Weekending

Just back from another weekend jaunt, this time to Inverhuron Provincial Park, on the shore of Lake Huron in Ontario.

We were quite well loaded with kids and all their gear and, as we were a little concerned about the back of the Tow Vehicle being slightly lower than it should be, we decided to look again at the way we had loaded the Airstream.

We had gradually put our bits and pieces into our pride and joy but actually had put virtually nothing behind the wheels; it was all up front. So for this trip only we decided to stow some stuff in the rear of the unit and add some things that we might have put in the TV on previous trips. I hasten to add that I'm not talking anvils or 1 ton weights here, just some garden chairs and a fold up table as well as some other minor chattels. How much difference it would make I had no idea but we figured we could always move it back if needs be.

With the revised loading everything certainly looked OK; the WD torsion bars were parallel with the road and the back of the TV didn't look too bad. So, off we went.

There was no appreciable difference in the behavior of either the TV or the Airstream, even when transports came the other way at speed on the minor roads, pushing that huge bow wave of air ahead of them. Indeed, we did a 3.5 hour run (156 miles) non-stop and logged 13.9 mpg (US) according to the car's computer.

The return journey was much the same, albeit that we broke the journey half way back for a picnic. The return mileage was 14.8 mpg (US).

I understand that loading is key to safe towing and what we did probably made little or no difference. Either way, I now know that I can free up some space in the TV if I need to.

As an aside, my neighbour had suggested that I remove the sway control bars when slow speed maneuvering, especially after the crushed connector incident. It seems obvious now, but what a great piece of advice that was. Almost silent backing up; what a novelty!