I'm going on my elk hunt for a week starting the day after Thanksgiving. It's going to be just my dad and I and it's about a 5-6 hour drive when not towing anything. I'm going to be towing a 21' Travel Trailer. It weighs about 5,000lbs, then add in the water and some other things and I'm up to about 5,500lbs. Then I still have my hunting gear, like packs, gun, ammo, extra water for drinking, and whatever else we bring up so that adds even more weight. I do have a tow package installed. I plan on getting a tranny cooler along with electric brakes. I know my Ranger is rated for about 6,300lbs. I was just wondering if anybody has towed this much weight for such a long time and how did it go. I'm going to be climbing from about 1,500'-9,000'. Thanks for any input and my truck info is in my signature.

 

i know - from my cousins experience, that the truck will tow just fine up to its rated limit, go 100ls over that limit and itll be a real dog. he found this out towing his 5th wheel trailer from buffalo to orlando with his 350 diesel, if its 100lbs over the rated towing capacity, the truck had 0 power.

 

My grandfather has a '96 Mazda B4000 4.0. He used to have a 24' travel trailer he towed all the time and it did fine! He towed it from West Palm Beach, FL to Blairsville, GA(800miles)and back. Through the mountians on steep roads I might add and it did very well. When he was at the campgroud him and another guy with the same camper were talking and he stated that he had a very hard time getting the camper there with a full size Chevy. My grandfather has trailer brakes, but no tranny cooler.

 

just remember to turn O/D off...

 

if you have the tow packge then you have a tranny cooler.

i have electric trailer brakes for my truck/trailer. i pulled 6800lbs of stone, plus 1200lb trailer with 33s prolly wont ever do it again but it pulled jsut fine.

go slower than normal. take your time, dont drive it hard.

i used to pull 3500-5000 lbs a lot. but dont anymore since im lifted and on 35s.

hence the used to. your tranny will come to hate you if you pull that on a regular basis. you are really pushing the limits of it.

the tranny is the weakest link here IMO, but i have 71k miles and changed the fluid every 25k miles.

 

thats a power joke for ya.

CUMMINS POWER! only way to go.

 

hehe... I'd rather be Cummin and Smokin than be Stokin and Broken

 

Only reason I would buy a Dodge is for the Cummins

 

 

Are you going hunting in NM or AZ. We go hunting to Gila national forest all the time.
Either way, the big problem will be the wind and stopping. I've pulled ~5000lbs couple times over 100 miles with some hills and it was no easy task. 3rd gear many times with pedal to the floor to stay above 60mph. And stopping was no easy task either, trailer brakes would help alot.
I see no problem with pulling that load but you will know it is back there and more than likely be stucking eggs on big hills and strong head winds.

Good luck on your hunt.

 

woo, long time no post^^

 

You're telling me!!! BTW your truck is looking SWEET!!

 

thanks Adrian, welcome back. :)

got some new pics of the truck?

 

Haha I would rather be stroked then rammed......... Although I also love the cummins. But I like the 7.3 the best

 

SupersonicFX4, Yup that is where I'm going to be. It's unit 1 right by Springerville then to goes over to the New Mexico border! That is funny how all the sudden you guessed the area like that. It all depends on how much snow they get to determine where we're going to camp. My dad has gotten 3 elk out of that unit so it should be a fun hunt. BTW it's a bull elk tag!! It took mr 8 years to get the tag but I finally got it!!

 

Zach, thanks for the welcome. New picture could take some time, my baby son is my life now. I'll see about putting the boggers on get some updated shoots. My truck just sittins the garage I put 3000 miles on in a year.

Outdoorsman, it was a good guess, you are in phoenix (i have an uncle who lives there) and you said 5-6 hour drive, there are only a couple key places in AZ to hunt and it would take less than 5-6 hours. We hunt in units 15 and 16 (in NM), and just found a new place for deer unit 21 and 17. We have gotten some big bulls out of unit 16. Best of luck on you hunt Here are some animal we have mounted
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/340008/4

Are you going to go thur salt river hwy 60? If so that is going to be tough, those hills are big.

 

hye no big deal your keeping your priorities straight.

 

I'd rather be cummin than strokin!!!!

You should be fine towing