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So last week we picked up our family's first camper, a 22ft (26ft total) Heartland Edge M22, dry weight of 3690 lbs. The camper is advertised as a bumper pull, but the previous owner had the weight distro and sway bar installed and included with the sale. The previous owner said when they first got this camper they towed it with a Honda Pilot, which according to Google has a 5000 lbs towing, so I was certain my truck would do just fine. I pulled it with my 2006 LE 4x4 and used a Cortex Superchips programmer. Other than the programmer, the only other power mods I have on the truck are a Airraid intake, Undredrive pulley, and I recently switched the tranny/t-case/diffs to synthetic oil plus the axel vent mod.
We picked up the camper in Chicago, and while we were at the bank finalizing the transaction, my wife filled up the truck with 87 octane, for the first leg of the trip back we left the "Mileage XS save" program still installed since the "Light Tow" program required 91 or higher octane. The truck seemed to do fine with the program, I played around with turning overdrive on and off, but the motor bogged down far when it was trying to go into fifth so I just left it in 4th for most of the way. Gas mileage was averaging 10mpg going 60-65. Anything faster than that, the motor was running over 3k rpm and mileage would go down further, so I kept it slow.
We were stuck in Chicago traffic for the first hour, but we filled up again just after we got into Michigan, this time with premium 93 and I switched the program over to "Light Tow" program. There was a noticeable difference from take off, you could feel more torque from 1st gear and on. On the highway I was playing around with OD on and off again, but this time the shifting points were much better placed than before. The truck wouldn't shift itself into 5th until 4th had run its full rev range, and we were on flat ground. It would downshift itself back to 4th when we approached an incline and back to 5th at the crest of the hill. I was happier with this than the first program, so I bumped the cruise control up to 70mph. The truck seemed to do great if not better in 5th at 70 since the rpms were higher while in 5th, but the fuel mileage started to get lower too, but at this point in the trip we were looking at a 0100 arrival, so I traded fuel mileage for time. Fuel mileage was about the same in both programs, crappy, but in the truck was happier in the tow program which allowed for a wider range of speeds and ease of use.
Overall I'm happy with the tow. I had no issues with swaying or bouncing, but you could defiantly tell the trailer was behind you. I think the truck and traier are a good match
We picked up the camper in Chicago, and while we were at the bank finalizing the transaction, my wife filled up the truck with 87 octane, for the first leg of the trip back we left the "Mileage XS save" program still installed since the "Light Tow" program required 91 or higher octane. The truck seemed to do fine with the program, I played around with turning overdrive on and off, but the motor bogged down far when it was trying to go into fifth so I just left it in 4th for most of the way. Gas mileage was averaging 10mpg going 60-65. Anything faster than that, the motor was running over 3k rpm and mileage would go down further, so I kept it slow.
We were stuck in Chicago traffic for the first hour, but we filled up again just after we got into Michigan, this time with premium 93 and I switched the program over to "Light Tow" program. There was a noticeable difference from take off, you could feel more torque from 1st gear and on. On the highway I was playing around with OD on and off again, but this time the shifting points were much better placed than before. The truck wouldn't shift itself into 5th until 4th had run its full rev range, and we were on flat ground. It would downshift itself back to 4th when we approached an incline and back to 5th at the crest of the hill. I was happier with this than the first program, so I bumped the cruise control up to 70mph. The truck seemed to do great if not better in 5th at 70 since the rpms were higher while in 5th, but the fuel mileage started to get lower too, but at this point in the trip we were looking at a 0100 arrival, so I traded fuel mileage for time. Fuel mileage was about the same in both programs, crappy, but in the truck was happier in the tow program which allowed for a wider range of speeds and ease of use.
Overall I'm happy with the tow. I had no issues with swaying or bouncing, but you could defiantly tell the trailer was behind you. I think the truck and traier are a good match
