Impressive story but...most of us can only go one continuous mile in EV under the right conditions. Further explain the two mile distance.

 

Other than that I was 2 miles away from the last rest stop (SB) on the Jersey Turnpike, and the hybrid went into electric-only mode while we were hooking up the chain... Maybe it was because we only pulled at 1-5 mph?

I don't know how it did it, but that it did. The engine didn't come on again until we were in the rest stop.

 

I wonder if your pulling adventure was a "pull-glide" procedure. You gently hit the accelerator, got moving, let off the accelerator a little and repeated. This repetitious action would provide a small recharge to the hybrid battery duing each "deceleration", thus enabling what you reported.

 

Dunno Bill. It was slightly uphill, so I think we were on the accelerator most of the time... But I'm not certain. This was in August of 08, so it has been a while.

 

2 miles at "idle" speed is very doable.
Towing that much weight at 5 MPH sounds totally reasonable.

I agree the motors and gear ratios are quite capable at lower speeds.

People have "fretted" about pushing a trailer in reverse since reverse is always electric motor only ( even if the gas engine is running, there is no reverse gear and no way to couple the gas engine to the wheels in reverse).

I however, push a 3200-3300# trailer UPHILL up my 6% to 8% driveway slope, routinely in EV. It's no big deal, and takes very few EV amps actually, in the 8 to 10 amps @ 330v range. That's only about 5 horsepower needed to move 7,400 pounds uphill at 5 mph or less.

Simply........ Amazing.....
-John

 

I just finally had a hitch installed on my 2005 Escape Hybrid. Lights on trailer worked first time I used it, but now none of the lights work. Is there a fuse I should be checking? Kinda pissed they stopped working after one day of use.

Looks like they used a Draw-Tie Class III hitch (#75281) and a Tow Ready Flat 4 wiring (#118426)

 

Here's what's going on: the FEH lighting circuitry monitors current and if its above expected it will shutdown that light.

In order for the lights to work you can reset the circuitry by stopping and turning off the engine to reset it.

Long term you need a circuit that taps into the lights for sensing when on but that powers the lights from a separate source, a "vampire tap."

This is covered in an older post on this.

 

Stopping and restarting car and/or pulling the fuse under the hood for outside lights has not made the lights work again. They worked the first two times we used the trailer, but not all since.

I am assuming the Auto Details place I used put in the wrong wiring. What keywords should I use to tell them what they did wrong? (They know trailers and wiring, but obviously not Escape Hybrids...)

Which terms would they understand?

"vampire tap"

"Modulater"

"lighting setup that has a separate power lead from the front of the vehicle for the trailer lighting"

"The box that was required for the earlier FEH's (Mines an '06) will have a wire that leads all the way back to the 12V Battery! The harness that just hooks in will have a box as well. That box handles issues like combined turn signals/brake lights, etc.
The box with the 12V connection is sort of a power supply for the trailer lamps. It reads the condition of the lamps without pulling power and then powers the trailer lights with the 12V connection. The problem without it is that the FEH has a detection system that looks for the current being pulled by the lamps and if it pulls too much it signals that their is a problem and your lights will not work."

 

I'm making the return trip of my annual tow today. I installed the converter box for the trailer lights (and a 12V tap from the battery w/ it's own fuse). But I still have problems with the lights.

They typically work for a brief period normally. Then the computer decides that the L turn signal has burned out and starts flashing rapidly. Right now, I'm about 95% sure that everything's OK with that bulb (filaments are fine, etc). But it doesn't light at all now. Meanwhile the trailer lights work fine except for the speedy L turn signal.

This has happened before, and I forget what exactly resets the computer so that it realizes that the bulb works fine. But I typically pull the fuse on the 12V to the converter and plug the wiring back in normally at the L tail light when I'm not using the trailer.

 

My FEH is an 06. Mine reset with engine off and back on. Make sue you let it saty off for a few minutes.

When I put in the box with a separate power supply for the lights it then worked fine. Not sure what else to tell you.

Take it back to the installing dealer and tell them the symptoms and let them solve it, that's their job. It's as if there is some other problem along with the basic too much current for the computer issue.

I would try just replacing bulbs. It's like fuses: sometimes they can appear to be good visually but are not. Seen that a very few times over the years.