RE: [A/S] Best Tow Vehicle

["Perry Joe Scudder" <perryjoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi David,
I tow a 34' Limited with a 3/4 ton GMC Diesel with crew cab and a short box.
You could not ask for a sweeter rig to tow. Especially if it is set up
correctly. There is more ways than one to correctly set up a rig for towing,
but I have chosen the Hensley hitch along with the Hensley brake controller.
If I have 10 more rigs in my life, I hope they all behave as well as this
one. Now if we could just get the price of Diesel back down below the price
of regular gas the setup would be even better. I have put over 70,000 miles
on the 34' Limited using two different tow trucks. The first one was a 3/4
ton GMC Gas truck with a 6 L engine, 4:10 to 1 Rear end, extended cab, and
the short box. It also had the Hensley hitch, but I used a Jordan Ultima
2020 brake controller on that rig. That combination was also close to
excellent. It was just a small amount short on power pulling in the Rockies
and the mountains of Alaska. It would hold 55 MPH, but that required full
throttle on lots of hills to do that. The current rig handles the Rockies
better, and the Crew Cab is nice when you want to take along other people. I
also made the mistake of ordering a 2 wheel drive truck the first time. I
corrected that mistake with the present truck. I had to be pulled out of
three campsites with the 2 wheel truck, but have handled them all with this
truck so far. I think I would have had to call a wrecker recently up in West
VA if I had still had the 2 wheel drive truck with a small engine. I got
routed down a county road that turned into a single lane as it worked its
way down into the Blue River Gorge going down a very steep grade with switch
back turns. I got to the bottom of the gorge only to find a right angle turn
onto a one lane bridge that I could not start to make. I had to back the
trailer about a mile in order to find a place where I could back the trailer
off into the woods to get turned around. I put the truck in 4 wheel drive to
go back out of the gorge and was spinning all 4 wheels as I cleared the last
switch back at the top of the gorge. As you might guess, all this took place
in a nice steady rain. Lesson learned: watch those mapping software packages
when you are poking around in the back country in the mountains.


Joe Scudder
WBCCI 8624