Ken & Sheila
Site Team
We made our first trip towing our new Saturn Vue (AWD with Honda 3.5 V6 and Honda 5 sp auto).
Trip miles: 1050
Stops: 3
Elevation change 1000 feet to 7500. The many ups and downs of 2-3 thousand feet.
Tow bar: Roadmaster Falcon (same as I use on the Jeep)
Brakes: Not installed (no comments) but it will be Roadmaster Brakemaster (air operated cylinder actuating the brake pedal) with signal line to MH Dash.
The car towed very well. You must follow the transmission shift sequence (drive to neutral) and must let the engine idle in neutral for 3 mins (repeated every 7 hours, driving or not driving). You also should pull the ignition fuse to protect the battery. I plan to find a way to have a switch for this function.
I had the base plate installed by Charlie Echols. They did a good job, but they screwed up the light wires I had already installed!!
The stupid technician checked my wiring and decided it was wrong because I had wire for separate Brake and Turn lights even thought the Saturn does NOT have yellow turn lights. What he didn't check was the Saturn DOES have separate brake and turn lights - its just there both red. He took out two of my diodes and attached the wires to the other lights. Got the diodes back, refused to pay for his diagnostic and "repair" work, but I still had to spend an hour redoing the work. It really pissed me off.
I was going to have Echols install the brake system, but I think I do it myself.
BTW, M&G, my preferred brake system will not fit on the Saturn.
Running the light wires was relatively easy removing only one inside body part - the wiring is inside the front and rear quarter panels and run inside the panel under the doors between the quarter panels. The only hard part was that it was 110 degrees when I did this work.
Once I install the air brake cylinder and breakaway plumping I post how easy/hard the job was to complete.
Ken
Trip miles: 1050
Stops: 3
Elevation change 1000 feet to 7500. The many ups and downs of 2-3 thousand feet.
Tow bar: Roadmaster Falcon (same as I use on the Jeep)
Brakes: Not installed (no comments) but it will be Roadmaster Brakemaster (air operated cylinder actuating the brake pedal) with signal line to MH Dash.
The car towed very well. You must follow the transmission shift sequence (drive to neutral) and must let the engine idle in neutral for 3 mins (repeated every 7 hours, driving or not driving). You also should pull the ignition fuse to protect the battery. I plan to find a way to have a switch for this function.
I had the base plate installed by Charlie Echols. They did a good job, but they screwed up the light wires I had already installed!!
The stupid technician checked my wiring and decided it was wrong because I had wire for separate Brake and Turn lights even thought the Saturn does NOT have yellow turn lights. What he didn't check was the Saturn DOES have separate brake and turn lights - its just there both red. He took out two of my diodes and attached the wires to the other lights. Got the diodes back, refused to pay for his diagnostic and "repair" work, but I still had to spend an hour redoing the work. It really pissed me off.
I was going to have Echols install the brake system, but I think I do it myself.
BTW, M&G, my preferred brake system will not fit on the Saturn.
Running the light wires was relatively easy removing only one inside body part - the wiring is inside the front and rear quarter panels and run inside the panel under the doors between the quarter panels. The only hard part was that it was 110 degrees when I did this work.
Once I install the air brake cylinder and breakaway plumping I post how easy/hard the job was to complete.
Ken
