Family of six looking for tow vehicle

If you can wait another 6 months, the new Transit van should be on sale. It keeps getting pushed back though while Ford tries to keep up with F150 demand (they share the same plant).

The Transit drives more car-like than the E-series, and payload goes up to 5500 pounds. They will have 7 different body sizes available. The smallest will be about the same footprint as a 1/2-ton SUV, while the largest will have double the volume of an E-series.

Either the 3.5L EcoBoost or the baby-Powerstroke would be a good match for a family pulling a mid-size tailer.

Congratulations graduate! Always nice to see someone pass the course before they spend they money! So many don't find this forum until they plunk down hard earned cash on something like a Sequoia and then find out that it's way overloaded and having problems.

About the only vehicle being manufactured today with both enough seats and payload to handle to a decent sized trailer is a full size van from Ford or GM. Chevy has discontinued the 2500 Suburban (although rumored to be coming back in 2015) and the Excursion was last made in 2005, likely because the capabilities of the 1500 models are closing in on what used to be 2500 territory.

The payload on a 2013 sequioa is 1320. If you followed this thread at all, you would see that my dependable sequoia would be sitting in my driveway because that isn't going to work for our large family.

And with that, I'm handing myself "towing 101" graduation papers. ;) Thanks everyone for your help! Ill be back if we decide to try to tow with the silverado. The expy is supposed to change significantly for the better in 2015. Complete redo and will likely tow more with better gas mileage. We decided to just try to milk out another year in our minivan and see what Ford or anyone else comes up with later next year.

Redsky wrote:
I would go with the Toyota Sequoia over anything from Ford or GM or anyone else. Reliability is important but even more so when you are towing a trailer on the highway. Toyota has ranked number one by JD Powers for the last 5 years in a row.

There are vans that sit on a 3/4 ton truck chassis and they will be able to tow a conventional trailer with at most the addition of a weight distributing hitch. More space than a SUV but without 4WD (AWD may be available).

Trailers are being made lighter so that smaller vehicles can tow them. There are quite a few that weigh in under 5,000 lbs dry weight and an SUV that can tow 7500 lbs. will be adequate.

Oh so much I disagree with there. You say buy a Toyota then recommend a 3/4 ton van of which only Ford/GM make!

GM sells 170k full sized SUVs, Toyota sells 13k. Selling the most does not mean it is the best for everyone, but that many people are not buying a piece of crap!

There are few 5000 pound dry RVs that I would recommend for a family of 6. Tow rating is not the limit factor for larger families anyway.

Redsky wrote:
I would go with the Toyota Sequoia over anything from Ford or GM or anyone else. Reliability is important but even more so when you are towing a trailer on the highway. Toyota has ranked number one by JD Powers for the last 5 years in a row...

What JD Powers study? Dependability?

GM was named the best initial quality automaker in J.D. Power’s 2013 Initial Quality Study.


From the JD Power 2013 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study (Study to demonstrate source

"Toyota Motor Corporation continues to perform well in long-term dependability and earns seven segment awards--more than any other automaker in 2013--for the Lexus ES 350 ; Lexus RX; Scion xB ; Scion xD ; Toyota Prius ; Toyota Sienna ; and Toyota RAV4 .

General Motors receives four segment awards for the Buick Lucerne ; Chevrolet Camaro; Chevrolet Tahoe; and GMC Sierra HD."

It looks like the categories related to Tow Vehicles were led by GM!

Nice attempt at generalized marketing.

Look in the glove box for a sticker with a bunch of 3 letter/number codes. Specifically KC4 and Vo1 or VO2. The KC4 is the engine oil cooler option, the VO1/2 is the tranny oil cooler option. I believe since about 97 or 98 or earlier possibly, GM has put the engine and tranny coolers as std in ALL pickups from 1500 and up. THe other that is std since about 91 or 92 is the 7 wire harness to the back of the pickup. I would swag that the only thing you have to add is a hitch, female RV plug at the back, and an electric brake controller in the cab.

Even with 1800 lbs, you can still tow a reasonable sized trailer with that rig. My son has the 4.8 V8, 3.42 gears, and the same 4 sp auto as this truck has, even a 1500. He has no issues with upwards of 8K lbs. Does he know it is back there. of course, I even knew I had 8K lbs behind my dually duramax crew cab! With an upper 290 or so HP, as my son has, you have PLENTY of HP, you will have to let the motor rev in the 4000 even 5000 range when towing steeper hills. but that is expected.

Also, when you buy a trailer, try to get one with smooth sidwalls vs the corrogated aluminum as my trailer has. Yes the smooth fiberglass will weigh some 500-600 lbs more, but the smoothness more than makes up for the added windage the aluminum causes!

Marty

Fourkidletts wrote:
The rear axle is 3.73 it is an extended cab. I saw somewhere it was that much payload but now I'm seeing something closer to 1800 when I checked again. My parents saved everything on this and she had the original window purchase sticker in it. So I've got it all in front of me. I don't see a tranny cooler. I'm slowly starting to accept a trailer probably isn't going to happen for us right now. Im not sure i could drop tons of money into this truck with the mileage it has. But I know a whole lot about towing now, thanks to you all!

I'm sorry the Expy hasn't quite worked out for you the way you had hoped. I hope our more conservative members didn't discourage you too much, but they mean well.

If the RV controversy hasn't caused you to miss the good deal, perhaps the Expy would still work as basic whole family transportation. I'm quite sure your family doesn't weigh more than the six man railroad crews we typically hauled, plus a driver, using one of several Coach America Suburbans, so I am extremely confident that that 1/2 ton limited type passenger use would work for you.

Suburbans may have slightly larger load capacity (I haven't looked) than Expy's, but they theoretically should because they are built somewhat lighter than a Ford Expedition and come with similar light duty original tires. The increased available payload result is similar to your minivan, the light vehicle weight of which allows a greater payload on the marginal OEM spec'd tires. Factory tires, and their meager ratings, are usually the weak link and the load range can easily be upgraded to safely carry extra weight on any vehicle.

Someone suggested an older Excursion SUV like I have if you wanted to haul your large family and also pull a camper. The reason they thought that would work better is that truck has a 3/4 ton chassis. But just FYI, the older truck I have is rated at less than 1800 pounds load capacity, just barely over that of the newer 2012 Expy's 1500+ pounds. Considering the huge campers (up to 40') often pulled by Excursions is why I believe the near capable Expy would have been just fine for your needs with a smaller camper (should you ever reconsider an Expy down the road). It is probably important to mention that only about 1/2 to 2/3's the trailer tongue weight ends up on the truck because of weight distributing hitches, so I see a couple hundred pounds, or so, of actual resultant tongue weight as no big deal if they remain within tire ratings.

An odd thing you might encounter is that campers are often sold with marginally rated tires also. In some cases, the gross payload is claimed to meet in excess of the total weight that the tires could hold. This does lead to blowouts on these relatively small tires. This is worse than vehicle manufactures who tend to be pretty conservative the other way, especially Ford, all in the interest of liabilty I assume.

Good luck whatever you decide and have a great holiday season!

Wes
...

I would go with the Toyota Sequoia over anything from Ford or GM or anyone else. Reliability is important but even more so when you are towing a trailer on the highway. Toyota has ranked number one by JD Powers for the last 5 years in a row.

There are vans that sit on a 3/4 ton truck chassis and they will be able to tow a conventional trailer with at most the addition of a weight distributing hitch. More space than a SUV but without 4WD (AWD may be available).

Trailers are being made lighter so that smaller vehicles can tow them. There are quite a few that weigh in under 5,000 lbs dry weight and an SUV that can tow 7500 lbs. will be adequate.

Another option is a class C motorhome for 6 people.

The rear axle is 3.73 it is an extended cab. I saw somewhere it was that much payload but now I'm seeing something closer to 1800 when I checked again. My parents saved everything on this and she had the original window purchase sticker in it. So I've got it all in front of me. I don't see a tranny cooler. I'm slowly starting to accept a trailer probably isn't going to happen for us right now. Im not sure i could drop tons of money into this truck with the mileage it has. But I know a whole lot about towing now, thanks to you all!

Fourkidletts wrote:
Marty, it's a 1500. Is that bad? I'm bracing for impact....the paperwork says vortex 4800 v8 4 speed with tow haul mode. It has almost 100k miles. (Great for 13 years old...bought it from my mom) Runs good still.

No hitch so I can start fresh there.

you have a number of issues.

first, the 4.8 engine is famous for being a poor tower. add that you may not have the factory tow package, which means the rear end is geared for gas mileage, not towing. you say is has tow/haul feature but doesn't have a hitch receiver. this is odd.:h
a factory tow package include the receiver, 7-pin connector, trans cooler, wiring for brake controller and a rear end ratio spec'd for towing.

second, if it's the 4.8 engine, i seriously doubt it has a 8700 towing capacity. i think you're mixing up the specs.
there's no way that the 4.8 has a payload of 2144lbs.
unless you're talking about two different trucks.

overall, only a trailer under 25' would be a good match for that truck. even if you add the towing package items, you'd still have a poor rear end ratio for towing.