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What are you guys towing?

Grumpaw

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Earlier this week it was a TracVac and a crapton of leaves in between monsoons. ?
20221017_151633.jpg
Did you need a weight distributing hitch and a brake controller ??? :crackup::crackup::crackup:
 

Big Blue

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Earlier this week it was a TracVac and a crapton of leaves in between monsoons. ?
20221017_151633.jpg
Always wondered how many pounds
Is a crapton

Inquirering minds want to know.:)
 

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Grumpaw

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These are on the Bill Nicholls Trail, a few miles outside of Mass City, over the Firesteel River.
If you guys are driving down that old RR grade, or as its called today the Bill Nicholls Trail, be sure to get a permit. We need to have a trail pass to be on it and they do ticket people for not having one.
 

Stevedbvik1

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If you guys are driving down that old RR grade, or as its called today the Bill Nicholls Trail, be sure to get a permit. We need to have a trail pass to be on it and they do ticket people for not having one.
I’m double stickered and the P on the license plate. But thanks for the heads up
 

reidmefirst

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mast-dropping.jpeg

Finally getting to tow with my ranger after owning it a month. I hauled out my sailboat and took it around some highways.

boatramp.webp


It was a great first test for the truck: the boat ramp is 9 degrees/15% grade, the boat+trailer weighs ~6300 pounds currently, and for extra fun the lake is 3 feet lower than normal so the bottom of the boat ramp is not as good as it usually is. For the haulout I 'cheated' and used trail control mode: put the truck in 4 low, set trail control to 5mph, and let the computers do the work going up the grade. The 15% grade climbs about 150-200 feet out of the lake valley, then flattens out. It was no problem for the ranger.

Today we dropped the mast, and I hauled the boat over to a CAT scale. That meant some highway driving (in traffic) and a little driving on the Interstate.

Early opinion: it was a little more scary than when I drove with the rental Uhaul. The haulout was a lot nicer, for sure -- the RWD uhaul (Silverado/Sierra trucks) was really not fun getting up that ramp. The ranger felt a little more squirrely driving at highway speeds though. Part of this is not having the tongue weight right currently (only ~300 pounds on the tongue today, which made for squeaking tires any time I wanted to move). Probably I was running that way with the uhaul pickups the last few times, but the bigger silverado/sierra is a little more forgiving. The trailer only has hydraulic surge brakes which is also not ideal. And there was a fair amount of traffic today, doing the normal stupid things cars do around tow vehicles. The rig did sway a little above 65 at one point. Usually my setup would start to way above 70mph on the Silverado so was ready for it. We had high winds today, I'm sure that contributed -- wind was 20-30mph.

Anyway, overall quite pleased with how this 'midsized' truck handled the load. Hopefully next season I'll get electric brakes on the trailer/brake controller on the truck, the package will be a bit lighter, and I'll have a better handle on how to load the boat for proper tongue weight. I guess my mini-review of Ranger towing is: it handles quite well, but when you're getting near the max towing capacity of the vehicle you really want to make sure you're doing everything you can to have your trailer setup right. A bigger truck lets you be a bit lazier with that stuff. All in all this is what I was expecting when I bought a ranger, though. I'll just be towing around the midwest, so no real elevation change, and kinda thought a full-size truck would be overkill for that...
 

Grumpaw

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We brought our camper home today. Might be the end of camping season for us. ?
P1130318.jpg
P1130324.jpg
Sounds like us....we just came home 2 weeks ago and now prepping the camper for winter.
Our first trip next year is up your way....reservations at Holland, and Mackinaw in May.
 

Cmar

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mast-dropping.jpeg

Finally getting to tow with my ranger after owning it a month. I hauled out my sailboat and took it around some highways.

boatramp.jpg


It was a great first test for the truck: the boat ramp is 9 degrees/15% grade, the boat+trailer weighs ~6300 pounds currently, and for extra fun the lake is 3 feet lower than normal so the bottom of the boat ramp is not as good as it usually is. For the haulout I 'cheated' and used trail control mode: put the truck in 4 low, set trail control to 5mph, and let the computers do the work going up the grade. The 15% grade climbs about 150-200 feet out of the lake valley, then flattens out. It was no problem for the ranger.

Today we dropped the mast, and I hauled the boat over to a CAT scale. That meant some highway driving (in traffic) and a little driving on the Interstate.

Early opinion: it was a little more scary than when I drove with the rental Uhaul. The haulout was a lot nicer, for sure -- the RWD uhaul (Silverado/Sierra trucks) was really not fun getting up that ramp. The ranger felt a little more squirrely driving at highway speeds though. Part of this is not having the tongue weight right currently (only ~300 pounds on the tongue today, which made for squeaking tires any time I wanted to move). Probably I was running that way with the uhaul pickups the last few times, but the bigger silverado/sierra is a little more forgiving. The trailer only has hydraulic surge brakes which is also not ideal. And there was a fair amount of traffic today, doing the normal stupid things cars do around tow vehicles. The rig did sway a little above 65 at one point. Usually my setup would start to way above 70mph on the Silverado so was ready for it. We had high winds today, I'm sure that contributed -- wind was 20-30mph.

Anyway, overall quite pleased with how this 'midsized' truck handled the load. Hopefully next season I'll get electric brakes on the trailer/brake controller on the truck, the package will be a bit lighter, and I'll have a better handle on how to load the boat for proper tongue weight. I guess my mini-review of Ranger towing is: it handles quite well, but when you're getting near the max towing capacity of the vehicle you really want to make sure you're doing everything you can to have your trailer setup right. A bigger truck lets you be a bit lazier with that stuff. All in all this is what I was expecting when I bought a ranger, though. I'll just be towing around the midwest, so no real elevation change, and kinda thought a full-size truck would be overkill for that...
Good points, I found when towing our 2400 Kg loaded Caravan (Travel trailer for you guys) it wanted to sway a bit around 100KPH with passing trucks etc. I discovered travelling with the front water tank full and the rear one empty made all the difference, tracks straight as as arrow. Who would have thought an extra 80 odd kilos further foward would have made such a dramatic difference.
 

Cmar

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Sounds like us....we just came home 2 weeks ago and now prepping the camper for winter.
Our first trip next year is up your way....reservations at Holland, and Mackinaw in May.
One of the joys in living in the sub tropics, we can can camp all year round. Although mid summer can get a bit hot, depending on where you are.
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