A Trailer Towing Tail (Vorsheer XOC)

As I've continued to search for the right way to enjoy disbursed camping, (debating RTT and the impacts to my SOT, and researching trailers) I decided to rent a small trailer to give it a try. The trailer was great, towing it was not great. Figured I would share my experience here in the event it might benefit those looking into trailers as well. Here is a rundown of the specs and what I experienced:


With the trailer loaded up, including passengers and gear in back of Jeep, my estimate on total weight is 3200-3300lbs. Getting it moving was not a problem, nor was driving on flat ground. On any incline however, including through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, was a different story entirely. Whenever there was an incline, which was frequently, I was most often in the right lane with the half ton and 3/4 ton trucks pulling their 5th wheel campers and the semi's. RPM's would spike and MPH would start to drop slowly. It got the job done, temps (coolant, transmission, oil) all stayed at normal levels, but it was just not an enjoyable experience as the driver. My typical gas mileage is 18mpg, during this trip it plummeted to 11.1mpg. My takeaway here is that 2600lbs is way too heavy. Not too heavy to tow, but too heavy to enjoy towing. My next thought it to go down to something smaller, more the size of a patriot camper.

All in all though, we all had a great time, always good to get away to the outdoors with my family - that's the number 1 reason I love owning a Jeep.

Was the XOC optioned out pretty good? Water full?

@gaterb8 Not sure on what options there are, but the water tank was empty. Have you had better luck towing?

bthomp said:

@gaterb8 Not sure on what options there are, but the water tank was empty. Have you had better luck towing?

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Yes, although different powertrain. The downshifting expected, but surprised you weren’t able to maintain speed.

My trailer’s a little lighter, but I should more than make that up in vehicle weight. May just be the altitude hurting you normally aspirated.

hard to believe that trailer weighs that much. We regularly tow a NuCamp Tag XL and have never had issues towing, with the exception of strong winds, which are not uncommon in New Mexico. It has always towed in-line very well and stable behind our 2018 JL (2” lift, 33’s, 3.6 AT). It’s about 1400 dry weight and 123 lb tongue weight. Est add about 3-400 lbs of gear (max with our generator on board) or less, as we pack light, Our mileage has fluctuated dependent on wind and road conditions. We’ve gotten as much as 17-18 MPG (at best and perfect conditions!). It may be the aerodynamic shape and lighter weight? We have about 8-10K miles towing over the past 2 years and in typically higher elevations of 5500+, with our farthest trip from NM to WY (Yellowstone and Teton NPs via Gunnison and Dinosaur) last fall. We really like the trailer amenities, comfort, and towing ease, ability to store in our garage, and would recommend it - we’ve done a few mods to it, but it is mostly a stock rig.

When you say you were pulling uphill, what kind of speed were you trying to maintain? What do you mean by RPM’s spiking? What you’re saying happened doesn’t seem unreasonable for that load going up steep inclines. Plus, you wouldn’t want to haul ass up a hill anyway. Don’t take this as an insult but do you have any experience towing prior to this? I ask because if you don’t then what you experienced may have seemed not good but could’ve been totally normal. Or, you do have experience and saw behavior that concerned you. If it’s the later rather than the former, maybe there’s something else going on with your vehicle? Or maybe it’s just how that engine and trans combo feels when towing? I know my F-350 6.0 pulls differently than I expected, I just had to find what it liked then it was fine.

Only thing I would suggest is maybe try manually controlling your shifts next time to find where your sweet spots are for climbs.

Skolson said:

hard to believe that trailer weighs that much. We regularly tow a NuCamp Tag XL and have never had issues towing, with the exception of strong winds, which are not uncommon in New Mexico. It has always towed in-line very well and stable behind our 2018 JL (2” lift, 33’s, 3.6 AT). It’s about 1400 dry weight and 123 lb tongue weight. Est add about 3-400 lbs of gear (max with our generator on board) or less, as we pack light, Our mileage has fluctuated dependent on wind and road conditions. We’ve gotten as much as 17-18 MPG (at best and perfect conditions!). It may be the aerodynamic shape and lighter weight? We have about 8-10K miles towing over the past 2 years and in typically higher elevations of 5500+, with our farthest trip from NM to WY (Yellowstone and Teton NPs via Gunnison and Dinosaur) last fall. We really like the trailer amenities, comfort, and towing ease, ability to store in our garage, and would recommend it - we’ve done a few mods to it, but it is mostly a stock rig.

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Nice set up, and appreciate you sharing your experience. Altitude was definitely a factor, highest I saw was just over 10k feet.

bthomp said:

....
I was most often in the right lane with the half ton and 3/4 ton trucks pulling their 5th wheel campers and the semi's. RPM's would spike and MPH would start to drop slowly. It got the job done, ... but it was just not an enjoyable experience as the driver.

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I appreciate you sharing your unvarnished and sincere experience. Doing that helps others reading the forums set their expectations appropriately.

That said, I do think this is a matter of expectations. As you say, the Jeep did the job that was asked of it.

Towing a max GCVW load through the rockies over steep mountain passes at elevations at or near 10,000 feet is a lot to ask of any vehicle. Especially one that's been configured with the least powerful engine option available.

So, I personally don't find it surprising that the transmission was hunting a bit, keeping the engine in the higher end of the RPM range, and failing to hold full highway speed under those conditions.

As you say - stuck over there in the right lane hanging out with the semis and heavily loaded RVs.

One way to manage expectations would be, as you've decided, to pull a lighter trailer.

Another would be to choose a more powerful engine option, especially the diesel, the 392, or perhaps even the 4xe.

And another would be to just make peace with living life in the slow lane on those big long climbs.

EDIT: BlueJeep (before lift/tires) serving as Tow Pig; loaded trailer weight approx 3,000lbs:

Appreciate you sharing OP. I have ZERO towing experience and was considering checking out trailers for my upcoming Jeep. Sounds like that’s out of my depth for the time being. Thank you!

ChuckQue said:

When you say you were pulling uphill, what kind of speed were you trying to maintain? What do you mean by RPM’s spiking? What you’re saying happened doesn’t seem unreasonable for that load going up steep inclines. Plus, you wouldn’t want to haul ass up a hill anyway. Don’t take this as an insult but do you have any experience towing prior to this? I ask because if you don’t then what you experienced may have seemed not good but could’ve been totally normal. Or, you do have experience and saw behavior that concerned you. If it’s the later rather than the former, maybe there’s something else going on with your vehicle? Or maybe it’s just how that engine and trans combo feels when towing? I know my F-350 6.0 pulls differently than I expected, I just had to find what it liked then it was fine.

Only thing I would suggest is maybe try manually controlling your shifts next time to find where your sweet spots are for climbs.

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I don't pull trailers often, however have pulled trailers a few times before, not with my Jeep rather with my Expedition (5.4 V8). The speed I was trying to maintain in this instance was 65 and it could typically hold that with RPM's hitting 5-5.5k on inclines, however on the steepest parts of the climb my speed would slowly drop, ultimately down to 50-55mph. Combining the weight with the altitude I anticipate that what I experienced was absolutely normal. I did manual shift, trying to keep RPM's at about 4k on inclines, as that seems to be the peak of the power band. There was one point however where it was working quite hard for a long stretch and it downshifted, when I shifted to manual and tried to manually force it back to a higher gear it said "manual shift not allowed". My point of this thread was not to say there was a problem, but rather to share that it was not enjoyable, in the event it could be helpful for those who may be considering towing a similar trailer with their V6 Wrangler. For me, a 2600 LB trailer is going to be something I avoid moving forward, I want something 1K less (or a bit lighter still) for next time.

bjm00se said:

I appreciate you sharing your unvarnished and sincere experience. Doing that helps others reading the forums set their expectations appropriately.

That said, I do think this is a matter of expectations. As you say, the Jeep did the job that was asked of it.

Towing a max GCVW load through the rockies over steep mountain passes at elevations at or near 10,000 feet is a lot to ask of any vehicle. Especially one that's been configured with the least powerful engine option available.

So, I personally don't find it surprising that the transmission was hunting a bit, keeping the engine in the higher end of the RPM range, and failing to hold full highway speed under those conditions.

As you say - stuck over there in the right lane hanging out with the semis and heavily loaded RVs.

One way to manage expectations would be, as you've decided, to pull a lighter trailer.

Another would be to choose a more powerful engine option, especially the diesel, the 392, or perhaps even the 4xe.

And another would be to just make peace with living life in the slow lane on those big long climbs.

EDIT: BlueJeep (before lift/tires) serving as Tow Pig; loaded trailer weight approx 3,000lbs:

Click to expand...

Agreed . When I saw my mileage hit 11.1MPG avg I definately thought about having a 392 instead, lol. That said, I really like how my Jeep is optioned out, so for me, it's adjusting expectations and avoiding the heavy tows in the future. I want to find a way to rent a patriot camper one of these days to see how that works, I would think that would be hardly noticeable behind the Jeep.

AdamNash said:

Appreciate you sharing OP. I have ZERO towing experience and was considering checking out trailers for my upcoming Jeep. Sounds like that’s out of my depth for the time being. Thank you!

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I'll definitely tow again because a RTT isn't a good option with my SOT roof, but next time the max weight will be 1500-2000lbs. I'll also be more selective about my route to find the one with less inclines and lower total elevations on the passes.

Some guys will tow right up to max weight and just deal with it, my experience is that to limit to about 75% of max is better. Hills, yeah slow it down and come out of overdrive. Back when we had a Grand Cherokee and a pop up camper hills just sucked and I would lock out overdrive to help keep the trans from hunting gears

bthomp said:

I don't pull trailers often, however have pulled trailers a few times before, not with my Jeep rather with my Expedition (5.4 V8). The speed I was trying to maintain in this instance was 65 and it could typically hold that with RPM's hitting 5-5.5k on inclines, however on the steepest parts of the climb my speed would slowly drop, ultimately down to 50-55mph. Combining the weight with the altitude I anticipate that what I experienced was absolutely normal. I did manual shift, trying to keep RPM's at about 4k on inclines, as that seems to be the peak of the power band. There was one point however where it was working quite hard for a long stretch and it downshifted, when I shifted to manual and tried to manually force it back to a higher gear it said "manual shift not allowed". My point of this thread was not to say there was a problem, but rather to share that it was not enjoyable, in the event it could be helpful for those who may be considering towing a similar trailer with their V6 Wrangler. For me, a 2600 LB trailer is going to be something I avoid moving forward, I want something 1K less (or a bit lighter still) for next time.

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No worries. I was just trying to understand exactly what you experienced and if there was something I was missing. Sorry it didn’t work out the way you’d hoped, I’ve never towed with a gasser before which is why I went with the diesel on my JL. Maybe grab a used JT from a private party? We towed a teardrop camper with our JLURD and it pulled it like a beast, though it was also about a thousand pounds lighter than your trailer. We are a very heavy Jeep though. Our Patriot X3 comes in end of this month so it’ll be interesting to see how that pulls.

ChuckQue said:

No worries. I was just trying to understand exactly what you experienced and if there was something I was missing. Sorry it didn’t work out the way you’d hoped, I’ve never towed with a gasser before which is why I went with the diesel on my JL. Maybe grab a used JT from a private party? We towed a teardrop camper with our JLURD and it pulled it like a beast, though it was also about a thousand pounds lighter than your trailer. We are a very heavy Jeep though. Our Patriot X3 comes in end of this month so it’ll be interesting to see how that pulls.

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Congrats on the X3, that should be incredibly cool. You should post feedback on that after you've used it. They are pricey, but seem to provide a massive amount of value in a small space. I think I'd go the X1 route so my kids could have the tent room extension on the ground.