 |
[RC] safe tow vehicles - rugbytimberchirping in late as usual. but i think i have expirience in the wimpy tow vehicle dept.weve been trough this on this site before. ive towed with everything from a 4 door sedan, a 6cy dodge dakota, f-150 etc. untill recently my trailers were small 70's quarter horse trailers. i have small arab, travel light ,only fill the tank half way. i still managed to kill all of my tow trucks within a year. blowing oil, killing trannies, getting no power. back in the day, all my trucks were 10-15 years old. thats what i could afford.$1,000 beater sthat need $500 worth of repairs. we maintained them well, installed tranny coolers,elec brake controlers. did what we could to help them i maybe towed 10 times a summer to local trail rides. ill be darned if i didnt need a running start to get up a small hill. i live in flat rhode island. doing 60 at the bottom of the hill and creeping barely past 35 mph at the top is not safe. people dont want to be behind me going so slow and would do suicide dives in front of me, pass me on the right, cut me off. you can be as slow and carefull as you want, but people will kill themselves to not get stuck behind you. causing an accident in front of me is not safe. we also" people camp" and have owned many small travel trailers and tent trailers. hubby had to drive a camp trailer home one day and was horrified at how the trailer moved the truck around at highway speeds. a loaded qh trailer still out weighs a small truck, and when i almost rearended someone who stopped short, and another time slid through a stop sign- if you cant stop it or steer it, its not safe-that was the last straw. when my hubby and i did the math, it was not wise to bother owning wimpy trucks. you cannot rent trucks and trailers around here. our local u-haul now rents pick ups- but they dont have hitches on them. i begged for rides, hired local haulers from area stables. it was really a pain. as we got on our feet and made more money over the past few years we decided to buy a good used truck. i believe someone here said "it costs just as much in gas to drive a stressed out 6 cyl, as it does to drive a v-8 doing its job" with the better truck we were able to sell the travel trailers and get a small GN with LQ .now i can go up hills without even thinking about it. and i can take BOTH my horses somewhere with out blowing an engine. i havent done a thing to it in over a year, besides oil change. btw, the 1990 6 cyl dodge dakota is still running,it found a good home at a pumpkin farm. that truck took a beating and kept going. looking back, i cant believe i ever drove like that. i feel bad for people who are trapped with no ride, and i try to pick people up when i can. -rene-
|