Best Diesel SUV Tow Vehicles?
We're getting a 25 ft. Airstream travel trailer and would like to tow it with a diesel SUV. The trailer has a Gross Vehicle Weight of 7300 lbs. and the Mercedes-Benz GL350 we're considering has a maxi...
Forum Discussion
horton333 wrote:mich800 wrote:
The point is tire size alone does not mean anything. That is like stating the ecoboost cannot tow because it is only a V6.
You reduce the effective gearing with smaller tires. It's the same effect as lower gear ratios in the differential, a not unheard of thing to do for trailer pulling for the same reasons I suggest this is an advantage for the SUV over a truck. That tire circumference is often overlooked does not mean it is not every bit as important as the other gear ratios.
If you where comparing two othewise identical vehicles you might have a point saying the one with smaller tires has an advantage for pulling. Even so the advantage would be small and there would be hills that the smaller tires would prove to be a disadvantage on. For instance if the big wheeled truck shifted to fourth gear with the pedal floored and pulled the hill at the rpm where it makes maximum HP the small wheeled truck would have to rev higher than the rpm where maximum HP is achieved if it was going to keep up. It wouldn't keep up in 4th. In fifth the rpm would likely drop to a level far below maximum HP. In this case it wouldn't keep up in fifth either.
