what are you guys using?

[lateapex911]

I like the part about having to empty my gas tank when my car travels over the interstate on it's open trailer!! that MAKES sense, lol

Can't we reassign these geeks to finding Bin Laden or something semi useful??

[Z3_GoCar]

Raymond,

I'm not directly involved in this, Dave Lemons is a national level EP racer from our division. The story on the stop is that he was traveling East on Hwy. 40 near Flagstaff for an event he didn't need to run when he was caught in sting by Federally trained Arizona officers. His vehicle had private motorhome plates and "Not For Commercial Use" on it, but the officers would not let them proceede and insisted that only someone with a CDL would be allowed to drive the vehicle back to California. This is on the second page of the thread if I recall correctly. Again, best bet is stay as low as you can.

James

[RSTPerformance]

Arizona huh... they must be tough. I was in a rental car out thier once on a road trip with a past girlfriend, and she was driving. The SUV was rented in my name. She got pulled over doing 85mph, and they wanted to tow the vehicle in the middle of the friggen desert because she was driving and not on the rental agreement. I was a bit pissed but stayed sivel. She got a ticket and I drove the rest of the trip.

Fun fun... new rules, stay out of arizona!!!

Raymond " I do think all these stories are educational, anlthough they really piss me off that old joe blow can drive his 45' motorhome coach and we can't tow a friggen open trailer." Blethen

[x-ring]

" I do think all these stories are educational, anlthough they really piss me off that old joe blow can drive his 45' motorhome coach and we can't tow a friggen open trailer."
[/b]

It the AARP lobby :P

[joeg]

Hey..I belong to AARP!

[dazzlesa]

Pulled a pretty loaded up 20' with my titan. There are a few using 1/2 tons to pull 24' trailers but most need leveler bars and the right gearing. The titan did well towing to the glen with that trailer. Its a friends trailer and even his F150 seems to do ok with it. But at this point if I go enclosed will likely ditch the gasser and get a diesel.
[/b]

i currently have a Titan with the 9500lb tow capacity. would you keep it for a 20 foot or trade up to a 3/4 ton diesal? some of the 20 trailers i see have a gvw of 7000. the car is 2400 plus the trailer 3000 plus gear 1600?. i actually came across a 2004 2500hd gmc diesal with 4k at a nice price.

[dickita15]

Rick, you really have two issues, the truck needs to be heavy enough so the trailer does not push it around and is the motor strong enough to tow with the ease you want. I am pulling a 24’ trailer that I would guess is around 7000 pounds with a 2500 dodge with the base hemi rated to tow 9100 pounds. The truck handles the trailer fine. I used to use a v8 dakota as a back up tow vehicle and the trailer pushed the truck all over the road. The 2500 will drive all day at 70 although it need to down shift for hills. For $5000 more I could have bought the diesel and had more torque but I am not sure it was worth the difference for 6 to 10 trips a year.

[Bill Miller]

Given the option ($$$ notwithstanding), to me the choice is obvious, go diesel. I'm not sure it matters if it's a Ford/Chevy/Dodge (although I've heard to stay away from Dodges), but I think having the disel is key, if you're going to be towing anything big. I towed my 10k GVW 24' Haulmark w/ my GMC K1500 w/a TBI 350. Did it work? Yes. Do I think it would have worked long-term? No.

I'm not sure of the gas mileage on the Ford V10 gasser, but I have a friend w/ a K2500 HD GMC w/ their 6.0 V8 motor, and he hates the mileage, and he doesn't tow anything. A couple of years ago, I went to the June Sprints w/ John Weisberg. We towed his EP 2nd gen RX7 in his 24' trailer behind a 2500 2WD Suburban w/ a 454 Vortec motor. Towed great, but we never got over 7 mpg w/ it!!!

Everybody I know that tows w/ an oil burner says they don't even know the trailer is back there, and they're all getting double-digit mpg while towing. I can vouch for this, as I shared some of the driving to Moroso a few years back. F350 crew-cab dually w/ an early PS disel pulling a 44' tri-axle 5th. Ran down the highway like a dream. IIRC, we got ~10 mpg running at 75-80 mph, and were able to get ~12 mpg if we'd run at 60 - 65 mph.

The other thing I'm pretty firm about, is that if I'm going to have a truck, it will be 4WD. I know it costs more, and will eat at the mpg, but you'll wish you had it the first time you get stuck in some muddy paddock.

I saw a rig for sale in the classifieds. F250 PS w/ a 24' trailer. The guy was from Albany, NY, and the truck was a 2WD. Unless you only use the truck for towing, (I WISH I could be able to afford to do that), I just can't see getting something that you can use other times.

My pick right now would be an F250 extra cab w/ an 8' bed, 4WD, and a PS

[JamesB]

i currently have a Titan with the 9500lb tow capacity. would you keep it for a 20 foot or trade up to a 3/4 ton diesal? some of the 20 trailers i see have a gvw of 7000. the car is 2400 plus the trailer 3000 plus gear 1600?. i actually came across a 2004 2500hd gmc diesal with 4k at a nice price.
[/b]

I actually can say that its not bad but you WILL need load leveler bars at the least and anti sway isnt half bad on winding roads (I think we where one of the few rigs not wagging the dog.)

I pulled a 20' trailer, 2300# car, tires, clothes, and spares (maybe 1400#) and two adults and we averaged 12mpg towing from Winchester VA to Watkins Glen, NY. Thats basically 81 to 15N and through the hills so I was very impressed with my truck.

Long term I would go with a diesel but thats out of my budget right now.

[Jeremy Billiel]

I recently went through the painful process of deciding what my future truck was going to be. I agree with Bill 100%. I bought a F350 Diesel SuperCab 4x4. Do I really need 4 wheel drive? No, I will probably only use it 5 times a year in the snow/mud. The Ford V10 gassers get HORRIBLE gas milage. I currently am in the market for an enclosed trailer, but I know pulling my open trailer I got 14 MPG at 80 MPH the whole way. I currently get 15-16 MPG daily driving with nothing in the bed.

[mlytle]

I recently went through the painful process of deciding what my future truck was going to be. I agree with Bill 100%. I bought a F350 Diesel SuperCab 4x4. Do I really need 4 wheel drive? No, I will probably only use it 5 times a year in the snow/mud. The Ford V10 gassers get HORRIBLE gas milage. I currently am in the market for an enclosed trailer, but I know pulling my open trailer I got 14 MPG at 80 MPH the whole way. I currently get 15-16 MPG daily driving with nothing in the bed.
[/b]

ditto. i went through jeep grand cherokee's, a k2500 big block suburban and now an f250 diesel crew cab long bed 4x4 as i ascended through the open/20' enclosed/26' enclosed trailer ranks. i should have just bit the bullet and got a diesel in the first place. it is SO much better for the job than the other vehicles. i also agree on the "get 4x4" comments. all of my tow vehicles have had 4 wheel drive and it has been used frequently in muddy paddocks, wet grassy storage areas and to pull other people's 2 wheel drive tow vehicles out of "situations".

if you are going to be racing a long time...you will eventually end up in a diesel tow vehicle. save yourself the expensive learning experience and find the resources to get one first....

[Hangfire1]

I test drove a late (2004 or maybe 05) Chevy 3500 dually diesel quad cab before deciding that a class C motorhome would suit me better in the long run. Anyway, the 3500 drove almost the same as my 97 Chev 1500...

As for the mh, it's a 26' 1988 Ford Econoline 350 7.5l (gas) w/3spd AT. I traveled from SF Bay Area to NASA Nationals in Ohio and back (+/- 5400 miles) towing a Civic on a flatbed trailer and had almost zero problems. A little struggle on the big hills, otherwise tows great... I averaged about 6.5 mpg on my round trip.

Guy at the track had a similar setup, only he was towing a Porsche in an enclosed trailer, about 24'. He had load distributing hitch and some suspension work, not sure how elaborate but I could see an absolutely HUMONGOUS front anti roll bar, by an outfit in Oregon, says he gets around 5 mpg...

Happy trails

Dave R

[Wreckerboy]

I've got to say that the stories of the V10 FoMoCo's getting horrendous gas mileage are more related to what chassis they are in than the motor itself. Somebody above posted that their V10 truck is killing them on fuel. I'm not doubting that for a minute.

That hasn't been my experience, but I'm not in an AWD huge freekin' pick-em-up, either. I have a late ('04) E-350 van that gets 14-15 on the highway when empty, and similar MPG when towing a open 24 ft. steel trailer with the car on it. In fact, the worst mileage I've seen is 12, and that was running through the mountains coming home from BeaveRun. At 80. With the air and the cruise on.

Would I like a diesel? Sure, gotta love that clackety clatter. Is it worth the five grand premium those trucks are commanding, even used? Not for my usage - I put less than 5K miles on the truck this year. At that rate my grandchildren wouldn't see the ROI. Your mileage, of course, may vary. That, and the torque numbers for the V10 vs. the diesel are very similar, and according to the Ford forums the newer diesels (everything after the old 7.3 Powersmokes, basically) are not the happiest campers in the world.

[Greg Amy]

Same here. I&#39;ve got the (earlier two-valve) V10 in my &#39;99 E-350, and I see 13-14 highway with family in the back, ~7-8 when towing an enclosed 24-footer. Sure, I&#39;d like a diesel, but when I sit down and think about how much it would cost me (I bought this van with 29k miles for <$10k) it just don&#39;t compute.

With the price of gas literally plummeting these last few weeks, my round-trip to the ARRC this year should cost me about $175 more in fuel than it will for my buddy Joe in his Dodge/Cummins (pulling the same trailer)...

[Despr8dave]

I&#39;m in the RV business and see a fare amount of trucks and trailors, mainly fifth wheels. I currently am in the market for a used F250 crew cab diesel and a fifth wheel enclosed car hauler. I prefer to tow a fifth wheel over bumper hitch and you can use the area around the hitch for storage, as long as it is all under the highth of the side rails. They are much easier to hook up and you don&#39;t need weight distribution bars or sway bar, which we feel you should always use on a bumper pull, even though most of us don&#39;t. The diesels do cost more, but resale on a v-10 Ford or Dodge is horrendous. Our wholesalers are generally $2000 BEHIND used rough book for the v-10s!!! For daily driving, as I will do with mine, the ride is a little more harsh than my Mustang, but much better than a duelly. I see alot of heavy fifth wheels being towed with single rear wheels. According to the charts, with equal gear ratios, srw and drw have almost identical towing capacities. Some srws actually have a higher cargo capacity than equal drw models because of the extra weight of the two extra tires! I&#39;m gonna pay more for the diesel, but I&#39;m gonna get better mileage and most likely will not have to advertise it whenever I go to sell it, if I ever do. IMHO.

David