[A/S] Tow Vehicles

["tdickieson" <lleather@xxxxxxxx>]

Jack and Lola;

I know you said mpg is the thing, not pulling up hills, but I have a 
tale to tell.  I had an F150 supercab 4X4 with a little 4.6L V8 gas, 
small automatic tranny and a 3.55 Limited slip rear axle.  This truck 
pulled the 1976 24' Argosy I have fine until I hit some hills.  Then 
I was reduced to 10 kilometers  per hour in low gear, or screaming at 
20 kmph which would then shift to second and then right back to low.  
Not a healthy for the truck situation.  SO, I went and tested a new 
F150/7700 light 3/4 ton supercab 4X4 with a 5.4L gas, larger 
automatic, and 3.73 Limited slip rear axle, which did the job in 
hills very well.  Now the story.

While I was starting up our worst hill in this area from a dead stop, 
with my trailer attached, I looked in the mirror and saw a Dodge 
coming up behind me.  He had moved to the left lane to go around me 
and I saw that he had a small UHaul trailer attached.  About a 12 
foot UHaul.  I had started accelerating and was very happy with the 
results, and he was getting closer, in fact close enough that I could 
now hear his engine.  It was a diesel, but I didn't know yet what the 
truck was as I could only see the front, which id'd it as a Dodge.  I 
was doing pretty good in the acceleration and he got up beside me, 
but his tranny had downshifted and the diesel was working.  I could 
now identify it as a 2500 four door.  That's as close as he got to
passing me, as I was still accelerating, and he was dropping back.  I 
heard the diesel move up to another higher rev as the tranny shifted 
down again, presumably to second gear, and the Dodge had to pull in 
behind me.  I was doing 100 kmph by that time (62.5 mph) and I just 
held it there for the final third or so of the hill as I was already 
towing illegally with dealer plates on the truck, and if caught, 
didn't want a speeding ticket to go with the illegal tow ticket.  I 
left the Dodge well behind.

Now, I don't know if there might have been something wrong with this
specific Dodge, but in this area, the diesel people who have pickups 
all swear by Duramax and Powerstroke.  No one is much into running 
out to get a Dodge.  I am definitely not saying you should not get 
one.  What this long story is meant for, is to advise you to test the 
truck you buy, with your trailer attached,  no matter what brand it 
is you want to buy, on a long fairly steep hill, or a series 
thereof.  Even tho you say that mpg is more important than uphill 
towing, take it from me, it isn't fun having a truck that just don't 
cut it in the towing category.  As for the mpg, I bought gas, which 
gets worse mpg than diesels anyway, but I see it as "you have to 
break a few eggs if you want to have an omelette"  Think long and 
hard before buying a truck that can't pull your trailer.

My .02 worth, take it for that
Tom Dickieson