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.