Towing our chosen TT

[Pam_s_Dennis]

We are going from a class c to a travel trailer and are curious about a tow vehicle. The chosen TT is a Flagstaff 25KS and we are trying to find a used but not abused Ford F150 Ecoboost or a Dodge 1500 Ecodiesel. The tow vehicle will replace our Honda Odyssey. A 2004 Honda CR-V is our errand runner around town. We do not want to purchase a new truck so it is likely that the Ford 150 Ecoboost will end up in our driveway. I haven't seen too many Dodge 1500 diesels on the used market yet. Scarce as hens teeth. Any comments about the Ford or Dodge or any other tow vehicle will be welcome. We are looking at economy and do not want the constant maintenance of the motorhome even when not in use. The only towing done in the past was popup and then we jumped into the motorhome years later and towed the Honda CR-V. I do not like towing and not being able to back up without disconnecting the towed vehicle.

[NinerBikes]

Caveman Charlie wrote:
I, for one, like small. My little 20 foot TT does everything I need it to do.

I've slept 6 adults in my 20 foot during a rainy night and we were comfortable. I've had 4 adults and 3 children in it once.

If I'm out camping I don't need to bring my whole house with me. A place to sleep, and a bathroom, is all I really need. I like having a fridge, a sink, and a cooktop (for rainy days) too.

It all depends on the type of camping you do and the type of people you are.

Have a nice Day.

P.S. I hope the PM message I sent you was not a scary one. lol I apologize if it was.

I could have not said this better myself. Camping solo most of the time, my little 21 foot trailer is more than sufficient. Manual front jack for the hitch, manual stabilizers, never a worry about the condition of the battery. Makes the Touareg TDI more than sufficient for trailering such a rig, also. The Touareg is comfortable for 10 hour or more stretches per day, what ever it takes to get 525 miles down the road. L.A. to Yellowstone in 2 days.

[Pam_s_Dennis]

Caveman Charlie,
No, it was not the scary one and was really appreciated.

[Caveman_Charlie]

I, for one, like small. My little 20 foot TT does everything I need it to do.

I've slept 6 adults in my 20 foot during a rainy night and we were comfortable. I've had 4 adults and 3 children in it once.

If I'm out camping I don't need to bring my whole house with me. A place to sleep, and a bathroom, is all I really need. I like having a fridge, a sink, and a cooktop (for rainy days) too.

It all depends on the type of camping you do and the type of people you are.

Have a nice Day.

P.S. I hope the PM message I sent you was not a scary one. lol I apologize if it was.

[Pam_s_Dennis]

Goodness gracious. Well, I went away and thought about it for a while. I appreciate all of the input, even some of the technical data even though I'm a yep it'll work, nope, won't work kinda guy. I received PMs that were helpful, scary and funny.
We've decided to keep our MH until Pam retires then do something. That's about a year and a half. I've looked at a lot of trucks, thought about what we like, don't like, willing to put up with and not willing to put up with. Unlike a lot of people (maybe) we tend to want smaller, not bigger. Now, I've decided to go with a half ton truck and the Ford is in the lead because I just don't quite have a lot of faith in the Italian built diesel going into the new Ram 1500. Yeah, I know they've built a gazillion of them but Fiat has built a megagazillion cars and I won't own another Fiat either.
So with the MH (25 footer) waiting to go to Disney in January, the Smokeys in April and a 350 mile bicycle tour with my son in May, things are going to be a little busy. If the MH breaks (10 yrs old)it will go away quicker and the truck and trailer will be in my drive. The trailer might get smaller as I went out in the garage today and looked at my tents, lanterns, cots, dutch ovens and thought, hmmm, maybe. Lovely wife even looked longingly at a Aliner the other day. Small is good when you cannot resist the pig trail. The truck will be a half ton, very likely a Ford with less than 25,000 miles and lovely wife wants a white one. Suits me. Thanks all.

[dockmasterdave]

The specs I saw were that the ecoboost makes 90% of it's power from 1500 rpm to about 5000.
That is pulling more like a deisel, without the hassles.
I towed a 5000 lb TT through some pretty good hills this weekend and it maintained 60 to 65 mph , up the hills at 1500 rpm with out even thinking about downshifting. With a 3:15 axle.
More horesepower than most small Ford V 8s, and 90% of it from just above idle.
Sure anybody who bought a V8 doesn't like it, after all, anything new sucks.
I wonder why the industry is calling it the "wave of the future" and there is now a 2.7 4 cyl ecoboost with 370 or 375 horsepower?
I also got 11.5 to 12.5 towing on two lanes in the hills.
I'm not 100% sure, but so far, I am pretty damn impressed.

http://www.f150hub.com/specs/ecoboost.html

[dl68camper]

To the OP and anyone that might come across this thread in the future I purchased and continue to own a 2011 (first year) f150 Ecoboost. It has approx 40,000 MI on it and I have never experienced the shudder/loss of power issue. No Ford fix or flash has been applied. Up to this point I am extremely happy with this truck. In fact the only thing that's been done is routine maint. The worst thing about this truck is the SYNC system (tons of threads on this). I always try to fill up with Top Tier gas. The truck I had before this was the 6.0 F250 Diesel riddled with problems (Mine had every one). Other than the obvious weight ratio difference (stability), this truck pulls as hard or dare I say harder from the start than the f250 did. As others have stated fuel economy will not be better than 10 mpg towing. I've experienced as low as 7mpg with our previous camper and this truck, but yet to tow the new camper far enough to judge.
It's easy for people on a forum to say just get a bigger truck, but the costs associated with owning and maintaining them will go up. Two larger more expensive batteries, bigger more expensive tires, shocks, brakes and the higher cost of diesel, more expensive oil changes, etc. Not saying don't get a diesel, just consider these things in your decision making.

[dwightr8]

Mike Up wrote:

EcoBullet wrote:
Mike Up,

When towing on the highway, who wants to drop to low gears for torque when you can keep on quietly truckin'?

Wheel horsepower and torque are more important as flywheel power can be a pipe dream as is seen with the 2009/2010 5.4L power output. My 2012 5.0L has much more torque at lower and higher rpms despite my 2010's 5.4L flywheel torque being supposedly higher at lower rpms.

Here's a more representative dyno with an apples to apples comparison. No tuning to favor the other, just straight up apples to apples thanks to Pickuptrucks.com

CLICK PIC BELOW TO GO TO WEBSITE

I don't know where Pickuptrucks got these dyno charts but I guarantee they are bogus. We are pulling a 6500# 28' tt with our ecoboost and I can cruise all day on the highway in 6th gear at a little under 1800rpm. If I hit any moderate hills it will kick down to 5th and the revs go up to about 2200. According to their chart I shouldn't be able to even move at those revs having virtually 0 power and torque at anything under 2000 revs.
To the op, the ecoboost has not had any serious problems. They did have a condensation problem with the intercooler on a few early trucks and contrary to what Mike says Ford has fixed that problem. I only have about 8000 miles on mine so far (about 5000 miles towing) and have had zero problems. I love my Ford and would heartily recommend it as an excellent tow vehicle.

[dockmasterdave]

I bought an F 150 ecoboost a couple months ago. They were offering $8000 off msrp.
Now they are offering $9000 off.
I paid less than a used truck to get a new one.
You may want to ask, and drive a hard bargain, they want to replace all the 2014's with 2015's and get the new ones on the street

[APT]

Pam's Dennis wrote:
We are looking at economy

Why? Do you plan to drive a lot of non towing miles on this truck? If you have the CR-V for runing around town, get your favorite 3/4 ton gas truck. They are all very good performing when working. All get 8-10mmpg towing a TT, same as half tons. You don't have to worry about finding the right axle, or towing package, or adjusting the WDH perfectly, or overloading.

[silverfz]

I have a Tundra CrewMax
I tow a avenger dry weight of 6,708 lbs with it.

On ebay you can get 2.4 ghz wireless camera that can be installed on your licence plate. get one .
then use tow mirrors and worst case i backup and have the wife drive, other way around never works as she is an italian 🙂

[Speedogomer]

He's comparing 3.0L diesel engines, not really the vehicles alone.

[PAThwacker]

I like the Touareg TDI /ecodiesel comparison.

[Doug33]

Comparing a Toureg with a Dodge truck??

[NinerBikes]

prichardson wrote:
I have not seen any real numbers on the Dodge 1500 Diesel when towing; but do not expect to get much better then about 10 MPG when towing with any gas set up.

I tow 21 feet of Palomino behind something close to a Dodge RAM ecodiesel. A 5000# AWD VW Touareg with a 3.0 TDI motor, pretty much the same specs as the RAM 1500 Ecodiesel, if in 2wd version and an extra cab, not a crew cab. 240HP 406 ft lbs of torque on the Touareg.

I see 16.5 to 19 MPG towing. My trailer has 14" rims and tires, so I am bound and limited with the 8 speed transmission, to towing at 55 MPH MAXimum speed, due to the specs on the tires. If I am at higher elevation and the interstate I am on is a fresh repave, under optimum conditions with a 10-15mph tailwind, I will pick it up to 57 or 58 MPH, but never, ever faster.

Start towing much faster, or get a 20 or 30 mph winter head wind like I had going west on I-40 through New Mexico one December, and 12 MPG and 45 mmph tops becomes your real world situation, with a huge suck on your wallet and fuel tanks and fillups.

My Touareg holds 26.5 gallons of fuel, it's good for 400-450 miles between fillups trailering, most of the time. One days worth of driving, as far as I am concerned.


The RAM will not do quite as good as this, take 40 to 50 miles off the range between fillups, it just does not have the CD drag and aerodynamics that the Toureg does as a Sports SUV. Also the Palomino Gazelle I own is but 7.5 feet wide and has a sloped top of the roofline to it, which also helps the MPG.

The RAM ecodiesel is brand new in 2014, plan on buying new, if that's what you want.

Now then, when I am not trailering... 80-85% of the miles so far accrued on the Touareg... 30 to 35.5 MPG all the time on the highway at 62 MPH set on the cruise control. I did a trip this weekend down to San Diego, 340 miles, and the MFI gauge is showing 38.2 MPG so far on this tank of fuel. I'll know more after I fill up and hand calculate it via pencil and paper, if that is a true number, but I am expecting at least 37 MPG out of that tankful, probably a 9 gallon fillup, or a touch more, max. Speed will kill your MPG's. It doesn't pay to drive fast unless for me, I need to make over 600 miles in a day, a few days in a row, where then lodging expenses per night while not trailering exceed cost of additional fuel spent. Being retired is nice.

If you drive the RAM nice, and slow it down, say 65 MPH on highways and freeways, I'd think 30 to 32 MPG is possible in the summer time, in the mountains, with the AC turned off. All bets are off if you haul AZZ at 75 -80 like most idiots with the AC on. 25 mpg, tops, with the tailgate down.