Spec X5 Overland Build

[thstone]

Originally Posted by c-bass

8mpg

My v10 Ford Excursion got better mileage than that...which is something that I very rarely was able to say

My guess is that climbing 4200 vertical feet over Grapevine/Tejon Pass on I-5 (north of LA) is a big hit to the mileage. Next time towing, I'll check the mileage over a long section of flat ground to see how it compares.

[thstone]

Originally Posted by Bdc101

You definitely should have just adjusted the WDH before installing airbags. You should be able to tune all of that sag out using the hitch. It's designed to transfer tongue weight from the back axle to the front axle. However, I suppose with the aftermarket hitch it may have stiffness issues which prevent it from doing that effectively. The stock hitch might have been milled from a single block of solid steel, it's so beefy (and also incredibly heavy).

Since the trailers and WDH's are rentals, I don't have the flexibility to fully adjust the trailer hitch to perfectly match the X5 - I kind of have to take it "as-is" unless there was a glaring issue.

I am planning to continue renting trailers since the travel trailer market is insane right now (up to 6 months wait for delivery of a new trailer) so I think that the air bags will help for the time being. Then when I buy my own trailer, I can adjust my WDH to eliminate any rear sag and not need to put any air in the bags.

[Bdc101]

Do the trailer rental companies give you the WDH along with the trailer? I've never heard of renting a trailer before, so I don't know what they require you to do. You should just buy your own WDH if you intend to eventually. You'll probably find that it makes towing much more stable when it's properly adjusted, even on straight/flat roads. It seems odd that the trailer rental company would require you to use their WDH, but let you drive off without adjusting it properly. Though like I said, I know nothing about renting that sort of thing.

[thstone]

Originally Posted by Bdc101

Do the trailer rental companies give you the WDH along with the trailer? I've never heard of renting a trailer before, so I don't know what they require you to do. You should just buy your own WDH if you intend to eventually. You'll probably find that it makes towing much more stable when it's properly adjusted, even on straight/flat roads. It seems odd that the trailer rental company would require you to use their WDH, but let you drive off without adjusting it properly. Though like I said, I know nothing about renting that sort of thing.

Renting a travel trailer these days works a lot like AirBnB: there are national websites where private trailer owners post their trailer for rent and renters (like me) use the website to reserve the desired dates, make payment, get insurance, etc.

RV Share - Rent RVs Direct from Local Owners

Almost all of the trailer owners provide a WDH that comes with the trailer rental. So when I arrive to pick up the trailer, we just insert the WDH into my receiver, couple up the trailer, hook up the chains and 7-pin, do a safety walkaround, and I'm ready to roll out.

There are two parts to a WDH: the portion that has the ball that inserts into the receiver of the tow vehicle and the portion mounts on the trailer frame and provides an attachment for the weight distribution/anti-sway bars. The portion that mounts on the trailer frame is somewhat permanent because it is mounted in a very particular location (according to the hitch manufacturer's directions) and is held on with numerous heavy bolts.

Therefore, its not practical for a renter to bring their own hitch and spend an hour bolting it onto the frame of the rental trailer and then having to spend time removing it when the trailer is returned. Also, the frame heights vary from trailer to trailer so a renter may have to own more than a single set of mounting brackets to be able to mount the portion of the hitch that attaches to the trailer frame to a wide range of trailers. It's much easier for the renter and the owner to simply use the hitch that the trailer owner provides.

Proper adjustment of the WDH often takes multiple tries. Its not as simple as just following the installation instructions and you're done. Usually the WHD is installed according to the hitch manufacturer instructions and then the owner adjusts it until its set just right.

This iterative adjustment process isn't something that most trailer rental owners are willing to spend time doing (if they even know how). Thus, if the trailer looks "pretty good" when its hitched to the tow vehicle, then the expectation is that the renter will use it "as is" and not waste an hour of the owners time trying to adjust it "perfectly".

I use "quotes" because everyone (each renter and each owner) has their own definition of what is "good enough". Thus, what justifies taking additional time to make a hitch adjustment is somewhat arbitrary.

Taking a conciliatory approach seems to avoid any conflict with the trailer owners who might consider a request to make further hitch adjustments to be "nit picking" and upset them.

In practice, this system works pretty well even though it's not optimal. Since the sag on the X5 is minimal and the trailers tow perfectly fine, the baseline hitch settings for the trailers that I have rented seem to be "good enough" for me to use without any concern for safety and provide a very comfortable and confident towing experience.

However, in the instance of the white GeoPro trailer, the trailer owner's hitch was clearly not set up to tow with my X5 and the owner and I both saw this. In this case, the owner readily agreed to take the time to make a hitch adjustment to get it "good enough".

As I said in my earlier post, when I purchase my own trailer and hitch, then I will take the time to adjust the hitch perfectly to dial out any sag. In the meantime, I'll use the air bags to fine tune the rear ride height. Its not a perfect solution but that seems to be one of the trade offs for using rental trailers.

[Henn28]

Great thread!

I've got a 2002 4.4 e53 that I recently re-inherited from my kids who drove it while they were in the house, and for the 14 years before that it was my wife's daily driver since new. It is now officially my project car, mostly because it's the one I've got in my driveway and I don't see a 911 or 67 Camaro build showing up any time soon with two kids in college.

It seems to be a real unicorn in many ways at this point, so your post, and all the replies, comments, and questions are of very real value to me. Thanks all.

I officially kicked off today what will be a slow motion build by pulling the instrument cluster and DME and sending them off to Fixels, to be replaced with a 4.8 cluster and properly coded DME. Gotta start somewhere...up next on the agenda:
- roof and hood paint. The rest of the car (blue) is in pretty good shape, but the roof and hood are completely shot. Looking at John Deere Blitz Black because its a cheap, easy to spray matte that hot rodders have been using for years and is easy to take care of, unlike other mattes and satins. The two tone blue/matte black should be nice for a while. I have a long term vision of a two tone matt black/british racing green look.
- Wheels/tires. Really like the Cragar Series 342 D window 17x8s, but would need adapters for the 5x4.5 pattern. I might need them anyway to fit the 285/60/17s I would like to run, although I think that might be a 30.5" total, so maybe not? I'm lost at how much "poke" that combo will have so I'd love to pick the collective brain.
- FMU lift if needed to get everything playing nicely together.
- Fix the stupid seat memory controller/steering wheel adjust failure interconnect-goat-rope. Hopefully a used control module off of ebay will do the trick.
- Lots of broken and rotted trim and assorted plastic and rubber to be replaced.
- Aftermarket sound of some sort or the other. Crutchfield seems to think its plug-and-play easy, but almost everything they carry that claim will work is on backorder.
- rack cross bars for the Thule that normally goes on my wife's Grand Cherokee for hurricane evacuations and bird hunting trips to Iowa.
- New subframe bushings all around (I redid all the big ticket suspension pieces on all four corners a few years ago when I had access to a lift, but didn't do the subframe bushings).
- Headliner and door panel work. The panels are shot up front due to my ham-fisting them off and on too many times to fix the stupid windows. My have to go to a custom upholstery shop since the beige panels seem to be harder and harder to come by in better shape than mine.

Finally, the big tix mechanicals...
The tranny is a two year old remanufactured unit I got from Euro Transmission Specialists (including the torque converter). I've been happy with the investment so knock-on-wood no money is needed there. I'm not certain about the transfer case chain and may just replace it for piece of mind after I finally find out how many mile are actually on the car.

The mighty M62 is leaking from every nook and cranny and I'm guessing within a couple years of a serious midlife crisis. A recent compression and leak-down test showed 7 very middle aged cylinders, and 1 cylinder with two feet in the departure lounge potentially. Number 8s performance was pretty far out of whack, so I'm crossing my fingers that it was a large speck of carbon maybe and the motor will last, reliably, until I'm done with college bills. At that point I'm dreaming of engaging Henry Lawrence to build me a bulletproof steel lined 5L M62 monster to drop in.

At the end of the day my goal is to build an overland style X5 that I won't think twice about driving 14 hours to the midwest in with my mutts to bird hunt in the winter.

I'll start posting pics once I figure out how.

[Emory39]

We can be twins!

[thstone]

Henn28, thanks for the post! Let's see some pic's and keep us updated on your progress.

[thstone]

Emory39, your X looks great! What lightbar did you use and how hard was it to wire up?

[Emory39]

This is the one that I purchased, its not hard to wire up.

Originally Posted by thstone

Emory39, your X looks great! What lightbar did you use and how hard was it to wire up?

[Henn28]

Nice pup Emory...good breeding program to get those choppers! I've got two knuckle-head Griffons who hunt for 3 months of the year and then lay around the house dreaming of quail and phez the other 9.

What wheels and tire sizes are you running? And did you lift your X5? The front looks like it is up, but I can't tell clearly about the back. Thanks!