Long Haul Tow - 5400 miles

[boattail]

Just arrived home from a "towing" trip - total of 5400 miles behind my bus, then another run of 1300 miles driving from So. Cal to my home in NW Montana. I used the bungee cord, as recommended by Blue Ox, a battery disconnect switch as recommended by Smart, and no aux brakes per my own decision. The best thing, in the BIG carbon footprint machine (my bus) my fuel economy increased by an average of 10% vs towing my GX470. There were no problems WHATSOEVER! until driving down hwy 62 into the Palm Springs area, the winds were gusting up to 65-70 mph off the starboard side. Watching the car in my rearview camera monitor I was surprised to see the front 'hood' blowing around on the windshield of the Smart, tethered by the safety strap. I stopped the rig and took a look. The hood latches had been pulled (or sucked) off the latch pins. Out with the NASCAR solution - duct tape - and the hood was secured. A minor inconvenience for me - but for those having to go around me - maybe it wasn't so nice....

On the 1300 mile return trip, I15 via Salt Lake, I got my best mileage between Vegas and Salt Lake. 52.2 mpg, A/C off, averaging 65-70 mph. The worst, from Palm Springs - via 29 palms and Amboy to Las Vegas - big long grades, lots of A/C, heavy winds - was 34 mpg. Overall for the 1296 miles, the average turned out to be just under 45 mpg. Not bad really when you look at the first 5400 miles with the new and improved mileage on the bus of 7.2 mpg. This meant my overall average for the 6700 miles was 8.6 mpg. Whopee!

Still smilin tho.

Hal

[David & Teresa]

That's great. I noticed my motor coach had a slight increase in mpg while towing the Smart as well. The little car that keeps on giving.

[jwight]

Second or maybe third one of these "hood came off" posts if I remember correctly; there must be a design problem of some sort (I have to go back on USA insider and apologize to the folks who posted there) if the wind can vacuum the service flap off of the latch pins.

[gbryers]

Originally Posted by jwight

Second or maybe third one of these "hood came off" posts if I remember correctly; there must be a design problem of some sort (I have to go back on USA insider and apologize to the folks who posted there) if the wind can vacuum the service flap off of the latch pins.

Ah, opportunity for the latest mod - race car retaining pins on the hood!