Best Diesel SUV Tow Vehicles?

horton333 wrote:
Torque is how strongly you can spin the wheels. That's what counts for heavy loads and steep hills. An introduction to torque.[/uryl]

So long as you don't care how long it takes. There is no unit of time in torque. It is distance x mass. As soon as you add time to the equation you have units of power.

Torque is how strongly you can spin the wheels. That's what counts for heavy loads and steep hills. An introduction to torque.

horton333 wrote:
Torque has everything to do with pulling large loads and getting up a hill, it's the main reason why large trucks are all deisel and they have less horsepower than some cars. Similar with heavy duty pickups.
The horsepower will limit top speed, but with an Airstream being towed by one of those turbo diesels the top speed limit is less an issue than the cops enforcing the speed limit.....And that would be true on a decent grade hill too.

Torque is similar to work. You can look at a steep hill and a heavy trailer and recognize it is a lot of work to get that trailer to the top of that hill. In the same way you can look at a messy room and realize how much work it will take to clean the room. When you get to the top of the hill you've accomplished the same amount of work whether it took 3 hours or 3 minutes. In the same way you've accomplished the same amount of work whether you cleaned the messy room in 3 hours or 3 days.

Horsepower has a time factor to it. It is torque and speed. It says I can pull that trailer up that hill in this many minutes or I can clean that messy room in this many hours. Horsepower says how many horses it can hook on to the trailer or how many cleaning ladies are available to clean the room.

FishOnOne wrote:

blofgren wrote:

FishOnOne wrote:

CandaceB wrote:
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 maximum towing capacity of 7500 lbs. But in the articles I've read so many other numbers get tossed around - payload, hitch weight, etc. - that now I'm confused. Also, how big of an engine is adequate? Our travel plans include the Rockies, so we need enough power to climb hills. If the Mercedes isn't a good choice, what other diesel SUVs would be better? We travel with 3 large dogs, so a pickup just doesn't provide enough interior space for the "family."

I would take a serious look at one of these... Link

I think I would look long and hard for a cherry Excursion with the 7.3L if I were stuck on a diesel SUV. But be prepared to pay for it. I was actually quite close to buying one a few years ago but for some reason my wife didn't want it as a daily driver.... :h

I'm pretty sure the OP is not interested in a old tired Excursion if they're considering a Mercedes.

Now these new converted Excursions with the 6.7 Power Stroke are a jewel.

Yah, you beat me to it. Looking at any suburban anything is nothing like a Mercedes GL350....or any truck for that matter. Maybe if he was pulling trailers for a living but for a vacation kind a guy (or girl), normally using the car for worl commutes etc then seriously make the mercedes work. If this was europe the numbers would be fine as it is within the specs of the car. In north america, if you can't hit the bottom of a hill at 60 mph and accelerate to 80 mph by the top of the hill you don't have enough truck. I would leave a little wiggle room but if you are only taking it on vacations, if your brake set up is good, and if you are within specs on Gross, Combined, hitch weight and tow capacity then go for it. BUT...take it for a test drive first because it will feel heavy. Make sure you are good with that.

Happy trails.

blofgren wrote:

FishOnOne wrote:

CandaceB wrote:
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 maximum towing capacity of 7500 lbs. But in the articles I've read so many other numbers get tossed around - payload, hitch weight, etc. - that now I'm confused. Also, how big of an engine is adequate? Our travel plans include the Rockies, so we need enough power to climb hills. If the Mercedes isn't a good choice, what other diesel SUVs would be better? We travel with 3 large dogs, so a pickup just doesn't provide enough interior space for the "family."

I would take a serious look at one of these... Link

I think I would look long and hard for a cherry Excursion with the 7.3L if I were stuck on a diesel SUV. But be prepared to pay for it. I was actually quite close to buying one a few years ago but for some reason my wife didn't want it as a daily driver.... :h

I'm pretty sure the OP is not interested in a old tired Excursion if they're considering a Mercedes.

Now these new converted Excursions with the 6.7 Power Stroke are a jewel.

Here is a link to an older (less capable) GL towing a 30' Airstream.

Notice in the comments people using it to also tow in the mountains, and the one guy saying how it tows better than his 6.2L 2500 .....

Torque has everything to do with pulling large loads and getting up a hill, it's the main reason why large trucks are all deisel and they have less horsepower than some cars. Similar with heavy duty pickups.
The horsepower will limit top speed, but with an Airstream being towed by one of those turbo diesels the top speed limit is less an issue than the cops enforcing the speed limit.....And that would be true on a decent grade hill too.

horton333 wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

horton333 wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
Was't 240 HP pulling 80,000lb semis just a generation ago?
maybe 2 ?

Yup and 420 foot pounds is enough for the F53 chassis that is rated up to 26,000 pounds gvwr. But somehow it's not enough when it's not in a truck. ;-)

Yep, if you like crawling up a mountain side at sub 20 MPH 240HP is great. If not, it doesn't work so well.

I passed an old class 8 the other day and I could count the lug nuts because the wheel was turning so slow. :E If I have enough gears and enough time 50 HP will work out just fine too. Not something "I" want to do though.

The 420 FP specification is for the latest and greatest F53 ..... those SUVs have 8 gears too.....
Anyway the math is clear that there is far more than enough torque to comfortably take a trailer the size of the OP is looking at, I really don't get this Tim Taylor 'more power' thing which in reality saves you at most a few downshifts and it costs a lot of money for those trivial 'bragging rights'.

Must we do this again? :R Torque has NOTHING to do with power.

I have a 200 HP, 420 FT/tq turbo diesel. My trailer is slightly lighter than what the OP is thinking of getting. I was down to less than 30 MPH on some hills I tow. If 28 MPH is "trivial" on a hill, to you, that's fine. Back in the day, that was fine for me. Now days it just doesn't cut it.

If the OP thinks this is ok; go for it. I'm just telling him what is going to happen because I tow about the same trailer with about the same HP truck.

I think you want a Ram MegaCab. Lots of rear seat room. And plenty of power with the Cummins.

Just guessing as it is not my comment, but a lot of European models do not spec for WD - as it is less common in Europe (for historical regulatory reasons).
It doesn't mean they won't distribute fine.