I was reading a post under me where a guy ask if he could tow 3 quads, now i know my ranger could do that no problems. But what about it towing my explorer on a 16" foot trailer with dual axle with brakes? My explorer is roughly 4,000lbs, the trailer and spare parts would be 1,500lb. so i would like to tow 6,000lb's with my ranger.

Before you tell me to get a f250 or something, i wont get rid of my ranger. It is a great little truck.

As of right now, i have exhaust and a hurst shifter. Im going to replace the clutch soon, and have all the fluids flushed soon at 100k miles. I also want to install a rough country aal to stiffen up the rear. Also want to add 1 3/8" front sway bar 1" rear sway bar, intake, ud pulley, chip, and lakewood traction bars. I also just had the brakes redone.

Think ill be able to do it?

its a 4.0sohc 5spd with 4.10 gears if you didnt read my sig.

 

The most I've towed is a travel trailer. Loaded up probably around weighed 5,000+ pounds. It was a tandom axle with electric brakes. It towed fine. It was heavy, but I was able to drive over 55-70mph the whole time. Big hills slowed me down to 55mph. I had to floor it 90% or more of the time and my gas mileage was around 9-10MPG. I also have a tranny cooler which I'm sure helped out the tansmission. Zabeard has towed all kinds of heavy stuff with his truck and it moved ok. I think I remember reading somewhere he towed like 7-8k pounds once without anythign breaking or getting damaged. Our max towing limit according to Ford is 6k pounds or a tad more so you should be fine. Here is a picture which has probably been posted a few time before.



Oh yeah, to answer your question yes you can do it, just go slower and take it easy.

 

and post pics!

 

with a manual transmission, i wouldn't do it nor recommend it. you WILL glaze your clutch over. There is a reason why Ford put a smaller load limit on the manual Rangers....

Look at page #136-139 for manual transmission tow ratigns...
http://www.motorcraftservice.com/pub.../03Ranog3e.pdf

now, can your truck do more than that, yes.....will you have problems with your clutch, more than likely....there have been plenty of members on here who have glazed over their clutches because they tried hauling too much weight......once you glaze a clutch, you have to replace it....

 

Yeah I heard that the auto's are rated to tow more then the manuals. Would a centerforce clutch glazed over as easy as a factory clutch?

 

i dont think you will glaze the clutch from driving it will glaze from hazing to slip the clutch on take off. you need to perfect your take off with that much weight and you will probably be ok.

I want another truck to pull mine to and from places, I would love to jsut get another ranger but we towed my ranger with an F150 and ah it was a load... more then i would want to tow with a ranger.

I want a 05+ 2wd F150... When that will happen i have no idea.

 

Right now you can get an Fx2 Sport for under $25k.

 

thats not bad, extended cab? 5.4? as long as it has those two features i would be happy :)

 

^^^Yes...

 

so i shouldnt have a problem? i have a 5spd manual should i upgrade the tranny cooler?

 

my buddy pulled his rock crawler with 05 edge 3.0 4x2 5 speed reg. cab and it weighs with the trailer roughly 5000+ and it was really hilly and it did fine. you will be fine with what you have.

 

There is no tranny cooler on a 5 speed. Just don't slip the clutch a lot and you should be fine.

 

good to here, now all i gotta do is find a cheap single car trailer with dual axles and brakes.

 

You wont have any prob...like everyone else says, try not to ride the clutch. Its not gonna glaze over.

 

and dont drive stupid.

i think trailer brakes would be key at that weight, i moved a mini van on a dual axle trailer without breaks and regretted every second of it. i'm guessing it was about 5k to 5500

i have a 2002 4.0 auto super cab 4x4

 

I hauled a Contour on a Home built Tractor Trailer. It was around a 7000-8000 lbs combo. The truck pulled it okay but the trailer didnt have any breaks on it so it SUCKED trying to stop it. I did not feel comfortable pulling it with my truck not having those breaks so I used my parents Durango to pull it. It is much heavier then the Ranger with much better breaks so the trailer would not override the vehicle like it would have my truck, lol. The Durango also pulled it WAY better than the Ranger (probably something to do with the 5.9L V8 under the hood, lol).
I did just recently get some new furniture for our living room and hauled it all in a 6X8 enclosed trailer and it pulled that trailer with the cargo in it like there wasnt anything back there. It didnt have breaks on it but it didnt weigh much (gross weight of 2200lbs).
My truck is a 07' 4L with 3.55 rear end

I would sugest not to tow that much wieght with the 5 speed as the tranny isnt built to handle that much and it doesnt have the tranny cooler (unless you have added one).
Good luck though and yess take some pix of it

 

how the hell do trailer brakes work? do they need lines and stuff or what?

 

The Normal trailer brakes are Electric and you have to have an electric brake controller that you set to your load to apply more or less braking based on the load you are carrying.
Another type of trailer brakes that you see (mainly on boats) is a tongue brake. They work independently. When you apply brakes to the vehicle the tounge slides and the trailer will apply a certain amount of braking pressure to pull the trailer back to the "Normal" spot of the tongue. (This is the type of trailer I have for the boat and LOVE it cause I dont have to wire in electric brake controller or anything loke that. I just plug and go)

 

They have surge and electric (these 2 are the most common) Surge is just that, when you press the brakes in the truck and the trailer behing you feels the "surge" of the truck braking, the ball coupling on the trailer actually moves back and forth and applies pressure to the trailer brakes. Electric (my favorite) brakes use a controller mounted in the cab of the truck and are connected thru a 7 pin harness (most F150's have them in the tow package) the electric brakes are connected to the truck and as the brakes are applied in the vehicle they are also applied on the trailer. When adjusted properly they stop very well (almost seemless)