Detroit Dan
New Member
I just felt like venting again about this brand war between the light duty trucks, every maker is scrambling to post the highest numbers, as if that means they are going to sell more trucks because they have the "best in class" towing capacity. (anyone buying a truck to tow for real is probably not looking at half-tons anyway). Apparently they can make up whatever number they want and there is no regulation to it.
It first started annoying me when Toyota (the sticking gas pedal people) started running those ads with the trucks pulling 10,000lb trailers straight up and straight down, and stopping at the edge of cliffs and all sorts of annoying, unsafe foolishness. Now Ford is going toe to toe with them. Not sure where GM stands with their half-ton towing numbers, I stopped paying attention when I saw their front axle GVWR that restricts you to a Fisher-price snowplow.
So a co-worker just bought a brand new F150 crewcab lariat which came with an advertised tow rating of -are you ready for this?-11,300 lbs. Are you fricking kidding me? In 2004 my 1500 crewcab Chevy has a 7400lb tow rating, so how did they get these number so fantastically high? I've towed that much with my diesel dually 3500, and it works hard to get it up hills. Course I don't have the horsepower numbers, but I've got torque, I've got HD suspension and brakes, heck I've got twice as many lugnuts. I moved my 11,000 gvwr camper (8500 dry weight) around the yard once with the 1500, 295hp didn't want to move it, and without a weight distributing hitch the rearend was flattened right out.
Of course the half tons can tow a heavy trailer. It's on wheels! And they come factory equipped with sway control and brake control, presumably so nitwits won't try to pull 11,300 without them. But does that mean they should? I for one am a little nervous about putting all these people behind the wheel of a half-ton, towing so far beyond what it's real capacity probably should be, especially when most of these truck buyers don't know anything at all about towing. I mean, for commercial purposes you need a CDL-A to tow over 10,000lbs, but we are going to encourage Joe whitecollar to do it on the weekend with his big bad half-ton? I'm tempted to invite my co-worker to try to pull my camper with his new F150, just to see what happens.
And don't even get me started on the factory horsepower ratings. I'll save that rant for another time.
It first started annoying me when Toyota (the sticking gas pedal people) started running those ads with the trucks pulling 10,000lb trailers straight up and straight down, and stopping at the edge of cliffs and all sorts of annoying, unsafe foolishness. Now Ford is going toe to toe with them. Not sure where GM stands with their half-ton towing numbers, I stopped paying attention when I saw their front axle GVWR that restricts you to a Fisher-price snowplow.
So a co-worker just bought a brand new F150 crewcab lariat which came with an advertised tow rating of -are you ready for this?-11,300 lbs. Are you fricking kidding me? In 2004 my 1500 crewcab Chevy has a 7400lb tow rating, so how did they get these number so fantastically high? I've towed that much with my diesel dually 3500, and it works hard to get it up hills. Course I don't have the horsepower numbers, but I've got torque, I've got HD suspension and brakes, heck I've got twice as many lugnuts. I moved my 11,000 gvwr camper (8500 dry weight) around the yard once with the 1500, 295hp didn't want to move it, and without a weight distributing hitch the rearend was flattened right out.
Of course the half tons can tow a heavy trailer. It's on wheels! And they come factory equipped with sway control and brake control, presumably so nitwits won't try to pull 11,300 without them. But does that mean they should? I for one am a little nervous about putting all these people behind the wheel of a half-ton, towing so far beyond what it's real capacity probably should be, especially when most of these truck buyers don't know anything at all about towing. I mean, for commercial purposes you need a CDL-A to tow over 10,000lbs, but we are going to encourage Joe whitecollar to do it on the weekend with his big bad half-ton? I'm tempted to invite my co-worker to try to pull my camper with his new F150, just to see what happens.
And don't even get me started on the factory horsepower ratings. I'll save that rant for another time.
