I have 4 kids, family of 6 in a 4,700 sf house. i'm moving 1,700 miles away, and when the moving quote came in i almost puked. so... i bought a 20 foot used cargo trailer (23.5 end to end) and very tall. guy i bought it from used it to haul cars. very cool, and very modular. there are rails inside that i was able to create a double and triple decker with shelves.

i figure i can just strap it onto my tahoe. well... i start doing my math after i buy my trailer and figure that i'm in trouble. trailer can haul 9k gw, and my tahoe can haul 6,500. so... i do my research to replace my tahoe with the most kick a$$ hauler and what do i end up with?? you guessed it.

i get a weight distributing hitch, dual cam sway bars, prodigy brake controller, edge juice, mbrp exhaust, and there i go. i'm well equipped. i figure 1 round trip and 1 one way.

well... i just got back from the first round trip and thought i would share my experience.

the tires that came on my truck were not e rated, and i ended up getting take-off h2's. they look very cool but probably hurt my mileage. effective gear ratio goes from 3.73 to like 3.4 or something. it didn't hurt power at all... that was never a problem.

truck and trailer weighed 15,700 loaded on a scale at the steel yard. i'm about 7k empty, so i'm hauling 8,700#.

the truck was everything i hoped for. i'm so proud of it. i put 1230 egt backdown, put her in tow/haul and set the cruise at 77 (adjusted for tires). shazam... the truck was like a dog fetching a ball. loved it.

i think i was balanced tongue weight okay. i had the tires pumped to max of 50's all around. i was a bit bummed with mileage which was from 7.5 to 9. that was due entirely to my speed of lucky 7's and my tall tires (34+"). going up serious grades, it kicked down to 4th about when egt hit 1200's and never hit 3rd, always kept whatever speed i asked. incredible.

i dropped pressure to 45 all around for the dead head miles on the return trip. surprisingly, on the way back, unloaded, the truck was barely better than loaded. i *think* the trailer weighs about 3,500# empty. but... it's like dragging a parachute. into a 16 mph wind, i was <8 mpg empty, but driving slow through some sight seeing in yellowstone, i got 12.5. wind seems to be everything for mileage. no trailer, the truck gets 17-19 mpg.

i am now a huge believer... this truck is a keeper. i had some great kills going up the grades. the f*rds are so sad.

So you got a new truck, new trailer, weight distributing hitch, dual cam sway bars, prodigy brake controller, edge juice, mbrp exhaust because the moving quote was too expensive? Must have been some quote!

It sounds like you caught the bug and had the money to back it up!! :D

it started like this....

$12k - $15k to hire to move our stuff. renting a truck would have cost $3k - $4k plus *gas*, and they are sissy trucks with a giant orange stripe. also... you only get it for a short period.

so i buy the trailer with the idea that i can buy it here and sell it there. no money lost... in fact, i found a great deal because of poor marketing so i think i will make money.

i am value oriented so i shopped like mad for the perfect truck for me. i wanted to own a pickup at my new destination anyway. i'm very happy about it and feel like i did not pay more than i can sell it for. my expense for getting the truck is really only the tax. and my sale on my tahoe i ended up with 2,200 more than i thought i would get!

the other expenses (hitch gear, tow mirrors, brake controller, edge juice) i shopped for good deals and resale is super liquid. i consider expense as 'net of ebay resale' and these items are very cheap that way. the mbrp i bought used from the bac.

my fuel expenses for the move will be about $1,200.

1,200 fuel
2,500 truck tax
500 misc depreciation and transaction expense on hardware.
road trip with buddy and family = priceless.

this total is waaay less than the moving quote, and i suckered a buddy to do the drive with me. we had an amazing time. i wouldn't trade that experience for anything. i haven't road tripped like that since college. the next time with be with the family and i'll show the kids mt rushmore and yellowstone.

as for catching the bug.... yes indeed. it hit hard. as soon as i bought the truck and found this forum. if i didn't catch the bug, i would have been chugging stock and too low of rated tires, without weight distribution or sway control. but... i'll tell you what; i ended up comfortably equipped with knowledge. and in this case, knowledge turned into safety and smooth driving. thanks.

here's where the real expense comes... i think i want to get a travel trailer or 5er to swap with the cargo trailer!

Perfectly normal, rational thinking IMHO. :D Whatever it takes to get your hands on one of these beasts! :ro) JJ :)

Monkey,

I pull a 33' 5er and found that headwind is as much or more of a factor than terrain. If you are lucky enough to get a tail wind, life is grand, but if you are bucking a headwind, EGTs go up and mileage goes down. If I'm bucking a head wind while towing, I usually slow down to low to mid 60s.

I also have the H2s. When empty I run the fronts at 43 and the rears at 33. I have just under 50k on the tires and looking for a new set. When towing, I top the tires off at 50. Once I forgot to up the pressure, sure robbed a lot of power.

MaxRock

Monkey,

I also have the H2s. When empty I run the fronts at 43 and the rears at 33. I have just under 50k on the tires and looking for a new set. When towing, I top the tires off at 50. Once I forgot to up the pressure, sure robbed a lot of power.

MaxRock

thx.

i've been running 42 / 32 empty, so just about the same. nice to be reassured. i did a 'chalk method' to come up with that when they were new. stripe accross the tire and roll it onto pavement. change pressure until it is even on outside and inside. so, i think we are set there.

full, i ran 50/50, and on return with empty trailer, 45/45. i think this was fine. i just rotated my tires this morning. i have a 5th h2 spare in the cycle so i want to rotate often. after 4k miles, i was a bit surprised how much came off. but it was the rears that surprised me. i did 4 or 5 burnouts when i first put the edge juice on. i won't be doing any more of those.

i hope to get 50-60k out of the 5 tires, then i think i will get 285's with less of a knobby profile. specially if i get a travel trailer and do more towing. should help mileage. i'd like to drop my torsion bars a bit so i can get some camber back. when i cranked the bars all the way on stock keys, the alignment could only get camber back to 3-4 degrees then ran out of thread (should be 5-7 degrees). so the steering floats a bit more than i like (not while towing).

Excellent story and glad everything went (and is going) your way!


I hope your next trip goes just as well.





Gary

I too ended up getting a gually 8.1 to tow a new boat that I purchased. I had a Ford P.O.S. that was only 4 months old and traded in.:ro)

theMonkey,

I have a little over 50k on my H2s (4 tire rotation) and they are wearing pretty thin. I may get another k or 2. If you are doing a 5 tire rotation you should be able to get 55k to 60k...if you quit doing burn outs!!!! :eek:

The first time I need to change ball joints I will go with the Cognito leveling kit. i believe this will put the front end geometry back to factory.

MaxRock