Towing With The Grenadier

Commodore said:

Yesterday was my first time towing with the Grenny. I pulled one of our boats down from Lake Arrowhed. Boat and trailer is about 5,500 pounds. Trailer brakes don’t work at all. Power was find but the brakes really didn’t like coming down the mountain. They got hot and experienced tremendous fade to the point were it was a bit scary. My wife’s Range Rover Sport had better brakes and doesn’t have this issue. My post full sized Range Rover was similarly under braked but improved with better aftermarket brake pads. Obviously, functioning trailer brakes would have made a big difference but this trailer only goes down the mountain once a year so I’m not motivated to fix it.

The other is issue was the damn stability control. It was part of what lead to overheating the brakes. The computer kept clamping brakes mid corner and completely unsettling everything. Nothing like the computer trying straight the truck and trailer out mid turn at 50 mph when you have a guard rail on one side and at rock wall on the other. I have been towing boats down this mountain for 45 years and don’t need “help” from a fucking computer. Is there any way to disable stability control?

The electronic nannies in this are going to cause an accident. Bongs when speed limit changes, bongs when changing lanes without a blinker, bongs when it goes under 1/2 a tank in fuel. All of this leads to me fumbling through menus trying to disable crap while driving. Someone needs to hack the system and let us turn this crap off.

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Commodore said:

Yesterday was my first time towing with the Grenny. I pulled one of our boats down from Lake Arrowhed. Boat and trailer is about 5,500 pounds. Trailer brakes don’t work at all. Power was find but the brakes really didn’t like coming down the mountain. They got hot and experienced tremendous fade to the point were it was a bit scary. My wife’s Range Rover Sport had better brakes and doesn’t have this issue. My post full sized Range Rover was similarly under braked but improved with better aftermarket brake pads. Obviously, functioning trailer brakes would have made a big difference but this trailer only goes down the mountain once a year so I’m not motivated to fix it.

The other is issue was the damn stability control. It was part of what lead to overheating the brakes. The computer kept clamping brakes mid corner and completely unsettling everything. Nothing like the computer trying straight the truck and trailer out mid turn at 50 mph when you have a guard rail on one side and at rock wall on the other. I have been towing boats down this mountain for 45 years and don’t need “help” from a fucking computer. Is there any way to disable stability control?

The electronic nannies in this are going to cause an accident. Bongs when speed limit changes, bongs when changing lanes without a blinker, bongs when it goes under 1/2 a tank in fuel. All of this leads to me fumbling through menus trying to disable crap while driving. Someone needs to hack the system and let us turn this crap off.

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ScottnAZ said:

Looks like your boat trailer has surge brakes, no?

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birdogs said:

How about towing, the grenadier haha !

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bikesandguitars said:

I just picked up a new ‘25 Tacoma. The number of safety bings / bongs/ lane corrections / back up braking, etc., make the Grenadier seem ancient. The only thing the Tacoma doesn’t do is over speed warning. Perspective.

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Commodore said:

Yesterday was my first time towing with the Grenny. I pulled one of our boats down from Lake Arrowhed. Boat and trailer is about 5,500 pounds. Trailer brakes don’t work at all. Power was find but the brakes really didn’t like coming down the mountain. They got hot and experienced tremendous fade to the point were it was a bit scary. My wife’s Range Rover Sport had better brakes and doesn’t have this issue. My post full sized Range Rover was similarly under braked but improved with better aftermarket brake pads. Obviously, functioning trailer brakes would have made a big difference but this trailer only goes down the mountain once a year so I’m not motivated to fix it.

The other is issue was the damn stability control. It was part of what lead to overheating the brakes. The computer kept clamping brakes mid corner and completely unsettling everything. Nothing like the computer trying straight the truck and trailer out mid turn at 50 mph when you have a guard rail on one side and at rock wall on the other. I have been towing boats down this mountain for 45 years and don’t need “help” from a fucking computer. Is there any way to disable stability control?

The electronic nannies in this are going to cause an accident. Bongs when speed limit changes, bongs when changing lanes without a blinker, bongs when it goes under 1/2 a tank in fuel. All of this leads to me fumbling through menus trying to disable crap while driving. Someone needs to hack the system and let us turn this crap off.

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MTNDOG said:

The stability control switch is on the overhead counsel. Alternatively to putting yourself into or thru a guard rail or a rock wall, fixing the trailer brakes may be a less expensive option, physics can be a bitch.

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Commodore said:

Pushing that button doesn’t seem to turn off the stability control. Does it need to be in off-road mode to disable?

I towed my other boat down today. This has a much newer trailer and the brakes were serviced May of this year. Obviously, the Grenny didn’t have the brake fade issue with this one but the stability control was still a complete pain in the ass. It continued to intervene at the worst times. Keep in mind that coming down highway 18 is twisty with speeds ranging from 35 mph to 65 mph. In over 40 years of towing boats down this mountain I have never had this happen on any other tow vehicle and there have been a lot of them. Tow vehicles range from Ford pickups, Chevy Suburbans, Range Rover full size and sport, Jeeps, and even a way over limit 2 door bronco. Not a single one of them has had this issue with stability control. This is 100% unique to the Grenadier and they way they have it programmed.

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MTNDOG said:

Hold it down and it will shut off in a few seconds

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Commodore said:

Yesterday was my first time towing with the Grenny. I pulled one of our boats down from Lake Arrowhed. Boat and trailer is about 5,500 pounds. Trailer brakes don’t work at all. Power was find but the brakes really didn’t like coming down the mountain. They got hot and experienced tremendous fade to the point were it was a bit scary. My wife’s Range Rover Sport had better brakes and doesn’t have this issue. My post full sized Range Rover was similarly under braked but improved with better aftermarket brake pads. Obviously, functioning trailer brakes would have made a big difference but this trailer only goes down the mountain once a year so I’m not motivated to fix it.

The other is issue was the damn stability control. It was part of what lead to overheating the brakes. The computer kept clamping brakes mid corner and completely unsettling everything. Nothing like the computer trying straight the truck and trailer out mid turn at 50 mph when you have a guard rail on one side and at rock wall on the other. I have been towing boats down this mountain for 45 years and don’t need “help” from a fucking computer. Is there any way to disable stability control?

The electronic nannies in this are going to cause an accident. Bongs when speed limit changes, bongs when changing lanes without a blinker, bongs when it goes under 1/2 a tank in fuel. All of this leads to me fumbling through menus trying to disable crap while driving. Someone needs to hack the system and let us turn this crap off.

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FlyersFan76 said:

Do you down shift at all or just ride the brakes as needed on your decent?

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birdogs said:

How about towing, the grenadier haha !

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ECrider said:

Gun bus

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ECrider said:

Gun bus

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rovie said:

In my opinion, the Ifor Williams trailers are the best on the market.

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Eric said:

That was my opinion and have owned numerous IWT over many decades. Now I'm not so sure and my next trailers will be "Nugent" trailers, seem better built. They make other farm equipment as well. Made in Northern Ireland not sure if they are available in the EU.

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