My experience towing a 4200lb camper 400 miles

[BasilFawlty]

goodbye

 

[G-Man]

I have a 2020 Telluride S with dealer added official Kia towing hitch.
I added a seven way connector with 12V connected to the aux pin.

For a brake controller I used a Curt Echo wireless.

Trailer is a new Coachmen Catalina expedition at 3870lb dry, 480 tongue.

We loaded just over 300lb of cargo, a lot of which I put behind the axle as it was so close to max tongue weight dry.

Kia squatted so I could just get 2 fingers between rear wheel arch and top of tire, unloaded I can get a fist in there.

Driving to the scale I had way too much sway at conservative highway speed, so I pulled off and put more of the cargo weight in front of the axle, sway abated and we got to the scale.

My numbers,

Kia + passengers, 5100lbs

trailer by itself, 4200lbs

Kia + passengers + hitched trailer tongue weight was 5560, of which 2360 on front wheels, 3200 on rear.




So all told 460 on tongue and 4200 total tow.

I was in spec for max GVWR and like 3-4lb over for rear axle.

I shifted a cooler to the back of the trailer and called it good.

we towed up hill 6000 feet and covered 200 miles and then did the reverse home.

The Kia was too high in the front and a bit floatey, the trailer swayed time to time, enough to pucker but I never felt totally out of control.
We kept it to 65mph on the flat and down hill.
Sway was worse down hill.
Curt controller worked perfectly, I felt I had adequate braking power.

I feel I was really at the limit if not a bit over it here truth be told.
I have a 600lb Weight Distribution hitch coming in on Wednesday and I’ll install that, I think I’ll go easy on the amount of tension, this being unibody, maybe only 300lbs, but that will help with my rear axle weight plenty.

After that try again with a trip to the scales and a slight change in cargo distribution to account for the new tongue weight of the hitch, hopefully it’ll not sway any worse and if anything g improve.
If not I’ll get a different tow vehicle

Hows your towing experience now with your WDH ? Any issues?

 

[PittPa]

Having towed a vehicle for thousands of miles for car driving events, I would say the only issue the KIA suffers from is the suspension is too soft. I would think a simple shock/spring upgrade is all you need to stiffen up the vehicle for towing. I have seen several post about upgrades, hopefully something will come to light in the next year or so.