Just how powerful are they?

wny_pat wrote:

hipower wrote:

prism wrote:

hipower wrote:
The reality of this discussion is really difficult to grasp for an old trucker like me.

When I was first driving tractor trailers one of my tractors was a IH 450, with a 450 c.i. inline six cylinder gas engine and I pulled a dump trailer hauling at a GVW of 75,000# plus over the hills in Western PA every day. Moving up to a B Model Mack with a 205 HP diesel and a five speed main transmission and a three speed auxilary trans I thought I was in heaven. Even pulling maximum loads of fire brick into the steel mills of W PA and W VA.

Times have changed and now I am driving a 350 HP Cummins 8.3 pulling a Chevy Silverado grossing at about 36,000# and expecting it to accelerate like a car.
From a power/torque standpoint there isn't a motorhome made today that isn't capable of pulling almost anything we could hook behind it. The limitations are the strength and quality of the frame extensions and hitches used by the coach builder and the transmissions used by the chassis manufacturer. Common sense isn't all that common, but it is always useful when considering something we are pretty sure is a dumb idea from the beginning. I am always reminded of the person who says "Watch this" as he does something really dumb and we are amazed when they fail miserably.

I disagree.There are a ton of MH,s out there that could not even begin to pull a diesel chevy pick up loaded with atv and pulling a 4-5K boat assembley behind that.Especially when it comes to hills never mind mountain travel and the highway traffic speeds required.In your old dump truck days you had low range and never had to worry about highway speeds.

I thought that was why they invented four way flashers. :)

There may be a ton of MHs out there who can not begin to pull that load, but there are a ton of new MHs who can. Just take a look at the MHs out there with the Cummins ISX 600 hp with 1850 foot pounds of torque! There is enough torque there to rip through lots of u-joints, transmissions and differential parts. Me, well I am very happy with my little Cummins 6BT5.9 and Allison MT643 transmission. It gets us and our toad around to anyplace the big boys go. And yes, I have to use the four way flashers today too.

Yes I agree but that was not the ones I was referring to obviously
You cant in all seriousness tell me you think you could pull a loaded diesel 4X4 and a huge boat behind your MH exspediently and safely ?
The OP asked what kind of rig does a person need to perform such a operation as he witnessed and I suggested 4 pages earlier at least 450-500HP or more to be reasonable and safe.I see where one person thought(thinks) his 330HP/880lb cat would surfice and I simply do not agree.To each their own thoughts weather reasonable or not as its just a forum discussion.