JFScheck

Back from my first trip towing my trailer with the Cayenne from Washington DC to Daytona Beach and back for Daytona Bike Week 2005, here is a message I sent to Lewis that I thought I would share with everyone about my towing experience with the Cayenne on said trip...

Towing the trailer with the Cayenne went very well indeed! I was towing about 5,800 lbs (the enclosed dual axel trailer with electric brakes and two Harley Davidson Electra Glide Ultras) and had zero problems. Once I adjusted the brakes on the trailer (for the load of the trailer and the bikes) the Cayenne and trailer pretty much behaved as one.

We had some pretty strong winds on the way home from Florida via South Carolina and North Carolina and yet never did the trailer wag the Cayenne's rear end. Even passed some idiot motorcyclists at over 100mph with the Cayenne and the Trailer (who was the idiot )....

That Cayenne S was great and the air suspension was perfect in keeping the vehicle even.

This closed the "trifecta" for me and the Cayenne. A very comfortable yet sporty vehicle with full off road capability (might use that a little more when we relocate to Steamboat Springs in a few years) that tows my trailer loaded with my bikes with zero issues.

For me, the Cayenne is the perfect SUV!!! Now just to get rid of that trailer lights warning that is caused by the LED lights on the trailer.

BTW, did you know if you have the trailer connected to the Cayenne and the Cayenne is locked, if one removes the trailer harness from the Cayenne the Cayenne’s alarm goes off? Kinda cool feature!

Click here to see some pictures of Daytona Bike Week and near the bottom, the Cayenne with my trailer connected...

ltc

Looks like you had PASM set to 'Normal' ride height.
Nice setup.

Torags

Nice Daytona pics John.

Why didn't you drive the bikes down?

skl

I get my new ATC V nose trailer this weekend- taking the spec Miata to a race at Heartland Park the first weekend in April- hope it goes as well as your trip. Does it really matter if you tow in normal height or on low? BTW, your rig looks nice, just need clear corners...

JFScheck

Cause I'm a wimp. No really, there was snow on the ground here in Maryland when we left....

And the real excuse Honestly, I can drive down to Daytona in 12 hours, ride my **** off, and then drive back home again after spending a few days riding all over Florida (down to the Keys, over to Orlando and the Gulf, etc.). I feel like I get better quality riding time during my brief time off vice driving back and forth on the bike on I-95 and then just parking the bike while in Daytona...

It just works for me

JFScheck

For the ride height, I left it in the middle, and as I approached the higher speeds (is it 78 mph when the Cayenne lowers itself?) the Cayenne would automatically lower itself (I spent most of the ride down and back with the cruise control set to 80mph) and then return to normal just like in standard driving.

So, the Cayenne automatically raised and lowered itself on its own. I only made sure that the tounge height was at the correct level when the Cayenne was in the "standard" position when fitting the tounge and the trailer to the Cayenne.

Even with some heavy winds there was no wagging of the Cayenne's tail. The Cayenne was very smooth driving, (and with the comfortable seats, nice stereo, pleanty of power, etc.) the towing experience was enjoyable.

Torags

I forgot you had bad weather. I took my K75 there from SF last year and it was a grind. Did they have the topless parade there on Sunday? Last year the paper said thousands were going to march to protest the "cover up" law. Only one gal showed up and she was real popular.

The Cayenne with PASM is a sweet tow, hard to keep it under 80.

Curt911

You can put a resistor in a series on the LED lights (one per circut) and that should get rid of your warning light...

ltc

Curt911,
Any additional details (resistor value, etc) or information?

ELUSIVE

Hey John -
How much does that trailer weigh? The bikes are about 800-900 pounds each right?
4000+ pounds for the trailer??

Just curious because my 20.5 foot boat on the trailer only weighs about 5000 pounds with a full tank of gas.

Any idea what your tongue weight is?

Torags

My boat and trailer is about 6,000lb.. Boat folks seem to think 8-10% of boat/trialer is tongue weight. A boat load is usually less tongue weight because of stern drive weight over wheels.

It's an easy tow, but again - hard keeping it below 80mph.

ltc

This will allow you to measure tongue weight:
http://www.sherline.com/lm.htm

JFScheck

What about the value of the resistors? Lewis and I have got to know!

ltc

I'm skeptical, but will wait for a response first.

Curt911

You will have to play with the value on the resistors. I ran into this problem on my 18 wheelers back when the LEDs first became available. I put about 100 of them (50 on each side) in the turn signal circuit and there was not enough load to make the flasher heat up. The problem with LEDs is there is next to no resistance in the bulbs so a flasher or IC that looks for the load of the bulb does not see it at all. On another rig that had IC style flashers and a more advanced "bulb-out" and thank-you flasher system I also had the problem, even with over 200 lights on the trailer. When hassled by CA (coming in on I-80) and having to get it going right or pay one of their cousins a few hundred bucks, I came up with another solution, which was to put a reg bulb at the end of the line (but parallel in the circuit) mounted inside the trailer, which gave enough load. This happened when I was running a resistor, and all I can think of is the cold weather was enough to change the resistance. Later I was able to go with another resistor and the problem did not show up again.

So, here is how I suggest to figure out the best resistor to use, without screwing up the IC in the P-Car (Pepper-Car):

1. Try putting the regular bulb back in the circuit and see if that takes care of the problem. If it doesn't, then you may have another problem.

2. If it does, then get a meter and find the resistance of the bulb and get a resistor to match.

3. If this does not work, mount the regular bulb in the trailer and put the purty ones on the outside!

Hope this helps!