Anybody towing with a 2012 Ford Explorer 4x4 3.5L V6?

Hello! I'm brand new to this site, my first post!
My wife and I just bought a 2012 Ford Explorer 4x4 3.5L V6 with a maximum tow rating of 5000 lbs. Is there anyone in the Heartland family who is using an Explorer to tow with? If so, how do you like it and do you have any recommendations for tires, weight distributing hitches, and especially hard sided camper trailers? We just scrapped a 1998 Coleman Bayside pop up we wore out and are not interested in the pop up campers anymore. Been there, done that and we did love it with our kids. They are off to college and now we are more interested in a four season hard side that I don't have to crank up and pull out the slide beds etc.

Thanks so much, I'm sure I'm going to love this site.

Hi Olddog,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and hopefully to the family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.

I don't have any experence with the Ford Explorer, but would think you should be able to tow something in the North Trail, Wilderness, Prowler or Trail Runner area. Some of the shorter units are in your range. Find a dealer and check them out. Some really nice units.

Enjoy the forum and hope to see you on the road someplace.

Jim M

With the Explorer as a tow vehicle you are very limited, hard sides are weight and thats your enemy. I really don't want to sound like the weight police but keep looking at lightweights and you might have to go to another brand.

We have a 2003 Ford Explorer with a tow package (5,800 limit) that is used to pull an MPG purchased in 2012. We really like the unit and have not had any problems with towing. Heartland has since discontinued this Model (what a loss), but if you look around you might still find one. We had to drive to Idaho to get our unit. Good Luck.

Unfortunately, you are very limited with the 2012 Ford Explorer 4x4 3.5L V6. As stated above, unless you can find an MPG, there is no other Heartland product you can surely tow safely.

The other problem with your vehicle is the short wheel base. You don't want to tow a too long trailer as well. My first recommendation is to look for a trailer that has no more than 5,000 pound GVWR. Secondly, I recommend you use the Before You Buy RV app to ensure you will not overload the Explorer no matter what trailer you're interested in.

The Heartland North Trail Focus FX17 and FX18 are both listed as under 5000# GVWR. Also the FX18 even has a slide.

Jim M

jimtoo said:

The Heartland North Trail Focus FX17 and FX18 are both listed as under 5000# GVWR. Also the FX18 even has a slide.

Jim M

Click to expand...

Good catch Jim. I missed those. I'll keep those in mind in the future.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Olddog said:

Hello! I'm brand new to this site, my first post!
My wife and I just bought a 2012 Ford Explorer 4x4 3.5L V6 with a maximum tow rating of 5000 lbs. Is there anyone in the Heartland family who is using an Explorer to tow with? If so, how do you like it and do you have any recommendations for tires, weight distributing hitches, and especially hard sided camper trailers? We just scrapped a 1998 Coleman Bayside pop up we wore out and are not interested in the pop up campers anymore. Been there, done that and we did love it with our kids. They are off to college and now we are more interested in a four season hard side that I don't have to crank up and pull out the slide beds etc.

Thanks so much, I'm sure I'm going to love this site.

Click to expand...

well, I don't have an Explorer any more, but I did, 2001 Explorer Sport 4x4 (before my son rolled it).. max tow rating on it was 4880, so my solution was a Coachman Catalina Lite 26QB that was about 4400 lbs empty.. the first time I towed with it, I didn't have a weight distributing hitch and it was INCREDIBLY scary, there was hardly any weight on the front wheels, so all I did was basically move it about 1/4 mile to the next turn off on the road where I could part it safely. After getting a weight distribution hitch it was fine to tow with, but when a minivan (not a large truck) would go past, the trailer would sway and it was a "white knuckle" ride.. after buying a sway control bar, I never had any more worries about pulling it. (since then I've kinda gone upscale in my tow vehicle, 2012 Ram 2500 Crew Cab 4x4 with Cummins and G56 manual transmission)

In the early 90s. a totally different explorer then, but I towed a small trailer within the weight limits of the explorer. It was slow going uphills but the problem came when trying to stop the trailer. Despite having trailer brakes, it did not take long to smoke the brakes on the Explorer. This was on highway 49 in California, a very twisty hilly highway in the Gold Country. I had a new truck by the next weekend.