*Truck and Towing thread........ask your questions here.*

Good luck dalir. I did a similar thing when we got our Suburban - train trips and all. Worked out for us - hope the same is true do you!
 
Anybody have an opinion on a 2014 Dodge Ram 2500 SLT Crew Cab, 2WD with the 5.7L gas engine? It has 23k miles. I have an appointment to see one this weekend. We have a 2017 Keystone Passport 2890RL with an empty weight of 5500 lb. I currently pull it with my 2000 Ram 1500 that just rolled to 224k on the way to work this morning. It does OK pulling it, but I know I'm getting close to my 7700lb capacity. The mileage on the 2014 is listed at 11/16. Any guesses on how much it will drop towing? My 1500 gets about 13 and drops to about 7 towing. I have to stop for gas 4 times between Birmingham and The Fort; every 140 miles, whether I need to pee or not. The catch is the truck is in Baltimore, and they can't transfer it before our trip to The Fort in 2 1/2 weeks. Right now, my most economical option is the take the train from Birmingham Friday afternoon and get to Baltimore midday Saturday. Then drive it home if it looks OK. If not, I come up with plan B to get back home. Any thought are appreciated.
-Dave

So I am a bit late to this party, and while I don't have an opinion about the brand, I went through a similar decision some time ago. I had an F150 and upgraded to an F250. Both were Gas. My Fuel economy (not towing) went down. F150 was averaging about 18 MPG and F250 went easily down to sub-12 MPG. Towing MPG was about the same 5-6 MPG. It was a nicer 250 though with lots of "Creature Comforts" so that was nice to.

Now I too have gone through another upgrade. Went from an F250 Gas to an F250 Diesel. Picked it up last Saturday. I will have to see if I can get some pics posted. Although I haven't towed with it yet, I can say my Average MPG has increased by about 30% (from 11.4 avg to 16.7) I guess the real "Proof" will be the towing though.

On a different note.... Nice Rig Chris. WOW.... I can't even imagine.
 
I upgraded to an F250. Both were Gas. My Fuel economy (not towing) went down.
Paul,

I can't remember what you tow, but I know it isn't a mega-beast like a few of us. I suspect you'll get between 10-11 mpg towing. That's what I got with my old 5er (30 ft, 8000lbs). A lot depends on how heavy your foot is. I towed the old one around 75. The new 5er, I try to set the cruise on 72. If there isn't a bunch of head wind, I'll get 9.5-10, but it's 42 ft and 14,500 lbs. I've tried pulling the new one at 75, but mpg drops to around 9. I know there isn't much difference between 9.0 and 9.6, but it's psychological. I can round 9.6 up to 10 and be happy. 9.0 seems terrible.

j
 
So I am a bit late to this party, and while I don't have an opinion about the brand, I went through a similar decision some time ago. I had an F150 and upgraded to an F250. Both were Gas. My Fuel economy (not towing) went down. F150 was averaging about 18 MPG and F250 went easily down to sub-12 MPG. Towing MPG was about the same 5-6 MPG. It was a nicer 250 though with lots of "Creature Comforts" so that was nice to.

Now I too have gone through another upgrade. Went from an F250 Gas to an F250 Diesel. Picked it up last Saturday. I will have to see if I can get some pics posted. Although I haven't towed with it yet, I can say my Average MPG has increased by about 30% (from 11.4 avg to 16.7) I guess the real "Proof" will be the towing though.

On a different note.... Nice Rig Chris. WOW.... I can't even imagine.

Paul,
Congratulations on the diesel. You will notice a big difference when towing, the power, and the increase in fuel mileage. As I recall your trailer comes in about 34 ft. You may see 12mpg or so, better when you get down south and out of the mountains.

And thank you about my truck.
 


Paul,

I can't remember what you tow, but I know it isn't a mega-beast like a few of us. I suspect you'll get between 10-11 mpg towing. That's what I got with my old 5er (30 ft, 8000lbs). A lot depends on how heavy your foot is. I towed the old one around 75. The new 5er, I try to set the cruise on 72. If there isn't a bunch of head wind, I'll get 9.5-10, but it's 42 ft and 14,500 lbs. I've tried pulling the new one at 75, but mpg drops to around 9. I know there isn't much difference between 9.0 and 9.6, but it's psychological. I can round 9.6 up to 10 and be happy. 9.0 seems terrible.

j

Yeah... Not at the 5er yet. We were considering it though. Our TT is about 37' from tip to tail and is about 8.5K in weight. With the 250 Gas, I'd get about 5 MPG. I am hoping I can get around 10 MPG with the Diesel.

I have to say, though, that the new(er) one is very comfortable to ride in. It's got pretty much ALL the bells and whistles too. (Not that I need them all, but boy, they are nice to have).

Paul,
Congratulations on the diesel. You will notice a big difference when towing, the power, and the increase in fuel mileage. As I recall your trailer comes in about 34 ft. You may see 12mpg or so, better when you get down south and out of the mountains.

And thank you about my truck.

Thanks Chris. I am hoping to see a huge difference.
 
Paul, congrats on your new ride.

My question for this truck/towing group is to ask if anyone has any experience with an ODB2 scanner and using a smartphone app like Torque Pro with it.

The reason I am asking is that I got a scanner and downloaded Torque Pro because my 2005 Chevrolet Suburban is up to 220k miles and shows no signs of stopping but some of my gauges on the dashboard are starting to act a bit wonky especially now that we are hitting 90F daily temps here in central AL. Rather than pay to replace/fix the dash gauges, I thought I could use the scanner to reproduce the gauges on the app on my phone mounted on a dashboard stand/holder.

The gauges on the Suburban dash are oil temp, Volts on the batter, gas tank status, and coolant temp. These are the small gauges in addition to the big RPM and speed gauges. Of the four smaller, only coolant temp still works all the time. Of the big gauges, the RPM is intermittent.

The scanner passes data to my phone via a Bluetooth connection. FWIW, this is the ODB2 scanner I am using:

https://bafxpro.com/products/obdreader

When the temps are cool (like in the early morning) the gauges usually work all the way around. But in the afternoon lately when interior temps heat up (the car is outside in the driveway exposed to the sun all the time) the gauges mentioned above crap out.

Last time to the Fort the gas gauge wasn't working and I had to use the distance-to-empty feature on my odometer display to give me an idea of what my fuel status was (although I know my gas stops on that route). When I'm driving in less familiar surroundings, I got to thinking that I needed to do something and came across the scanner/app solution.

I only have $30 invested in this but it is interesting. So anybody else use one? I linked the phone to the scanner this morning and used it for the first time this morning using the standard app dashboard. I would love to pick somebody's brain.

Bama Ed
 
Ed,

I have an ODB2 bluetooth dongle on my RS and I use Torque Pro. Great combo. The ODB2 readers are under $10 now, but since you already have one.

I have mine setup to display tach, boost, coolant temp, acceleration/G-force meters, 0-30, 0-60 and 0-60-0 times, 1/4 mile, EGTs, tire pressures, speedometer to GPS difference and some other things. It is amazing how much you can monitor on the newer computers.

Depending on the computer mapping on your Suburban, you should be able to setup a smart phone to replicate your gauges. TorquePro gives options for digital, graph, bar, full dial and half dial gauges. I have an old smart phone that I use instead of using my current phone.

j
 


Well I should have counted on you, Jim. Although to tell you the truth, I don't think I'll be setting up any 0-something gauges for my Suburban :rotfl2:. I can see how you would want to, though, with your land rocket.

DD has an old Samsung S4 (that I paid for) and she's now upgraded to the S8 (which she paid for) but won't turn loose of the S4 for me to use in a dedicated manner as you are with your old phone.

I'm going to play with it some more this weekend and will hit you up as needed.

ED
 
Well, I am the happy owner of a new (to me) truck! It was an interesting 36 hours. I boarded the train at 3:15 Friday afternoon and arrived in Baltimore a little past noon on Saturday. It was a 30 min Uber ride to the dealership. The inspection, test drive and paperwork took about 2 1/2 hours, then on the road for the 806 miles back home. I pulled in my driveway at 3:15am Sunday. The truck drives really well and I averaged just over 16 mpg on the trip home. We'll see how much it drops when towing on our trip to The Fort on the 27th. 8136.jpeg

I appreciate everyone's comments last week; that helped me make the decision.

-Dave
 
Nice dalir :-) We will arrive at the Fort on the 27th also. Hopeing to get the 1600 loop. Regardless, We will be in a FHU loop.
 
We are in FHU as well, but will actually arrive early on the 28th (an earlier post describes our detour to Atlanta on the way down). Hoping for 1800 or 1600 on the canal. We were in 1809 back in October and loved it. We will be at the Fort early that morning so hopefully we can convince the CM to assign us a good site. I have reservations for a special DW birthday activity at 9am in DS, so we will be there early, unhook in overflow, and head to DS. Hope the traffic in from the Ocala rest area isn't to heavy that morning.
 
I don't think I'll be setting up any 0-something gauges for my Suburban :rotfl2:.

DD has an old Samsung S4 (that I paid for) and she's now upgraded to the S8 (which she paid for) but won't turn loose of the S4 for me to use in a dedicated manner.
Ed,

Nothing wrong with using your current phone. Torque doesn't use data. Let me know when you want to set it up. There are additional settings you can get to by selecting the type of vehicle. That's how I could access the TPMS monitors for the tire pressures. I'm not sure how much the computer on the 'Burban can display. The newer cars use a CAN Bus (mini network for most of the sensors and control units) instead of the older direct wire analog computers

Well, I am the happy owner of a new (to me) truck!
Dave,

Good looking truck. If you managed 16 mpg from the hemi, that's a pretty good deal considering the aerodynamics of these bricks we call trucks. Have a fun time getting used to it on the drive to the Fort.

j
 
dalir, if you're "out and about" at the Fort, look for our rig:

We'll do it! We will be picking up a cart from Tee Time on Tuesday (they were closed on Memorial Day, go figure), and DW and I will have new bikes as well so we are planning on more time in the campground. We are trying hard to relax more at the Fort. In the past we haven't been very good at it, but this will be our 6th trip in a year (getting our money's worth from the APs) and are slowly getting better. We made it to the Sing-a-long for the first time last trip :).
 
This will only be our 2nd trip to the Fort ... been to Disney World a whole bunch of times. Funny you mentioned last October. We were also there then ... 1st week of October. We were in the 1900 loop. Enjoyed every minute of it. This trip is going to be similar to yours in that we won't key on the Park, rather take in the Fort and it's offerings. We will have bikes also.
 
dalir, Nice truck! It should do well pulling the Passport.

considering the aerodynamics of these bricks we call trucks

they may be bricks, but they look so much better than the more aerodynamic trucks 10 years ago. I'm glad they have started making trucks look like trucks again.
 
Yeah... Not at the 5er yet. We were considering it though. Our TT is about 37' from tip to tail and is about 8.5K in weight. With the 250 Gas, I'd get about 5 MPG. I am hoping I can get around 10 MPG with the Diesel.

Got you covered.

F-250 6.7 diesel pulling my TT that is 35' and weighs about 9,000#. I get between 9-10.2 towing. I've found about 72 mph seems to be the sweetspot when towing on the interstate. Any less or more and the mpg drops down. When not towing, I get about 17.3 mpg so it roughly cut it in half.
 
Ok experts,
1991 Ford F250 XLT Lariat
7.5 gas
Fwd
What can you tell me about it as a tow vehicle
I couldn’t find anything on it when I googled.

Thanks in advance
 
Ok experts,
1991 Ford F250 XLT Lariat
7.5 gas
Fwd
What can you tell me about it as a tow vehicle
Wow!`A 1991?

For its time, it was a good truck, but after 27 years, everything is based on what kind of shape it is in and how it has been taken care of.
First, the F250 came in 2 levels back then. An F250 and F250 HD. For towing, you want the HD. It has 1000 lbs higher GVWR. The 460 V8 (7.5) is a work horse. It was in many motorhomes from that era. It makes great torque, but not a lot of HP. I can only find a couple of references on tow rating. They both show around 8000 for the HD and 7000 ish for the non-HD. 2WD are slightly higher than 4WD.

Unless you know the history on the truck or it`s from family and nearly free, I'd probably go with a newer truck. My son has a 94 Miata. Things on it are failing because they are 24 years old and literally rotting. You can find some early 2000 F250/350 for pretty good prices. Even diesels (and the 7.3 Powerstrokes of the early 2000`s were great. I had a 2001 F250 diesel)

j
 
Thanks!

My dad just informed me they think they want to go for a NEW f-250

They said they think no fifth wheel cause it’s higher at 150”
Overpasses. And harder to tow?
Could fall off when inspecting the roof cause you know they are curved?
 

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