1/2 ton Tundra pulling 8200 lbs
I inherited my father's Beautiful 30' Blackstone TT,I have pulled it maybe a dozen times with my paid for 2007 Tundra which seem's to pull and brake it just fine.But I get grilled all the time at Rv p...
Forum Discussion
I used to work for a boat manufacturer, so I towed small boats (up to about 10,000 pounds) all over Oregon and Washington. The company trucks were all Ford powerstrokes, but we were one truck short coming back from a boat show, so I agreed to use my wife's F-150 to pull a 6,000 pound boat the 200 miles to get home from the show. The trailer was well within the rating for the 150, and it pulled and stopped fine. My scare came on a downhill stretch of I-5 in Portland where the curves were tight. As I braked the trailer suddenly and violently swayed, wagged and shoved me into the neighboring lane. Fortunately, nobody was in the other lane, so I gradually slowed and got off at the next exit. I left the boat at a nearby dealer for us, drove home, and came back a couple days later with one of the big powerstrokes. I picked the boat up very early, so there was no traffic, and I tried every combination of turning, braking and swerving to make the trailer misbehave, but it just tracked like a gem, so I got back on I-5 and pulled the boat home. When I got back to the factory we discovered that the wrong boat had been put on the trailer I had pulled. The trailer had been set up for a different model. As a result, the tongue weight that was supposed to be about 900 pounds was only about 350 pounds. That's what caused the violent wag -- way to much weight to the rear. The big cc diesel was so heavy and had such a long wheelbase, it didn't "care" the 6000 pound trailer was improperly set up, but the much smaller, lighter F-150 needed things to be set up right.
The moral of the story: As you get closer to the max rating of your tow rig the set up and balance become critical, and the vehicle/trailer become less tolerant of abrupt control inputs. For these reasons and others, I've always preferred to stay well below the max tow rating. I tend to buy more truck than I absolutely need. I still try to make sure everything with the trailer set up is in order, but I prefer not to sweat if we decide to buy/carry an ATV or a buddy asks us to haul a few hundred pounds of gear for him. Towing well below the capability of your truck just feels like less work too... Once you get used to having that kind of margin it's hard to go back to being right at the limits of your vehicle.
The moral of the story: As you get closer to the max rating of your tow rig the set up and balance become critical, and the vehicle/trailer become less tolerant of abrupt control inputs. For these reasons and others, I've always preferred to stay well below the max tow rating. I tend to buy more truck than I absolutely need. I still try to make sure everything with the trailer set up is in order, but I prefer not to sweat if we decide to buy/carry an ATV or a buddy asks us to haul a few hundred pounds of gear for him. Towing well below the capability of your truck just feels like less work too... Once you get used to having that kind of margin it's hard to go back to being right at the limits of your vehicle.
