Our lemons team uses a sprinter van. We haul car on 16ft. steel open deck, with spares, tools (compressor, welder, tube bender, etc.), tires, etc inside. Tows great at 70 from what I'm told. Cross winds are a bitch though.

 

I've heard good things about the Mercedes/Dodge... until they break. And then it's expensive. Real expensive.

 

One of my mechanic buddies looked into buying the tools to work on them at one point. He said they're pretty simple and easy to work on, but they basically require semi-truck sized tools that a standard mechanic shop doesn't have. Most semi-truck places won't touch them either, though, so you're pretty much stuck getting raped by the Mercedes dealer if your city doesn't have an independent Sprinter tech.

 

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I've looked into a lot of cars that have high tow ratings in other countries, but no tow rating at all here. I'd be comfortable towing with them, but always decide it's not worth the potential legal liability. Something like that 4cyl ranger (without a turbo) still interests me, though, considering the chassis with nothing but a different motor actually is rated at 5900lb here. I have friends that have comfortably towed boats heavier than a miata and trailer with a 3.0L V6 ranger, and the dyno graphs I've seen of the MZR show it making as much or more torque than that 1970s tech 3.0L lol. Doesn't make sense as a dedicated tow vehicle, but as a 30mpg daily driver that can also get you to the track, not bad...

 

The "spend $30k+ or be stranded all the time" argument is still the most ignorant, fallacious assertion posited in this thread. The only times reliability would be a question would be if buying a Land Rover, Jaguar, Chrysler product, or VW/Audi, none of which are being seriously discussed here. We have people wishing to tow 20 yr old cars with ~$2k insurance value about 12-15 times a year or less.

Some of you could live a lot better and retire a lot earlier if you weren't so foolish with your money.

If you turn 35 without six digits to the left of the decimal in your personal retirement accounts you are screwing up and need to reassess your expenditure priorities. What is your trajectory?

tl;dr - cheap used car weighing 2000 lbs does not require second mortgage to be towed.
/rant

 

Nobody has said that?

 

You can go to Europe and see caravans pulled behind tiny cars, suvs etc. I like to see the big german sedans pulling a nice rig on their vacations. Come back to the states and we are told you MUST have a 1/2 truck to perform the same work. That said, we tend to pack more, have more stuff and build the trailers to be more robust so there is some balance.

Haha. I hope significant asset investment counts towards the personal retirement accounts. I strongly agree with the point but it's easy to throw a value out there if your life is better than most. Someone making $30k / year with children before 25 is probably not going to have a six figure personal savings account at age 35. Such a person should certainly not be looking at an expensive tow vehicle either however. Such a person should also likely be spending the same racing / towing money on a secondary education to get a higher paying career option.

 

I should have used maintenance instead of reliability.

Around here $15k gets you 1/2 ton with 150k miles that will need all the typical stuff at that mileage.

I want to buy something new enough that I don't have to worry about anything but anything but oil/tires and maybe a set of brakes.

 

Six figures can be had in the 10 yrs from 25 to 35 with only ~$8500 a year invested. It is much more likely to be saved if one spends 6k for a vehicle every five years than $30k+ every five years.
You don't buy fancy when you just need practical and functional. I don't need to spend $90 on one Snap-On wrench when for $30 you can get a whole set of the premium ones from HF. Same thing with tow vehicles.

 

At $30k / year (pretax) with kids you aren't likely to be saving $8500 / year into your personal retirement account. You are lucky to net $22.6k (see payroll calculators). You also have saving for college funds, might choose to pay down your house, kids cost money, etc.

 

who said this?

 

I have 6 or 7 thousand towing miles on my $700 trailer and $1,200 '91 F150. Put new brakes on the trailer and truck. The truck also got belts, hoses, fluid and plugs/cap/rotor. No issues and I get almost 15mpg towing. Any time I'm on a long haul I seem to have a full toolbox with me so I figure I can just fix whatever breaks.

I have 6 figures in my 401(k) a few times over but I pretend that isn't real money. Be smart and look for deals. We should all be capable of swinging a wrench so why pay 3 seasons worth of upgrades and consumables on a tow rig?

 

I currently tow with a 2004 GMC Envoy XUV. I pull a 18ft open trailer and have towed the car everywhere on this map with it.





It's one of the nicest driving tow setups I've had. With the inline 6 I will get between 13-15 mpg towing at 70-75mph.

I bought the SUV for $14K 6 or 7 years ago and the trailer for 1.6K I have put over 100,000 miles on the SUV and over 30,000 miles on the trailer with no issues. I like the "XUV" due to the amount of room inside. With the center gate folded down I can fit the wing, splitter, rain tires, spare transmission, spare diff, fuel cans, luggage, cooler, EZ Up and I'm sure a boatload more **** I am forgetting right now. I would recommend this setup for anyone looking for a decent open towing set up and a vehicle that is usable for more than a tow rig.

I did however just pick up a 2500 Dodge 24 valve Cummins and am shopping for a 24 foot enclosed trailer.

 

^Lets be a little fair, that's the extended wheelbase one, which makes its pretty good for towing (but not that common, at least around here)!

 

Thanks for bringing the thread back on topic gents. Good info!

 

I know of someone who uses a 97 Mercury Villager to tow... I think you can just get one fo those vans (what... $2k) and rent a U-haul tow thing and it'll work. Just stick all your crap in the van on teh way

 

^^ Terrible idea

just the worst

 

I finally scored a trailer. 1998 econo trailer. Cops are coming today to verify the vin number because I dont have a title and its never been registered before (lol). Got a monster winch on it. Scored it for half of what similar trailers were going for around here. I'm going to be doing the lights and rewiring it maybe next weekend. Towed a heck of a lot easier and straighter than the uhaul behind the f150. I paid less than a years worth of uhaul trailer rental fees for this trailer.

 

I had a rollover accident on the interstate in an Envoy/Trailblazer towing a tandem axle open car trailer and a Nissan Skyline. I lived, so thumbs up for that, but the rear coil springs were a bit too soft imo. Something went wrong with the trailer so I can't blame the truck.

 

I'm putting helper bags on the truck this winter to help the level the load. Fully loaded with spares, wheels/tires, tools and fuel is quite a bit when you add a few hundreds pounds to the tongue on top of it. That said, I love my budget tow setup.