camper towing rental trucks??

[woody0331]

I went out this morning to go run some errands. My truck was gone. Must have gotten stollen last night. Well, fudge.
So I have quite a few questions, but I'll limit this discussion to:
We have plans to go up the hill over labor day this weekend. My little tractor(Diesel Jeep Liberty) as torquey as it is probably would not do well pulling my toy hauler (Dutchman 1902) up to the Eisenhower nor be able to control it on the way down. Being Sunday, I don't know what type of rental I will be given from insurance. Usually its 4 wheels, some sheet metal and a engine to get you to and from work. Im trying to figure out if I will be able to take the camper this weekend or if Ill be pulling the tent out.
Has anybody had any experience with this. does any of the rental companies offer trucks that can handle a camper. I use to pull with a Tundra. It did ok but i think I was a over weight with the heavy tongue, thats why I upsized. So a beefier half ton would work and I would need a break controller.

Mods, feel free to move this if its in the wrong section. I wasn't able to locate the Stollen car section. 🙂

[woody0331]

Jac you are correct. The cop that did our police report said ours was the 3report he'd written for f250/350s that morning. That was around 9:00 am. Turns out they're really easy to get into. They just punch the lock core into the door and that exposes the locking rod, then it's fair game. The ignition core must not be too difficult as well.
I'll be buying some supplemental devices as soon as I get the truck back.

[JAC1982]

Glad you found a truck!

There seems to be a rash of truck thefts in Denver metro. I know out here in Brighton, I've seen posts of 3 separate Ford 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks being stolen on our buy/sell/trade Facebook page. One was a dually the guy had just bought a couple days before. We don't live in town and park the truck in the garage so we're not too worried, but these guys are taking them from in front of people's houses in broad daylight... pretty ballsy!

[Grit_dog]

Woody, glad it worked out! Too bad you got new truckitis out of the deal!
And yes fwiw, the original Super Dities are among the easiest trucks to steal in recent years. No chipped key and super easy to slim Jim the door open.
Last one I had for a company truck, I was constantly locking the keys in it when I had to get used to locking the doors after moving to Phoenix. Only got 1 key with it and just left a coat hanger and screwdriver in the bed to break in every time I locked in the keys!

[Grit_dog]

Sillybugs2 wrote:
When our new used truck died 20 miles down the road two years ago the dealer brought us another 3500 dodge on the lot for sale for us to go csamping for the week while they towed ours to their lot to be fixed. Saved our trip.

Did they bring you a loaner 3500 when yours got stolen?

[woody0331]

So it's been a week since Labor Day. Sorry for now just replying but life's been busy. We were able to rent a truck from enterprise truck and commercial division. My insurance covered 25 bucks a day. We had to cover the rest. They do give an insurance rate. I asked for a 3/4 ton. I started out with a ram 2500 diesel quad cab. That would have worked out fine. After picking up the camper I noticed I didn't nt have trailer lights. Then realized I didn't have trailer breaks neither. I was impressed that the truck stopped the trailer as well as it did, but wasn't going to try them in the mountains especially with no break lights. I found the problem. The trucks wiring harness conector to the trucks trailer plug was disconnected. I tried to reconnect but it wasn't reconecting easily. That's when I stop. I don't want to be the one that breaks/buys it.
I went back to enterprise (trailer in tow). They swapped trucks with me. Unfortunately they only had a f350 dually long bed. A little more truck than I needed or wanted, but I new it could handle the camper
We rented it on Friday morning and returned it on Monday night. The salesman comped me a day for the inconvenience. After insurance i was in it for $150 or so. I'm good with that.
Another positive was that I was able to tow my camper to the locksmith. An initial quote for a mobile lock smith was $150-$175 to show up plus a hundred per hour thereafter. (I didn't try any other mobile units, I would have drilled the cores out for that). Instead the lock smith that I towed it to picked it, printed 2 new keys and made 6 copies for under 70 bucks.

I think we made the right decision with the rental. We had a good time. Plenty of truck to tow the camper. I didn't have to hide the fact that I was using the truck to tow. I'm just hoping that the trip doesn't cost me 40k this winter.... If the wife wants to trade the 6.0 for a 6.7.

Thanks again for all of the replies.

[rexmitchell]

It looks like it has already been said but you can absolutely rent trucks to tow with. I had to do it when my truck was getting repaired from a wreck. Demanded a truck because I had to pull a trailer. They wouldn't supply a hitch for insurance reasons, other than that no different than renting a regular car. Had a 2500 dodge diesel as my rental.

[woody0331]

So I chatted with enterprise today. Im going to have to cover 60 bucks a day after insurance. 3/4 ton with electric trailer break control. And towing is allowed.
I'm sure National is good, but they're not on USAAs list. Besides I doubt the 1/2 tons have trailer breaks. I'm not going to try towing over the divide without a trailer break controller.

[STANG23L]

National does stock trucks and SUV's.

They are the only company I use any more especially at airports. Get in on the Emerald Club, show up and drive what every you want away.

As far as rules and regulations on towing with a rental? If I had a trailer that could be safely towed with an 1/2 ton. I think it would be worth the risk. But that's just my opinion.

[woody0331]

Thanks for all of the replys.
Good news is the cops found the truck. Bad news is they broke the core in the steering column. I was able to turn the key twice. First time it started but it ran rough. Noticed it was out of gas. (That's when they ditched it). Went and bought a gallon, cycled the key to prime it but couldn't get the key to turn after that. Oh well.
On that note the cop said the crooks have figured out its really easy to punch in the core in the door on these trucks (mines a 2006 f350) and jimmy the core on the steering column. So if you have a truck of that era, you might consider extra security measures i.e. "The club " or a kill switch.

As far as borowing another truck, the two vehicles that will be with us that are capable are already pulling trailers.
I did find that enterprise does rent 3/4 and full tons for towing. I'm calling them today. Internet price is 105 a day for 3/4 ton. Not sure if I want to spend that. Insurance will only cover 25 a day.
I' have already been so busy at work and dealing with this, I haven't had time to search out transwest or any of the others noted.
As noted earlier, we might have to go back to how we started and break out the tent.

[Mocoondo]

Most rental companies specifically disallow towing anything other than towing equipment they have rented to you.

Rental car companies renting trucks will generally put a locking pin in the receiver to prevent you from connecting to it.

One certain rental truck company has a specific, proprietary size hitch ball installed on their trucks that only works with their own towing equipment so that you cannot connect a standard size coupler to it.

The bottom line is that rental companies, and specifically their insurance companies, do not want you towing equipment with their vehicles.

[tatest]

Call around to rental companies doing commercial and lease business (e.g. Penske, Ryder, Hertz commercial). Retail rentals generally don't allow towing, commercial rentals have different terms. Don't expect it to be cheap. Also, it might not be a pickup, or at least not they type of pickup you might buy or want to rent.

[tinner12002]

Why don't you leave finding you a truck up to your ins company...provided you had ins. Otherwise the large equipment rental companies that rent boom lifts and construction equip rent heavier trucks and you should be able to get them with a hitch.

[tinner12002]

darsben1 wrote:
enterprise rents pick ups up to one ton. Do they have hitch? I do not know give them a call

Around here their trucks do not have hitches.

[ddndoug]

woody0331 wrote:
... fortunately well be with the a big group of family and have a lot of help if needed. And were very close to town.

Do you have a family member that could tow yours and maybe your Jeep could tow theirs? Something like a pop-up or smaller trailer.

Doug