Installing the Home Made Ford Neutral Towing Kit
First, you must remove the piece of plastic dashboard
underneath the steering column which is held in place by a few small screws.
Then look for a Green Plug (with two wires) under the right side of the
steering column. Simply cut the Green Plug off and throw it away. Next, you
mount the small 12v LED light somewhere on the dash or steering column so
that you can see it. Then you simply complete the circuit (where you cut off
the Green Plug) by using the two short wires from the LED light. Attach one
wire from the light to one cut wire and then attach the second wire from the
light to the other cut wire. You have now completed the circuit for the Ford
Neutral Towing Kit.
Programming the Home Made Ford Neutral Towing Kit
Once you have completed the installation shown above,
you must then find a mechanic shop to flash your vehicle's computer. I went
to Freedom Automotive in
Hesperia, CA and had Roy Jameson do the computer flash. It consisted of
plugging in a diagnostic laptop computer and simply choosing one of the three below
listed steps (depending on which diagnostic equipment your mechanic uses) to allow your
vehicle's transfer case to be put into neutral tow.
USING NGS SERVICE (GREEN) CARD
CONNECT TO VEHICLE VIA THE DIAGNOSTIC CONNECTOR
SELECT “SERVICE BAY FUNCTIONS”
SELECT “4X4 CONTROL MODULE”
SELECT “NEUTRAL TOW FUNCTION”
SELECT “EXPLORER”
PRESS TRIGGER AND SCROLL TO ENABLE OR DISABLE
PRESS TRIGGER AGAIN AFTER HIGHLIGHTING THE DESIRED STATE
PRESS “DONE”
USING NGS+
SELECT PROPER VEHICLE AND MODEL YEAR
SELECT DIAGNOSTIC DATA LINK
SELECT 4X4 MODULE
SELECT FUNCTION TESTS
SELECT NEUTRAL TOW
ENABLE
SCROLL TO ENABLE OR DISABLE NTF AND PRESS TRIGGER
USING WDS
CONNECT TO VEHICLE VIA THE DIAGNOSTIC CONNECTOR
FOLLOW HOOK UP SCREEN
AFTER WDS DISPLAYS VEHICLE INFO, SELECT TOOL BOX ON TOP OF SCREEN
FROM ON SCREEN MENU SELECT “MODULE PROGRAMMING”
SELECT “PROGRAMMABLE PARAMETTERS”
SELECT “NEUTRAL TOW FUNCTION”
FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS ON THE WDS TO COMPLETE OPERATION
Roy only charged me $45.00 for hooking up the
diagnostic machine and flashing the computer. It took a total of 30 minutes
to flash the computer and that was only because he installed all of the
computer updates for my vehicle; if he had not done the extra stuff, it
would have taken only 20 minutes.
Using the Home Made Ford Neutral Towing Kit
Now that the 12v LED light is installed and the computer
has been flashed to allow neutral towing, here are the sequence of steps to
follow to put the transfer case into tow neutral.
Since the vehicle will be placed into neutral, make sure the vehicle is
secured (won't roll away) while going through the below listed steps. Since
I hook up my Explorer to my motorcoach with the tow bar first, I do not have
to worry about my Explorer rolling away while putting it into tow neutral.
1. have the engine running
2. put the shift lever into neutral
3. turn the key back two positions (off but not locked)
4. 12v indicator light will come on and then turn off
5. press the brake and the 4X4 auto button for about 5 seconds
6. the 12v indicator light will flash several times and then stay on
7. release the brake and the 4X4 button
8. transfer case is now in neutral
Please note that the 12v LED light will eventually go
out after several minutes, but as long as you keep the vehicle's shift lever
in neutral, both your transmission and the transfer case will remain in tow
neutral. We have now towed our Ford Explorer for several miles and love how
quickly we can hook it up and how great our Ford Explorer tows behind the motorcoach.
In summary, I am now very happy
with my 2003 Ford Explorer XLT 4x4, AWD, 4-Door, with V8, and automatic
transmission as a dinghy vehicle. The Ford Explorer is a nice size vehicle to tow
behind a Class A motorcoach. It is a mid-size SUV so you can tow it without any
problems; not too long, not too big, not too small, not too heavy. We have a
great SUV with a 239 HP, 4.6L, SOHC V8 with 4750 rpm and 282 lb-ft of torque at
4000 rpm. (powerful but not a gas hog), with 4x4 AWD (great for snow, mud, & rainy road conditions), and a nice amount of room
inside the vehicle for both us and extra gear. Since our
SUV is a 4-door, we have plenty of room for a couple of extra passengers and
room to put the groceries. Our Explorer has a roof-mounted, luggage rack and a
tow package, so we can also install a roof mounted cargo carrier as well as an
ultra large cargo carrier or bike rack in the Explorer's hitch receiver for even more
storage capacity. As far as I can tell from all of the RV discussion board
topics, all Ford Explorer's whether 2x2 or 4x4, whether V6 or V8, whether 2 door
or 4 door can be quickly made tow ready by using this same procedure. In my
opinion, a Ford Explorer is definitely in the top 5 list of best, all-time,
vehicles for use as a towed vehicle behind a Class A motorcoach.
•
2003
Ford Explorer Specifications
•
2003 Ford Explorer
Owner's Guide
•
2003 Ford
Universal Service Information