MyWifeThinksImNuts wrote: Many new members of this forum I bet are scared away because of this mind set. I bet if you can think back before you had a diesel you probably managed just fine. In fact I have memories and photo's from childhood and see ford sedans and station wagons towing very heavy trailers. Maybe someday when I can afford a 40+ thousand dollar truck I may have the same mindset, but not today. In fact I spent less on my barely used truck AND trailer than the cost of a "real" truck alone. ?
A couple of issues here...
Look for a nice used truck and save a lot of money...Lots of good deals on 3/4 ton trucks with diesels out there for a lot less than $40K plus. Couple of year old Dodge Cummins can be had for the mid to high $20,000's. And at 200K and 300K miles it will still be pulling as strong as when new. The gasser will probably be dead well befoer 100,000 miles.
Next issue if the older cars and station wagons pulling trailers...
The older cars had full frames and not uni-body construction and had also had larger displacement engines.
It is not fun to tow at the limits and especially had to be overloaded. Until people have the opportunity to tow with a properly matched truck, they do not know any better. So listen to the Rvers that have been towing for 20 years or so.
Ken
KE5DFR
Vintage 1979 Silver Streak Supreme Rocket toted by a 2002 F350, crewcab dually, 7.3L,4.10 axle,SCMT. Travel with two miniature Schnauzers and one African Gray parrot. Practicing for retirement!
You've had a lot of responses, but I'm not sure your basic questions were answered. After all, you've got what you've got and simply want to know what you can do with it.
First, compute your payload capacity. I don't know about Ford but most manufactures include a FULL tank of fuel and a 150 lb driver for that trim level. Mulitply you tongue wt by .75 which will give you the wt after W/D. Add another 50 lbs for the hitch assy (that's what the Equl-i-zer weighs). Now subtract the wt of the planed cargo. Hopefully you will be below the payload rating.
You know that road wt of the TT and it's below the tow rating so you could toss a bit more stuff in there. Run with a minimum of fresh water and empty black and gray tanks.
Run the numbers, and let us know what your find.
The 80% guidline is not hard and fast but the 100% certainly should not be exceeded.
Drive carefully, don't expect to pass anything going uphill and be safe.
Dick
2008 Toyota Tundra Crew Max Limited TRD
2009 Cougar 268 RLS ~8400 lbs road wt
Equal-i-zer 12,000 lb hitch, Prodigy BC.
2006 Jeep Liberty Turbo Diesel.....TV in Training
2005 Jeep GC 5.7 HEMI,(retired)
2005 Jayco Jay Feather 25Z, 4" lift (Retired)
Let me see if I can address one more of those OP questions, get the hitch set up that is rated to pull your scaled weight and look at the ratings for with/without WD set up depending on how you are going to be towing. Make sure the hitch you choose is rated for the weight. As I said before, you can tow it, you just have to be aware of the limitations.
In my particular case, the weight I was pulling was causing the rear differential to over heat. But that was coupled with standard issue 1/2 ton tires and 3:42 gears.
MyWifeThinksImNuts wrote: Many new members of this forum I bet are scared away because of this mind set. I bet if you can think back before you had a diesel you probably managed just fine. In fact I have memories and photo's from childhood and see ford sedans and station wagons towing very heavy trailers. Maybe someday when I can afford a 40+ thousand dollar truck I may have the same mindset, but not today. In fact I spent less on my barely used truck AND trailer than the cost of a "real" truck alone. ?
A couple of issues here...
Look for a nice used truck and save a lot of money...Lots of good deals on 3/4 ton trucks with diesels out there for a lot less than $40K plus. Couple of year old Dodge Cummins can be had for the mid to high $20,000's. And at 200K and 300K miles it will still be pulling as strong as when new. The gasser will probably be dead well befoer 100,000 miles.
Next issue if the older cars and station wagons pulling trailers...
The older cars had full frames and not uni-body construction and had also had larger displacement engines.
It is not fun to tow at the limits and especially had to be overloaded. Until people have the opportunity to tow with a properly matched truck, they do not know any better. So listen to the Rvers that have been towing for 20 years or so.
Ken
now I guess gas engines can not only not tow....they won't even last 100,000 miles. Wow, what a bold statement! Just check his signature, my point exactly.
Yours Truely
My Better Half
1 little camper
'06 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab
'03 Layton Scout 294
Reese Dual Cam HP Sway Control
Prodigy Brake Controller
I haven't read all the post in this thread but I am towing 6980 pounds with a truck rated at 7300 towing capacity. I am under the all over gross weight by about 300 pounds, less DW weight-she will not tell me. This is CAT scale info with TT loaded for trip we are currently on. Tongue weight is 13% of total TT weight. I just crossed the Appalachian mountains with no problem. On hills the RPM goes up to about 2300,on one really steep long hill it down shifted and RPM was about 3000, on the flat it drops to about 1800. If I keep the speed at 65 MPH I get the best MPG, 9.3 to 12.1. That said I believe that the published towing capacity is a good number. Yes, I know the TT is behind me.
I wanna follow up on my trip.
Everything went fine except for these few things:
1 - My MAX speed on highway was 45 mph (LOL) Took me 4 days from Florida to Maine, never passed one single car or truck lol and a couple of truckers let me know that I was swaying too much (didnt have sway control).
2 - Next time I will buy a Truckers Guide for Gas stations. Its VERY hard to get gas in small gas stations in small towns with such a long trailer; you simply dont fit. I was looking for big gas stations like Flying-J or Truckers plazas, but they are not always available.
3 - My tongue weight was horribly high and my hitch scratched the ground at several occasions. I was probably 8 inches from the ground, and on flat highway It was ok, but coming and going from gas stations and plazas was a pain.
4 - I really enjoy the slow ride because of the speed!
It cost me about $300 in gas (at $3.95 gal)
FYI the truck is still alive and works fine. I had a second tow and everything went fine. But that one was short.
Thanx everybody!
What I find interesting about our numbers is that you have a pretty high cargo rating and a pretty low tow rating. Now I have no idea what engine Ford put in the '95 F-150's but I'm inclined to bet that you have a fairly high rear end ratio.....3.43?????. If so, simply changing that to something lower might be a relatively inexpensive way to pick up some ooomhp for pulling grades.
Regardless, it appears you are within the capabilities of the truck and I would suspect you'd be OK. As other have said, you may have some struggle on steep grades but I have no idea how many miles of mounntain driving there is along that route.
You certainly should not need a 3/4 ton diesel to pull 6900 lbs. There are a whole lot of good gassers that will do it quite nicely.
As far as the comment that a gasser will die before 100K....ignore it unless you will be towing for all of the 100K. My old chevy pickup 1/2 ton, 350 engine, towed for over 50K of it's 200K life and was still going strong when I sold it.
Dixonmatco wrote: We tow a trialer that is loaded at 6600 lbs with a 1500 Silverado (tow capacity 7500lbs) and It works fine for us. We have been over 20,000 miles ranging from Death valley to over 10,500 ft and that confirms this. We are not the fastest thing up long grades but are far from the slowest..Zero problems (of course it is a Chevy )
The only way to tell if it suits you is to try it out and see. You do have a smaller margin than we do..
I have to agree. I have a friend that won't tow with less than a 3/4 diesel--but he wants to roar up and down any hill or mountain at 65 or 70 and never shift out of overdrive (that may be a little overstated. He also won't buy a car that doesn't have a V8) You will do fine as long as you are willing to take your time. On some steep mountains on a 8% grade you may be in low--but there aren't many of those around the country. Just enjoy the trip!
2008 Keystone Springdale 252
2004 Chevy Silverado, 5.3 L V8
Prodigy brake control and Equal-i-zer
Retired and traveling all we can!
There are plenty of half tons on the market now that can pull that kind of weight. I pull similar to that with my nissan. Since new on 07 been to the smokies, Yellowstone, and the Tetons. Tows like a champ. 45000 trouble free miles, but it looks like I only have 55000 left on the engine acording to someone.
Fred & Jodie, dogs, Zoey & Bella
2007 Nissan Titan, 5.6L Big tow, Equli-z-er Hitch
2007 Forest River Salem 27RB LE
Member Titantalk.com
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Bucky Badger wrote: There are plenty of half tons on the market now that can pull that kind of weight. I pull similar to that with my nissan. Since new on 07 been to the smokies, Yellowstone, and the Tetons. Tows like a champ. 45000 trouble free miles, but it looks like I only have 55000 left on the engine acording to someone.
You josh...Titans have buckets of torque and power. That truck will still be fine when you are tired of owning it!
05 F150 FX4 Supercrew, 5.4, 3.73 LS, Jordan Ultima 2020 Brake Controller,
04 TrailCruiser 30QBSS, Battery Disconnect,
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He also won't buy a car that doesn't have a V8) You will do fine as long as you are willing to take your time. On some steep mountains on a 8% grade you may be in low--but there aren't many of those around the country. Just enjoy the trip!
