Towing rig survey

[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.