MITSUBISHI FUSO FE84D good for pulling 5er?

Only 2 people and only a 30' 5er?!? I know we say, " you can never have too much truck", but again, only 2 people and only a 30' 5er?? Heck get the biggest baddest semi cab you can buy......

The small Isuzu, Mitsubishi-Fuso, NPR, Hino, etc class 4 and 5 (GVWR's from 13,000-20,000 lbs) local delivery day-cab cabover trucks are typically underpowered, with small engines. They have good payload capacity for carrying cargo, good fuel mileage, good turning radius and maneuverability for downtown driving, which are all good attributes of a local delivery truck, but they don't have much power for towing a heavy trailer, especially in the mountains.

They are also not comfortable. The cabs are small and they are loud inside, with the engine right under the front seats.

The larger American conventional class 6-7 trucks from Freightliner (M2, FL60/FL70), International (4000-series) and Ford (F650/750) have much bigger and more powerful engines that have no problem pulling heavy trailers up mountain grades and have larger cabs for long trips. They're available with 4-door crew cabs with air cab, air seats and air rear suspension. The Internationals are available with 4wd too.

My International 4800 has the DT466 7.6L inline-6 diesel with 250 hp and 850 torque rating, with the Allison 3000 tranny with retarder. It's a great drivetrain with lots of power. The chassis is 33,000 GVWR with air brakes. It has a huge 4-door crew cab with air seats that makes my F350 crew cab's cab feel tiny. It also has 4wd. It doesn't have air cab or air rear suspension, which would be nice. Those things are available though.

Always wondered why these have not caught on for RV use in N America.

From a safety view the cabover style is dangerous but no different than any motorhome. It would make a good base to produce small class As. As a 5er hauler the only downside might be engine size. In the land of "bigger is better" a 4 cylinder diesel is not going to sell to many as long as fuel is dirt cheap.

....but wait... I thought the OP said:

"looking for comfort" .... and ..... "considering Mitsubishi FusoFE84D"

Are you allowed to say both of those things in the same sentence ?? :) ;)

Be nice to know weight of 30'' 5er is looking for. I doubt very seriously one would need a MDT or a HDT vehicle to tow a 30' 5er wth.. Use as a daily driver? Use to drive around town, go through most drive thru's? Use the bed of a truck to carry things around in? If a GVW of 12to even 14K , a lot of 250/2500s could handle that... A SRW 350/3500 could do it and a 2013 and up 350/3500 DRW truck could handle substantially more weight with a lot of room to spare.

Jim

The big downside to the light and medium duty cabover trucks is safety - there is not really a crumply zone between the occupants and what might get hit. I know that at least on the older ones they also don't have airbags, side impact door bars, etc..

agesilaus wrote:
check the payload that is the most important feature. And that's where every Japanese p/u fails miserably so far. You really need a one ton truck for 5ver towing tho people use 3/4 ton trucks. I looked, briefly, on the net for the specs of that truck and they were not easily available.

OK I found two mentions of towing capacity one state 2950# and the other 3500# both are grossly inadequate. Maybe they have a new improved model?

We are not talking Pickups. Talking Medium Duty Trucks. Looking at the technical data for 2005 to 2010, the Cab and Chassis weighs about 6200lbs and GVW of 14,500. Adding a towing body, you should still get over 7000lbs of payload.

One down side I see is once you are parked you have to drive a bigrig around where ever you go. I would much rather drive my Dodge than a FL or Pete around town

Chris

sailbode1 wrote:
Instead of Dodge, GMC, or Ford pickup trucks, I'm wondering about a medium size cab and chassis from Izuzu, or volvo, or freightliner?
Any and all advise appreciated

If you look you will see many folks towing 5ers with road tractors. And honestly, a good used one will go for less than a big 3 pickup. Plus the wheelbase on a single axle can be shorter than the WB on a pickup. From what I can tell. there really is no downside to using a road tractor to tow a 5er..


As for capacity, a Freightliner Volvo or Izuzu tractor as a daily chore tow more than 5ers weigh. And if you are thinking about durability. The GMC diesels are Izuzu.

Me, I'd pick the Freightliner for comfort.

sailbode1 wrote:
Instead of Dodge, GMC, or Ford pickup trucks, I'm wondering about a medium size cab and chassis from Izuzu, or volvo, or freightliner?
Any and all advise appreciated

A =lot= of these are used Down Under, to tow some pretty decent-sized FWs. Also, if you check out images of their "caravans", you'll notice that there is a lot more room between the in and the center of the axles, so even a smaller FW can have a lot more weight on the pin. Contact RobertRyan, an Aussie who regularly posts here, for more info. He also has posted a lot of pics over the years, too.

Lyle