Forum Discussion
110 Replies
nevadanick wrote:
LOL ... my truck is factory rated for 10.7K towing and I routinely tow 10K when at the ranch or between Idaho and Nevada.
I'm with The Texan except i push it a little farther than he probably does.
Many people seem to forget that it wasn't to many years ago that the "standard" OTR semi engine, was a paltry 175 - 190 HP Cummins or Cat. Those anemic engines did a pretty darn good job of moving 80K pounds down the road, so I would bet my money that these "new" grocery getters will do an AWESOME job towing a 10K trailer or 12K 5er.- I'm with The Texan except i push it a little farther than he probably does.
- Quit arguing guys! We all know 240hp in a 6000# can move anything. Just don't set your alarm clock, and the dream will stay alive.
A modern truck should be able to do it all, and not be shrine to oil burning or fuel economy. Now that reliable gas turbo engines are available, with similar torque, and vastly superior overall performance, for lower operating cost, the ED has been relegated to being a shrine. Oh well, believers need one.
If this is now the grocery getter forum, and RV towing doesn't matter, this forum is now useless and should be shut down. boocoodinkydow wrote:
Bionic Man wrote:
X2. And for those that don't believe it, do your own experiement. Tomorrow on your way to work, count the number of 1500 series trucks that are hauling nothing but air vs the number of 1500 trucks that have something in their bed or on the hitch.
And, I do agree that the economics might not make sense right now with the price per gallon of diesel vs gas, but this is about CAFE ratings for Chrysler and the emotional side of a car purchase for the buyer. For many, it feels a lot better to look at their MPG reading and see 29 vs 20.
Tried that last summer. About 80 trucks in 8 miles on the way home one afternoon. None towing, 2 hauling; washer/dryer & a work site tool box & the other 78 EMPTY. Pretty telling to me how the majority of trucks are being used today.
A sampling in one small 8 mile stretch of road in TN is not telling of the rest of the USA... that would be a gross ASSumption that is far too simplified. I guess you don't have many fleet 1/2 ton Pickups or live near farm country, because it sure is different out here where I live. Where I saw a ton of empty trucks was on I-40 in Amarillo... TX is something else. I guess the oil is cheap there, or image is important.- i am a die-hard Ford guy, and really took an interest in the EcoDiesel as a compromise. I'm fed up with feeding my F350 as a daily driver to tow my Jay Flight 32BHDS. I THOUGHT I could step down to a 1/2 ton EcoDiesel and step down to a lighter trailer. NOT. Not with a family of four. The stop at the local Ram dealer tonight proved by the sales manager that 1,200#is the payload for a crewcab 1500 Ram with the EcoDiesel. What is the sense anymore? To get 25mpg hauling... groceries. Kind of disappointed.
boocoodinkydow wrote:
You request first hand experiences, I furnish what you ask for & your very next post is a rambler explaining how real world experiences don't amount to $HIT!! Very interesting. I suppose we ecodiesel owners will continue to enjoy using our trux like trux while you & your small posse of contrarians turn a blind eye to what's ACTUALLY being done so you can mindlessly continue your vendetta.
I have no problem with you towing what ever you want with your 3.0 liter diesel ecodiesel. There are grades to climb, and then there are grades to climb. Out west, far from where most of your towing experience is, the mountains are tall and the roads are steep.
I tow with a VW TDI V6 3.0 diesel, engine specs are damn close to an eco diesel, but my rig is full time AWD, 8 speed auto, and it weighs 5000 pounds. It's rated for 7700 lbs of towing.
I've considered getting a RAM, but the aerodynamics of it with RAM bragging about a CD of .350 is pretty underwhelming. Plus, I have no problems exceeding the rated 29MPG my Touareg is rated at.
You can see my unloaded driving figures here, along with tow figures for MPG's.
2013 Touareg 3.0L TDI Touareg AWD SUV MPGS and fillups
Ram is rated at 27 to 28 MPG and here are the comparable numbers for the Eco diesel in 2014.
2014RAM ecodiesel Crew cab MPG's
Looks like 27MPG is a damn good number in this truck, or we have a lot of operator error.- You request first hand experiences, I furnish what you ask for & your very next post is a rambler explaining how real world experiences don't amount to $HIT!! Very interesting. I suppose we ecodiesel owners will continue to enjoy using our trux like trux while you & your small posse of contrarians turn a blind eye to what's ACTUALLY being done so you can mindlessly continue your vendetta.
- Whose "limits" are you talking about, yours or the manufacturers?? I tow well within the manufacturer limits, but according to YOU and others here who think that the ONLY capable tow vehicle is a ¾t or 1T truck, I am a stupid dangerous driver for subjecting my truck and the other drivers on the road to the weights I tow. Sorry, but I will take the word of the manufacturer and their engineering department all day long, over the defanged mentality of the weight cops on this forum.
boocoodinkydow wrote:
NinerBikes wrote:
...............First hand experiences are preferred. Like straight from the horses mouth.........
.
I concur a thousand percent, ninerbikers. Unless your a$$ has graced the pilots seat of an ecodiesel & towed or hauled from where do you naysayers draw your "experience" to pronounce where it's capabilities lie? If you want some experiences from "the horses mouth" visit the tow/haul subforum @ our ram1500diesel forum & see where "johnc" spent last summer towing 33' open range 5er; or "mhintze experiences double towing a smaller 5er with his boat or a couple of atvs; "cuzzinolaf's" trip with 4 >200# dudes in the cab, snow mobile in the bed & hooked to a 24' enclosed trailer with another 3 snow machines, gear & trappings for a weekend trip in Wyoming, and on and on and on!! Check it out, many accompanied with pix.
Even this is no guarantee of capabilities... as it depends on each and every application. A Box shaped TT tows like dog sh*t with all the aerodynamic resistance, regardless of weight. Add in if you tow in the Midwest Flats, or the mountains of the North East, or the Rockies and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges with passes over 10,000 feet in elevation and very narrow roads.
Every situation is unique to the owner. Some owners do what I consider tremendously taxing and dumb overload situations with their work trucks, far beyond engineered design limits, because they are cheap, or can't afford the proper tool for the job, or flat out young, dumb and ignorant. Age has a way of weeding the mentally challenged out with annual Darwin Awards.
I used to believe that the American Public was capable of applying some Common Sense, but nowadays, from my POV, common sense isn't so common. Somehow, it's been lost on this newer, younger, up and coming generation... YMMV, these are just my observations.
Another observation I get is folks that post on BB's on outrageous weights or size of things that they have towed, as if it's the equivalent of Internet Bragging Rights. Just because nothing has gone wrong yet does NOT mean that one day, Murphy Law will bite you in the A$$ with huge losses, be it product, truck, or even the ultimate, one's life. Another case of "You can't fix stupid" maybe not, but Darwin can and does, daily. It's when stupid damages innocent peoples lives on our public roads and puts everyone else at risk that I draw the line. If you demonstrate ignorance of limits on the internet, with pictures, with supreme feats, and someone else emulates you and fails, should you be held liable for demonstrating the wrong use of said vehicle for all to see and then have idiots apply a "monkey see, monkey do" mentality? Skill levels in emergency situations vary... some train to react correctly to emergency maneuvers, the majority are ill equipped to handle it correctly.NinerBikes wrote:
...............First hand experiences are preferred. Like straight from the horses mouth.........
.
I concur a thousand percent, ninerbikers. Unless your a$$ has graced the pilots seat of an ecodiesel & towed or hauled from where do you naysayers draw your "experience" to pronounce where it's capabilities lie? If you want some experiences from "the horses mouth" visit the tow/haul subforum @ our ram1500diesel forum & see where "johnc" spent last summer towing 33' open range 5er; or "mhintze experiences double towing a smaller 5er with his boat or a couple of atvs; "cuzzinolaf's" trip with 4 >200# dudes in the cab, snow mobile in the bed & hooked to a 24' enclosed trailer with another 3 snow machines, gear & trappings for a weekend trip in Wyoming, and on and on and on!! Check it out, many accompanied with pix.
