Pulling with volvo v60 cross country

[lynnbill]

This will be my first question for the forum. I have enjoyed reading many of the Q and A's over the past 5 to 6 years and hope someone has experience relevant to the newer volvo v60 cross country as a tow vehicle.
Presently I am towing a Trillium 4500 with my 2009 volvo v70. We have probably towed the trillium approx. 60,000 KM ( 40,000 miles) over the last several years with no problem but it is almost time to change vehicles. I've been looking at a 2018 volvo v60 cross country. Its tow specs are basically the same as the v70 but it does have a shorter wheel base. Just wondering if anyone has experience towing with a v60 cross country.
Bill

[Baxter]

I looked it up, and the 2108 v60 has (according to my source, at least) a 2872 mm wheelbase, while your 2009 has 2816.

I think you'll be just fine.

[lynnbill]

Thanks Baxter,
Guess I shouldn’t assume a smaller vehicle has a shorter wheel base.
All the best,
Bill

[grolympia]

Ratings don't mean much. Drivers do.
Overheated, and destroyed, the transmission on my XC-90 by
1)excessive speed up hill-I-5 out of Oregon,
2)temperature over 90,
3)driver tired and wanted to get home

The numbers said the car would pull the Casita (and it did for over 10K miles).

Now I slow down (w/new tranmission)

[lynnbill]

Good advice Gary
Do you mind me asking the year, engine and tranny for your XC90?

[Fred762]

WE tow the Cassy 17' w a Frontier Dbl cab, long bd V6 w no problems except she occ drops into 3rd on steep uphills. but made for that acc to mfr

[Glenn Baglo]

Originally Posted by Fred762

WE tow the Cassy 17' w a Frontier Dbl cab, long bd V6 w no problems except she occ drops into 3rd on steep uphills. but made for that acc to mfr

Whatever that means.

[Fred762]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

Whatever that means.

It means that the mfr will list the tow capacity of yer vehicle.. in our case the 'midsize' Nissan Frontier 270 HP, V-6, long-bed, dbl cab(4 dr) truck is rated to tow 7500 lbs by the Nissan engineers..our present TT weighs in at < half that at most..easy peezee to tow.

Your vehicle has a tow rating as well. BTW the long bed does make a positive difference in towability

[EdBlock]

We tow our 1976 Scamp 13 (scale weight, loaded: 1,340 lbs, no electric brakes) with a 2005 Volvo XC70 (2.5L 5-cyl turbo, 5-speed auto, 3,300lbs towing capacity, 165K miles)
Last summer from San Antonio, Texas to central Colorado and back only about a 3,000 mile round trip but pulled several mountain passes. Plenty of power, cruised at 70 mph, averaged 19 mpg overall the whole trip, no problems whatsoever. Usually used the manual shift mode of tranny so I could control speed without overusing brakes and keep it out of high gear on the downhills.

[Barb Hunt]

I towed my Escape, 3,500 pounds fully loaded, with my 2009 XC90 which is rated for 5,000 pounds. Fine until I had to speed up on an on-ramp because a car changed lanes on a corner and was approaching too fast. I think this is what killed my transmission. Now I have a new transmission but I'm afraid to tow my trailer and wreck the transmission again. That's ok though - I found a wonderful site (Seal Bay RV Park, Vancouver Island) and I want to stay here. The mechanic who put in my new transmission told me he's seen a lot of 10-year old Volvo's that need a new transmission. My advice: accelerate slowly.

[pedalmike]

Hi Bill. I have not purchased a V60 Cross Country, but I’m interested in the car as a possible next tow vehicle.

One thing I have learned is the factory hitch for North America has a 1 1/4” receiver that uses a motorized mechanism that swings it away when not in use. It then has a 2” ball mount that attaches to the receiver. The factory hitch costs $1,500. I don’t know what the aftermarket will offer for a hitch. If you use a weight distributing hitch, it would not work with the factory hitch. The factory hitch comes with a 7 pole connector for the trailer, but it appears that the pole position for electric brakes is not wired, so you would need to a) wire your own brake controller and wire for the electric brakes or b) use one of the available wireless brake controllers.

Factory hitch for North America is listed at 3,500 lb. capacity with max tongue weight of 350 lbs. Seems like a lot for a 1 1/4” receiver. In Europe, Volvo lists the tow capacity as 2,000 kg or 4,409 lbs. for a "Braked Trailer".

Info on the hitch can be found here
https://accessories.volvocars.com/en...0AWD/Automatic

If you need a ball diameter other than 2” , you need to buy an aftermarket ball mount. The factory ball mount has the ball cast in as one piece and is not removable from the ball mount.

I can’t get info from my 2 local Volvo dealers on the height from the ground of the installed hitch to the top of the ball. If anyone here has that info, please post it.

Mike

[Glenn Baglo]

I was tempted to look into a Volvo XC90 (?), but was stopped cold when i discovered it runs on premium fuel. Regular gas costs enough here in BC.

[lynnbill]

Hi Mike,
Had the same trouble getting information on ball height for the OE hitch (from the dealer). I was looking at a 2018 v60 cross country. I called Hitch City (a franchise in Ontario) and they indicated it was not a problem hooking up a 2 inch receiver and wiring in a brake controller to the 7point connector, however if a wiring problem (ie. short) should occur it would not be covered by the volvo warranty. I suspect its' not much of a risk.
Cheers, Bill

[John in Santa Cruz]

Note all those volvos are FWD (or front-wheel centric AWD) systems, the last RWD volvo was the S90/V90 in the mid 1990s. I personally would not choose a FWD(AWD) vehicle for regular towing, while it might do the job, its far more likely to fail prematurely in expensive ways as towing long distances puts a lot of stress on a vehicles drive train.

[lynnbill]

Hi John,
Actually I've had really good luck using 2 different volvos. My first volvo was a 1999 v70. We pulled trailers all over North America with it for 2 months every year with no mechanical problems. We sold it to a friend who also used to pull trailers up until this year again with no engine or tranny issues (21 years on the road with high mileage ie. approx. 400,000 kilometres). The 2009 volvo v70 I'm using now has pulled our trillium 4500 over 60,000 km.( 40,000 miles) with no tranny or engine issues. We often pull in high heat (ie. desert) and in mountainous regions. Last year we travelled through the Yukon, Alaska and British Columbia for two and a half months again with no issues. I'm getting close to the 300,000 km. mark now so I'm thinking I should look at a new tow vehicle. I'm looking at volvos because they have worked well for me.
Bill

[Baxter]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

I was tempted to look into a Volvo XC90 (?), but was stopped cold when i discovered it runs on premium fuel. Regular gas costs enough here in BC.

I've never put premium in my XC90 and have not seen any sticker or other instructions to do so.

[John in Santa Cruz]

the turbocharged Volvo motors all preferred premium, but will tolerate regular at the expense of reduced performance when you push them into the zone where they would otherwise ping/knock.. heavy throttle, midrange RPM, and you'll hear/feel the engine start to crackle, then the power will roll back as it retards the ignition. This was especially problematic in hot weather at lower elevations, and not much of a problem in the mountains above about 6000'. The 'low pressure turbos' aren't as bad at this as the higher performance T5, T6 variants. The "R" models of the 90s, 2000s with their over-boost controllers were the most susceptible. Now, I don't know much about what Volvo is doing nowdays, so ...

[Baxter]

Ah, if course, that makes sense.

In an xc90 (the first gen at least) you really don’t want a turbo model.