Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
We get screwed on towing capacity in the US. Too many lawyers and lawsuit friendly legislation. My Forester, made in Japan, is exactly the same as the one sold in say South Africa but with 1/2 the rating. It's not like at the time in 2002 Subaru had some other vehicle to upsell to you if you wanted more towing ability so I don't buy the argument automakers lower the ratings here because they want you to buy marked up SUVs and pickups. They don't want the liability. I remember when visiting Australia a guy took us fishing in the first generation Rav4 way up high in Tasmania towing a pretty good size 18' fiberglass boat, 3 full size men, and all gear. You would never see that in the US. I was impressed by the RAV4 and checked out the US ratings when we got back. It was like 1500 pounds with the factory tow package. That Aussie had at least 4000 pounds in tow and climbed the mountain with it.
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The manufacturer isn't liable for what you do with it. And we could go on quite a ways about what constitutes towing attributes. What can do what.
Sure, profits a big part of it. Nothing else is close to a pickup in that. The automakers would fold up without it.
Nothing stops you from making your own decision about what to tow, and how to tow it.
On the Airstream forums are those who don't believe you can't tow a 30' without a one ton. If it has a 1200-lb tongue weight, then after proper use of a weight distributing hitch, that's about 450-lbs per tow vehicle axle.
And that's in the territory of plenty of vans, SUVs and cars.
"Tow capacity" or "payload capacity" don't mean a great deal. Recommendations. Not law.
One weighs the vehicle to get axle reading. And doesn't exceed axle/wheel/tire limits.
More detail applies afterwards.
What matters most about a tow vehicle is that it best suit SOLO duty. AND can tow the trailer.
For some instances, that's making sure all vehicle heavy duty pieces are in place, and checking the biggest motor. But same vehicle otherwise.
And I don't know where you've gotten the impression a 6.7L ISB doesn't require injector replacement at some point. All Diesel engines will.