Bring enough truck......

[Soot4Life]

Jan. 2 found me hauling my horse trailer home after recreating in the desert. On the side of the road I saw what has become typical..... one new, lifted Nissan Titan with big wheels & tires. Attached was a HUGE double axle toy box and the whole rig sat on the shoulder of the Interstate with the poor 1/2 ton sporting a broken rear axle. It was one more reminder to buy a stout enough truck for the job. The owner could have killed a bunch of folks. I see these overloaded 1/2 tons continually and cannot believe my eyes. There must be plenty of good salesmen out there.

 

[MMeier]

Think I saw one too just north of Barstow on the 15, was that the one ?

 

[TFucili]

Well, the manufacturers have to bear some of the blame, too. They love to tout the tow capacity of their trucks, but never tell the whole story. I remember going to a dealership where you'd find a vary large tow capacity chart. The capacities were spelled out in real-world terms, meaning the maximum number reflected speeds under 30 MPH(like farm use). Sure, you can pull that swinging load if your putting along. Then, for highway speeds it was reduced. It also factored in frontal area, which is much too often overlooked, even on these pages.

 

[Newt]

You rarely hear someone *****ing about having too much truck.


Newt

 

[Regcabguy]

The slide-in camper and trailer salesmen will sell you anything you want to buy. No conscience.

 

[Grizzly]

It's better to have too much truck than not enough truck.



In my beginning camping days, I had a 10. 5' cab-over-camper on a F250 2WD gasser, which proved to be not enough truck for that size and weight of a camper.

 

[Soot4Life]

Think I saw one too just north of Barstow on the 15, was that the one ?

The guy I saw was on I-8 westbound east of San Diego about 50 miles. Some of these 1/2 tons when equipped with a big lift, wheels, and wide "D" rated sand tires look imposing and may give the uninformed owner a feeling he is running with the big dogs and can tow anything. There our poor buggy boy sat... . left rear tire at a 45 degree angle and the only thing keeping it from falling off the truck was the wheel well. His tongue weight must have been enormous. These guys often pass me doing 80+ mph with the trailer whipping in the cross winds. Maybe it's ego, maybe it's ignorance or fatigue, or perhaps alcohol combining to produce potential disaster. Uphill these guys struggle to maintain minimum highway speed but downhill they fly. They flat out scare me to be on the same stretch of highway.

 

[surfbeetle]

I just bought my wife a 06 Nissan Armada, the SUV sister to the Nissan Titan. We traded in a '97 Chevy Suburban 1/2 ton. The 'burb was rated for 7800 lbs towing. It had a Dana 80 and 8 lug rims, 480LE trans with a diesel (even if it was the 6. 5). The Armada is rated for 9,000 towing with a tiny axle with 6 lug wheels and a much smaller trans. I would never tow 9,000 lbs with the Nissan, I would have been more comfortable with the 'Burb and 9,000 lbs. Get the right tool for the right job.

 

[odinjunior]

You rarely hear someone *****ing about having too much truck.





Newt

:-laf You got dat right.....

 

[2Rowdy]

Nissian owners are worse that cummins owners, Can't tell them a damn thing.

 

[Regcabguy]

Retirement's working.

The guy I saw was on I-8 westbound east of San Diego about 50 miles. Some of these 1/2 tons when equipped with a big lift, wheels, and wide "D" rated sand tires look imposing and may give the uninformed owner a feeling he is running with the big dogs and can tow anything. There our poor buggy boy sat... . left rear tire at a 45 degree angle and the only thing keeping it from falling off the truck was the wheel well. His tongue weight must have been enormous. These guys often pass me doing 80+ mph with the trailer whipping in the cross winds. Maybe it's ego, maybe it's ignorance or fatigue, or perhaps alcohol combining to produce potential disaster. Uphill these guys struggle to maintain minimum highway speed but downhill they fly. They flat out scare me to be on the same stretch of highway.

Pristine day up there today and since I'm retired now,I can travel without the underrated trucks towing way too much weight in the right lane only to blast down the other side out of control. No traffic at all. You could see more of the Salton Sea from Sunrise Highway than I've ever witnessed. No wind in the desert.

 

[jgillott]

The '79 1/2 ton Chevy I have sitting over in the garage is rated at something like 140 or 150 HP out of the small block that's in it. If you would have hooked 9K or 10K to that thing, even when new, it would have just plain died on the spot. We wouldn't even have tried it. The new Dodge and GMC ads on TV are claiming 390 and 403 HP respectively out of their 1/2 tons for 2010. Pretty easy for the unknowing owner to be tricked in to a false sense of capability.

 

[MMeier]

The guy I saw was on I-8 westbound east of San Diego about 50 miles. Some of these 1/2 tons when equipped with a big lift, wheels, and wide "D" rated sand tires look imposing and may give the uninformed owner a feeling he is running with the big dogs and can tow anything. There our poor buggy boy sat... . left rear tire at a 45 degree angle and the only thing keeping it from falling off the truck was the wheel well. His tongue weight must have been enormous. These guys often pass me doing 80+ mph with the trailer whipping in the cross winds. Maybe it's ego, maybe it's ignorance or fatigue, or perhaps alcohol combining to produce potential disaster. Uphill these guys struggle to maintain minimum highway speed but downhill they fly. They flat out scare me to be on the same stretch of highway.

Several years back on one of my many trips to Oklahoma I came a cross a nasty ***** wreck out east of Albuq. , NM bit east of Moriarty in the middle of the night. Found out when I got back here 1. 5 days later it was one of our up and coming circle track stars coming back with his new race car. Big lifted Titan towing a 28' enclosed at speeds way above the posted of 75 MPH. Nasty cross winds that night also. Need less to say no one made it out of that one, one person was thrown and wound up getting dragged down the other side of the Interstate by an 18 wheeler for about 1/4 mile.

 

[PToombs]

I read someplace, maybe on here, that one trucks tow rating was figured from the size of the cooling system.

Marketing and engineering people should have to pick up the pieces when one of their masterpieces comes unglued on the highway. Things might change then.

 

[meanmatt]

I have read many different ways towing capacities where made up . I know many years ago back when the internet was the new thing . I stumbled on one of the big 3's web sites . They had a very good explanation of their tow rating and how going past the tow ratings shortens the trucks expected life . Also increased things like braking distances. i wish I would have printed a copy . Good information from a manufacturer hasn't been easy to find in awhile.

Also those nice big HP numbers look nice to sell a truck , but look at the flat torque curve . no torque rise =no acceleration. also look where peek Tq is made lately on gas engines. 3600rpm and above makes for a quite 20mpg ride when empty ,but pull a trailer you will be stuck un 2nd gear on the slitest hill and down to 8mpg even with 2 quads on a single axle trailer . My last truck was a dodge 1500 with the 4. 7 . and that auto trans with 2 diffent 2nd gear ratios. Don't even get me started about the small gas tank on the short bed models .

So now I have my 2006 cummins with the long bed and the big fuel tank . Better fuel economy empty and loaded

Also When pulling my camper on vacation I enjoy keeping the speed around 55-60 in the right lane . Very peaceful I'm in no hurry I'm on vacation

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

What's just as amazing as ANY of the above, is guys, even here on THIS board, who think that all they have to do to increase their trucks GVWR, is put on a set of heavier rated tires - as tho' that's some sort of magic bullet will also raise the capacity of all the REST of the truck... :-laf

 

[CurtLee]

Jan. 2 found me hauling my horse trailer home after recreating in the desert. On the side of the road I saw what has become typical..... one new, lifted Nissan Titan with big wheels & tires. Attached was a HUGE double axle toy box and the whole rig sat on the shoulder of the Interstate with the poor 1/2 ton sporting a broken rear axle. It was one more reminder to buy a stout enough truck for the job. The owner could have killed a bunch of folks. I see these overloaded 1/2 tons continually and cannot believe my eyes. There must be plenty of good salesmen out there.

I've seen things very similiar to this. Almost exact. A couple month's ago we were on our way home and we come upon a Nissian Titan like you describe. The only difference is it was a regular travel trailer and had a bed full of stuff with 5 people in the cab. This guy would zip to 65 mph (in a 55 mph zone) and he would use all three lanes like there was no trailer. Being a professional driver for the last 25 years it never fails to see people overloading their half tons and not to think about how stupid they're being, putting themselves in harms way along with their family and all the other people on the road.



With the price of the half ton market being sky high why not go to a 3/4 or one ton for very little price difference.



My brother in law just upgraded to a 24' travel trailer and tows it with a older half ton ford. I won't even start on that one

 

[FFeiller]

and then there are those on these forums that brag about their 30k-40k loads with a dullie.

 

[MMeier]

and then there are those on these forums that brag about their 30k-40k loads with a dullie.

Such as ...

 

[Berrigan]

I see it all the time. The typical seen is like this. A half ton rice burner pulling to much trailer. The rig is the most dangerous going down long grades. The tail starts wagging the dog. The driver doesnt seem to be concerned about his marginal control and continues to drive way to fast for the conditions. If he is lucky he makes it to the bottom of the grade.



I drive the Arizona mountains alot and the one thing i notice is that most (skid, crash,burn) marks on the highways are on the down grades. And when I see a tow vehicle involved in an accident, 90% of the time its an overloaded half ton with way too much trailer.



The real sad part is when I pass these flipped over rigs, many times the undersides are still shinny. These are new rigs that are totalled and perhaps lives lost because the owner didnt want to spend a few thousand more for the heavier tow vehicle.