am I ready to tow

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Do you have a trailer brake?
Where are your SAFETY chains? I zoomed in and did not see any safety chains from your truck to the towing dolly. What are you going to do if it pops off the trailer hitch?
Did you check the tires on your truck, the car your towing and the towing dolly?
Did you put any safety lights on the hood of the car you're towing yet?

 

I wouldn't think anything would be needed after a 300 mi tow trip, that wouldn't be required for daily driving. Lest the towing be an excess strain on the vehicle, ie your trans temps go sky high or you are in the mountains for a long time and heavy on the brakes, check them after. (You should be using engine braking as well as the pedal in that situation). If what you are towing is within its limits you should be fine. 300 mi isn't excessive, if you tow all the time, I'd look into a modified maintenance schedule to account for that.

And yes to what our crazy drunk said above. Chains 100% for sure. If your lights are obstructed you'll need towing lights to be legal I'm guessing. Trailer brake if the trailer even has them. Unsure if dolly's like that even have them.

 

Not necessarily because of a single tow trip but I'd change the differential oils, transfer case if it hasn't been done. Probably a good bet to get the transmission too but those are more 90k things than just-did-a-300-mile-tow things.

 

Nothanks

 

I agree that you should be fine just monitor your transmission temperature, if it get above 200 degrees stop and let it cool down.

I do see you have safety "chains" but they appear to be cables instead of chains which is fine, just an FYI you should "cross" them to form an X below the tongue of the trailer, can't tell if you have them crossed or not.. but the reason for this is in case the trailer becomes detached the chains/cables will cradle the tongue so it doesn't drop all the way down and contact the road surface.

 

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Not sure if the 5th Gens can do that/has that option(check your owner's manual), if not you will need a OBD2 "dongle" that plugs into the OBD2 port and a app has the feature and works/compatible with the dongle .

 

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Fusion should work, you would have to investigate if it does or not, but I don't have a 5th Gen so maybe those who do can answer that question.

 

Anyone know if the 5th gen has a warning light or some telltale for high transmission temperature?

Dad’s old RAV4 had one.

For reference:

 

I know 4th Gens do, so I would think 5th Gens would as well but not sure.

The one thing I do know is on the 4th Gens that light doesn't come on until around 300 degrees, which is much too high IMHO, there could already be some damage done if it gets that hot, the fluid would at the very least be burnt and needs immediate replacement, 220/230 degrees is the most I would want to see and only for a short time before I stopped, turned off the engine and waited for it to cool off, and then I would change all the fluid ASAP.

 

Don’t underestimate the impact to fuel mileage. I don’t know how prevalent gas stations are where you are but understand you will only get 200 miles or less between fuel fills.