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Old 05-09-2013, 11:44 AM   #78 (permalink)
Orion Antares
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wisconsin
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shortie771 View Post
THANK YOU!!!!
I have been telling my brother this for so long, but this is Texas so I guess he feels like he needs a big truck to fit in or something... He just bought a Chevy 2500HD Diesel about a month ago. It gets about 18mpg on a good day. He did get a good deal on it though and it came with a hard top bed cover, but the truck bed is ALWAYS nearly empty, maybe some tools in there but not much else. I tried to convince him to get a trailer since he hardly ever needs to tow around anything and he would get twice the gas mileage in a smaller vehicle. His arguements were "you can't go offroading with a trailer", "but I want to be able to tow my dirt bikes" (as if you can't tow dirt bikes on a flat bed... easier), "a car can't tow a trailer", and the BEST "but I would need the truck bed every day" (he hasn't needed it once).

Some day he will start listening to me... hopefully
If he's worried about taking something "off-road" (I assume he just means unpaved ground) you can point him to any small SUV with that concept in mind. Any Ford Escape or Rav4 from the previous generations (not the 2013 models, blegh) would easily handle his likely definition of "off-road" plus they both have respectable tow ratings, even for the 4-cyl models.

Now if he means actual off-roading, then he should be looking at vehicles specifically designed with real off-road capabilities. A 3/4 ton pickup is definitely not such a vehicle.

Quote:
P.S. Can;t find a rated towing capacity for the Del Sol some say it can pull over 700-1000lbs... I do know that I can pull my brothers truck with some tow straps and it weights 6,500lbs (don't worry, it wasnt far AT ALL), though that is a bit different than a trailer.
My personal view on attempting to tow with vehicles not engineered for towing is to use a light duty trailer and to not load any more weight into it than you would be willing to carry on the roof of the vehicle. That's for highway speeds. If you're staying at lower speeds you can tow more but still not a lot more. You especially want to be careful with steeper inclines that you don't burn your engine or your brakes.
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