Mostly flat towing. Not enough elevation to matter really. Just the occasional Pacheco pass and blue-moon grapevine.

The 3.5 makes 375hp and 470ft lbs crank bone stock. the 5.0 makes 395hp and 400ft lbs at the crank

from the tuners website: 5-Star's test truck put down roughly 325 horsepower and 400lb-ft of torque on its factory tune. With 5-Star's 93 Octane Performance Tune, that same truck threw down 445 horsepower and 500lb-ft of torque at its peak

the 5.0 cant touch that without a blower.

LBZ.

--Ian

ew

I see a lot of reference to using tongue weight scales. I have a metal 16ft with dovetail and dual axle. I'm able to lock up brakes under load without issue. Is setting tongue weight with a scale for.....people who can't easily judge where to place car on trailer?

Could also be for someone who is towing close to their max capacity, and wants to make sure they are within their legal payload.

I'm a trailering noob. I started with rented U-Haul car trailers - you get no say in where the car is placed, it will only strap down in one place. It has surge brakes, but you get no say in how those activate either. So I drive around and figure that however the rig is behaving, that's normal. Which is unlikely.

Over the winter, I bought a 20' enclosed trailer. I have an educated guess, but really have no idea what my tongue weight is like. It's not just a matter of where the car goes - I also have a couch/bed and other accouterments at the front of the trailer whose impact on tongue weight I can't really guess. For the first event of the season (last week), I was predictably underprepared and didn't get a chance to use my tongue weight scale. The truck didn't feel great during the tow up. I had no idea why. I'll get a weight before I set out next time so I know if it's a real problem or just in my head.

I think the answer to your question is "yes", but I think it's also "it ain't always that simple".

Putting a car like a Miata (with close to 50/50 weight distribution) onto an open trailer with little-to-no other cargo is probably the easiest kind of trailer to balance by eye. Centerpoint of mass on the Miata is right around the side mirrors, so you just place those a foot or two forward of the centerpoint between the two axles on the trailer.

Try it with a 911 in an enclosed trailer where you've got a bunch of other heavy cargo (generator, toolboxes, etc) and it becomes a lot harder to eyeball it.

--Ian

This.

Take a trailer with a known tongue weight empty. Now add a bench, toolbox, battery and winch to the front. Sometimes I tow a Miata. Sometimes I add a motorcycle in front of the Miata. Sometimes it's a Camaro that weighs almost double the Miata's weight. Now add anywhere between 120-375lbs of extra wheels/tires to the equation...

A tongue weight scale is a pretty handy tool for ensuring your load is properly distributed. Once I know the proper location for everything in my typical loadouts, the scale can stay on the shelf until something new comes along.

Visited my "skinny enough for a residential garage door" trailer build today. It's not quite done yet, and it's about a month behind schedule, but at least progress is being made. They even made a little mockup to try and make sure the car won't high center on the dove tail. They ended up doing a two-angle dovetail to get it to work. It doesn't look that tall in the pictures but surrounded by the "normal" car haulers it's TALL. They gotta finish the deck, figure out how to fit the two piece ramps together, and then do the lights/spare/etc.

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Was surprised how busy they are, from talking to him it seems there's a lot of people taking advantage of the sales on UTVs that now need trailers.

Beerbaron,
With lightweight things like beds in the nose of the trailer it gets more difficult to make sure you have more weight in front of the axles than behind them. If you have more weight behind the axles then the trailer will want to wander and fishtail and push the truck. It is a much less comfortable experience and very dangerous at times. You always want more weight in front of the axles than behind them, whatever that means for your situation. That is the very reason that the U-Haul trailers only let you have the vehicle at the very front of the trailer. It keeps idiots from letting the trailers take them to the woods on either side of the interstate.

This is where I currently am

I have a good friend who towed a 20ft enclosed with a 3.5 Ecoboost for a long while. Then it was in the shop for some trivial thing, and he borrowed my Duramax for a weekend, and then a month later the F150 was gone and an F250 was in his driveway.

30k is plenty of budget to get a decent 6.7, LML, or even a pretty nice LBZ. I was a big fan of my LML, although I would do a 2012+ if I did it again. I'd also see what sort of smoking insane deal a Ford dealer would make you on a 7.3 gasser with a 10sp. 430hp in a 3/4 ton chassis with a 10sp will pull anything without the emissions BS or maintenance cost of a diesel.

This is exactly what I'm looking into myself...no dealers around me willing to make a deal yet though. Hoping maybe going into the 2021 model year if sales are low there will be deals on remaining 2020s.

Ford appears to have found a sweet niche in the market with the 7.3 gasser (at least for now) for those of us that don't want/need diesels but want a little more oomf than the typical small block V8 can provide.

If I wasn't squarely in full-ton territory because of our camper, the new Ford gasser would be pretty inticing.

Not very detailed article, but has mpg numbers for Ford 7.3 gas towing...

What I really want is a 7.3/10sp dropout to swap into our '92 Bronco... :naughty:

Looking to replace my Excursion, which will hopefully be sold in the next day or so. Looking at just gas trucks for now, this won't be a regular driver and I don't want to deal with the maintenance of a diesel. Have a couple that I'll be looking at today and tomorrow:

2009 Chevy 3500: 6.0 with 6-speed
2003 Chevy 2500: 8.1 with Allison 5-speed

Which powertrain combo do you think would be better for a dedicated tow rig? 8.1 has more torque and the legendary Allison transmission, but it is heavy, thirsty, and parts are less common. Would the extra gear in the 2009 make up most of the difference? Plan is to get a 20+' enclosed trailer.

And yes, I had another thread about getting a new truck. That could still happen depending on what kind of deals happen later in the year, just looking for a stop-gap.

id probably go the the 2009. I had a 2006 6.0 and its a great motor with lots of power. The extra gear will help on mileage a bit. Also the 2009 interior is much nicer than 2003. Having the 6.0 i kinda wished i had the 8.1 but i didnt have the extra gear so the tradeofff wasnt too bad, just more power.

The 8.1 will most definitely do a great job in the power/reliability category, but they are THIRSTY and don't care whether a trailer is behind them or not. Had a buddy with the 8.1L in a suburban (probably a 2003 as well) and while it lasted him problem free to 300k miles with ungodly amounts of abuse, I think his average fuel consumption was single digits regardless. The 6.0 will be stout and in the long run probably be a better decision, just probably not as rock solid as the 8.1L. Just my $.02

I have a question for anyone who may have advice; excuse my ignorance as i'm not well versed in trailer knowledge.

Tow vehicle is a 2016 toyota tacoma and i will obviously be towing my NA. I got a great deal on a 6.5x10 3500lb gvwr trailer from some family friends. Now mind you i know that is barely big enough to fit the miata on it with no railing in the front and no gate on the rear. It fits but quite literally barely and I haven't played with any wheel strapping options.

With that in mind, is that trailer even physically strong enough to handle a 3 hour drive on NYC roads and highways to CT and NJ? I bought the trailer either way as i figured i can flip it and move onto another trailer if it doesnt work out.

The trailer indicates not to load over 2990lbs. The decking is 2x8 with 2 10 foot length of box 1x1.5 box steel 9 inches in from the outside edges. I'll grab some pictures of anyone thinks this is doable LOL.

Sorry if this seems absurd but I have received a ton of conflicting advice from friends and family about it.

Is it single axle? If it is I wouldn't even consider it. Even if it's double axle it sounds sketchy.... post pics.

Another consideration is whether it has brakes...

Sorry yes it's a single axle. And definitely no brakes, it's essentially a landscaping trailer.

I'll grab some pics when i can but it's likely exactly as sketchy as i imagined once I sized it up. Fix and flip it is!