On the way to work tonight (yep, I'm a night-owl), I passed a very large 5th wheel camper pushing a truck. Well, okay, maybe the truck was pulling the camper, but it sure looked funny. It was about 35ft worth of HUGE 5th wheel, and when I got up beside the guy, he was pulling it with a short wheel based half-ton Z71 stepside. When I tell you that the rear wheels were pretty much hidden inside those fender flares, I'm not exagerating. I mean this poor truck was sitting on the frame. I'm surprised the guy could see the road over the hood the truck was leaning to the rear so much!!! He was making about 55mph on the interstate downhill (probably actually BEING pushed), and would drop back into the 30swhen he'd hit any kind of uphill stretch. I stayed behind him for a bit out of curiosity just to see what might happen (after all, I'm a paramedic! My services had the potential to be needed, wouldn't you agree??) Then I got tired of it and went on around. Point is, before I started coming to this forum, I MIGHT HAVE BEEN JUST THAT STUPID!!!! Well, okay, I don't think I'd have pulled that rig with that truck even before I started coming here, but I sure do notice dumb truck stuff when I see it now!!!!!!

rotorhead

 

I agree with rotorhead. Before coming to this forum I did some pretty scary things with my towed gear. I applaud the contributors for keeping the tone high and letting the uninformed get smarter. Thanks guys!

 

 

Noticed that one of your trucks has a 4.9L Inline 6. My 1996 Ford 4X4 also has the same engine with a 5 sp tranny. I am interested in pulling a trailer that weighs 3500 to 4000 lbs fully loaded.

Will the inline six be ok with it? My friend has a Dodge Dakota with a 4.7L V8 that pulls the same trailer. He has no problems at all. Lots of power. (Dakota has 5 sp also)

 

It can be really sad, because often the sales people of these recreational devices motivate such stupidity. I sometimes think I could show up to buy a 10,000 lb boat and ask if my Ranger would pull it and the reply would be "oh, yeah, sure, no problem, we do it all the time"

On my way back towing a 7000# boat from a trip I spotted another similar boat ahead. When I got closer I saw it was actually a little larger than the boat I had at the time. So I just stayed behind him and figured we could travel for a while. Well, he was moving pretty well but the first hill he began slowing. We were on the interstate doing about 65MPH. As we went up this hill... 60, 55, 50... now I can't pass as folks are zipping by and I've caught up... 45, 40, 35, 30... and finally I can pass... so around I go. As I accerlate around it's a Dodge RAM 1500!!! rear wheels buried. I caught a look on the guys face as I passed he looked shocked, sad and tired. It must have been a sight to watch a rig pass you, up hill, and accelerate away from you. By the time I reached the top I was back to 60+mph... he must have been in first by then.

I feel for him, and all the others who have been lied to like that. However, sometimes we hear what we want to hear and hope everything works out.

Robert

 

>35, 30... and finally I can pass... so around I go. As I
>accerlate around it's a Dodge RAM 1500!!! rear wheels
>buried. I caught a look on the guys face as I passed he
>looked shocked, sad and tired. It must have been a sight to
>watch a rig pass you, up hill, and accelerate away from you.
> By the time I reached the top I was back to 60+mph... he
>must have been in first by then.
>
>I feel for him, and all the others who have been lied to
>like that. However, sometimes we hear what we want to hear
>and hope everything works out.

Over 7000 lbs with a 1500?!? I think the max CGVWR is around 13,000 and I think the ram weighs about 6600. My RAM 1500... er... uh.. My wife's RAM 1500 pulls a gooseneck horse trailer that's about 6000 lbs. loaded. It's no speed deamon but it'll do 65 up hill (well, maybe 55). I'd never put more weight than that behind it.

Point is, I didn't want to spend the extra $$$ for the 2500 or 3500, so I convinced myself the 1500 will do. It will "do", it just doesn't "do very well". Lesson learned. Next truck, 350 Crew Cab, long bed, diesel, dually. You can drive it everywhere but can't park anywhere.

 

>Point is, I didn't want to spend the extra $$$ for the 2500
>or 3500, so I convinced myself the 1500 will do. It will
>"do", it just doesn't "do very well". Lesson learned.

Yes, we can convince ourselves of very bad things sometimes :-)

>Next truck, 350 Crew Cab, long bed, diesel, dually. You can
>drive it everywhere but can't park anywhere.

That's why you get the F350 Crew Cab, SHORT BED, Diesel dually.

I LOVE mine. I can even get into the parking garage and park at Piedmont Hospital here in Atlanta. I'm amazed at how much difference that extra couple of feet make.

Only draw back, only 29 gallons of fuel. I'm working on that issue now.

Robert

 

great read guys, reminded me of a 400 mile trip I took for a meeting at one of our job sites. My regular company truck was in the shop so I had my boss' 99 dodge ram 1500 w/ 5.2L V-8, auto trans., 50k miles, great shape and an EMPTY BED.

About 150 miles in the Interstate turned up (mountains) and as I rolled along with the weak (poor reception) radio cranked up I noticed that while trying to maintain my speed (approx 70 MPH) I had run out of travel on the gas pedal. At first I thought that the floor matt had gotten bunched up under the pedal but NO, the tach was reading 4500 RPM. Soon I was in the slow lane running 52 MPH and yes got passed by a big truck. At least it was an empty low boy behind a Peterbuilt. (Now I know what your thinking, "Boy if you can't watch the gauges you shouldn't be behind the wheel". Well I have made that trip many times before in a F-150 5.4L with no such problems!

Thing is the ram has the factory tow package (though with 3.55 gears) I couldn't believe it so on the way back I stopped at a truckstop and rolled accross the scales. The dodge weighed in at 5,235 lbs.

The next trip was back in my f-150 and turned down the radio as i approched the same mountain. I adjusted the cruise control, eh, down to 70 MPH and made the entire grade with the Ford never so much as shifting out of overdrive, no moving to the slow lane, no loses of speed. Of course this 5.4L Ford has 3.73 gears and much more torque that is available at a much lower RPM but hey. . . How dare any manufacturer (dodge in this case) rate such a sorry powertrain for towing)

Petrol

 

ohhh... now you reminded me of my Dodge. I had an '00 1500 5.9L V8. The boat was about 6500# total with trailer and all was well. Until those @#$%$ flashed the module in it! It zapped the power. I have a Gtech Pro, I checked the HP and the most I could now get was 153HP!!! compared to 211 before. I complained, called, begged, pleaded and what ever else I could think of. Then I got rid of it and decided no more Dodges for me. I even tried a Jet Chip... it made no registerable difference that I could detect.

My wifes Durango has the 5.9L V8 and I won't let them flash the ECU.

Robert