Do you like towing?

[Whitehall]

We're picking up our new Snow River 245RKS next week. My only previous TT towing experience is with a rental hybrid trailer, and a rental tent trailer. I have a lot of towing experience with a pilot house fishing boat weighing about 7,500 # total.

Being a rental, the hybrid didn't have a WDH and it wasn't really balanced well with my truck at the time, a 2006 Dodge 1500. Didn't brake well and was kind of a pain to tow, especially down CA SR 20 into Fort Bragg. I like towing my boat most of the time, although the surge brakes can be annoying and vertical changes in the pavement such as bridges can be jarring. The F-350 handles it, though, and I really don't miss towing with the Ram 1500.

I can get in the groove and just cruise along at about 62 mph, except I-5 where the pavement is busted up and I watch the bouncy boat in the mirror give the torsion axles a workout. Curvy roads don't bother me too much, as long as they have enough radius and width. The small fuel tank on the F350 SB is in sync with my coffee drinking habit, so we stop every two hours, at least.

At nearly 12' high and about as long as the TT, the boat has gotten me pretty well accustomed to turning wide and looking up. About the only thing I'm not looking forward to is traffic and SoCal drivers when we head that direction. Oh, and the Stockton area on I-5. The whole thing. People drive even worse there than LA.

How about you? Anything that you dread, towing-wise? Do you get in the zone and rack up the miles?

[Wishbone51]

I love towing to the campsite. I hate towing it back 🙂

[stickdog]

I can handle any traffic bad roadway bum me out.

[phillyg]

If I didn't like to tow I'd have a Class A instead of a FW. My 13,000lb FW tows easier than my boat which is probably less than 5,000lbs.

[mosseater]

I have a confession to make. I love it.

I think it occured to me the first time I towed the trailer home from the dealer that I loved towing. I'm not really even sure why. Maybe it's the challenge of conquering the unknown, which gas station to pull into, how to get backed into the site, making it through a city or busy parking lot. Not really sure, but I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when I pull in somewhere, the next campground, back home, doesn't really matter and I can't explain it. I might be a freak of some kind.

[penguin747]

We camp a lot in pigeon forge and most campers won't go up wears valley to get there due to the curves but me and my buddies always go that way. Once you go up it it's not really that bad 9f drive and great views

[cekkk]

Nvr2loud, too complicated to quote, but x2 on the scale. :C

[Nvr2loud]

Whitehall wrote:

Trackrig wrote:
Towing the trailer on ice when it's warm and there's water standing on the ice is a real pain.

Bill

I think we have different definitions of "warm!":)

Cold -1 or lower
Chilly 0-32
Warm 32-40
Beach 40-65
Hot 65-80
too **** hot 85+

[EcoBullet]

cekkk wrote:
After reading the last few posts, towing might be more of a chore for those whose experience is mostly commuting a few miles to work and just driving around town. You can see some folks can't even merge their Subarus into interstate traffic smoothly or jump into 70 mph traffic at 35, can't turn right onto an open merge lane if traffic in other lanes is in sight, etc. Those folks are almost certain to find towing difficult.

That's pretty much me alright. I spent about 30 years driving about 30K a year, split between my personal pickup and a work pickup, occasionally towing a small boat, but never any bigger rigs, and we are 150 miles from a city of any size. Learning to tow a TT was a pretty big adjustment. Even with my current truck, only about 8K out of 41K miles were towing the TT.

[cekkk]

After reading the last few posts, towing might be more of a chore for those whose experience is mostly commuting a few miles to work and just driving around town. DW drove school buses 30 years and I've always spent a lot of time on the highways. Neither of us have a problem towing. You can see some folks can't even merge their Subarus into interstate traffic smoothly or jump into 70 mph traffic at 35, can't turn right onto an open merge lane if traffic in other lanes is in sight, etc. Those folks are almost certain to find towing difficult.

[tomman58]

I've always had the right truck for the job and have towed 150,000 miles with a TT or more. Most of the time I never even know that it is there.
Drive like a truck driver and not a Nascar driver and you'll get where you are going and enjoy your trip much more.

[EcoBullet]

GrandpaKip wrote:
Dreadful, no. Enjoyable? Not really. It just is. But towing is definitely worth the end result. I certainly don't hook up and drive around for fun, then go back home. 😉

Pretty much what he said. When I'm on a road that doesn't have a lot of traffic, has pretty good width and shoulders, and the wind isn't howling, it's great. When I have to be constantly on high alert for heavy traffic, big wind gusts, and keeping exactly centered within a 10' wide lane, not so much.

When I was towing with a 5.3L Chevy, I used to dread any kind of hill climb, but that is actually kind of fun with the EcoBoost.

[cekkk]

Idiots aside, the biggest problem I have is the lack of truck stops between Colorado Springs and Albuquerque. There's now a very nice one north of Las Vegas NM, but if I miss that, it's a pain. If we take US285, there is really just a large gas station with diesel a couple miles off the highway in Espanola NM.

[Whitehall]

I guess the parts I don't like are:

- Busted up California freeways and bridge approaches with mismatched grades that try to launch your rig into orbit. You can't go slow enough on a major freeway to avoid this.

- People who take advantage of your courteous turn signal by rushing up alongside to get past. I saw a tour bus just move on over when some LA gal tried that. He did the right thing, as he could see a big speed mismatch ahead due to a merge.

Backing and parking don't bother me, and I try to plan ahead on the gas stops so I don't get caught in a bind. Really considering the 50-gal aftermarket diesel tank for my F350 shortbed. Even I don't need to make THAT many pit stops.
- People who get on the freeway, then freeze looking at the big truck in their rear view mirror. I try to move my hand to indicate pressing on the gas pedal, but I don't think that helps.

[hawkeye-08]

I have everything setup correctly now and since we started towing slower (58-62mph), much more enjoyable. That space in front of you that you left for safety that other drivers like to fill is not as much stress now, because going alittle slower than typical traffic, it opens back up reasonably quick.. I am not coming up on slower traffic near as often, so can just enjoy the drive, seldom needing to change lanes.

[_tpc_]

I hate when a set up isn't right for towing. I don't dread it, but its not fun being white knuckled all the time. Thankfully it is correctable.

I dread towing in construction zones. I go out of my way to avoid them. Its not that they don't leave me enough room in the lanes, but I hate being 1 foot from a cement wall with annoying divider things sticking up, and roads that are going up and down left and right because its part shoulder part road your driving on.

Aside from that, towing isn't really a big deal. Sometimes finding a gas station in a remote town that can accomodate both truck and trailer is a pain. Or if you get turned around and you have to go miles up the road to go back another way.