Half Tons are NOT useless!!!
I wanted to submit a civil thread concerning the usefulness of half ton trucks. Here is my observation..based on experience... both as a past owner and a future owner of said class of vehicles. *...
Forum Discussion
Great point Bob. The truck rolled because of something. Likely driver error or overloaded truck. From some of the stories I read on here, some people just have poorly set up rigs with glairing errors. Its not inadequate truck, it is inadequate equipment or driving skill. Then they feel uncomfortable because of something and simply mask the problems with a heavier truck. A heavier truck is not the end-all-be-all solution. It simply masks the problems during normal driving. In the dreaded emergency situation, those problems quickly come back to the surface... just with more mass moving down the road.
About 7-8 years ago I worked a traffic collision on a major highway. Guy was driving a F350 (don't remember if a dually or not) pulling a trailer with a bobcat on it. He had been pulling the bobcat for years with this truck. Well, that day he had the bobcat sitting a little further back on the trailer. He had been hauling fine for quite a ways, then something caused the trailer to start swaying. He couldn't control the trailer and the swaying got worse and ended up flipping his truck. The problem wasn't that he didn't have enough truck. Accidents can still happen due to driver error or improper load balance.
If you are towing over your limits with a half ton, shame on you. There is no reason that a competent driver (key word COMPETENT) in a half ton cannot tow within specs and have a successful outcome.
Would a 3/4 ton tow it better? Probably. But that doesn't mean that the half ton can't get the job done. Would your wife prefer a man with a larger appendage? Probably. Does your smaller one get the job done? Now that I think about it... maybe that's the reason some people feel the need for a bigger truck...=)
About 7-8 years ago I worked a traffic collision on a major highway. Guy was driving a F350 (don't remember if a dually or not) pulling a trailer with a bobcat on it. He had been pulling the bobcat for years with this truck. Well, that day he had the bobcat sitting a little further back on the trailer. He had been hauling fine for quite a ways, then something caused the trailer to start swaying. He couldn't control the trailer and the swaying got worse and ended up flipping his truck. The problem wasn't that he didn't have enough truck. Accidents can still happen due to driver error or improper load balance.
If you are towing over your limits with a half ton, shame on you. There is no reason that a competent driver (key word COMPETENT) in a half ton cannot tow within specs and have a successful outcome.
Would a 3/4 ton tow it better? Probably. But that doesn't mean that the half ton can't get the job done. Would your wife prefer a man with a larger appendage? Probably. Does your smaller one get the job done? Now that I think about it... maybe that's the reason some people feel the need for a bigger truck...=)
