Towing 3,000 Pounds

[esjay]

I need to buy a new tow vehicle, preferably a pickup, to tow our 3,000 pound Casita travel trailer.
Our Requirements:
1. Comfort, power heated seats
2. Plenty of interior room (crew cab)
3. Safety (good crash protection)
4. Economy, would like something that gets mid 20s mpg on highway not towing and maybe 16-17 mpg towing
Am I asking for too much? Any suggestions?

[eluwak]

The Ridgeline is a great vehicle, and tows well too. The folks used to tow their Hi-Lo all over the country with theirs before the got the class A. When I had my 2010 F-150 4.6 SCrew I did a direct towing comparison when we had to move to the other side of a small mountain, and the Ridgeline made the F-150 feel embarrassing while towing the utility trailer full of stuff.

Enjoy! 🙂

[APT]

Glad you found something you like! I'm sure it will meet your needs.

[esjay]

We finally made a decision on Christmas day to buy a Tundra Model 1794 Crew Max 2WD. Dec. 26 we went to the Toyota dealer for another test drive, took the Tundra to the house and it was too tight a fit in our carport. We have a screwed up parking arrangement with a boat, a Mazda Miata, the Casita, an LS430 Lexus, and a pickup. The only way a full size pickup would work would be to leave it out in the weather exposed and that is out of the question for me. So we tried a Tacoma and it was too rough riding. I thought about the upcoming Canyon and Colorado, but past experience tells me not to buy a first year GM product. So, we went to the Honda dealer and drove a Ridgeline. We fell in love with it, rides and drives like a car, best handling thing with a pickup bed I have ever driven. I found a 2014 silver/black leather Ridgeline SE at another dealer and made a deal. This thing has heated seats, NAV, voice controls, Bluetooth, pretty much everything but a power passenger seat. Wife loves it. We get AWD to boot, took it to Chicago in 8" of snow for New Years. This thing has a robust chassis, hybrid unibody with built in frame rails, weighs 4,600 lbs. Now you Amurican truck guys can tell me how your V8s will tow better and get better mileage, but the Ridgeline was also $10,000 less money than a loaded out full size pickup. It's a bit old school, been out 9 years, but exactly what we need. I could go on and on raving about it. I drove it 900 miles on Jan. 3. It is the first vehicle I have had that did not give me a backache after a long drive.The seats were made for my back.
Thanks for all of the comments and advice.

[Bumpyroad]

last I checked the Tacoma I wanted listed at about $31,000 and the F-150 at $43,000. my Highlander V6 is rated to tow 5,000 lbs. and easily handles my 3800/4200 Ascend.
bumpy

[Fordlover]

APT wrote:

rebelopie wrote:

I am not sure why so many are proposing monster trucks to pull your Casita with. I think you'd be happy with a Colorado, Dakota, or similar in SUV form.

Because there is no $ savings by choosing a V6 in a truck, mid-sized for full. There is a huge difference in towing power and comfort by going with a "monster" 🙂 half ton truck.

And nothing will hit his target FE short of a V6 diesel which severely limits choices.

I'd think a N/A 3.7 V6 F-150 or the Pentastar V6 in the ram would handle a 3,000 lb. trailer pretty easily, and do pretty close on the MPG expectations of OP while unloaded. 18 MPG towing is probably unreasonable unless he goes Diesel. But then again you just pay for your fuel up front.

[Fordlover]

vermilye wrote:
I tow an Escape 17B, dry weight 2100 lbs, actual weight loaded for a trip - 3010 lbs. I tow with a small SUV (a RAV4 V6 with tow package) rated at 3500/350 lbs. While the trailer weight is within limits, I have to load carefully to keep the tongue weight within specifications. Since the Casita 17's tend to have a heavier tongue weight, I'd suggest going to at least the 5000/500 rated vehicles.

By the way, over 45,000 miles of towing including the rockies & eastern mountains (yes, there are some), I've averaged 15MPG (25MPG unhooked). I rarely drive interstates, and usually tow at 57 - 60 MPH...

The RAV4 no longer has a V6 option from what I've read.

[Francesca_Knowl]

Road Ruler wrote:

esjay wrote:

Our Lexus is an "LS", not a tow vehicle.

Are you sure?

:B

Brace yerself, Road Ruler...

Something tells me that you're about to be introduced to the miraculous tow-capacity-increasing powers of one of Canada's Great Institutions: "Can Am RV"!

[Road_Ruler]

esjay wrote:

Our Lexus is an "LS", not a tow vehicle.

Are you sure?

[bikendan]

Santa Fe wrote:
If you prefer a pickup, check into a Honda Ridgeline. Small enough, V6 powered, and available in a trim with heater leather seats.

i thought the Ridgeline would be a good choice for a tow vehicle.
but it doesn't compare against the newer v-8 trucks anymore.

it gets less gas mileage a new 5.3 v-8 Silverado/Sierra or a Dodge Ram Hemi v-8.
and the v-8 trucks have room for 6 adults, along with towing at least a ton and a half more.

this is the misconception about v-6 trucks getting much better gas mileage than bigger v-8 trucks.
v-6 truck technology has not kept up with what's going on with v-8 full size trucks.

[B_Sjulestad]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNnMlHfeZso

This would be my choice, would pay for the upgrade in 2 years.

[Santa_Fe]

If you prefer a pickup, check into a Honda Ridgeline. Small enough, V6 powered, and available in a trim with heater leather seats.

[Francesca_Knowl]

Redsky wrote:
A Subaru wagon will pull a 3,000 lb. trailer and without the trailer it will get 30 MPG on the freeway.

Dunno which "wagon" you're referring to, but I doubt that any Subaru except possibly the Tribeca is capable of towing 3,000 pounds of travel trailer. Limiting factor is tongue weight- limited to 200 pounds on just about every model. You can't tow a 3,000 pound TT safely with such a low tongue-to trailer ratio. The "high" number really only applies to boat towing- due to differences in design those can be towed with a 5-7% ratio.

Again excepting the Tribeca, Subaru max tow limits are between 2,000 and 2700 pounds...And let's keep in mind that the weight of everything in the car except a 175 pound driver has to be taken off that number in order to stay under max GCWR.

[Redsky]

I would forget about the gas mileage and concentrate on the other parts of the equation that are more important to you. A Subaru wagon will pull a 3,000 lb. trailer and without the trailer it will get 30 MPG on the freeway.

The new 2014 Chevy 1/2 ton trucks are supposed to get the best highway mileage but personally I would always go with a Toyota truck given a choice as they are much more reliable over time. I have had many different trucks and 3 Toyota trucks with more than 400,000 miles on the Toyota's and over 180,000 miles on each and when I sold them they are all still working perfectly and that means everything in the truck and the transmissions were still smooth and no gear whine and tight steering.

I only had the scheduled maintenance done during all those miles with the Toyota trucks. I wish I could say the same about my Ford, Chevy, and Dodge trucks but they were not even close to the Toyota's in engineering, build quality, and reliability.

[APT]

It's a completely different engine, trans, and vehicle.

[Bumpyroad]

that TAcoma mileage sort of puzzles me, my Highlander with the V-6 supposedly has less torque but more HP and I get 25-28.
bumpy