Tow Vehicle Discussion

Given the trailer size and your budget, I get a V6 Toyota Highlander.

 

I myself prefer a van for towing, my latest find last year was a 94 garage kept Ford E150 Explorer conversion 5.8l with 19,800 original miles. The thing is still brand new. I absolutely love it. On any trip I always spend the first night after driving a few hours sleeping in the fold out queen size bed. Same for the trip home. Heck if the weather is cool its pretty darn fun.

 

Google their reliability...

 

Cayenne or Panamera

7700 and 8200 lbs tow rating.

Comfy, fun and well built.

$35k will get you a good deal with a sweet v8

 

been towing a 7x15 legened all aluminium with a tahoe with a 5.3 loaded to the max towed it great.

Mine doesn't have the air ride in the back basic coil springs

 

A used VW Touareg / Cayanne will fit the bill well. My 2013 TDI tows my 6x12 trailer very nicely and gets 16-17mpg while towing and 30 highway when not towing. Since the emission fix, it does burn through some DEF and gets city mileage closer to the gas Touareg. When fully loaded with setups and gear for 2 bikes the trailer is probably a bit over 3200lb (it has a 5200lb single axle and is 1675lb empty). You will want trailer brakes when towing with most SUVs, particularly if your trailer weight is over 2000lb.

 

How dare you leave off the Town and Country!!!!!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

Get a diesel Excursion in decent shape and be able to sell it for nearly as much as you paid for it in 5 years.

 

It's pretty crazy how well these things tow...easily does 6x10 duty. Do a quick google image search to see just how big people tow with them...

 

Whatever you buy, make sure the drivetrain is north-south. The FWD stuff will cook the transmission in short order. There are countless posts on the RV forums of transmission failures. Having the engine, transmission, and differential packed into such tight confines causes massive heatsoak and none of the oil capacities are up to the same amounts of a RWD vehicle.

The ecodiesel is a nightmare for reliability. There is a company remanufacturing and modifying them to take care of their issues. But, do you really want to deal with that? Likewise, the MB version of that engine is a nightmare, too. I have a coworker with one and it lives in the shop....usually emission system-related.

There are a lot of good suggestions, above. Any of the Durango, Excursion, Expedition, Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, 4-door 1/2T pickups are going to suit your needs. Just know the active fuel management systems (cylinder deactivation) on the GM products are notorious for failing, but, can be deleted (~$1K). Likewise, research Ecoboost issues. The brand new stuff have some changes that are supposed to take care of the problems of the earlier versions.

I’d invest in trailer brakes, on any size trailer. I’ve had one trailer with no brakes and will never have another without them. They make all the difference in the world.

 

ecodiesel can be taken care of with a GDE tune - higher regen temperatures, and no EGR, which eliminates a huge part of the mess.

 

Thanks all for the feedback! Good to know about the Eco. I really like the Jeep GC’s but not sure the V6 would tow well, and it appears the V8 hemi is an absolute gas hog...which isn’t the end of the world.

Interested in a TDI/Cayenne now. I will keep you guys posted!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

2004 Hyundai Elantra

Tows 3,086 pounds. Your Welcome.

 

No, you are doing it all wrong. If the motor isn't made by Cummins, it can't tow anything. Those vaguely Italian or German motors can't tow shit, no matter what anyone here says. You need to buy something with a Cummins in it, and then come back here to do the following two things:

1. Bitch about how much the big diesel monster costs you in fuel for your daily solo commute.
2. Tell us about how much value you get out of the monster because once a year you can haul a load of wood pellets for your stove by yourself instead of paying the $45 delivery charge.

Only then will you truly join the righteous among us.

 

Don’t forget to gloat how you bought a 50k Tesla and it gets much better ROI compared to the dually diesel.

I have a 2008 Grand Cherokee with the merc diesel. Dpf deleted, eco tube loaded that bypasses egr abd swirl valves and other than one sensor and glow plugs the actual engines been great. 222k miles in it.

Towed great other than the short wheel base being pusher around by longer car trailers.

I now also have a 2018 ecoboosts f150. Same mpg unloaded, faster, cheaper to refuel but when towing it guzzles gas!!

 

But, that doesn’t fix the cam gear slippage which fooks your valvetrain and can hole the pistons. Even in engines that are babied, never revved out, or worked, it still happens.

 

No one mentioned a newer deleted cummins yet, did they?

 

And guaranteed to get you laid while doing it.

That car has class and style in spades.

 

Huh?

 

So, you recommend welding them?