what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby rustytoolss » Sat Jan 21, 2017 5:52 pm

I have 2 tow vehicles. A 1946 Dodge dumpbed pickup that has a 2.5 dodge 4cyl turbo engine. And my other tow vehicle is a 1964 Dodge A100 pickup, that has a 273 V8.
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby Ned » Sun Jan 22, 2017 6:10 pm

i use a 1980's toyota starlet. Never came with a tow bar, and no idea what it's rated for but it seems to work.
Car has an upgraded engine from 1300cc to 1800cc with fuel injection, as well as some added cooling for towing the TD up big hills.

No oversize tow vehicles here!

TD is 5' wide, 9' long and 4' tall

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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby bdosborn » Sun Jan 22, 2017 7:44 pm

Ned wrote:No oversize tow vehicles here!


Dodge Ram angry! Dodge Ram smash! :lol: :lol:

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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby DrCrash » Sun Jan 22, 2017 10:03 pm

bdosborn wrote:
Ned wrote:No oversize tow vehicles here!


Dodge Ram angry! Dodge Ram smash! :lol: :lol:

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You need a smasher on the front like this .
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby bdosborn » Sun Jan 22, 2017 10:08 pm

:shock: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby HandsOnHenry » Wed Feb 15, 2017 9:56 am

When shopping for our trailer the only tow vehicle we had at that time was our 2012 Outback 3.6R. We only put a little over 1000 miles on the trailer behind our Subaru. It worked decent, you definitely knew it was there, but the biggest hit was in the gas mileage. For anyone towing with a Subaru you might look into Rotella T6 5-40 synthetic oil, it has helped our car to have noticeably smoother power delivery along with a significant increase in fuel economy. Anyone interested in doing some research will find a lot of good info at Bobistheoilguy.com. We continue to use this oil even though we no longer tow with the car.
Last fall my Father-in-Law became very sick and decided to leave his 2013 Toyota Tundra in the care of my wife and I. Now instead of a 2.75" rise receiver, we use a 6" drop. Obviously a truck like this is overkill for towing our little camper, but when both vehicles are towing they get very similar fuel mileage (the tundra doesn't know its there, the Subaru has to work a little). The Tundra has a bed cover currently, that when combined with a locking tailgate handle, provides a good amount of storage for things that are wet or dirty. However I do have dreams of a nice topper with carpet kit.
-Trailer 960# dry, 1490 GVWR, 100# tongue
-Subaru 3.6R Avg 21mpg (mixed driving) Avg 14-16 (towing) All stock except for the oil
-Tundra 5.7 i-Force Avg pretty much 15mpg all the time (towing or not) All stock except for "drop-in" K&N filter.
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby rustytoolss » Wed Feb 15, 2017 5:39 pm

looks like your trailer got smaller ,with the new TV :lol:
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby gizmotron » Mon Feb 20, 2017 2:38 pm

I looked around and it turned out best to settle on the newer Toyota Corolla with its 1,500 lbs towing capacity. I wanted a new car with great gas mileage and the best towing capacity in its class.

Here is the older covered wagon with the solid front and back ends stored on the outside for towing. At the end I made all the rafters fit inside.

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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby ericm555 » Wed Mar 01, 2017 9:32 pm

I have a 2009 outback XT Manual. I got 15mpg on my 5,000 mile trip to the west coast.
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby JaggedEdges » Thu Mar 02, 2017 8:39 am

Nice looking, but 15mpg sounds a bit disappointing, though it looks like the way the outback roof curves it spills air slap bang dead center of 'drop front. Two mods I'd personally make therefore would be have a "wind slammer" board to kick up the air on the rear roof of the outback, (maybe 6" 20 degrees) and put a strip of angle or coving maybe on the back of the drop just as the curve tightens in the rear to part air off it, for clean edge separation.
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby gizmotron » Thu Mar 02, 2017 10:50 am

ericm555, Wow, how much does that "Drop" weigh? My covered wagon weighed 1,100 lbs. I got 25 miles per gallon on Interstate 5 and 20 miles per gallon on the Oregon coast. That was typical driving MPG on twisted mountain roads too.
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby ericm555 » Thu Mar 02, 2017 11:10 am

Normally I only get around 22mpg. The 4.44 final drive does not help. I got about the same with my old 99 outback with a non turbo 2.5L. I think my teardrop sits a little bit to high. I was able to cruse at 80mph+ without downshifting.
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby KCStudly » Thu Mar 02, 2017 2:09 pm

Going 80 probably had the biggest effect on mileage. Wind drag goes up exponentially with speed.
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby catinmoon » Sat Apr 15, 2017 7:46 am

Realize it's been a while since this postk but want to hear more about the synthetic oil. I have a manual trans 2006 Legacy Wagon (last year they made the plain wagon, now all are the outback version). Would this be a good oil for this vehicle? Or any other synthetic oil? They always try to sell me when I get the oil changed, but I wasn't sure if it was useful, such as they try to sell you special air for your tires. I have approx. 140K on the vehicle. I have never towed with it and am hesitant since it is a 4 cylinder and I'm not sure how it would do. I used to use my friend's Tacoma (which was my Tacoma). Also 4 cyl and underpowered but got the job done. Thanks for any insights on the oil.

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HandsOnHenry wrote:When shopping for our trailer the only tow vehicle we had at that time was our 2012 Outback 3.6R. We only put a little over 1000 miles on the trailer behind our Subaru. It worked decent, you definitely knew it was there, but the biggest hit was in the gas mileage. For anyone towing with a Subaru you might look into Rotella T6 5-40 synthetic oil, it has helped our car to have noticeably smoother power delivery along with a significant increase in fuel economy. Anyone interested in doing some research will find a lot of good info at Bobistheoilguy.com. We continue to use this oil even though we no longer tow with the car.
........
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Re: what does everyone use for a tow vehicle.

Postby rustytoolss » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:27 pm

Be carefull adding synthetic oil to vehicles with high mileage (old seals). Synthetic oil has smaller mallicues ., and will leak out easier than standard (dino) motor oil will. Sometimes older vehicles leak syn oil/sometimes they don't . :roll:
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