dlatouche

Hello to all. I have a 2013 gl450 that I am considering using to tow a camper trailer. My initial plan was to trade it in for a ford expedition, as I heard they are better in the suv class to tow camper trailers easily. However, I may have the vehicle right in front in front my eyes and I may not know it.
I know the towing capcity is 7500. If I'm looking for a trailer, what should it weight be with everthing in it such as cargo, food etc. My wife and I are currently looking at trailers that are approximately 9000, which I know is over the trailer capacity.
How efficient is towing a camper cross country or locally? What repairs, maintenance etc should I be looking out for. How many miles should I drive up to before it's no longer worthy to put pressure on engine and other parts. I currently have 137000+ miles on the vehicle. Thanks for your responses in advance.

Max Blast

Hi, you’ll have more luck on the x166 forum.
towing with your car’s predecessor (the x164 GL450) is fine though. Anything above 6k you’ll feel.
Admin please move?

chassis

The GL/GLS/ML/GLE platforms are solid towing machines. Tow with confidence.

Trailer weight plus food, clothing, dishes, televisions cannot exceed the vehicle tow rating. The trailer dealer can help with this, or estimate approx 10% of the dry trailer weight for its contents. This means a 6k lbs dry weight trailer is getting close to the limit.

At that trailer weight you will want a weight distributing hitch. Are you familiar with these?

Fuel economy goes way down when towing, not a surprise. Brakes get consumed faster, as do tires, but to a lesser extent than brakes. You will want an electric brake controller with a 6k lbs dry weight trailer.

storm10

Check on your front door sticker for the maximum allowable GRVW, so whatever you tow cannot exceed it. Otherwise, your trailer will turn your car upside down when cornering. Watch this video, as it explains a little about the towing for 4Matic models:

DennisG01

That part about turning your car upside down is a bit of an exaggeration, but trailering safely is definitely important.

I'm curious about the videos you make as I know nothing about how youtube works. Do you make money whenever someone clicks on your videos? It seems like you post these videos you make a lot and I was curious about it.

eric_in_sd

lol remember there was a guy who came on here shilling his repair videos. I watched part of one and said, huh, I've never heard of any of these things. I told him he was full of it, a fight ensued; the thread and, I believe, the guy got deleted.

Yes he makes money off clicks on his YT videos, which doesn't mean the content is wrong, but it is unethical to promote your own information without disclosing your financial incentive - making the information automatically suspect. The clickbait UR GONNA DIE headline doesn't help either.

This crazy U-Haul guy told me I would flip my car if I put the safety chains on wrong. I had no idea he was renting me such an unsafe product.

eric_in_sd

The GL is a fine towing vehicle, with a few caveats:
1) Respect the limitations. Towing is unnerving at best, if not change-of-underwear time.
2) You're playing with fire if you heavily load the tongue, because the rear air springs have to run at high pressure to maintain level.
3) Weight is less of a concern than is trailer wind cross section. A locomotive can pull many times its own weight, because each car has its own brakes and the rails prevent sideways movement. A camper trailer, as opposed to a cargo trailer, is mostly air inside. Both may be 6k lbs loaded, but one has several times the cross section. You get a strong sideways gust, like from a passing semi, and, well, hope you brought a change of underwear.

It really isn't what I would do. I value my peace of mind and sanity more than that.

However, it all depends on your relationship with your wife. Put her in the trailer when you're on I-80 over the Rockies, and the semi trucks blast through at 75, and you'll find out how she responds to stress.

DennisG01

If that's the case, Eric, then yes - I definitely agree. I certainly don't mind if someone is trying to make a buck. But if you do it in a sneaky way, then that's not right. I didn't click on that video because I wasn't quite sure what it was... and I probably now never will (or others by him). Heck, if a person is honest about it, I'd probably click on the video "just because"!

However, this is a good example of how "just because someone makes a video, doesn't make it true". For example... first, it's GVWR, not GRVW (could be a typo, but then whatever happened to proof reading?). However, unlike what is stated above in post #4, GVWR has nothing to do with trailer weight. It only deals with trailer tongue weight and people/cargo in the truck. GCWR tells us more - but you then first subtract the trailer weight and tongue weight and whatever is left is the amount you can put in the truck.

storm10

"But if you do it in a sneaky way, then that's not right"???. Can you explain "making money the sneaky way"? "if a person is honest about it?" Do people usually tell you how or how much money they make - in order to be honest? Very interesting! Just so you know, nobody makes money by just clicking on YouTube videos. Lol! Since when are you afraid to watch YouTube videos? What scares you? You watch a video if it interests you. But if not, then you don't watch it. I do run some ads on those videos that anyone can skip in 5 seconds unless you have YouTube Premium - then you don't see any ads. Those cover the expenses for the server hosting, software, and time expenses. You can say the same about not watching TV because they run ads. Is that unethical too? As a matter of fact, this forum makes money by running ads. Did you ask this forum how much they make? Although I have about 28k subscribers right now, I make those videos mostly for fun. I worked in various Southern California Mercedes-Benz dealerships (including the busiest, and the biggest in sales - in the World!) for almost 20 years. You can read more about me on my ABOUT page here: https://mbzmaster.com/about-me/ . I hope you're not afraid to watch YouTube videos after you read who I am. Cheers!

eric_in_sd

So you're a car salesman. Got it.

Since you are making money off your posts, and presumably have cash to spare anyway, being a super successful care salesman, why don't you do the noble thing and become a MBWorld sponsor?

Or take the text from your video and post it, so people don't have to give Youtube the traffic? That would be the selfless thing to do.

People have to eat, but forums such as this are comprised of people crowdsourcing knowledge. It is volunteer work. Grifters taint the water.

DennisG01

Storm, you missed the point. It's not about you making money - in fact, look at my post above as I already said there's nothing wrong with that. It's about being honest in your post - don't try to make the video out to be something that you "found" on the internet and are passing it along. Be truthful and upfront about it - be honest - just tell everyone that it is a video that you made and while, yes, you make money through Youtube, it might be information that could be helpful. Otherwise, it just comes across as sneaky and dishonest.

eric_in_sd

Dennis is nicer, but I am funnier.

storm10

Volunteer work? I think you have a good suggestion to become a sponsor of MBWorld, although I think Internet Brands are pretty successful without my sponsorship, but I'll think about it.
I used to buy leads from their CarsDirect since 2004 for 3 different MB dealerships, so I already invested my part.
Next time I'll provide you with a text instead of the video if that's what you prefer. Maybe you suggest to MB World, since you sincerely worry about traffic, to remove the embedding of YouTube videos altogether, and just use text.

RostamDastan

Within its limits, GL is a very capable and stable tow vehicle. A 9000# camper is beyond GL's capability. If you travel in the mountains, limiting the trailer weight to say 6000# makes the towing experience much more enjoyable. Also, after taking into account the trailer tongue weight, you don't have much weight carrying capacity left. With 3 adults (170# each), a 50# child, and 600# trailer tongue weight, our GL was 40# shy of the GVWR and 20# shy of the rear axle weight rating.