Deb and I just reserved our lodging in Centerpoint  Texas from April 30 to May 7th.  This is the same place we stayed at last year.

We are going to ride with Youzguyz for some of the days - but we are also going to spend a bit more time off the bike this year....we are going to ride the bike to visit the touristy stuff (museums, hiking, watching the bats come out of the bridge/cave, eat dinner and listen to music, see a gunfight in Bandera, dance a Texas Two Step, canoe/kayak on the river, etc.).

Youzguyz will do some guided rides as usual......some days we will likely be doing too much touristy stuff to keep him amused.  We are bringing the "big" motorcycle this year.....more comfy to ride but far less able to do any off roading - so we will be staying on the pavement.

Anyone who wants to come to Texas is welcome to join us......you will need to arrange your own lodging.

My stepdad, Don, is going to be 101 Apr.8 and in a veterans celebration & parade in Mcalester on the 29th.  It’s our responsibility to get him there, round about and back home.   He and two other WW2 vets are riding in the lead vehicle.  It’s put on by a bunch of VFW’s from the whole area.  This should be a lot of fun.
But with the timing it interferes with riding.  

Wow !   101 years     what a blessed feller he must be to get so many years !!    Thank ya'll for taking care of his needs .  

Lancer , I see why your month might be busy !  

.................................
Thanks for the invite Dave

I don't think I'm going to have but a day or two in April this year.   We're putting a house up with our son this spring ,  
so
My spring ride for 2023 can only be out one day and back the next !   I hope it don't extend into the summer ?  

Dave,

The extended forecast is looking good for your trip.
I am slowly getting better and started riding again.  Should be OK by the time you come down.  
Hope to take you on your favorite roads, and maybe see a few new ones that will become favorites!  
Right now, the wild flowers are going crazy.  A good year.  Just haven't been able to get out much.
Did get this picture.

Looking forward to seeing you and Deb again!    ... and anybody else who might wander in.  

MM:  My neighbor and I are likely driving down to Suches tonight and will be riding Friday/Saturday and coming home Sunday - you are welcome to come and joint us.  The weather forecast shows a chance of rain every day - but it appears to be scattered and not an all day rain.

TEXAS:

Well - the Texas trip was a "bust" for Deb and I this year.  It is a long and somewhat complicated story.

My 2006 Pontiac Vibe and small trailer needed an upgrade as I plan to do a lot more traveling now that I am retired.  I sold my little 4x8 enclosed trailer that was 4' tall inside, and I bought a 5x10 trailer that is 5' tall inside.  Now I no longer have to remove the windshield to put my 800 in, and the 1200 will now fit as well.  I had hoped the Vibe could still pull it and it did....however it struggled a bit to pull it home from the manufacturer in Indiana with the trailer empty - it is light enough but the issue is the bigger size of the trailer just has too much wind resistance for the little Vibe.  It is OK to pull the trailer around town and/or for a short trip - but going through mountains or long trips is no longer an option.

I have been planning for more than a year on getting a new and bigger car that can tow the larger trailer.  My Vibe will not last me the rest of my life, and I wanted to buy a new car before they are all EV's or so expensive I can't afford one.  When the new Ford Bronco came out I as smitten - and about this time last year I investigated getting a 2 door version.  Any of the vehicles the dealer had on the lot were going for $10-$15,000 more than the MSRP - and I was not going to pay Range Rover prices for a Ford.  If I ordered one the dealer would sell it to me at the MSRP - and I waited for 9 months for Ford to open the "window" to accept new orders....the supply chain and parts shortage has made it impossible for Ford to accept new orders as they can't fill orders that have already been taken.  About 3 months ago I decided that it was not worth the wait - the Bronco is cool....but I am really not an "Off Road" kind of guy and the Bronco does suffer a bit in the MPG area as it is boxy and has big wheels/tires......mpg would be in the high teens/low twenties with the 2.3 Ecoboost engine and auto trans.

I decided a Ford Explorer would be a better tow/travel vehicle than the Bronco.  I went to the dealer and all the models on the lot where 4wd, and I really wanted a 2 wheel drive for the reduced price, reduced maintenance and 2mpg increase in fuel mileage.  I was able to order what I wanted, and I picked it up on April 5th.

Getting the 1,000 miles of break in on the vehicle before our Texas trip would be a bit of a challenge - the manual says not to tow, or drive at high speeds or do hard braking until the break in period is over....I only had 22 days to get the mileage done.  I started taking 60 mile drives to get dog food and numerous other long drives just to build up the mileage.  I changed oil and filter at 350 miles, 750 miles, and and again at 1,000 miles....I reached the goal of 1,000 miles the day before we were going to leave (Thursday, April 27).  I have been getting mpg in the high 20's and the last two long drives I took I was getting over 30mpg.....all seemed well.  I hooked up the trailer with the bike inside and took a test drive.....it towed and drove so nicely you couldn't even tell the trailer was hooked up - but I did get a code on the dash when the transmission tried to shift while starting up a hill.  I unhooked the trailer and took the Explorer to the service department....the code sent to my phone said I should get is service soon.  The code was not displayed when I restarted the engine.  The dealer said it was not an "active" code - that the error was just that event and it was no longer a problem...I should keep driving.

We loaded everything up and headed to Texas on Friday.  Our plan was to stay off the busy interstates for a while and keep the speeds low.  We would take the Bluegrass Parkway from Lexington, KY, then a bit of I65 to get to Nashville, then the Natchez Trace all the way to Natchez, MS....we would stop in Tupelo on Friday night.

We were about 100 miles into the trip and the Explorer was towing well - the mpg was around 18 with the trailer and climbing a bit once we got off the local roads and onto the Bluegrass Parkway...the hills in KY likely cut the mpg a bit.  We did have the warning light for the transmission come on again - it appeared that when driving on flat ground the transmission would shift into high gear - then as the grade started to get steeper the cruise control would start adding throttle - but the transmission did not downshift soon enough and the engine would begin to struggle at the low engine rpm/high throttle situation.  I discovered that if I applied accelerator at the beginning of the grade I could "force" a downshift and the code would not trip.  This worked fine - but then suddenly the engine began to run rough and act like it was missing on a cylinder or two - this lasted for about 10 seconds and then cleared up.  The "Check Engine" came on and the "Ford Pass" app on my cell phone sent a message that said the engine had experienced a misfire....and once again the message was to get the engine "Serviced" soon.  About 10 miles down the road the engine suddenly began to run very rough and sent multiple codes "Detonation, Misfire, etc.".  There was a Ford dealer in Elizabethtown, and we drove about 15 miles to get there.

It was late in the afternoon on Friday when we got to the dealer - they said they could look at it but it likely was too late in the day to get it repaired.  I unhooked the trailer and drove it into the Service Department....the engine was missing on one cylinder and had a loud tapping in what sounded like the head.  After looking at it the dealer declared the engine needed to be replaced - the 4th cylinder was dead.  At that point we were not sure what to do - we were 120 miles from home and stuck.  It took us about 15 minutes to figure out there was no way to keep the Texas trip in our schedule.  We telephoned our host in Centerpoint, Texas and cancelled our cabin, we phoned or neighbor and asked him to hook up his car trailer and come pull us and the broken Explorer back home.  He arrived at 8:30PM and we got home at midnight.  The next morning we took the Explorer to the dealer where we bought it, then I went back down to Elizabethtown with my wife's car to retrieve my trailer and motorcycle (her car hauls the trailer better than my Vibe - but it does not have a tow rating that is adequate for a trip to Texas).

The dealer had my Explore for 10 days - and they installed a brand new engine from Ford.  My attempts to get them to replace the vehicle with a new one was not successful - they apologized but said the vehicle was under warranty and being repaired...and that the warranty was my only option.  So far I have only driven about 30 miles in the Explorer and it runs and looks like a new car - but I have to put another 1,000 miles on this engine before I can hook up the trailer and see if the transmission code occurs again.  My friends Ranger has the same 2.3 Ecoboost engine and transmission and his tows in cruise just fine, as did my wife's car with the 2.0 Ecoboost - it is not a problem with power, and it just seems the transmission does not shift out of high gear soon enough to keep the engine rpm up at an acceptable level.  I looked at some Ford forums and it appears the Throttle Position Sensor can cause this issue on some vehicles.

I do hope this Explorer doesn't turn out to be a lemon.
   

Like Lancer said !  

 Wow, that’s quite an adventure.

...........

Doesn't the Ford have "Manual Mode" for the shifter ?

I know when I'm towing the cattle trailer with 5 or 6000 pounds of beef in it ... I don't let my Colorado shift its self above 5th gear even going down hill.   As I approach  the bottom of a hill, I go ahead and manually shift to 4th gear before starting up --- if its a really steep hill I'll even go to 3rd gear and get them rpms up .
 
And the idea of using the "Cruise Control" while pulling a load is a ... Cruel ... thing to do to the drive line on anything but "Flat-land".

Keep in mind that the in line four cylinder Colorado in 4th gear would red-line the engine about 110mph , not that I'll ever go that speed !  

TW0 WHEELS OF SUCHES is having a Buell Festival this weekend....likely to be a bunch of V-Twin sport bikes there this weekend.


MMRanch wrote on 05/11/23 at 10:09:19:



My trailer is only 1,715 pounds loaded...the Explorer has a tow rating of 5,300 pounds.  My wife's MKC with the 2.0 Ecoboost tows this trailer with the cruise easily....it shifts when it should and climbs the hills just fine......no cruelty inflicted.  My friends Ford Ranger works just fine with cruise pulling his 5x8 trailer and motorcycle and he has the same 2.3 Ecoboost and transmission that I have.......these are lightly loaded trailers we are pulling (not beef cattle).  The issue is not if it can pull - the issue currently is that it is reluctant to shift out of high gear soon enough.

There is no manual shift button that I am aware of, or a way to lock out high gear (although I thought I read in the manual that it does...I know that it adjusts the shift points higher and also uses compression braking at slower speeds).  There is button to select: Trailer/Tow mode, Slippery mode, Sport Mode, Off Road mode, Eco mode, and Normal mode and those settings change the shift points and power settings.  

Once the new engine is broken in I will be able to get back to the transmission issue and sort that out.  It should be able to know when to shift when it is in the Trailer mode and has a trailer that is only 1/3rd of the rated towing capacity.  I don't mind helping it to select when to shift - but that dang warning light and Cell phone warning message is annoying.

My Chevy Avalanche pulling the toyhauler was a different story, as it was far closer to the allowable towing capacity and engine power.  The cruise was not useful when it was hilly.  The shifting was smooth and operated properly - but the 5.3 liter engine was only 195HP and not powerful enough to hold 60 mph on some of the steep grades (without making the engine go 5,000 rpm!).  If you set the cruise it would try to hold 60mph on the grades and keep downshifting until the engine was really working hard.  On the steep grades - I just kept the rpm at a comfortable limit of 3,500 rpm and let the mph drop accordingly.....and just tucked in behind a semi and followed them up the hill.  (I agree that using the cruise on the Avalanche would have been cruel).