"Bong" Type Chime When Towing

[FirstFord]

Okay, I know it's going to be hard, but let's try to restrain ourselves from the dope wisecracks....

I live out in the country and although I have towed several trailers with my new truck numerous times now, I towed a trailer through a larger metropolitan area for the first time. I heard an audible 'bong" type chime numerous times going through town, and cannot figure out: A) what the truck is trying to alert me to, and B) how to turn it off.
Of note:

- Only happens when a trailer is hooked up
- Only happened in a larger metropolitan area (not through smaller towns)
- I was not using any Nav (Ford or Google)
- In Ford Nav, and trailer settings, only trailer sway and trailer disconnect are checked - all other options are turned off (including RR crossings, school zones).
- Driving assist / speed limit warning has never been turned on

Philosophically speaking, it's kind of worthless having a warning, if you don't know what you are being warned about! Anyone have any thoughts on what this is and how to turn it off?

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[Aron]

It hasn't happened to me yet, so I can't confirm, but I've heard that people sometimes get alerts for bridges when you have the trailer connected (even if they're standard highway height).

If that's not it, I also recall that there's a setting to alert you to jurisdictional boundary changes...though I can't figure out why that's even a feature, or who would want that alerted.

I'm 100% with you with regards to getting an audible alert without any further information to explain it. It took me quite a while to figure out what the chime meant when I was using bluecruise and it went through an intersection (if the computer can't detect lane markings for too long, it'll chime and turn off the bluecruise, and then turn it back on when it finds the markings again).

 

[Snakebitten]

There's been a couple of fellas report that recently, while towing, they are getting numerous chimes for weight restrictions.
Try switching to your Nav screen and see if the bongs are simultaneous to Nav alerts regarding weight restrictions?

I'm wondering if this is a sudden and recent change in something "Here" mapping is providing to the native Nav stream.

 

[Mosey]

The bong is a warning of an approaching height-restricted overpass.

 

[UNIKRN150]

Okay, I know it's going to be hard, but let's try to restrain ourselves from the dope wisecracks....

I live out in the country and although I have towed several trailers with my new truck numerous times now, I towed a trailer through a larger metropolitan area for the first time. I heard an audible 'bong" type chime numerous times going through town, and cannot figure out: A) what the truck is trying to alert me to, and B) how to turn it off.
Of note:

- Only happens when a trailer is hooked up
- Only happened in a larger metropolitan area (not through smaller towns)
- I was not using any Nav (Ford or Google)
- In Ford Nav, and trailer settings, only trailer sway and trailer disconnect are checked - all other options are turned off (including RR crossings, school zones).
- Driving assist / speed limit warning has never been turned on

Philosophically speaking, it's kind of worthless having a warning, if you don't know what you are being warned about! Anyone have any thoughts on what this is and how to turn it off?

When I have my trailer connected, my truck is constantly "warning" me about the features that are not available while I'm towing.

It's VERY annoying and a little distracting.

I don't remember what those features are because I stopped paying attention a long time ago but I suspect that this is what you're getting.

 

[JJSnell]

The bong is a warning of an approaching height-restricted overpass.

Confirmed...
If you look at your nav it shows upcoming overpasses. Stupid as I set the height of my jet skis and trailer to 4ft high.
Stupid.

 

[Chads first F150]

Hope this helps! After my first towing trip, the following was part of my post:

Also noted:
- Bluecruise didn't work with a trailer.
- Lane keep assist would cause the rig to sway significantly, making it unusable.
- The Ford navigation would make an annoying 'bong' notification for upcoming bridge heights, until we found out how to turn off the 'trailer routing' feature.

 

[rugedraw]

The bong is a warning of an approaching height-restricted overpass.

The Ford navigation would make an annoying 'bong' notification for upcoming bridge heights, until we found out how to turn off the 'trailer routing' feature.

Mystery solved. Thank you for this. That chime was annoying the crap out of me.

 

[Rjschatts]

I turned towing navigation off, even though I thought it was and lowered my weight and it didn’t go off for the weight restrictions since.

 

[FirstFord]

Thanks for everyone's input!

@Snakebitten: I was only towing about 5000 LBS., so I would be shocked if it was a weight restriction (the weight capacity for this trailer is higher in the trailer profile).

@Chads first F150: The trailer routing optimization is tuned off (in fact, it has never been turned on!).

So far, the height restricted overpass seems to be winning the argument, and is slowly winning me over, but I'm not fully convinced yet. I'm just going by my memory (not so trustworthy any more!), but it seems that the "bong" alert was triggered more frequently than there were overpasses (but I have no way to actually determine this without duplicating the tow trip). And as other have eluded to, there were no actual height issues. The only real way to test this is to hook up the same load and drive through to that metro area again, and be situation-aware, hunting for overpasses to see if it coincides with the "bong". Unfortunately, I'm going to have to just wait until a similar towing trip/metro area comes up, because it isn't practical to dedicate a day (and the gas) just to try to recreate this scenario for a test.

But let's say it is the height restriction overpass. How do I turn it off??????

 

[powerboatr]

The bong is a warning of an approaching height-restricted overpass.

thats what i was thinking,
make sure your trailer settings has the height selected correctly
but yes a BONG with no actual HEY YOUR doing XZY is annoying as heck.
at least gives us a little guy popping up in the IP with a flag or clearance sign??

 

[JJSnell]

thats what i was thinking,
make sure your trailer settings has the height selected correctly
but yes a BONG with no actual HEY YOUR doing XZY is annoying as heck.
at least gives us a little guy popping up in the IP with a flag or clearance sign??

It actually shows a flashing something on the Nav screen. Can't recall if it's yellow or red or what.
I am taking my jet skis out Tuesday so I'll shoot a pic of the screen as I approach an overpass.
The warning BONGs vary in distance so I won't try to get a video.

 

[grubbster]

I just got back from a towing trip and noticed this. The bong is a weight or height restriction warning coming from the navigation system. It happens even if you are not using the navigation system. I was using android navigation. The warning can be turned off as mentioned above but what is really annoying is that every time you turn the truck off and back on, like when refueling, the setting turns back on.

 

[FirstFord]

The warning can be turned off as mentioned above

That is what's driving me nuts is how to turn it off! You said it "can be turned off as mentioned above", which made me go back and review the posts. I might be missing something, but the only reference that I saw on how to (allegedly) turn it off was from @Chads first F150:

The Ford navigation would make an annoying 'bong' notification for upcoming bridge heights, until we found out how to turn off the 'trailer routing' feature.

But as I have already reported the "Trailer Routing" feature IS turned off, was turned off, has been turned off, and in fact, has never been turned on. I'm not trying to be disagreeable, but the evidence that is before me says that "trailer features" is not the on/off switch point for the "bong". I'm still looking for a solution to turn it off...

 

[RickBullotta]

FWIW, while it can be annoying at a 14 foot overpass, it saved our a$$ when we were towing our Airstream and navigating with Google Maps and it routed us towards a very low covered bridge. It gave us time to find a safe spot to turn around well in advance. Pick your poison, I suppose.

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