Different Tow Vehicle

[Warm_Air]

Thanks and apologies in advance. I have joined as a new member before buying a travel trailer or tow vehicle so I could educate myself. I have pulled large (26 ft) and small (16 ft) sailboats (with pick-up trucks) but never a travel trailer. I no longer have a pick-up truck.
As of now, my vague plan is to buy a TT in the 28-32 ft range and pull it with a Ford or Chevy 3500 commercial heavy duty van. I know there are many of you who have been at this a while and have seen it all. I would certainly appreciate any insights and experiences you are willing to share.
Thanks for your help and apologies for rehashing an old subject.

[tatest]

Golden_HVAC wrote:
Are you going to want dual air conditioning?

The Ford wagon window vans have built in rear A/C and that is very helpful to the passengers in your humid area of the country! There are hundreds of E-350 vans out there, for sale. Manny are the cargo type, and will never come with rear A/C. It might be possible to install it, but expensive. Also the window vans come with good insulation too - both noise and heat insulation.

GM made a 8.1L gas engine for their 3500 vans for a few years. Not anymore. Depends on what you are towing, the 5.4L in the E-350 is a great engine, so is the 6.8L V10 - that is also used in the class C motorhomes with a 22,000 GCVWR.

The larger motorhome engines have much larger radiators, and a higher 362 HP engine, with a 26,000 (+/-) GCVWR. The E-350 vans only have a 2 valve per cylinder engine, smaller radiator, and only about a 300 HP engine rating.



Have fun camping!

Fred.

Also note that the 5.4 V8 is down rated to 250-255 HP in the van, vs 300 in the pickup and maybe more in some SUVs, but the rating in the van is for 100% duty cycle. Similarly in the Chevy, you will find the 6.0 in the van rated lower than for the Escalade (Corvette 6.0 is a totally different engine). But again, rating in the van is for long term use of continous power, it is not a drag racing power peak power rating as for lighter duty applications.

[tatest]

My one-ton passenger van has a 3000 pound payload and a 6000 pound towing capacity with the mid-size V8. The limiting factor is GCWR rather than tongue weight, which is the problem with SUVs and 1/2 ton pickups with high tow ratings.

If you buy with the right engine (6.8 V10 on Ford, Duramax on Chevy) a one ton van might go to 10,000 pounds on the towing capacity, but as tongue weight might go up to 1500-2000 pounds, you then have to start thinking about balancing what you carry and tongue weight, to stay within that 3000 pounds. Just as you do for a one-ton pickup.

[Heavy_Metal_Doc]

dadmomh wrote:
Have never seen one before....nice looking.

Thanks! We really like it. And it gets questions / comments in every campground we have been in so far.

[dadmomh]

Have never seen one before....nice looking.

[Heavy_Metal_Doc]

DutchmenSport wrote:

Heavy Metal Doctor wrote:
... decided to buy an NV3500 for our tow vehicle. ...

Heavy Metal Doctor: Would you mind posting a photo of your van. I'd love to see it.

Here it is:


not a great picture, but with the tt:

[DutchmenSport]

Heavy Metal Doctor wrote:
... decided to buy an NV3500 for our tow vehicle. ...

Heavy Metal Doctor: Would you mind posting a photo of your van. I'd love to see it.

[Warm_Air]

I'd like to thank you all. I appreciate your taking the time to offer valid and well reasoned advice. Now to start shopping. There's an RV show coming up, so I'll have a chance to see what fits.
Thanks again.

[Golden_HVAC]

Are you going to want dual air conditioning?

The Ford wagon window vans have built in rear A/C and that is very helpful to the passengers in your humid area of the country! There are hundreds of E-350 vans out there, for sale. Manny are the cargo type, and will never come with rear A/C. It might be possible to install it, but expensive. Also the window vans come with good insulation too - both noise and heat insulation.

GM made a 8.1L gas engine for their 3500 vans for a few years. Not anymore. Depends on what you are towing, the 5.4L in the E-350 is a great engine, so is the 6.8L V10 - that is also used in the class C motorhomes with a 22,000 GCVWR.

The larger motorhome engines have much larger radiators, and a higher 362 HP engine, with a 26,000 (+/-) GCVWR. The E-350 vans only have a 2 valve per cylinder engine, smaller radiator, and only about a 300 HP engine rating.

Have fun camping!

Fred.

[Heavy_Metal_Doc]

All I can add is that we have had really good luck with Nissan over many years and decided to buy an NV3500 for our tow vehicle. I have driven plenty of Fords and Chevy's in my work and, while I do think the Chevy is great van, I love the Nissan front end / drivers area room much more. It's like driving a full sized truck. You don't "feel" like it's a van, but you do have everything enclosed and it's more versatile than an large SUV, IMO ..and cheaper to buy thand a big SUV, too..... We've got about 4K miles of TT towing in the last year and I am 100% happy.

[DutchmenSport]

You will have no problems towing a trailer in your range with a one-ton truck or van of any brand. Glad you are thinking with your head here and going right for the one-ton. You will not ever regret investing in a one-ton if you tow anything.

[carringb]

1-ton vans make great tow vehicles. They typically have have about double the payload of full-size SUVs. Skip the small V8's though.

[phillyg]

A 3500 van should easily pull the size TT you're thinking about. Just make sure you use a properly-rated weight distributing hitch with an anti-sway device. If you have a Class III hitch on the van you might have to upgrade it to a Class IV.

[Old-Biscuit]

Payload, payload, payload.........


Forget about ANY mfg. published MAX TOW RATINGS.
Those numbers are magical marketing numbers using a base model, 150# driver and 20# cargo.
REAL World.......you will run out of payload capacity or tow vehicle GVWR long before reaching those magical max tow rating.


GVWR minus curb weight minus all passengers/stuff....payload

Trailers GVWR.....use 15% for trailer tongue weight.
Is that number larger, close to, smaller than payload.
Should be smaller or close to....not larger.


Without actually weighing each for 'true weight' the above is best guesstimate for figuring 'CAN I tow this'

[Huntindog]

While I am not up to speed on Vans, I do know that at some of them make excellent TVs.

Welcome to the Forum