2016 Ford Fusion Energi Towing with Master Tow

[knotpc]

We have a Thor 28i Class C with Tekonsha 90195 P3 trailer brake controller, a 2019 Master Tow Car Dolly and a 2016 Ford Fusion Energi. The Ford manual says to tow the Fusion Energi in neutral. The Master Tow Dolly manual says to tow in Park.

In our first test tow, I had the Fusion in Park. I started the Fusion and the car reported ABS and traction issues. An indicator also said to service the ABS. I just about died . Once we drove it off the dolly, all the indicators cleared.

So my question to the group. What is the right way to tow? Which manual is right? Last thing I want is s to drive 2000 miles and arrive with a trashed Fusion drive or worse lose the car while towing because it’s setup wrong.

[JamieGeek]

Read the owner's manual again a bit more carefully: Tow with 4-wheels down in neutral. On a dolly in park (it actually will probably say on a dolly according to the dolly manufacturer's instructions). Yup, owner's manual page 223:

You can tow your vehicle with all four
wheels on the ground or with the front
wheels off the ground by using a tow dolly.
If you are using a tow dolly follow the
instructions specified by the equipment
provider.
If you tow your vehicle with all four wheels
on the ground:
• Tow only in the forward direction.
• Release the parking brake.

When we had our C-Max Energi (different car same powertrain, however) we always towed it on our Acme dolly in park with no ABS issues at all (I believe the ABS gets upset because it notices that the rear wheel positions have changed with respect to the fronts and it freaks out--a couple key cycles and its happy again. Had the same issue when I towed our Focus Electric; that traction control was not happy about that at all!).

Towed the C-Max a few thousand miles before the lease was up.

[Ron1Z]

We tow a 2017 Ford Focus automatic on a Master tow dolly. I keep the car in park and secure the steering wheel with the seat belt (steering on newer cars dont lock) per Master tow directions. Never had an issue.

[abjbrtd]

Originally Posted by JamieGeek

Read the owner's manual again a bit more carefully: Tow with 4-wheels down in neutral. On a dolly in park (it actually will probably say on a dolly according to the dolly manufacturer's instructions). Yup, owner's manual page 223:



When we had our C-Max Energi (different car same powertrain, however) we always towed it on our Acme dolly in park with no ABS issues at all (I believe the ABS gets upset because it notices that the rear wheel positions have changed with respect to the fronts and it freaks out--a couple key cycles and its happy again. Had the same issue when I towed our Focus Electric; that traction control was not happy about that at all!).

Towed the C-Max a few thousand miles before the lease was up.
Attachment 17501

That's the way we towed our CMax hybrid, brake off/in park/ fob off and in my pocket for the a couple of trips.

To answer the OP question. "What is the right way to tow?"

4 down
The CMax was a total pleasure to flat tow... setup/tow/UNsetup, unlike our currant toad!

[JamieGeek]

Originally Posted by abjbrtd

That's the way we towed our CMax hybrid, brake off/in park/ fob off and in my pocket for the a couple of trips.

To answer the OP question. "What is the right way to tow?"

4 down
The CMax was a total pleasure to flat tow... setup/tow/UNsetup, unlike our currant toad!

"The right way to tow" is highly dependent on the person doing the towing. There really is no "right" way.

We don't flat tow: two of our tow vehicles have been leases as such I don't want to spend all that expense on setting up to flat tow only to remove it when the lease is up. For us dolly towing is "the right way to tow"--so far we've towed 4 different vehicles with our dolly in the 5 years we've had it.

[Ron1Z]

We flat towed once, the car somehow went into drive at 60 mph. Ford and Geico never figured out why it went into drive and ended up totaling the car with only 615 miles on it, so now we dolly tow and have a pick of three different vehicles depending where and what we are doing.
Im sure there are pros and cons both ways.

[knotpc]

Jamiegeek,

Had to read the manual two more times before it sunk in to my thick head.

Thanks for the advice.

Happy camping!