towing with a pickup...

[aanderud]

LOL, so I guess I was ranting about how dodge has a towing capacity in their default configuration on the 2013 of like 4150 lbs. I thought this was extraordinarily low for a full size half ton pickup, considering it's almost 20% less than a toyota highlander, which is based on a camry chassis if I'm not mistaken.

Well then I'm watching football this afternoon like every other Sunday and I see the Tundra towing a space shuttle -- all 292,000 lbs of it. LOL. A stock tundra. Granted, he wasn't going very far or very fast, but still thought it was funny.

Publicity stunt to the max, but it's still pretty cool. I bet it won't be long and we'll see some world's-strongest-man competition where they have to tow a shuttle, I'm guessing

[JOHNBIGDOG]

The truck was only pulling the shuttle... now this is going strait to Airjer's head.....

[Jeremy airjer W]

Posted that on Halloween!

Good rig to pull 8x23 ice......

[GSP4ME]

I thought the same thing. I sat there and thought Really I mean Really???? Where is my Cummings and four low

[PurpleFloyd]

At some point when you go to a 6 cyl and an 8 speed trans to get the mileage up you are going to sacrifice something. In this case mileage.

My 1998 ram 2500 got consistent 11's driving every day and 10's pulling a 6x12 enclosed trailer.

[Powerstroke]

The new dodge isn't sacrificing mileage, its sacrificing capabliity to get mileage.

The v-6 and 8sp combo is rated for 25mpg, but only a tow rating of 6500lbs. That might work for some people, but its not gonna cut it for me. The ecoboost is 23mpg and a tow rating of 11,000lbs.

[aanderud]

The new dodge isn't sacrificing mileage, its sacrificing capabliity to get mileage.

The v-6 and 8sp combo is rated for 25mpg, but only a tow rating of 6500lbs. That might work for some people, but its not gonna cut it for me. The ecoboost is 23mpg and a tow rating of 11,000lbs.

It's worse than you thought. The 25 mpg and 5600 lb towing capacity are for the single cab with the 4x2 configuration. If you configure it as a 4x4 with a quad cab, not only will your mileage drop to 23 mpg, but your towing capacity goes all the way down to 4150 lbs. LOL. They really missed the mark on this one.

And no, I didn't go neuter it at all -- I selected all the defaults for the SLT, which includes the 3.6 liter pentastar and the 8 speed transmisission. The 5.7 liter hemi is only 850 bucks more, and it'll tow more reasonable weights, but you have to go select that manually. The defaults are as I mentioned. Wonder how many folks will be buying these and then wondering why they're unable to tow anything except their 2 place snowmobile trailer. I look at these things -- but I'm sure there are plenty out there who just take for granted that their full size pickup is going to tow their boat.

[PurpleFloyd]

The new dodge isn't sacrificing mileage, its sacrificing capabliity to get mileage.

The v-6 and 8sp combo is rated for 25mpg, but only a tow rating of 6500lbs. That might work for some people, but its not gonna cut it for me. The ecoboost is 23mpg and a tow rating of 11,000lbs.

Yeah, actually I posted from my phone and it didn't come out the way I wanted. What I was referring to is I believe people will find when they drive that truck in a strong wind, pull a trailer, or pull a trailer in a strong headwind they will see a significant drop in their MPG. The way they are getting the MPG up is by throwing more and more gears at it but at some point the reduced torque of that 6cyl won't let it operate in the top gears when opposing force from weight or wind is introduced. All trucks will see this to an extent but the trans and gear ratios will have an impact on it which is why I inserted my experience with the 5.9 V8 and the 4 speed auto trans.

The mileage not pulling a trailer with the RAM was pretty poor(11 MPG) but interestingly when I pulled my 6x12 enclosed trailer the mileage only dropped 1 to 10. I later replaced that truck for a short time with a ford Sport Trac that had the 4.6 V8. It got in the ballpark of 20 MPG with it's 6 speed but that same trailer brought it down to the same 10 MPG the Ram got. After a short time I replaced that Ford with a Ram 2500 with a cummins 6.7 and that will get 20+ empty, got 17 with that 6x12 trailer and gets 14-15 pulling the 8.5x20 enclosed trailer I bought now that I have the power to pull it.

I think Ford seems to have done a great job with the ecoboost if the mileage pulling a trailer that I have seen guys claim is true. If they can blow a 6cyl , get those numbers and have them last as long as they claim that is a good thing for everyone because it will be copied by everyone just as soon as they get tired of it kicking their butts.

[Ryan_V]

I just saw that video. Now I think dodge shoulda do one better and have the cummins tow the jumbo jet with the shuttle on top of it!

[PurpleFloyd]

I just saw that video. Now I think dodge shoulda do one better and have the cummins tow the jumbo jet with the shuttle on top of it!

lol. Or pull the whole bridge

[Jeremy airjer W]

Or pull the whole bridge

That's the only thing that could top it!