Need recommendations for a Tow vehicle.

[Martinjmpr]

That surprises me with the 3.8. You pull that up passes going 80? Any overheating?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Curious as well, I haven't heard much good about the 3.8's in the power department. My brothers 3.6 2 door moves pretty good for a Jeep (still not on par with my Xterra tho ).

I can't do 80 up the hills but I can usually hold 65-70. Easy bound on Vail pass was the toughest, I think I was only going 55-60 when I hit the top. I added an additional transmission cooler due to the known issues of them overheating. I don't pull the trailer with it very often anymore since I now also have a Chevy 2500 Duramax.

OK but that's a pop up which means low profile which means little wind resistance. OP described someone pulling a travel trailer which, as I said above, is basically pulling a 50+ square foot billboard down the highway.

[Goodburbon]

I 4th the ecodiesel. I had one and towed a bit. Temps climb quickly with any hill but level off just before overheating and cool quickly once it levels off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Great-Kazoo]

I 4th the ecodiesel. I had one and towed a bit. Temps climb quickly with any hill but level off just before overheating and cool quickly once it levels off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

While there's a few suggestions for the eco-diesel .. What one has to ask is, exactly how mechanical is the person the OP is asking for suggestions? Check trans temp, cool down, overheat, shifting gears?? Is the person in question (be it man or woman) competent enough to do any of this ?
The woman needs a turn key solution..

[Goodburbon]

The ecodiesel is turn key. You don't have to check anything or shift anything. just tow and know ahead of time that the needle will go up but it's normal and it'll come back down.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[earplug]

I'd have the lady take a drive around a campground, looking around and asking questions.

[nisils14]

Turbo diesel anything is the only way to go for MPGs in a suv or truck.. I just recently bought Chevy Duramax Colorado. I average 24mpg with 50/50 city/hwy driving, touched 34mpg on the way back from springs too. Helped pull some shop equipment on 2.5k trailer, infotainment read 20mpg and that was during rush hour.

[Martinjmpr]

I 4th the ecodiesel. I had one and towed a bit. Temps climb quickly with any hill but level off just before overheating and cool quickly once it levels off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Engine or transmission temp? When I'm towing I'm not nearly as worried about the engine temp as I am the transmission. On my 4runners I ran a Scangauge II, which had the ability to monitor transmission fluid temps (TFT) and that proved to be very useful to me. It also helped me to know when to shift manually to a lower gear to try and keep the temp down (like the time we were climbing out of Death Valley in mid July with an 1100lb teardrop trailer - my trans temp hit its highest point ever at 268!)

I put the SGII on my Suburban and also used it to monitor the trans temp. Then my dashboard stepper motors went out (common issue on GMT-800 trucks) so I had the instrument cluster rebuilt (with green LEDs, too) and while it was there I had them add the transmission temp gauge (all Chevy/GM trucks are wired for the trans temp but the gauge itself is left off of the 5.3 equipped half tons for some stupid reason - 6.0 engines and up get the gauge, and that includes Escalades and Yukon Denalis.) Now I have two redundant ways of monitoring trans temp.

Speaking of which, nice thing about having a big V8 vs a V6 is that since the engine puts out more torque, the transmission doesn't have to do as much work. The hottest I've ever seen the transmission on the Suburban was maybe 210. Even cruising up to 11,000' with a 2,000 lb trailer and full of camping gear it rarely hits 200.

[Martinjmpr]

Speaking of shifting gears ... IMO people could get by with smaller tow vehicles if they took some time to understand a little bit about how engines and transmissions work. Unfortunately, it seems like too many people these days (yeah, I know I sound like I'm ranting like Dana Carvey's "Grumpy old man" skit on SNL) just think that the transmission goes into either Park, Reverse or Drive, they never think of any other gears. So, they get a trailer and they're headed up a steep hill and the transmission is constantly upshifting and then downshifting and every time it does that it gets a little hotter.

Then when they go downhill, instead of shifting to a lower gear to keep their speed down, they just keep it in drive and burn up the brakes.

I'll bet a lot of burned up transmissions, burned up brakes, and accidents with trailers could have been avoided if people just took the time to understand that driving with a trailer is not the same thing as driving without one. Unfortunately, the RV industry is only too happy to say "towing is easy, just hook it up and go!" and too many people just believe that without putting any real thought into how they need to modify their driving to account for that trailer behind them.

Since we own a small trailer (T@B) and are on a lot of Facebook groups, I've lost count of the number of times I've seen questions like this come up and it just makes me . People (and, sorry for the stereotyping, but 90% of the time it's women) will say "I saw the cutest little trailer and I just had to have it. I've never towed anything before but the salesman assured me I could pull this trailer with my Subaru Forester 4 cyl." And when I try to point out that it might be prudent to get a bigger, more capable vehicle, they always say "but I don't like those because they don't get good MPG!" or "The manual says its rated to pull 2,000lbs and the sticker on my trailer says it's only 1600."

The thing about the internet is you can always find someone to tell you what you want to hear. Some people want to hear that yes, you can pull a 30' airstream with a mini cooper and I'll bet you can find someone on the internet who swears he has done it (or knows a guy who knows a guy who's done it. ) And of course there's always the 'world traveler' who will jump in and say "over in Europe they tow trailers with small cars all the time!" (not pointing out that "over in Europe" most of the cars have manual transmissions that are not going to burn up if they're over stressed.)

I realize we've wandered far afield in this discussion, and I think there have been a number of good recommendations. I think the most important thing is that your widow friend needs to realize that pulling a 3500lb trailer is no joke and she needs an adequate vehicle in order to be safe. Pulling a 300lb utility trailer full of yard equipment in town is easy and you can probably do that with a volkswagen, but pulling a big, heavy travel trailer at 60+ MPH on the freeway requires a pretty serious commitment in terms of both equipment and knowledge.

[Goodburbon]

Engine temp.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hurley842002]

Turbo diesel anything is the only way to go for MPGs in a suv or truck.. I just recently bought Chevy Duramax Colorado. I average 24mpg with 50/50 city/hwy driving, touched 34mpg on the way back from springs too. Helped pull some shop equipment on 2.5k trailer, infotainment read 20mpg and that was during rush hour.

A Co-Worker just bought a Duramax Colorado, that thing is impressive, and likely what I would buy if I were in the market for a new truck.