Towing rig survey

[Spinnetti]

I had the following:
1. Custom car hauler made from two 1978 Chevy pickups (to make it really long) - was a drive on. Not enough room in it for people/gear. $1200
2. Ford F150 extra cab long box. another $1200 jobby. Too dang long, and not enough room in it for people and gear.
3. Chevy astro. Forgot what I paid for that. It was great as a race support vehicle but it did eat transmissions and its many engineering faults were intolerable.
4. 1991 Toyota 4Runner. No complaints, worked just fine. Should be able to get one in the price range.
5. VW Touareg (current one). Can't even tell I'm towing anything, but maybe a bit out of the listed price range

[JLawton]

I Used to tow with a GM 1500, extended cab, 2X4 with a 305. Towed an open trailer great, got 15-16 MPG around town and put studded snow tires on it in the winter and did fine.

How much does a horse trailer and two horses weigh? I would think with the shifting weight of the horses, you would want to go a little heavier??? (coming from a totally ignorant point of view)

I now tow with a 4x4 F150 Super Crew. Shitty gas mileage but great everywhere else but it has the short bed.


Where do you live Jack?

[Streetwise guy]

My philosophy is that you can tow anything with anything. You just have to adjust your expectations about speed and arrival time. I drag my Neon on an open trailer with a 91 318 Dakota 4x4. The closest racetrack to me is 300 miles, into a westerly wind most of the time.

I'm waiting until the price of gas goes way up again, so I can find a V10 Navigator or an 494 cid Sububan for pocket change, then I'll get an enclosed trailer.

[shwah]

I picked up my 95 GMC 2500 conversion van for $4200 4 or 5 years ago. It works fine pulling my open trailer. I just fold down the bed when hauling large boards/etc for home projects, or use the trailer for really big stuff.

Mileage sucks at 8-10 towing and 12-14 otherwise, but I only do about 1 oilchange of miles each year.

Having said that I am looking seriously at used diesel or v10 excursions and superdutys. They are not that expensive these days, and have a lot more capability.

[StephenB]

I had a 96 F150 4X4 and did a ton of towing with a 1 car open trailer. Admitantly I was in my yong 20's and just wanted to get home so I towed at 80-85 all the time. Ended up burning up the rear end on teh way home from a 9 hr tow from Pocono one year. Had to have my friends wife come rescue us with her father in laws F150. Other than that the truck towed great!

I now have a 2000 f350 4X4 7.3 Turbo Diesel Duelly with a fresh engine 2 years ago and you would never now it had a 1 car open trailer on the back. Night and day compairing up hills ect. however everything costs more including the purchase price. Besides the price of Deisel always kills me everytime I pull up to the pump. It gets 15MPG towing or not, no difference.


OH ya almost forgot my original f150 was an Automatice and my new rig is a standard. I would go with a standard both on a cost basis to repair and it is so much better to drive around that 70 mile per hr mark. no upshifting or downshifting on you, how anoying when you pull out to pass or your going up a hill and it is constantly shifting! In my opinion You have much more control of what YOU want the truck doing, even down hills you can pick a gear instead of wearing on your brakes all the way down (MASS Pike heading back east comes to mind) Everyone I knew said I was crazy when I started looking for my F350 in a standard but I kept thinking to myself their has to be a reason Big Rigs (Tractor Trailers) are all Standards...

Good Luck
Stephen Blethen

[shwah]

I agree with Stephen on the auto/manual points. My brother has an 00 F350 psd truck as well. He has added a switch to manually lock the torque converter for just this reason. Also had the slushbox rebuilt to a much more bulletproof status at about 125k. If I do go the bigger truck route, it will probably be his truck because of these mods.

[joeg]

If you decide to go Diesel--go GM. The Duramax/ Allison is a far better combo than a Ford F250 Powerstroke/Auto.

I drove them all and selected a Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax Crew Cab.

Obviously it is a 4x4--the truck simply will not function on any form of Paddock mud (or winter snow) without it; too nose heavy.

If you go gas, buy the Ford. You can probably get by without 4x4 in a gas small block, but I would not tempt the fates.

I have previously owned three Dakota 4x4(s) which were great for every day driving and occasional towing.

That Duramax, however, tows like a locmotive.

[FASTJACK]

I live in Ma.

[philstireservice]

We tow with a 2008 F450 Dualie 2wd 6.4L twin turbo diesel.....sure we tow a 18,000 lb 40 ft gooseneck trailer usually full ( no more than 16,000 lb loaded) which is more than most with a race car, but I like the fact of having "too much power" rather than at the limit or close to it. I would look for a F250 with a 7.3 diesel 4wd with the towing package (this makes a difference) and an 8 ft bed. You can't kill the 7.3L motor, more than enough power to pull even an enclosed 10,000 lb trailer loaded and still have a decent ride when not towing and the advantage of 4wd when the weather gets crappy. On occasion I've used the 4wd drive at the track with the trailer hooked up to pull out of what ever swamp had been created by rain. We have a 97 F250 ext cab 4wd that we've had since new. I used to tow my car on an open aluminum trailer and had a cap put on the truck to protect my tools and such. Never was down on power, could cruise at 65-70 all day and got pretty good gas mileage towing (14-16 mpg).