Santa Fe towing setup
Hi everyone
I have recently swapped my Mazda CX7 for a 2018-2020 automatic version Santa Fe. The Mazda was absolutely rock solid when towing but the Santa Fe seems to be decidedly twitchy at motorway speeds. Since most people seem to rave about the Santa Fe's ability (and on paper it is heavier than the Mazda and the towing weight ratio is only 74%) I guess I dont have the setup quite right. Certainly the suspension is much softer than the Mazda, and there are many more "driver assistance" toys which I suspect should be switched off, plus the car has its own towing stability system which may be fighting with the Alko caravan system.
If there are any similar Santa Fe drivers out there, I would appreciate any tips on how you set up your car when towing
TIA
Marybeth
Comments
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The key differences between the Mazda and Santa Fe that may affect twitchy handling when towing are as you suspect primarily the suspension. Firmer springs and damping with reduced travel will give a more confident ride. Another is the distance from the rear axle to the towball the greater the distance the more leverage the caravan has to sway the car, also the profile of the tyres , lower profile have less sidewall to wobble on. Moving from a sporty set up SUV toward a more traditional one will bring handling differences, presuming that your nose weight, tyre pressures and loading are all good its just a question of tweaking these to see if you can improve things, ultimately the Santa Fe maybe slighty twitchier than the Mazda which is just something to get used to.
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We had a 2011 SF and it was very stable tow car pulling an eddis crusader at 1900kg, in 2017 we changed to the facelifted version and straight away it was struggling to be stable towing the same outfit/loading etc.
In the end I fitted MAD supplementary springs rear springs , these are the progressive springs that are inserted along with the original springs and this corrected the stability issues.
They did not increase the ride height of the car at the rear so normal ride height when solo was maintained.
Notified to insurance over the five years of ownership and never had the premium loaded.
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Thanks for this tip, Watto64. So you think that this made a significant difference to towing stability ?
I've never seen this mentioned on a Towcar review so I'm glad I'm not the only one.
I had a look on the Ekollon website and they aren't crazy expensive so this could be a solution
I'm assuming that my local garage could fit them.
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To add a little bit more to this, we have now fitted the Ekollon springs and they have made a significant improvement to towing stability. The cost was only around £250 with the springs fitted by our local garage, and well worth it for the vast improvement in handling and relaxation. I informed my insurance company but there was no additional loading. I would recommend them to others with a similar issue.
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