[a/s] V6 tow vehicles

["Steve Heywood" <exlaxatc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Last month I was in northeastern Arizona while towing my trailer. I had
noticed a 25' Airstream as I pulled off the road. What shocked me was to see
a Dodge Caravan towing this trailer! Both the Caravan and trailer had
Canadian (Ontario) plates. When I did some checking I found that Dodge rates
the Caravan to tow a maximum of 3,500 lbs with an 8,300 lb GCWR. Since a 25'
Airstream weighs at least 4,500 lbs empty it's obvious they were well above
their tow rating.

I used to tow my 19' trailer with a Ford Ranger Supercab pickup with a 4
liter V6, 5-speed manual transmission, and 4.10 gears. Since Ford rated this
truck for a maximum trailer weight of 3,500 lbs (my trailer weighs 3,600
dry, about 4,200 loaded) I was over my tow rating as well. To be honest the
truck did a good job with the trailer. However, I was concerned about long
term transmission & clutch durability (the reason for the low tow rating, an
auto is rated at 5,600 lbs) and found out that my truck was within 100 lbs
of it's GVWR with the trailer hooked to it. I ordered a Chevrolet Silverado
1500 longbed regular cab. The Silverado does an outstanding job of towing my
trailer (as well it should).

To put things in perspective my father used to tow a 41'/8,000 lb trailer
house with a 1961 1/2 ton GMC pickup equipped with a 305 cubic inch V6, HD
4-speed manual transmission, and 3.92 gears. Keep in mind that this was the
SMALLEST V6 GMC offered at the time (they also had 351 and 401 cubic inch
versions), but was a medium duty truck engine installed in a pickup. It had
a 32 quart cooling system (compared to 22-24 qts for most modern big-block
pickups) and the transmission had a 7-1 first gear. He towed this trailer
all over the Rocky Mountains (he lived in it) while working road
construction.

Steve Heywood
Pinole, CA
19' Airstream Bambi
exlaxatc@dellnet.com