Truck Alternatives

[Al]

I've been looking into getting a truck since I bought my race car. One thing that would make me look elsewhere are these people pulling heavily loaded trailers in their crown victorias and lincon towncars.

Would it be a good idea to get a large sedan to tow a trailer?

The trailer will have a 2300 lb car on it plus some supplies.

[Prince Valiant]

There are some older crown vics rated to tow as much as 5000lbs...somewhere in the mid 90's though, the tow rating plummeted. You'll want to reasearch at Trailerboats.com to find when the switch was made. As with most vehicles nowdays...it's not the power that's important to tow...but the cooling capacity and the safe max suspension rating that determines whether the vehicle was suitable. Ford determined at some point it wasn't worth continueing to offer a true tow package.

If someone is looking for a tow vehicle, I always recomend getting the older trucks. Cheap to buy, easy to maintain, and will be more than suited to tow what you need. Anything from the 1/2 ton group, whether a Chevy CK, Dodge Ram 100/150, or ford f-150 would probably suit your needs. With the ford, you can even look into their 300ci inline six as a very viable tow vehicle...although the chevy and dodge six bangers will do a stand-up job as well.

Primarily though, the small v8's is plenty fine and will offer decent economy to boot if tuned well. Generally, they are very cheap, especially the 2WD's.

[Al]

Back when I was sealcoating driveways, One of the trucks used was an 80's ford F150 with the 300 in it. It was a bit of a turd when towing a fully loaded trailer and could barely break 65 on the freeway. But when halfway loaded, it was relatively good on gas when compared to the other truck empty (460 powered F350).

These trucks are cheap. I have looked around and found that the old 2wd's cost very little.

[theavenger333]

it depends on how heavy u are towing. check the ratings. many V6 SUVs tow well. the early 90s blazers with the vortec motor tow very well. and actually i think the TBI ones do too. the new I5 colorado/canyons do the job too.

[Al]

The key is that it has to be old so that I can afford it.

That astro I had would have been a good car, but it was taking forever to finish. A blazer or an exploder could work.

I think I should assume that I will tow 5,000 lbs car & trailer.

[Slow Joe]

I use to tow some heavy **** with my '95 Grand Cherokee... But I probably wouldn't recomend that w/o trailer brakes... I towed a full car trailer with a car on it with hardly any problems... It was a '95 Grand Cherokee Laredo V8 with well, at that point like 150k on the clock... Awesome vehicle, very reliable...

[theavenger333]

all these can be had for 1-5k mid and lower 90s jeeps, exploders, blazers etc.....just check the tow rating