[s-cars] Anyone towing with their urS4/S6?

[Varon H. Fugman]

I think Hap mentioned observing higher EGT while towing a small utility
trailer.

We tow our 2,000 pound Chalet folding camper with my wife's 1999 Saab 9-5
wagon, 2.3 liter 4-cylinder light pressure turbo, automatic transmission.
Because it doesn't have a boost gauge either, I don't know what the turbo is
doing while towing, but fuel economy drops from 32mpg not towing (level
ground @ 70mph) to 20mpg with the trailer.  However, the car seems happy
towing, and easily handles the 2,000 pound trailer.  We did install
heavy-duty load-leveling rear suspension.  I have purposely not chipped it
as the factory turning allows a much greater margin of safety with the
additional sustained load from trailering.

However, our 2.2 I5s don't have much torque without the boost from the
turbo, so the turbo might stay spooled up all the time while towing, perhaps
even on level ground because of the extra wind drag.  A boost gauge and an
EGT gauge would be a good idea.

In theory, an urS should make a better tow vehicle than an Escape as far as
the chassis is concerned.  Higher total weight, lower center of gravity,
better suspension control, better AWD system.  You could put sand bags into
the trunk to approximate what the effect of a given hitch weight would be on
the car's attitude.  If the rear drops more than 2", either heavy duty
suspension or weight distribution would be called for. 

It certainly would be fun to see how fast an urS could accelerate with a
trailer in tow.  I seem to remember seeing a picture of an urS6 Avant towing
an Audi 4000 race car on trailer.  Caption was "a real sport-utility
vehicle".

Varon
'95 S6
'99 Saab 9-5 wagon
'05 Chalet Alpine (www.chaletrv.com)