Towing with the Sprinter

I am looking at towing an enclosed motorcycle trailer with a total weight including cycles at 4000lb. I have a 2006 Pleasure-Way TS 2500. Has anyone had experience with towing, thoughts?

With a trailer that heavy, you need to ensure you have trailer brakes and a brake controller. Search the messages for how to intall the brake controller. It's not straight forward. Make sure the tongue weight is 10% of your trailer weight.
Be sure you understand about the importance of downshifting up hills and have a scangauge added to monitor LOD.
If you're going to do mountain driving, you might consider a transmission cooler. Overheating of the transmission by allowing the ECM to control your shifting while asking for maximum power leads to premature transmission failure. You might want to ensure you get the transmission properly serviced before you do this. Make sure the mechanic drains the torque converter when doing this. There are step by step instructions in the forum.
Hope this helps.

BL_smith--thanks for your information.

A week ago I just took delivery on a 2014 Pleasure Way Plateau TS (2013 Sprinter chassis with 3.0L engine and 5-speed transmission). I'm also looking to occasionally tow a rather heavy load from time to time--I think pretty near the 5000# limit it's rated to tow.

I formerly had a 1994 38' diesel pusher with a Cummins C8.3 I "hot-rodded" with a fuel pump plate and then towed a 7000# trailer. With that combination, I watched EGT more closely than anything else. (It had an Allison MD3060 transmission, so no worries with the transmission there.) The current gauges I'm considering to help me tow more safely are the ScanGauge and the UltraGauge. From what I can glean from the forums, it appears that the recommendation for monitoring the engine is the LOD--which I presume would be a proxy for the EGT I used to watch. I see that you recommend also monitoring the Transmission Temperature; is this a potential "weak spot" for the Sprinter drivetrain? Should this be something that should sway me to the ScanGauge from the UltraGauge? Are there other nuances between these two gauges that should sway me from one to the other? Do you recommend a transmission cooler for my situation? (I will only be towing this load occasionally.)

Thanks for any advice you can provide!

Rock Doc

Scangauges buttons are on the front instead of back(from what I've read). I have the scangauge, so not positive on the ultra, someone else may pop in.

Watching the engine load and shifting manually in challenging conditions may make driving more pleasant, but in stock tune you really should not be able to achieve excessive EGTs or overheat the transmission as the engine control systems should limit power before allowing any damaging operating conditions to occur. And of course making sure that the vehicle is properly maintained is even more important when towing heavy loads. Regarding the transmission, the NAG1 has proven to be quite reliable in most cases and if you stay within manufacturer's tow ratings then you should be fine.

Another note, there are two tow ratings to be familiar with: one is the oft-quoted 'tow rating' (usually 3,500 or 5,000 lbs in the Sprinter) and the other is the gross combined weight rating (GCWR.) The latter is the maximum combined weight of the towing and towed vehicle and for a heavily-loaded vehicle this may de-rate the actual towing capacity of the vehicle below the 'tow rating.' For example, if the GCWR is 15,000 lbs. and the loaded vehicle weighs 11,000 lbs. then the maximum towing capacity is the difference, or 4,000 lbs. This is regardless of what the 'tow rating' might be.

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smiller,

Thanks for your info. I did suspect that the ECM would likely protect the engine. However, I also like the idea of taking action before getting to Limp Home Mode!

Having read a lot more in the forum, it looks like Transmission Temperature should be able to be monitored by proxy with the Coolant Temperature. Sadly, my vehicle has the dumb dashboard that has no gauges other than speedometer, tachometer and fuel level. (Other than that, it's just warning lights to tell me it's too late.)

I agree with you totally on watching the GCWR, and plan to find vehicle scales so I will know my actual weights (GVW and GCVW) and not just make guesses.

I suspect in the end a decision between ScanGauge and UltraGauge will come down to a decision on the display and the position of the buttons.

Again, thanks!

Rock Doc

Coolant temperature is not the greatest indicator of short term transmission temperature peaks so I wouldn't count on that as a warning. And unfortunately there is no easy way to access transmission temperature in the Sprinter without an advanced diagnostic scanner. But again, as long as you take it easy and stay within manufacturer's towing limits you should be fine.

So towing my new 2008 sprinter on a car hauler trailer with my 2003 3500 xlong/tall was a problem? It was under 7000lbs ish

outputcentral said:

So towing my new 2008 sprinter on a car hauler trailer with my 2003 3500 xlong/tall was a problem? It was under 7000lbs ish

Click to expand...

Well I guess MB would consider it unwise. Whether it is a problem in reality only time will tell.

Testing to see if my new towing avitar shows up...
I have towed 20' car hauler to florida, still got 25mpg...
I am about to attempt a 23' enclosed trailer back from florida with some weight, shooting for under 5000ish. Trans has 350k on it with a quick rebuild at 310 to fix worn main shaft. (rewelded and turned down to match.) We will see if I can make it back to illinois to my spare tranny pfft... it will last another 100k!

Define "re-welded" on your transmission shaft.
Are you saying that it was welded from the factory, and you turned it undersize, then built it back up with weld?
TIG/MIG/or stick welded?
You turned it back to 0.005" to 0.015" OS on a lathe and then OD ground it to size?
Or something else?
Please let me know when you are traveling the I-95 or I-75 corridor....I'd rather be somewhere else.
Roger

The shaft was worn where the rear clutch housing/seals/ its been 2 years and I cant remember what the center bearing assembly is that fails often. Anyhoo, the leakage around the seals and wasn't hitting 4th gear. So built it up with stainless Tig, (mostly because thats the majority of what we weld) checked for straightness, machined down on a lathe, and polished to make sure the seals would function properly.
That make you feel better? lol no, I didn't use a stick welder on it and a die grinder...