Towing a U-Haul Enclosed 5x8 Trailer

[ClevelandBeemer]

I question GM's sanity. I have towed for 45 years. I will not allow any automated driving system in its current state to take control when I have a trailer behind. Not to say they won't get there, but IMHO, today, they are simply not yet adequate. We react instantly to elements like wind or horse movement in the trailer because we can feel it before we can see it, and the hand is already moving. Even a 1/2 second delay caused by optical-only reactions can translate to a big sway at the tail of the trailer.

Do you think BlueCruise or SuperCruise can handle a 30mph side gust on a lightweight 30-foot camper trailer? BlueCruise struggles with side gusts even without a trailer.

Fair. My understanding is SuperCruise is trailer aware, so I would be comfortable as long as the system met expectations while in use.

As for BlueCruise, I think people are very much overthinking things. If winds are gusting at unsafe speeds then you as the driver are responsible either stay home or park it until conditions are safe. This is no different than crosswind limits for aircraft.

In normal conditions at highway speeds this should not be all that problematic.

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[RickLightning]

Fair. My understanding is SuperCruise is trailer aware, so I would be comfortable as long as the system met expectations while in use.

As for BlueCruise, I think people are very much overthinking things. If winds are gusting at unsafe speeds then you as the driver are responsible either stay home or park it until conditions are safe. This is no different than crosswind limits for aircraft.

In normal conditions at highway speeds this should not be all that problematic.

The problem is that a majority of people that tow don't think at all.

 

[TechnoSwiss]

Drag from wind goes up by speed squared, adding that boxy sail in the back makes it even more evident, so even just dropping from 70 down to 65 will give you better efficiency. While that increases drive time, it does reduce the charge time, so you might end up ahead.

 

[G$$]

Yep... Well, I assume mine's selected, but it's different than your button.

 

[K6CCC]

And, I'll bet $50 you didn't a) inspect the tires or b) check their air pressure.

Well, you got me on that one. Two weeks ago I towed (with an F-250) a trailer (about 18 feet with communications equipment) that is owned and maintained by the State of California a couple hundred miles mostly across the SoCal desert (Los Alamitos to just south of Shoshone for those that know where those are). About 80 miles into the drive one of the trailer tires self destructed on the freeway. Fortunately it's a two axle trailer so loosing one tire is not much of a problem. I did have to wait an hour for the approved service guy to come out and change the tire. When we got where I was going, I checked the four tires. All three of the remaining original tires were 48 PSI (plus or minus 1) with a rated pressure of 65 PSI and the spare that had been installed was 27 PSI with a rated pressure of 80. I had an air pump so they all got aired up. I had visually inspected the tires before the trip.
So much for the state maintenance!

 

[Adventureboy]

Fair. My understanding is SuperCruise is trailer aware, so I would be comfortable as long as the system met expectations while in use.

As for BlueCruise, I think people are very much overthinking things. If winds are gusting at unsafe speeds then you as the driver are responsible either stay home or park it until conditions are safe. This is no different than crosswind limits for aircraft.

In normal conditions at highway speeds this should not be all that problematic.

A couple of things.

• SuperCruise might be trailer aware but so is BlueCruise - in this case, I think BlueCruise is smarter and shuts itself off. It will need a few more years of development and likely much more sophisticated equipment before I'd use it.
• Have you ever driven in the mountains? Wind can catch you at any time. Unless you plan on staying home all the time, you will be caught in a crosswind gust or two even on nice days.
• Disagree that it won't be problematic. Even a light to moderate cross breeze can throw your trailer for a loop when a semi decides to pass you - especially if it is a light boxy camper trailer, which is a typical towing scenario for a Lightning.

BTW, I am class A licensed AND a private pilot. Flying/landing in a cross breeze is very different than trying to hang on to a trailer that is on the ground while a semi is passing. When flying, you have different runways, optional airports and you don't have other vehicles messing with your airflow. Furthermore, you only have to manage crosswinds for a few minutes while taking off and landing, and you wouldn't use autopilot to land in a crosswind (or ever). It takes a lot more than a few minutes of attention to haul a trailer for hours at a time on a highway where trucks are sharing the road a few feet away.

I'll take my crosswinds on my sailboat. Autopilot works for that quite well.

 

[ClevelandBeemer]

A couple of things.

• SuperCruise might be trailer aware but so is BlueCruise - in this case, I think BlueCruise is smarter and shuts itself off. It will need a few more years of development and likely much more sophisticated equipment before I'd use it.
• Have you ever driven in the mountains? Wind can catch you at any time. Unless you plan on staying home all the time, you will be caught in a crosswind gust or two even on nice days.
• Disagree that it won't be problematic. Even a light to moderate cross breeze can throw your trailer for a loop when a semi decides to pass you - especially if it is a light boxy camper trailer, which is a typical towing scenario for a Lightning.

BTW, I am class A licensed AND a private pilot. Flying/landing in a cross breeze is very different than trying to hang on to a trailer that is on the ground while a semi is passing. When flying, you have different runways, optional airports and you don't have other vehicles messing with your airflow. Furthermore, you only have to manage crosswinds for a few minutes while taking off and landing, and you wouldn't use autopilot to land in a crosswind (or ever). It takes a lot more than a few minutes of attention to haul a trailer for hours at a time on a highway where trucks are sharing the road a few feet away.

I'll take my crosswinds on my sailboat. Autopilot works for that quite well.

You’re entitled to your opinion, but I think you’re overthinking it. Not everyone is doing their towing in the mountains. Yes I’ve towed in mountains as well as driven 26’ box trucks in the mountains. Maybe I’m lucky, but I haven’t encountered any situations where I needed an instant input to avoid losing control. I go back to Chevy having this feature, yet I’ve not heard about any major accidents that were a result of using SuperCruise while towing.

My point about crosswinds in aircraft is there’s processes and procedures to deal with such situations as well as defined limits. Having driving assistance while towing doesn’t seem to be some insurmountable problem with the right guardrails and limits. For example lane centering should be disabled when not using BlueCruise. This because BlueCruise verifies attentiveness.

Speaking of wind, your comment of “ Even a light to moderate cross breeze can throw your trailer for a loop” is concerning as the load should not be that unstable. This sounds more of an improperly loaded trailer or poorly configured tow rig situation….. Between modern trailer sway controls, weight distribution hitches, and tongue weight scales, having such an unstable towing scenario shouldn’t be a thing in 2026.

 

[Adventureboy]

Between modern trailer sway controls, weight distribution hitches, and tongue weight scales, having such an unstable towing scenario shouldn’t be a thing in 2026.

You do you, but time does not change weather and that “modern” equipment has been available for decades. It is still a thing in 2026 when newbies hook a trailer on a truck and don’t understand the dynamics. Especially if they think a 5-year-old auto drive system can make up for lack of experience. Ford did the right thing here.

 

[RickLightning]

You’re entitled to your opinion, but I think you’re overthinking it. Not everyone is doing their towing in the mountains. Yes I’ve towed in mountains as well as driven 26’ box trucks in the mountains. Maybe I’m lucky, but I haven’t encountered any situations where I needed an instant input to avoid losing control. I go back to Chevy having this feature, yet I’ve not heard about any major accidents that were a result of using SuperCruise while towing.

My point about crosswinds in aircraft is there’s processes and procedures to deal with such situations as well as defined limits. Having driving assistance while towing doesn’t seem to be some insurmountable problem with the right guardrails and limits. For example lane centering should be disabled when not using BlueCruise. This because BlueCruise verifies attentiveness.

Speaking of wind, your comment of “ Even a light to moderate cross breeze can throw your trailer for a loop” is concerning as the load should not be that unstable. This sounds more of an improperly loaded trailer or poorly configured tow rig situation….. Between modern trailer sway controls, weight distribution hitches, and tongue weight scales, having such an unstable towing scenario shouldn’t be a thing in 2026.

You're very naive as to thinking that just because features exist, people use them. Forums are full of stupid people (not referring to you) that brag about the pallet weighing 2,000 pounds they put in the bed and towed a trailer. You mention payload, and they laugh or ask what the word means. Even Ford putting scales in changed nothing, and Ford backed off the led taillights that were supposed to signal overweight. Maybe 1 out of 1,000 use a scale, there is a bathroom scale and pipe method and no one uses that. People argue that the truck having anti sway means they don't need a wdh....

People don't give a crap, endangering their lives, the lives of their families, and others. What is the worst that can happen? Death.

 

[djwildstar]

The truck's dash says I am averaging 1.0-1.1 mi/kwh, but strangely, ABRP's "reference consumption", which is pulling from an ODBLink CX adapter, has been slowly increasing from ~1.4 to ~1.71 mi/kwh as I drive. Anyone know why the difference?

ABRP's reference consumption is specifically at 65 MPH.

I'm guessing that you're not holding at exactly 65 during your drive. So ABRP takes the actual consumption, actual speed data, and actual elevation change, then plugs it into its formula to estimate what you would be using if you were driving at 65 on a level road. That calculated number is the reference consumption.

ABRP uses the same formula in the other direction when planning: it takes the reference consumption and plugs that plus the road's speed limit (as adjusted by your reference speed percentage) and elevation change into the formula to create an estimated efficiency for the trip.

 

[G$$]

@djwildstar , interesting! Is that reference consumption info/equation published somewhere? I'd like to see the details.

 

[Adventureboy]

@djwildstar , interesting! Is that reference consumption info/equation published somewhere? I'd like to see the details.

Open the app, click on the settings for your truck. You can adjust settings based on your driving habits like typical relative speed and conditions. If you have accessories like larger tires, you can adjust the reference consumption up or down to match your truck if you don't want to use the calibrated consumption.

 

[Firn]

I would never use a driver assist towing , always do it yourself the computer can’t see what’s going on up ahead far enough to anticipate a sudden stop it’s reactive , as a driver you can be proactive towing , you see brake lights ahead and lift in anticipation of potentially having to stop the computer sees nothing and continues on even accelerating of needed as if nothings happening ahead .

Your assumption is that you cant still do those things with Bluecruise. It isn't one or the other, its both. You are still very much in control of what happens, you just also have a system that is handling a lot of the minutia as well.

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That seems to be a common thread here, that folks are driving OR using bluecruise. The other one is that folks who turn their mind off when using bluecruise dont ALSO turn their mind off without it.

Good drivers will be good drivers, bad ones will be bad ones, having or using a system like GM or Ford has doesnt turn a good driver into a bad one, but I sure as heck want the bad drivers to ALSO have a system making them better.

 

[djwildstar]

@djwildstar , interesting! Is that reference consumption info/equation published somewhere? I'd like to see the details.

I assume the actual formula is ABRP proprietary information.

You can read more at ABRP: Reference Consumption

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