v8440

Hi all,

I towed with my truck the first time today. Maybe I was pumped up from accounts of effortlessly towing very heavy loads by other people, but I was mildly disappointed. Going to get a car, I towed a car trailer probably weighing about 1000 pounds. I really could not tell the trailer was there. Then, we put the car on it. It was a '69 mercury cougar without an engine, transmission, or rear axle. I can't see it weighing much more than 2000 pounds or so. So, a fair estimate of total weight would probably be around 3000-3200 pounds.

I could definitely tell then that there was a load behind the truck. It accelerated noticeably slower. To be fair, there were some moderate hills, and it would accelerate up those in overdrive with the converter locked. I just expected performance to barely drop off.

Does this sound right, or is something really a little off?

SuperGewl

Yeah that's a CUMMINS aint it SWEET

Once yo get it up to speed it should just run circles around the rest especially up those hills just like you said, it would run up the hill in OD without any problem.

Geico266

I'm not sure what you expected, but its kinda like kissing your sister. If you were in a gasser do you think the converter would have stayed locked up? My gasser Dodge couldn't pull itself up a hill around here without dropping out of OD and I live in Nebraska! lol

localnet

You haven't been frequenting one of those Ford sites have you? You know, "I pull 40,000 lbs all day long in the rockies at 90 mph into the wind! That is of course when it is not in the shop. Best truck I ever owned!"

You will feel the load, your truck sounds fine.

Mike

Casey Balvert

First, How many miles on the truck? Is is broke in? I think you are a bit low in your weight estimate as well. You are probably closer to 5,000 pounds. So in other words you are dam near pulling 3/4 the weight of the truck itself and yeah, you are going to notice it is back there. Your total weight is probably close to 6 tons. Compared to anything else, this truck definately ain't your sister.

Casey

v8440

The truck has just over 1400 miles on it. As far as the weight estimate is concerned, I'm pretty sure I'm close. Remember, the car has no engine, trans, OR rear axle. Or hood, now that think about it. The car weighed 3200 empty when running, according to the owner. It has a 351 cleveland, a top loader 4 speed, and a 9 inch axle. Not real light stuff. So, subtracting 1000 or so pounds for all that is actually pretty conservative.

Nevertheless, the difference between what you guys think it weighs and what I do is probably only a few hundred pounds. I've never towed that kind of weight with a reasonably powerful gasser, so I have no point of reference. What I've towed with before was a 1978 D100 with a slant six (!) in it. Kinda anemic to be charitable.

I have a friend who rode with a guy towing a racecar in an enclosed trailer. They went from Montgomery to Huntsville if I remember right. The truck had 4 people in it, a couple of 50 lb nitrous tanks in the bed of the truck, a bunch of tools in the trailer, and the car itself. It was a late 90's ford 7.3 powerstroke. My buddy, who has no reason to lie, said the driver put the cruise on, and the ford was pulling so hard that when it hit uphill portions and came up on boost, he sometimes had to turn the cruise off because the truck was GAINING speed, sometimes reaching 90 mph while going uphill. Why the cruise would not have prevented this is beyond me. I personally think that the truck must have had a box of some sort installed.

In any case, this was one of the things I had in the back of my mind when towing a much lighter load yesterday. I may have had unrealistic expectations, which is why I posted the topic-to find out. Come to think of it, I did have 3 other people in the truck, with just them weighing around 650 pounds or so.

MikeyB

I would at least double the weight of the car trailer, if not more. My 6.5x14 single axle utility trailer weighs more than 1k lbs. That Cougar probably is around 3k lbs without the drivetrain.

MikeyB

bdramsey

3rd dodge, 1st was a gasser. It would drop out of od when it was going uphill without a trailer! My second was a 01.5 cummins 5 spd, I'd put as much stuff on the trailer I could get away without anything falling off, I pulled a 22ft deep hull V8 boat backwards at 80mph from baton rouge to dallas, no problem at all! I had people gettin outta my way(I don't blame em either, I'd do the same thing if I saw a nut flyin with a trailer loaded down with a boat on it backwards down the road). I haul my boat around now, and this truck is an automatic, I really miss shiftin gears. But other than that once I get up and going, I don't have any probs. I thing the total combing weight of my boat, trailer, and fuel is about 6300 lbs.
I found that I have to be easy on start because if not I'll spin the tires.


Jee I put a full pallet of maximizer concrete in the bed of my 01, and still did the speed limit, I did'nt want to go much faster because of my springs being leveled. The pallet weighed 2800lbs. They were making bets if somthing would break........................Showed em!

BEHRMAN

v8440- Drive that trailer and car across the country and back and then try those hills again and you will meet you expectations.

hognutz

I guess if you expected to notice nothing I think you are asking a little too much. I just towed my chevelle in the roughtly the same condition as you have.

a cougar wieghs 3000-3300lbs complete so you were at least 1k off of that. the trailer wieghts more that 1k. it is make out of metal and has axels so I would think you were at 4k total. I know with my car back there I could could get up to 50mph faster than any other rig I have towed with execpt my old mans truck with the 502. I get a alot better milage though.

It did not accelate like it was unloaded but I could not belive how efforlessly it towed the thing. go throw a boat or a car behind a gas truck and you have like 4cyl accelation.

I think you may have just been expecting too much. the ford guy you are talking about is full of crap. I am sorry but an uloaded truck does not just run 90 up a hill efforlessly. let alone pulling a trailer. I mean come on.

SuperGewl

v8440 Now that you tell us that it had no hood, that can make a big difference.
You can put 12klbs behind one of these things and still get 15mpg if it is streamline.
You can put a 500lbs barn door behind one of these things if you have so it catches the wind then you would think yo were pulling 50k by the mpg you would get
Your load was not exactly cutting thru the wind like a knife. Besides you haven't even changed the oil in that thing yet, 1400 miles is what I had on mine in the first 2 weeks of ownership
You probably still have nipples on the tires and blue on the whitewall letters
Give it time, the mileage will come up.

t-15 firefighter

i understand what your saying v8440.

i had a 2002 chevy hd with a 496ci in it. it would pull good but not like i wanted. long story short i had to turn it back because of the lemon law (suspension problems).

i bought a 03 3500 and it would tow rings around the gasser. i could leave it in 6th gear and it would tow right along without any problems. our travel trailer weighs approx 6000 pounds loaded.
you can tell the camper is back there. i think these unreasonable claims that some people give might lead us to believe that our trucks are capable of more than they are. don't get me wrong, they are great trucks and i wouldn't trade it for anything else out there. i just think that these trucks tow with less effort than anything else that i have driven.

i look forward to towing with the 05 to test out the automatic!



britt

Balls Casten

It will pull 6,000 as well as it does 3,000. I'm talking preceved "feeling" of how it is towing.

Friends have driven my truck while pulling out boats up a ramp. Their comment after pulling my boat was "I thought your truck would pull anything, it was lugging it down pretty good".
We next pulled a boat twice the size of mine. And their response was that it pulled the larger boat out as easy as it did my boat.

v8440

Why would that make a difference in this case? The car was on a trailer. The top of the truck is higher than the top of the car, even on the trailer. Also, much of what I noticed was initially pulling off from a stop, well before any aerodynamic effects would matter.

v8440

No, reread my description. The cougar has no engine, trans, or rear axle. I think your weight estimate complete is right, but w/o any engine, trans, OR rearend, 1000 lbs off is pretty reasonable. I bet a topload 4 speed weighs about 175-200 lbs, the 9" rearend it came with weighs probably 225-250, and an all-iron 351 cleveland probably weighs 600 or so.

In any case, you guys have convinced me that there is probably no problem with the truck. It's not even close to being broken in I'm sure.

Side note on the ford: The guy who told me this was not the owner of the truck. He was a passenger. He's also not predisposed toward ford, so he really has no reason to lie or exaggerate. I suspect that the truck had a box on it and he didn't know it.