived at the park. That looks seriously scary as it's more than twice the usual consumption, but it can go up around the 20-21 mark if the weather's against us. It's a fact that steep hills don't really bother the tow vehicle when it's under load, but driving any length of time into a stiff headwind really puts some strain on it, and the gas mileage suffers. Given that the Airstream is quite aerodynamic compared to other trailers, I hate to think about the gas mileage you'd get with a taller, flatter-fronted model.

Down at the park we filled up the fresh water tank, then dumped out what was sloshing around in the waste tanks so that we could start completely empty. We camp three nights at a stretch, usually, and the tanks will deal with three showers for the missus, and all the general toilet and water usage that ensues. We are careful with water consumption, not least because there's a finite amount of water, and a finite amount of capacity in the waste tanks. However, we manage the fine balance between supply and waste quite well these days. One little trick you can do is to tip any washing up water you have into the toilet. That has a two-fold advantage of both keeping your toilet solids from drying out in the Black tank, and spreading your waste Grey water across the two waste holding tanks. 

Backing onto the site was fairly easy, which is one of the reasons we like this site, but we readjusted because there was a lot of Poison Ivy in the bush right next to the trailer and, as I have to get down the side of the trailer when setting up, we thought it wise to move the old girl a couple of feet away. Again, we do this sort of thing a lot when we're camping, so repositioning the trailer isn't a tough job for us anymore. I should perhaps add for the benefit of my European readers that these North American trailers weigh a couple of tons and have to be moved around using the tow vehicle; there's none of your grabbing it by the handles and manhandling into position.

Because we had Charlie with us (his mum had followed us down in her car), I strung up our fairy lights inside the camping gazebo, and set a camp fire, which is something we rarely do. With an inquisitive four-year-old around, you have to be super-vigilant with a fire burning, but we cooked some vegan sausages over the flames and no one was harmed in the process. Of course, we all stank of wood smoke, but I guess that's what camping's about.

Once the young people had left us, we settled into our grown-ups' camping routine of relaxing, relaxing and more relaxing. The beer and wine flowed, as did the chat, and we settled in for a few quiet days on our own. The weather had stayed dry all day, too, despite the forecast saying rain. Sometimes these things just work for you.

Rondeau in June (3 of 4)

 

Wednesday

It’s been quite a bit warmer today, but that didn’t stop us from being slothful in the extreme again, and not really doing much of anything. The bugs have been particularly bitey during this trip, so we sat in the Pleasure Dome for a while, but the sun was up and it was getting a wee bit warm in there, so we repaired to the Airstream where we had some moving air (Aren’t Fantastic Fans fantastic?).

We spent quite a long time scoping out another trip, not Airstreaming, on our computers before realising how quickly the day had slipped by. Donning shoes and hats, we shuffled slowly through the campground, on the lookout for more turtles, but also checking out the other trailers, their equipment and their occupants. If you’re a people watcher then you’ll appreciate what fun that can be.

We saw another Airstream parked up, bigger than ours and looking quite shiny and new. Their truck had a US license plate, but I couldn’t make out from which state at a distance, so I might have to go and have another look later.

We didn’t see any more turtles, but the Chipmunks, Squirrels and Rabbits were thick on the ground. Coyote food I’d imagine.

We did get to have a little walk along the edge of Rondeau Bay, the smallish lake (comparatively speaking) kept from the main part of Lake Erie by the spit of land that is Rondeau Park. It’s shallow, normally very sheltered from the worst of the wind, and is therefore a haven for all manner of boat-related pastimes. There is a little “yacht club” that only operates in July and August, and loads of kids get out in little dinghies to learn the rudiments of sailing in the relatively safe water of the Bay. This being June, there was no one about, and the club’s portable dock structure was still out of the water. North Americans are not overly excited about dinghy sailing, so they seem happy to limit the club to the summer months only, but I couldn’t help thinking that if this was Europe, the dock would have been in the water as soon as the ice had gone, and the Bay would be filled with dinghies every weekend. Ah well, this isn’t Europe.

We did find a lone turtle, sat quietly in the shade and looking for all the world like he was going to cross the road. He didn’t move, though, so we took it that he was indeed resting and building up the energy to strike for the woods. We kept looking back as we walked away but no, he was definitely having a rest.

I’ll skip over the bit where we bought yet another ice cream from the Park Store and move onto the bit where we had a delightful afternoon nap, baked potatoes for supper and watched the darkness draw in from the bug-free environs of the Pleasure Dome. As the light faded we were treated to the sight of a small Raccoon snuffling around the site, and even trying the edges of the Pleasure Dome, that was until he heard our voices and scuttled off into the undergrowth. It was a reminder for us not to leave anything vaguely edible or drinkable in the gazebo because those cheeky critters will be in and trashing anything that gets in their way when they’re in search of an easy snack.

This fine evening, we broke out the TV and watched a film that I had on my laptop. It was the 1960s classic Georgy Girl, starring Lynn Redgrave, Alan Bates and James Mason. I slept through too much of it to be able to recount the plot, but I was content that I hadn’t seen it before, not even through closed eyes. We rarely watch the TV when we’re camping, which I guess is a good thing. We have a retractable TV antenna built into the Airstream that we can extend should we want to watch broadcast TV, but I can count the times we’ve used it on one hand, although that really speaks to the dreadful quality of broadcast TV as much as to our disinterest in the TV when we’re camping. I was reminded why we don’t have a TV in our bedroom at home as we deployed Airstream’s sofa-bed platform and I watched, or tried to watch, the film from a semi-prone position. Of course, I can sleep standing up, pretty much, but being prone like that made the act of actually nodding off so much easier. A TV in our bedroom would be better than sleeping pills, if I ever needed them.

The morrow would be our last day, and we had a much warmer night to enjoy, but we still didn't turn in until much later than we should have. Again, the pleasures of retirement are many and varied.

I'm Back

 

It's been almost ten years since my last post here, but I did say that I might come back.

I had taken the decision to port my blogs over to my Weebly website, which went quite well for a while, but the cost of maintaining that became a wee bit burdensome, especially as Weebly was bought out by Square, and they're really only focused on sites that generate money.  

Being cheap, I copied everyone of my blog entries, and there were a lot of them, to Google Sites. Sites is free, beyond the annual fee I pay Google that is, and was quite a good home for the blogs, up until I made a monumental error in 2023.

A message came through on my 'phone about tidying up my Google work area. I happily went through the instructions, glibly passing the warnings that my actions couldn't be reversed, and saw that my Google storage space was looking much better. Then I went onto Google Drive.

Yes, I had managed to delete, permanently, twelve years of Airstream blogs. Gone. Completely.

It's my fault entirely, I hadn't read and understood the instructions, and I realised that I couldn't really get upset because there was absolutely nothing I could do to retrieve this self-inflicted situation. 

In 2023, I didn't do any Airstream blogs, but I did open up a WordPress account for my more general meanderings, and that is still running. 

I did have a bit of an epiphany when I realised, just this week, that the Blogger account I'd started with, this Blogger account, was still active and yes, there were the original entries from 2011 through to 2014. So not twelve years lost, just nine. Hey, you take the wins when you can.

For the 2024 camping season, I will start my Airstream blogs going again. There's a kind of neatness to it being ten years since the last entry. Towed Haul is still in hibernation in London (Ontario) at the moment, and will be until the end of April, which is only a few weeks off now. We'll get her home, clean her up and plan some local trips. Then, hopefully, we'll have a few more blog entries to retain for posterity.

Ice Cold In Chatham

A home renovation project pushed us into getting Towed Haul out of hibernation about a month earlier than usual. She will make a fine reserve kitchen, bathroom and even bedroom for a few nights, but I really wish that the weather would warm up a bit. We had the shop "de-winterize" our baby because we will need to use the water systems on board, but that has meant that we've had to have the furnace rumbling away every day to keep everything ice-free; even keeping it at 10C, though, we've used 30 lbs of propane in a week. Keeping it context, that's only $30, but this time last year we'd have not needed the furnace at all. Curse that weather!

When we arrived at the dealer's lot last week, we were a little surprised to see that Towed Haul was not out front. A quick check with the service writer confirmed that they had the work scheduled but a weekend sales event had meant that it had somehow been overlooked. Panic? Not Can-Am RV! They swung into action immediately and, even though their service bays were all occupied with sale units, they put three men on the task out in the yard and in ninety minutes they had our trailer out front and ready to roll. It meant that we were running a little late but to see Towed Haul's orange and red marker lights in the fading evening light was just wonderful.

I had made a slight adjustment to the Eaz-Lift spring bar chains on the weight distribution system, giving it a final one-third link lift, and both the Toadmobile and the trailer sat perfectly level as I made our final pre-flight checks, and that was with two full propane tanks. All was certainly well with the world that evening.

Rather than thrashing down Highway 401 at sixty miles an hour, we took a more leisurely run along the old Talbot Trail, Ontario Highway Three, that runs parallel to the 401. Bowling along at 50 mph on an all but deserted road certainly was a treat as I settled back into towing again, and the journey only took us ten minutes longer than usual, which was good. Over the winter I'd bought a ScanGauge II, primarily to log transmission oil temperature; sadly our Sienna only has a hot/too hot transmission sensor so the ScanGauge can't display that data, but it does display an awful lot of other handy stuff. The horsepower generated, or more accurately the horse power calculated to be generated, was interesting; even pulling away from a standing start, I could still only get 115 hp showing, which is only about 40% of what the car can develop. Actually rolling along it was between 60 and 75 hp, which gives credence to Andy Thompson's piece this month in Airstream Life about how little raw power you really need to get an Airstream moving. As to the transmission temperature, I shall have to get Toyota to fit me a proper temperature sensor at some point in the future.

Back at base, we backed onto the driveway without issue and deployed my new handy-dandy tongue jack support; it replaces an old log that I was worried would split, and this new item certainly does the job, even on our sloping drive. Then the following day we moved all our "stuff" back into Towed Haul ready for service as our temporary lodgings, not realising that the weather was turning cold again. Still, she's lovely to step into when the furnace has been running, even at 10C. Roll on (real) spring and summer, I think the furnace needs a rest!

The Black Art of Towing Part Eight - Where We Went On Our Holidays

It's fair to say that towing in our part of the world is fairly easy. Flat is a bit of an understatement for the terrain hereabouts and bowling along our quite excellent highways is a doddle, even for a minivan. 

We've towed out to the Niagara area (and beyond) on a couple of occasions and it's interesting to note the gas mileage is always better towards Niagara than when coming back; it really must be down hill as we are heading for the sea, really. 

I think I prefer the non-highway, Provincial roads for towing. They're all in quite good condition and the speed limit is 80 Km/h (50 mph), so it's easy on the Toadmobile and easy on the mileage, too, as we can easily get 14, even 15 miles to the US Gallon when not on the big highways.

One of our regular trips is up the eastern side of Lake Huron. The road, Route 21, the Bluewater Highway (not a highway at all, but a good road all the same), does start to rise and fall a bit, and it's not as arrow straight as many roads in the locale, so it makes the trip quite interesting. I tend to stick to the speed limit and I'm always surprised at how many people come haring past us as they must be really flying. Mind you, sometimes I think I'm the only one in Ontario that sticks to the limits.

Our first big trip was to the Finger Lake Region in Upstate New York. It's not so far from home but we didn't leave until 4.30 in the afternoon and what with a border to cross and the Friday night traffic to contend with, we didn't arrive at the campground until after midnight. A lesson learned there was to always allow more time than you think you'll need. The Sienna towed perfectly, even up and down the steep hills that border the lakes. Coming back we encountered some seriously horrible weather with high winds and rain, but the Toadmobile kept chugging on, passing other trailers struggling in the wind, and even coasting past some eighteen wheelers on the Niagara Escarpment at Hamilton. Gas mileage was a fright but I suspect it would have been the same for anyone towing in those conditions.

Our really big trip was eighteen days in the US, heading down to Orlando in Florida and back via New Orleans, Birmingham AL and Knoxville. The I75 is an easy drive but we set ourselves a target of around 400 miles each day and achieved it comfortably. The grades as you enter Tennessee are long but apart from a slight drop in speed, the Sienna coped admirably. Our only testing pieces of driving were heading through the centre of Atlanta, the first time I really forgot about the trailer so I could concentrate on where we were going, and a drive east of Birmingham where we crested a ridge that really was quite steep! Our reward was the following day when we took a rural drive up towards Chattanooga and took in some lovely switchback roads in the Alabama countryside. 

One section of that day's run was on the I59 where were caught up in some construction work. Long story short, in the right hand lane the right side wheels of the trailer kept dropping down a step in the pavement that was a temporary widening measure for the road. At 50 mph it wasn't nice having Towed Haul lurch right then left again as it went up and down the step. I noticed that the Semi drivers were all in the left lane, tucked up close to the concrete barrier. I reasoned that they must have been having the same problem and had chosen a run close to the wall rather than up and down the step on the right. So, I copied them and whilst I had to keep an eye on my distance from the wall, it was better than staying on the right. Both car and trailer came through unscathed, even after 15 miles of construction work.

On the Florida run we were quite heavily loaded with us, the Tadpoles and our gear. As the weight distribution system is properly tuned, I'm always confident that the weights over the axles are well distributed, but I reckon we were close to the axle limits.

In the rear view mirror, on the Ambassador Bridge, heading into Detroit

At High Falls State Park, near Macon, Georgia

So, towing up hill and down dale isn't really worrying the Sienna, nor worrying me. Long days have presented no issues, either, even in very high temperatures. Sure, the altitudes are all minimal and I'm sure the performance in the Rockies will be somewhat limited. However, all the indications are that Toadmobile will pull us through, in more ways than one!

I think this entry pretty much wraps up the Black Art feature. However, if you keep checking back, especially after April, you'll see some of more detailed weekend blogs. I'm not letting on about the big summer jaunt for fear of jinxing it, but we are planning to visit Liberty Harbor RV Park in New Jersey. Check out their website here, to get a flavour of its position relative to Manhattan. That will be a fun trip!

Anyway, thanks for reading and please do drop me a line if you want any more details about how we tackle the Black Art of Towing.

The Black Art of Towing Part Seven - Progress so far

Ironically, I couldn't find a photo of a broken down Sienna...

So, how has it been for us? Has the Toadmobile been stranded at the side of the road in a pall of oily smoke? Has the transmission dropped out onto the road? Has the hitch fallen off?

In answer to those questions I can categorically say that we've had not one ounce of trouble related to towing (or anything else), apart from a slow flat when we picked up a bolt in one of the tires whilst on the Gulf Coast. I still managed to drive to Tennessee before I thought it needed some repair work done!

I've kept the Sienna serviced in accordance with the Toyota schedule over the two years we've been using it, with one additional oil change after the big 2011 trip to Florida. Over the 30,000 Km (18,640 miles) on the clock, we've towed for about 10,500 Km (6,524 miles), which is roughly one third of the total. Our local Toyota dealer has, on my request, reported that both engine and transmission oil look fine and, given that the oil in the transmission doesn't need changing until we clock 96,000 Kms (60,000 miles), we appear to be good to go for a few more seasons yet. 

Wear and tear on the Sienna isn't apparent, but I think it helps that I'm a fairly careful driver. I keep my speed down, brake early and accelerate gently and I've always been quite gentle on my cars. By applying this same idea to towing, I think I don't abuse the car in any way and, as an added bonus have managed to get good gas mileage with an average 12 miles per US gallon over the past two years when towing.

When towing in warm conditions, particularly on a long run, you can feel heat through the foot well floors but this, if other Sienna drivers are to be believed, is quite usual when under any kind of load. The engine coolant temperature has remained steady, even when towing in temperatures around 38C (100F), and as yet no warning lights have been triggered, not even the transmission oil light.

That said, on our first trip towing, heading away from the dealer's lot, I did spin the wheels of the Sienna quite violently trying to turn left across traffic (forgetting the trailer was there I think) and managed to get a warning light come up on the computer screen. The car didn't seem affected and when I checked with the Toyota dealer they could find no trouble so just reset the error code and it's never reappeared since.

The brakes have shown no signs of additional wear and when towing, the whole thing stops more quickly than when not towing; that's where eight brakes are better than four, even with an additional three and a half tons to lug around.

The hitch receiver remains firmly bolted to the car although there is a very slight change of shape in the lock pin hole in the receiver box, due probably to some less than fantastic steel used in its construction; three and half tons dragging on it can have that effect, I think. 

The weight distribution system has been adjusted to take account of the additional spring that the bars develop after some use; I've added two bolts in each of the chains which shortens their length up by one third of a link per bolt. It will need a little more adjustment this season so I'll drop the two bolts on each side and just hook on one full link higher. This is acceptable wear given the use and quite normal. I don't know how long the weight distribution system is supposed to last but it's looking fine at the moment. 

I keep the Sienna's tires at the recommended 35 psi and they are looking quite normal for their age. When I need to buy new I shall consult with Can Am as I know there are better tires out there.

When we were buying the Airstream, the people at Can Am told us that they do keep track of the tow vehicles they set up and they did tell us that no Sienna drivers had reported any tow related problems, even over many years and countless thousands of miles. They pointed us to this blog - Not@Home - written by a couple of friends of Can Am. Ontario residents Anne-Grethe and Einar (who regularly give talks about their experiences) took a 31' Airstream towed by a Toyota Sienna up to Tuktoyaktuk, way above the Arctic Circle on the coast of the Beaufort Sea in Canada's North West Territories. If they can tow all that way with their Sienna, often on dirt roads, I know I'll be OK on the big highways of Canada and the US.

So, no ill effects from the towing and I don't think any other Sienna owners have reported towing related issues. We haven't done anything too outrageous with Towed Haul in tow but in the next instalment I'll detail a few of the trips we've done and describe how we've managed...

The Black Art of Towing Part Five - Other Mods

So, what else have we done, apart from the hitch, weight distribution system and sway control, to turn a Toyota Sienna into the Toadmobile? Read on...

Given the additional load that Towed Haul is imposing on the Toyota, some help to cool the transmission oil is required. Can Am's solution was an additional oil cooling kit, something like the one pictured above, installed behind the front grille. Whilst I haven't monitored the transmission oil temperature so far, we've certainly had no problems, even when driving in seriously stupid hot weather on Florida's Gulf Coast and back up through the Southern States. The people at our local Toyota dealers' also reported that the synthetic oil looked as good as new, and that was after about 10,000 miles towing.

Next came the brake controller, specifically the Prodigy P2 Proportional brake controller, pictured above. This is installed in the car and monitors the braking performance of the car and trailer and applies the electric trailer brakes in proportion with the brake effort applied to the car's brakes. Each wheel on the trailer is braked so even though the Airstream has drum brakes, there's still formidable braking power to be utilised on top of that provided by and for the car. Simply put, the trailer can stop itself; indeed, when hitched, the car and trailer will stop in a slightly shorter distance than when the car is on its own.

Brakes are one of the areas that make the sceptics out there very concerned. I think they acknowledge that the Prodigy can get the trailer to stop, but they worry that if the trailer brakes should fail then the brakes on the car alone would not be able to bring three and a half additional tons to a halt, at least not safely. It's not an unfounded worry as the possibility of trailer brake failure is greater than failure of the car's brakes, but I have no intention of testing the situation, especially as it may never happen. I draw comfort from the thought, though, that the load being pulled by the tractor of a semi-truck (Tractor/Trailer, articulated lorry) often weighs more than three times the weight of that tractor and they manage quite well over many millions of miles of travel - like me and my tow vehicle, they work on the basis that if it had to, the tractor could stop its trailer at least once in reasonable safety, should the trailer's brakes fail.

Part of Can Am's set up was to provide a pair of McKesh clip on mirrors, fixed securely on the Toadmobile in the photograph above. Not only is it desirable to be able to see behind your trailer, it's also a legal necessity in most parts of North America. The Mckesh items may not look very sexy but they mount and demount in seconds and are pretty steady, even at speed. There are two issues that I have with them, though; firstly, that webbing can vibrate something rotten if it's windy and secondly when it's raining the mirrors get pearls of water on them quite quickly and become difficult use. The vibrating webbing has been mostly solved with the addition of a small piece of foam positioned near the lower door clip, a cheap and simple solution. The wet mirror can be solved by tying a piece of string to the mirror's supporting shaft; the string blows against the glass and breaks up the pearls of water, thus making the mirror usable again.

Finally, a modification that I made myself was the addition of a Scanguage II. This clever little device plugs into the car's OBDII port and displays, amongst many other things, sensor information including transmission oil temperature. To be fair I haven't managed to get that function working yet but it'll be great when I do! (After-note: It seems that the Toyota's sensor is a simple switch showing OK and Not OK. I'm going to have to get a new sensor and most probably a specific gauge for that pesky transmission oil temperature).

For my final discourse on this subject in the next blog entry, I will be relating some of my towing experiences, good and not so good. Stay tuned....

The Black Art of Towing Part Four - Sway

Didn't Rosemary Clooney sing about sway? Probably not about trailer sway, though.

Trailer sway, more properly called "Yaw", is where your big heavy trailer behind you starts to oscillate around the towing ball and, if not checked, can have disastrous results. I did read a big academic study about trailer sway but you'd have to be a trailer nut like me to want to go through that so I'll just include this link here for further reading. It's really a commercial for the Hensley Arrow hitch but it's quite concise and easy to read. There is a notable exception to their causes of trailer sway in that they don't mention speed as a cause, however it's pretty good other than that. If you read further, you'll see that there are methods of controlling trailer sway and not all of them made by Hensley Manufacturing!

On our set up we use the simplest method of sway control and that is to dampen it with friction. We have a pair of sway control bars like the one pictured above (conveniently labelled "Sway Control"), one each side of the ball. They work by having one end connected to the trailer and the other to the hitch. Each bar has an arm that extends or retracts and the trailer pivots on the ball and by means of a pressure pad and some brake lining material, the arm's movement is restricted but not stopped completely. This dampens the side to side movement of the trailer and should a yaw situation occur then the pivoting action of the trailer is greatly restricted. 

I'd seen a similar application in steering dampers for motor cycles; the problem and the cure are identical. The friction method only dampens sway and there are other, more sophisticated methods that not only dampen but actually prevent sway by using opposite forces in the design of the hitch to counter the swaying movement. That said, even the no-sway hitches sometimes won't resist the force of a wildly swinging trailer and the hitch itself will fail, but fortunately that situation is unusual.

Despite having the least sophisticated system, albeit that we have two units operating, I've not had any sway issues when towing. When the big semis come past you can certainly feel the pull, but I'd not call that sway and I've never felt uncomfortable towing. That said, I'd never tow without sway control because no matter your trailer and no matter your tow vehicle, you will experience yaw if you don't do something to counter it.

In the next instalment I'll look at some of the other modifications made to the tow vehicle to help it in its towing duties. Watch this space....

The Black Art of Towing Part Three - The Hitch Receiver

The hitch receiver is the bit of the towing system that's bolted to the car. How it's bolted is, obviously, pretty important because there's scope for all sorts of unpleasantness if it's not right.

Because the Toadmobile was supplied without a hitch receiver, I'm going to talk about the after-market variety. There are lots of vehicles that come with a factory fitted item which may or may not be up to the task. Factory fitted or after market, though, they all need inspecting by an expert and nothing should be taken for granted as they all have their pros and cons. Our hitch receiver was chosen, and modified, by Can Am RV; we most certainly would not be towing without their knowledge and assistance.

This is what our after market hitch receiver looked like before modification and before installation. The brackets at the end bolt onto the rear of the Sienna's body, some distance from the rear axle but at the maximum width of the car. The receiver box in the centre, the bit where the hitch head is fitted, has a 2" opening and is rated at Class III/IV.

Here's how it looks, installed on the Toadmobile; complete with humorous insert in the receiver box!

I mentioned before that the hitch receiver had been modified; the standard item isn't sufficiently robust to take a very heavy load, nor does it transfer sufficient weight forward when the weight distribution system is fitted. This is where the experts at Can Am RV come into play and it is they that have welded two three foot long L section steel bars onto a plate behind the receiver box. These bits of steel are then bolted to a point on the car just behind the rear axle.

Here is the modification as installed on the car. The bolting point can be seen on the left of the picture and the welding, with an additional plate, can be seen on the right, just behind the receiver box.

This modification adds rigidity to the device to counter the upward and forward forces exerted by the weight distribution system, adds an additional bolting point to the car as a fulcrum, and helps to transfer the weight on the hitch forward down the length of the car. Without the modification, it's unlikely that this particular hitch would do the work required of it, for our trailer at least.

One point worth mentioning here is that the receiver box is tucked under the car. The closer it can get to the rear axle, the better, as the distance from hitch to rear axle is critical; the shorter the better. 

A quick look at the hitch head under tension (above) will show how close it is to the back of the car, so much so that the folks at Can Am RV have cut away sections of the head to allow it to be so close; these are the areas within the circles.

Going back to the factory fitted receivers, sometimes even they need similar modifications and for all the same reasons. Just because it's factory fitted doesn't mean that it will work particularly well; auto manufacturers are rarely experts in towing.

I hear a lot of people say that using a car that is of "Unibody" construction, that it is pressed steel and having no main frame or chassis, for towing is asking for trouble. Unibodies are said to twist and flex and fail to provide sound mounting points for hitch receivers. Well, this unibodied car is plenty rigid and does, with the receiver modification, provide robust mounting points. Indeed, the chassis on a pick up truck is really a very narrow frame that is more prone to twisting than the wider unibody. Receiver mounting points are necessarily narrower on a truck and whilst a chassis will transfer weight, it's all done down a narrow spine and not spread as widely across the vehicle as it is with the unibody. I know that I won't convince the traditionalists who like their chassis, but the unibody works for us.

We've run this set up for two seasons now and the hitch receiver has proven to be reliable and effective; clearly the receiver is doing its job and everything works as it should.

In the next instalment I'll be looking at what's been done to counter sway, a very real issue when towing anything...

The Black Art of Towing Part Two - The Weight Distribution System

So, what is a weight distribution system and do I really need one?

Well, it's a method of spreading the weight of the trailer's tongue around a bit and yes, I really do need one. 

If I were to hitch the trailer to my car without weight distribution then the entire 1000 lbs or so of the trailer's tongue weight would be resting at a point some three to four feet behind the rear axle, putting all the weight on that rear axle. Quite apart from exceeding the axle's weight limit, the back of the car would be almost on the ground and the front would be pointing skywards. Even if I could stiffen up the rear suspension to stop the back of the car from dropping so low, the front axle, which is the drive and steering axle, just would not function as it should.

What's required, then, is a set up where I can push that load forward so it can be spread across both front and rear axles, and for good measure transfer some of it back to the trailer itself. Fortunately, there are weight distribution systems to do just that.

Above is a photograph of the system we use, shown without the trailer. The hitch head is to the right, with the ball clearly visible. The two spring bars fit into the bottom of the head and provide the "lift", whilst the chains on the end of the spring bars attach to two hooks which are fitted to the A-Frame of the trailer. This is a relatively unsophisticated system and deals only with weight distribution; there are others like the Hensley or the Propride PPP that deal with both weight and sway. However, the Eaz-Lift is lighter and cheaper and for us, seems to do the job perfectly well. I'll deal with the sway aspects of the hitch in another blog entry.

The next photograph above shows the system fitted to our trailer, the spring bars are under tension and providing lift. Also pictured is one of the sway control bars and the safety chains, neither of which has any function to support weight distribution system but are both very important in their own right; more of that later.

The picture also shows the hitch head very close to the rear of the car's bumper. When not under tension, the hitch head sits a few inches lower and a few inches away from the bumper, but the action of the spring bars is enough to lift the trailer's tongue (all 1000 lbs of it) up and push it forward, clearing demonstrating the lift and weight forward transfer properties of the system.

The method to attain the tension on the system is a process that I've never been comfortable with but it is the recognised way of doing things. Firstly I back the car up to the trailer and using the trailer's jack, I lower the ball receiver onto the ball and lock it into position. Then I use the jack to lift the tongue of the trailer and the car, up to a point where the car's rear wheels are just about to leave the ground. The trailer's coupler is holding the weight of the car and it's being supported by the hitch receiver! I fit the spring bars into the hitch head and attach the chains to the hooks on the trailer's A-Frame, to a point on the chain that was pre-determined by our hitch riggers, thus establishing the correct amount of lift and forward weight transfer. Then I lower the trailer and car by retracting the trailer's jack. As the weight is lowered, the spring bars take up the tension and start the lift and weight transfer. Once the jack is off the ground and the car is settled on its suspension, it looks like the picture above, with the hitch head up and forward rather than down and back as you might expect.

It's now that about two-thirds of the tongue weight is being transferred to the car and about a third back to the axles of the trailer. If the hitch is rigged correctly then the weight transferred to the front axle of the car should keep it in proportion to the weight on the rear axles and the car and trailer should appear level, or thereabouts. The weight on that front axle needs to be in proportion to the weight on the rear axle for it to function properly and that's the aim of the weight distribution system.

Now we see the whole combination sat level on the road (in Bayfield, Ontario), just to show how it all works.

If you're wondering about the principles of weight transfer, I've best heard it explained as being like a wheelbarrow. You couldn't pick up a wheel barrow full of bricks just by grabbing the barrow bit, but by using the arms of the barrow as a lever and the axle of the wheel as a fulcrum, it's easy to lift up. The levers on the weight distribution system are the wheel barrow's handles, the fulcrum for the lever is the point(s) at which the hitch receiver is bolted to the car and your feet are the trailer wheels. I think that's easy to understand and sums it up nicely!

In assessing if a tow vehicle will work, rather than fixating on the manufacturer's tow rating, you should be looking at what load the axles and the tires will take. When you're doing that, you have to consider the two-thirds of the trailer's tongue weight that is now spread across your car because it will affect what you can carry. Fortunately, that 'payload' figure is quite generous for the Sienna so I do have the ability to take passengers and luggage without overloading the axles; it's not the same for all prospective tow vehicles, though, and sometimes the much vaunted pick up truck will be tight on what the axles can handle when loaded and hitched.

One of the less well documented advantages of having weight distribution is that it really makes the two parts, the car and the trailer, act as one with the weight spread over all four axles. The trailer is responsive to the movements of the car and vice-versa, and when towing something that weighs three and a half tons, any advantage you can get is always very welcome.

The Toadmobile couldn't tow this trailer without weight distribution, but some vehicles are sufficiently strongly built that you could just hang the trailer on the hitch and drive off. Similarly, I could tow a light weight trailer without weight distribution. However, without the system, all the weight of the trailer is weighing on the rear axle, taking weight from the steering axle at the front, which is never good. It matters not how big your tow vehicle or how small your trailer, weight distribution will always help the towing process.

I have to point out here that I didn't set the weight distribution system up myself, although it's a reasonably easy thing to do. I prefer to use the services of an expert, for us Can Am RV, and know that everything will work as intended.

My next blog entry will be about the hitch receiver, the bit bolted onto the car. That's as critical as the weight distribution system and needs to be set up correctly for the weight distribution to work effectively. So, look out for the next instalment in The Black Art of Towing, coming to a device near you....

The Black Art of Towing Part One - The Overview

2011 Toyota Sienna 3.5 Liter and 28 ' Airstream International

Introduction

I was asked to write in a little more detail about how we tow, our set up and our experiences. It's a big topic so I'll break it up into a number of entries here on the blog. To start though, here's a photograph of the Toadmobile hitched to Towed Haul.

It's sat on the Can Am RV lot in London, Ontario and it's the brothers Thompson, Andy and Kirk, who've set this combination up. They've run their RV dealership and towing business for over 40 years and really are the leading authority on towing in North America.

At the outset I need to say that this will not be an exercise in proving the numbers. The trailer weighs over 7,000 lbs loaded and the car has a nominal tow rating of 3,500 lbs, so my trying to prove things with numbers isn't going to work. You need to look further than the numbers (they're flawed and not complete anyway), to what makes a good tow vehicle and what can be done to make that tow vehicle work. Ultimately, our combination works, in spite of the numbers so put those calculators down and read on.


The Trailer

Any Airstream trailer is going to tow reasonably well, despite its weight. Notwithstanding all the junk on the outside like the awning and the air conditioning unit, it's quite aerodynamic, with it's curved front and sides. It sits low on its independently sprung wheels and, as a result, presents as small a frontal surface to the oncoming air as possible, which is probably the most significant factor on whether or not we can tow this beast successfully. The length and weight are not as important as its stability and drag.


The Sienna

OMG! It's a front wheel drive, Unibody minivan! Well, that's the usual reaction, but you need to look further than that. The engine is a V6 gasser and puts out a fairly healthy 260 horse power. It's low, or rather its weight is, it's wide and long and it's reasonably aerodynamic. It's suspension is a mix of independent and semi-independent and it has a six-speed automatic gearbox. It also has a surprisingly high payload, although being an eight-seater maybe that's not such a surprise.  That Unibody actually provides a wider stance than traditional, framed tow vehicles and, when we move on to the hitch, you'll see another advantage of that width. The brakes are quite robust, too, with discs all round and double piston callipers on the fronts. All of these things are positive for any tow vehicle and are, actually, far superior than many pick-up trucks and vans from the not so distant past.


The Sienna's Modifications

You can't just hang a large trailer on the back of this car; the trailer's tongue weight, magnified by the lever effect of a hitch mounted behind the rear axle, would be too much for the rear springs to cope with. So, the first thing is a decent weight distribution system, of which I'll provide more detail later.

Then you need a hitch that's going to stand up to the rigours not only of the tongue weight but of the countering forces of the weight distribution system. These things are not available off the shelf, so a big modification is a beefed up hitch - again, more of which later.

The transmission is going to take a battering so an additional oil cooler has been fitted to supplement the factory item.

The trailer has electric brakes so, along with the wiring required for the lights, an electronic brake controller has been installed.

Finally, to allow a reasonable rear view, a set of additional mirrors has been supplied.


So, Does It Work?

I'll just refer you back to the picture at the top. The car is level, the trailer is level and we've driven a fair few kilometres with Towed Haul behind us, so yes it does.


In the next instalment, I'll detail the weight distribution system, as it's the most significant aid to towing; I hope that you'll call back to read the rest...