Heavy Weight Champ

[AXE]

I don't always tow heavy, sometimes it's just 375 lbs. Had to run my motorcycle into the dealer for some scheduled maintenance. A couple things I dont have tools for or I'd do them myself, so i figired i cough up the cash. Cost me $2600 for fork seals, valve check/belts replaced, and new rubber! Gawd damned bike is probably only worth $5k nowadays. I guess its worth it for one of my favorite all time bikes. This Ducati mechanic has always been really good. He pointed out a couple other things I should adjust and they are easy enough to do, so worth having him give it a good once over.

 

[AXE]

I did my first heavy tow in some pretty steep and winding mountain terrain. Elevation staring was about 1000 and ending about 7500 msl. I had my toyhauler loaded up pretty good, probably 13,000+ lbs. Went up and down some 6-7% grades with some tight corners. Was running 55-70 mph.

I got horrible fuel economy at under 6.5 mpg on some stretches. I got back close to 8 mpg on the way home. Worst I've ever seen towing this same trailer.

I was very disappointed in the power management and There were times when I had to slow for traffic and when I got back on the throttle it was maxed out and would not accelerate back to speed. On some of the downhill sections the exhaust brake/transmission was very abrupt and it would kick on hard and shed 5-6 mph, way under what the cruise was set at. Sometimes it seemed to work a little better, but the computer seemed very confused.

I towed this trailer unloaded weighing probably 10,000 lbs in some terrain last fall and it seemed much better all the way around. I guess if you get north of 12k lbs you should not expect great performance in steeper terrain.