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It never ceases to amaze me at what you see on the road towing.
I bought my truck to tow with specifically and it does a great job.
But, I see so many people with trucks towing trailers and it makes me cringe.
Two pics below, my tow rig, and one that makes me cringe.
Wish I had gotten a better pic of the one that had no business towing the trailer it was hooked to, a triple axle toy hauler on a short bed RAM, looked like the rear axle was on the bump stops, and the front was about to pull a wheelie. I was taking a quicky pic of it while pulling out of the wendy's drive-thru at Marion IL. and didn't get as close as I would like, it looked much worse in person than in the pic, just looked like a wreck looking for a place to happen.
The trailer I was towing was a brand new one we picked up, has a $13,000 special paint job, very pretty!
I'd be surprised if most people towing didn't start with an inadequate vehicle. Even though I grew up around people towing, I started towing with a 1/2 ton, which was adequate, but less than ideal. Manufacturers' manuals and trailer salesmen will convince you a VW Bug can pull a fifth wheel. I quickly learned that a 4.6L F-150 was not right for even a feather weight trailer. I quickly traded the F-150 for a Duramax and opened my eyes! It's been a few decades and I haven't looked back. I've gone back to gasoline, with the 7.3, but won't go half-ton again. Whether it's hauling an RV or a bulldozer, I er on the side of caution nowadays. Many others have yet to learn that lesson, but hopefully they will.
Before I got my 450 I had a SRW short bed F350 to pull our 44' Toy Hauler. It had air bags and while it felt okay and pulled just fine, I knew I needed more truck. Luckily the longest trip it went on with the 350 was about 85-90 miles from home and NOT on the interstate.
I had my share of days pulling way overloaded. Especially when I had a F150. Took the back roads and went slow! Then moved up to 2 F250s and did the same on occasion. Hated every second of it but rarely had a better option.
Which is why I went WAY overkill and bought a F450. Never again will I ever have to question if I'm overloaded...either towing or payload.
What gets me is every one of this rigs is pretty much 100 percent legal.
And an 85 year old grandpa can drive a huge 80 ft kenworth motor home and is fine.
But as soon as I hook a 500 lb 4 wheeler trailer on my single wheel 350
I need everything except a cdl to drive it.
Inspection sticker on truck and trailer
medical card
triangles
fire extinguisher
dot numbers
log books ( depending on officer)
I had my share of days pulling way overloaded. Especially when I had a F150. Took the back roads and went slow! Then moved up to 2 F250s and did the same on occasion. Hated every second of it but rarely had a better option.
Which is why I went WAY overkill and bought a F450. Never again will I ever have to question if I'm overloaded...either towing or payload.
wish I could say them same. Bought the f450 thinking the same, well now I am towing a 9k gooseneck with a 23k dozer. It does great, but would like to move to a larger 29k machine. That will put me at 40k trailer. Guess I shouldn't. Should just brake out the big rig. But harder to navigate, etc.
I'd be surprised if most people towing didn't start with an inadequate vehicle. Even though I grew up around people towing, I started towing with a 1/2 ton, which was adequate, but less than ideal. Manufacturers' manuals and trailer salesmen will convince you a VW Bug can pull a fifth wheel. I quickly learned that a 4.6L F-150 was not right for even a feather weight trailer. I quickly traded the F-150 for a Duramax and opened my eyes! It's been a few decades and I haven't looked back. I've gone back to gasoline, with the 7.3, but won't go half-ton again. Whether it's hauling an RV or a bulldozer, I er on the side of caution nowadays. Many others have yet to learn that lesson, but hopefully they will.
wish I could say them same. Bought the f450 thinking the same, well now I am towing a 9k gooseneck with a 23k dozer. It does great, but would like to move to a larger 29k machine. That will put me at 40k trailer. Guess I shouldn't. Should just brake out the big rig. But harder to navigate, etc.
If that F450 has a 6.7 under the hood, it should haul that 29k dozer well enough.
I'd be surprised if most people towing didn't start with an inadequate vehicle. Even though I grew up around people towing, I started towing with a 1/2 ton, which was adequate, but less than ideal. Manufacturers' manuals and trailer salesmen will convince you a VW Bug can pull a fifth wheel. I quickly learned that a 4.6L F-150 was not right for even a feather weight trailer. I quickly traded the F-150 for a Duramax and opened my eyes! It's been a few decades and I haven't looked back. I've gone back to gasoline, with the 7.3, but won't go half-ton again. Whether it's hauling an RV or a bulldozer, I er on the side of caution nowadays. Many others have yet to learn that lesson, but hopefully they will.
I moved from a heavy 1/2 ton PU to the a 2023 Cruw Cab 8’box F250 6.8 V8 10 speed transmission. I’m only going to tow mostly 10k 24’ trailer, but maybe on a occasion tow 12k.
In 2016 my wife and I traded in a new Nisan Juke for a new Nissan Pathfinder Platinum. It was her vehicle and is what she wanted. We did not have anything to tow and I was happy driving my 2008 Chevy Cobalt with manual everything… door locks, windows, no cruise control and 5 speed. I loved it!
But then in early 2018 we got a wild hair and bought a camper. I knew nothing about campers or towing them, but I knew we had a tow button inside the Pathfinder and a hitch on the back. The camper we got is small, but was still overweight for the Pathfinder. Surprisingly though, with the WDH it was pretty solid, although most of our adventures with the camper was only 30 - 40 miles from home. But there was one trip that was about 250 miles away…
We got about 10 - 11 mpg pulling with the Pathfinder, so we didn’t pass a gas station. Also, the V6 worked hard keeping it going… uphills would make the motor scream, and we would lose speed on all but the smallest of hills… and that was only if I got a little extra speed and shifted down before hitting the hill… we learned with this vehicle that just because a vehicle had a tow button and a hitch didn’t mean it could tow anything!
Then, in summer of 2020 we decided to take a much more adventurous trip, but knew we needed something else to pull the camper. I ended up renting a 2020 F250 XLT CCSB with the 6.7 and only52 miles on it… and I fell in love! It purred like a kitten, even going up the big grade mountains out west and it never lacked for power! Even going uphill it was always ready to put me back in the seat, and it didn’t scream at me to do so! I was shocked to watch the RPM’s sit at 1500 - 1600 the WHOLE time, whether going uphill, or downhill. It was such a relief and so much more relaxing than our Pathfinder.
A couple of months later we rented a Ram 2500 with the Cummins engine, and while it had the power, I was underwhelmed by the 6 speed transmission and the interior. So in May 2021, it was an easy decision to go in and order the exact same Ford F250 we rented. However, while I stuck with the XLT trim, I decided to add a few extra nice things, but more importantly I added in packages to increase the truck’s capabilities! What I ended up with is a 3/4 ton truck with both, the diesel engine and a high payload capacity (not a common combination)! This truck is way overkill for the camper we have now, but that makes it such a pleasure to drive, however it leaves us plenty of capability to be able to upgrade to something larger in the future if we decided to. We were pretty dead set against 5th wheels for a while, but it’s nice to know that (some of) those are an option if we decided we wanted to go that route in the future. And to top it all off, it’s no problem to go 250 - 300 miles (or more) before having to top off the fuel tank while towing! Anyway, we love our truck now and are happy that we have it to start FT’ing with this year!
It never ceases to amaze me at what you see on the road towing.
I bought my truck to tow with specifically and it does a great job.
But, I see so many people with trucks towing trailers and it makes me cringe.
Two pics below, my tow rig, and one that makes me cringe.
Wish I had gotten a better pic of the one that had no business towing the trailer it was hooked to, a triple axle toy hauler on a short bed RAM, looked like the rear axle was on the bump stops, and the front was about to pull a wheelie. I was taking a quicky pic of it while pulling out of the wendy's drive-thru at Marion IL. and didn't get as close as I would like, it looked much worse in person than in the pic, just looked like a wreck looking for a place to happen.
The trailer I was towing was a brand new one we picked up, has a $13,000 special paint job, very pretty!
A great tow rig...
A wreck waiting to happen...
Speaking of tow rigs, if your interested, I may be pulling the trigger on buying over 30 trailers in the coming weeks. These are all enclosed. I doubt I'll have the manpower available to run back and forth from Indiana to KC.
