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Towing with a 1/2 ton truck

ntaylor

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 2, 2020
Member Number
1771
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99
For the last 20 years I have always had a 3/4 ton truck for towing. I always liked having a truck that was more than capable of hauling the load I needed. Had a Duramax for years. I currently have an 03 Suburban with the 8.1. It is getting a bit tired and rusty and looking for something newer. I have gotten where I don't tow nearly as often. I have a 14k dump trailer that either hauls my Jeep or K5 generally 200 mile trips or less. Probably around 7500 lbs vehicle and trailer. I also haul the random load of dirt or firewood, but that is always short distance. Thinking about trying out a 1/2 ton. I feel like a newer one would be as capable as my 03 2500 Suburban. It would be nice to have a daily driver that gets better mileage and is more comfortable to drive. Anybody hauling that kind of weight with one? How does it handle it? Will I regret it? Thinking about test driving one and hooking it up to my trailer and trying it out.
 
My wife drives a ‘13 F150 with the heavy payload and max tow packages. I’d class it somewhere along the lines of the old 3/4 tons with semi float rear axles. It does fine hauling 5-10,000 but we don’t do it that often. It does as well or better than a 96 F250 powerstroke aside from the fact that the rear axle is easier to overload.

I think you’ll be fine as long as you don’t get the squishiest half ton you can find.
 
Gbkeith said:
My wife drives a ‘13 F150 with the heavy payload and max tow packages. I’d class it somewhere along the lines of the old 3/4 tons with semi float rear axles. It does fine hauling 5-10,000 but we don’t do it that often. It does as well or better than a 96 F250 powerstroke aside from the fact that the rear axle is easier to overload.

I think you’ll be fine as long as you don’t get the squishiest half ton you can find.
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That is what I am thinking. Most likely would put a set of airbags on it. I just want to make sure that it I will be comfortable towing with it and not worrying that it can't handle it.
 
I've seen more than a couple of board members doing pretty long hauls with their rig on a car hauler using a modern half ton.

There's a pretty stark difference between me overheating the TF904 in my 90 D150 towing my yota across town and hitching up to something like a modern F150 that has the tow rating that covers that and also has the HP.

I'd send it if that's what you're looking into.
 
Modern Suburban 3/4t basically a 1/2t anyway:stirthepot:...

Trailer brake controller? Don't drive like an asshole? You'll be fine.
 
I tow my junk with 19 tundra. Tows 7k lbs all day. My trailer has brakes on both axles. Phoenix to Payson AZ has some serious grades and it does the trip fine. Milage is 9 maybe 11 with a tailwind lol.
 
First of all, I doubt a 14k dump and k5 is only 7500 lbs. Most 14k dumps are near 5k lbs.

Look into a regular car hauler. Hauling that extra wieght all the time sucks.

We have a 15 2.7 F150 and a 97 7.3 F350. Very similar experience to Gbkeith.

I've had probably close to 12k behind it (the F350 on my 22' steel deck over) and it did fine. Not something I'd want to do all the time, but it really did better than I thought.

We recently did a long trip with my Toyota crawler on a trailer. Went across the local scale and was 12.5k lbs gross. At that wieght, it's like a rocket. We did 80 mph for hours and hours. Went up over 10k feet on mountain roads and everything in between. Could not have been happier. Even averaged about what my 02 6.0 burb got empty, 11mpg. :laughing:

I've never towed with a 8.1, but the & F150 blows the 6.0 burb out of the water in every way.
 
Pretty similar to Mike Honco above but a 16 Tundra. 4k rig on a 18ftsteel deck trailer fully loaded for the weekend with no problems. I get just under 12mpg towing from PA through Md into VA which is pretty flat and 10ish if I'm in the hills locally towing. Local stuff is all rolling hils and punchy switchback climbs.
 
I towed my 80 Cherokee on a open deck with a 15' F150 supercab shortbed, with the 3.7 v6, that's the non ecoboost rig :laughing:

However, fucker pulled that really well, it surprised me, and got me thinking about dropping my 02' f250. I love my old truck, but its out dated tech. The veeeeten runs excellent, headers and a good y pipe were huge for that truck. It's a big bitch though.

Biggest thing holding me back from moving to a half ton platform is cost. I'd have to finance part of it. Hate the idea of a payment, no matter how small.

I really want to try a ecoboost Ford. Love the idea of a reg cab longer with a topper to sleep in on wheeling trips. :smokin:
 
blthomas said:
I towed my 80 Cherokee on a open deck with a 15' F150 supercab shortbed, with the 3.7 v6, that's the non ecoboost rig :laughing:

However, fucker pulled that really well, it surprised me, and got me thinking about dropping my 02' f250. I love my old truck, but its out dated tech. The veeeeten runs excellent, headers and a good y pipe were huge for that truck. It's a big bitch though.

Biggest thing holding me back from moving to a half ton platform is cost. I'd have to finance part of it. Hate the idea of a payment, no matter how small.

I really want to try a ecoboost Ford. Love the idea of a reg cab longer with a topper to sleep in on wheeling trips. :smokin:
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I had a 3.7 work truck and really liked it for just a pick up, was not underpowered by any means. I way always curious about how it would tow, but never towed more than a shitter :laughing:

The ecoboost is night and day though. I'm pretty confident it would walk on the V10 in almost every way except maybe payload capacity.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I had a 3.7 work truck and really liked it for just a pick up, was not underpowered by any means. I way always curious about how it would tow, but never towed more than a shitter :laughing:

The ecoboost is night and day though. I'm pretty confident it would walk on the V10 in almost every way except maybe payload capacity.
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It was my company truck, not a lot of weight with surveying stuff, but the bed was full. I'd bet I was maxxed on weight, and like I said, was surprised how well it did with a WDH. Really smooth. I'm sure the 6 speed trans was a big factor too, all my tow rigs have been older rigs, just having a OD gear has been an improvement. :laughing:

I spent too much time looking online last night. Lots of nice trucks out there. Hate the idea of payments. I could do 20 down on a 30-35k truck. But I saw this gray one (STX?) that was a 2.7 eco. Thought about going to look at it......:homer:
 
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Yotota said:
I was going to say the same thing. That's easily a 10k+ load.
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Looks like my trailer is around 4K. I was guessing 3k. Guessing my Jeep is around 4500. I'll see about getting the setup across the scale. Maybe this will be my excuse to buy a nice lightweight car hauler!
 
Bebop said:
A K5 is more than 4500lbs I can tell you that
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Listed at 4540. But it does have a lift with 37's, so maybe closer to 5500. Put it away for the winter yesterday. Should have drove it across the scale that I can see out my office window.
 
I had a 2016 5.0 4x4 f150 extended cab as my work truck for two years. It towed a 10k car hauler loaded with my cherokee crawler no problem at all. I also towed a 8-10k load (gross trailer) on a montly basis up and down the east coast with zero issues and I was not nice at all to the truck. I ended up getting a 6.7 f350 so i could tow our goosenecks, but have always told people since then that if i had to spend my own money on a tow rig i would 100 % get a 5.0 f150 again. Plenty of power, plenty of brakes, a simple na engine and the suspension was more than enough with a properly distributed load. 200k later that f150 is still towing and on the road, we havent done any work to it aside from standard maintenance. Go drive one, you wont be disappointed!
 
I used to tow my jeep on 39s with my 2018 F-150 3.5 EcoBoost and with the 10 speed auto it did really well. Sold it and now have a 2017 6.7 F-250. I miss the 10 gears but the horsetorques of the 6.7 and the bigger brakes of the super duty platform are hard to beat. Plus the gasser always felt like it was screaming while the diesel just chugs along.
 
Mattafact said:
I used to tow my jeep on 39s with my 2018 F-150 3.5 EcoBoost and with the 10 speed auto it did really well. Sold it and now have a 2017 6.7 F-250. I miss the 10 gears but the horsetorques of the 6.7 and the bigger brakes of the super duty platform are hard to beat. Plus the gasser always felt like it was screaming while the diesel just chugs along.
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I don't get why people say the ecoboost is screaming. It has to be a very steep winding grade for it to need to Rev over 3k rpm pulling a wheeler. Mine is just the 2.7 and 6 speed too.

Obviously the diesel will beat it every time, but it pretty overkill for a typical crawler on a car trailer.
 
One of my personal concerns is I have a slide in camper project. I know my older v10 lariat is comfy, and will handle the camper and trailer. But I've been thinking about overall usage, frequency of said usage, and now I've made the mistake of driving a couple f150s. Drove both a eco and a 5.0, and both feel light years ahead of my truck. A half ton sure gets around town easier. But calm a payment. Might wait a while. Lots of good insight and info in this thread.
 
pennsylvaniaboy said:
I cant be the only one who does a double take when reading 6.6 gas, or 7.3 gas. It's like GM and Ford are trying to confuse the parts store 'tards even more.
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GM figured to save millions on not having to make new engine size callouts, they can just slap "Duramax" or "Vortex" beside the 6.6L:flipoff2:
 
IowaOffRoad said:
GM figured to save millions on not having to make new engine size callouts, they can just slap "Duramax" or "Vortex" beside the 6.6L:flipoff2:
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But still make 3 cab sizes(with the ext cab being like a small cc), and 3 bed sizes, across 2 brands.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I had a 3.7 work truck and really liked it for just a pick up, was not underpowered by any means. I way always curious about how it would tow, but never towed more than a shitter :laughing:

The ecoboost is night and day though. I'm pretty confident it would walk on the V10 in almost every way except maybe payload capacity.
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My cousin tows his 1 ton yota on 42s behind a 3.7 and says it does fine.
 
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