VX Towing

[tom4bren]

"Did you get an auxillary tranny cooler yet?"

Naw, I only tow it about 30-40 miles at a stretch & Tranny heat didn't seem to be an issue. If I ever decide to tow it down to Tennessee (Watauga Lake) I might look into it.

"Don't you guys have trailerbrakes?"

I'd love to have surge brakes on it, but it wasn't offered & I have too many other "honey do's" on the list to tackle something like that right now. I've been thinking about getting a trailer for a 21 foot boat & modifying it to hold the boat & both jetskis but so far it's just a concept in my head. I also thought about putting a receiver on the back of the jetski trailer & towing the boat behind that but was told it's slightly illegal (even though I've seen a couple of other people doing it this year). In either of those cases, I'd definitely add surge brakes (P.S. I hate electric brakes and would never go that route).

"If I were to tow a small trailer with say, a Polaris Rzr or a quad, would I need a tranny cooler?"

It's never a bad idea to add the Tranny cooler but I don't think that it would be necessary in your application. Basically, you need to decide based upon: the maximum load you'll be hauling, terrain (lots of hill climbing will certainly bring up the tranny temps), and environment (if you're running through Death Valley in the summer, you may want the tranny cooler even if you aren't towing anything).

Johnny - How long did it take before you started breathing normally again after that? I did that once with a heavy load of firewood in the back of my ol' Dodge.

[bigkoala1]

i tow a 21ft apache with my vx. like you all said "you can feel it there" ...no problems going up the ramp, but it has a hard time backing into the driveway. did anyone else notice that?

[psychos2]

i tow a 21ft apache with my vx. like you all said "you can feel it there" ...no problems going up the ramp, but it has a hard time backing into the driveway. did anyone else notice that?

Whenever I am backing up a hill with a trailer I use 4 LO. shawn

[bigkoala1]

[CrnCnn]

See, you cant throw up a pic of a muddy VX with a "dirty" girl. Then post a pic of a VX all shiny with a boat and no bikinis

[bigkoala1]

See, you cant throw up a pic of a muddy VX with a "dirty" girl. Then post a pic of a VX all shiny with a boat and no bikinis

next time!

i think the truck is clean because it rained. it does that once in a while down here!

[tom4bren]

"Whenever I am backing up a hill with a trailer I use 4 LO."

Not good. There may be enough slip built into the transfer case in 4 LO but I would NEVER risk using it on dry pavement (especially with the tight manuevering in backing up a boat).

[JHarris1385]

next time!

i think the truck is clean because it rained. it does that once in a while down here!

Im guessing it rains tire shine and cloths and places them behind your front tires too? Thats awesome, I know where Im moving to now.

Your VX looks great.

[Ascinder]

If I were to tow a small trailer with say, a Polaris Rzr or a quad, would I need a tranny cooler?

Need, probably not, but......you do live in Nevada and tranny coolers are super affordable insurance(like $50)vs. a new tranny($$$$$$$$$). Also when doing research for a prop speed reduction unit(airplane tranny) I am designing, I talked to quite a few transmission guru guys and they all said that the cooler you keep the xmsn fluid, the longer your transmission will last. The benefits were really staggering. The temperature affects the transmissions life on an exponential level. I have thinking about this mod myself, but I currently have some seriously epic projects on the horizon that would negate the effects. They are however easy as hell to install(think brackets to hold the cooler and a hose connection). A good idea would be to either rig up some active cooling(fan) or build up a well designed air intake/exhaust shroud to help cool it. Otherwise you are just adding surface area to your trans. which while it does work, really only works very little.

[johnnyapollo]

There wasn't any traffic so I didn't get too excited - it was more of a "daaaaayum" moment than anything. Mike Pate (who used to be on the forums back when he had a Proton) was in the truck with me and he gave me one of those raised eyebrow looks, as you could probably imagine.

-- John

[tom4bren]

"did anyone else notice that?"

Never noticed anything while backing up ('cept can't see). Then again, my driveway is flat so haven't tried backing up hill.

[bigkoala1]

i noticed in a earlier post you (tom4bren) said you tow with the power button on.. do you leave it on while you are backing. or does it make a difference?

[tom4bren]

I don't think that the power button will make any difference when you are backing up. Someone - Anyone - please correct me if I'm wrong here but: the power button only sets the transmission to downshift easier, I don't think that it actually sets anything different on the engine. It could (through the magic of the computer) advance the timing or set the fuel injection to run richer or something of that nature but I don't think it does.

Some pix of the rig.

[tom4bren]

I put higher res pix in the gallery.

[Chopper]

all it does is affect shift points...almost redline at W.O.T. / like 3200 at %50 throttle. Didn't know it affected downshifts....but then, I've never not had the button down.