Towed with my f250 yesterday

[Tallyho]

Time finally came to pull the boat out of the water and bring it home for winterization.  Distance of about 4 miles with one particularly steep hill.  Boat and trailer are approximately 5000 lbs.  Trailer has 4 wheel brakes.
Combined weight put me right about 11,000 to 11500 lbs.  Which from what I understand is max.
Gotta say truck felt like it too.  I cant imagine having less power.  Honestly was a little surprised how hard it was for the ole girl...

[Gary Lewis]

Big Blue doesn't seem to have any problem moving whatever I connect it to.  But, the wide gaps in the transmission's ratios mean you really have to wind it up in 2nd and 3rd.  Anyway, you got it moved.

How'd you like to take it across the country?  Blue made taking our 25' Sea Ray to Lake Powell quite easy 2 years ago.  We got 11.0 MPG running 65 MPH - which is about what Big Blue gets w/o a trailer.  I shudder to think about using him to have taken the boat on that trip.  

[Steve83]

I used to get a kick out of towing heavy just because it surprised so many people.  But I was (almost) always careful to choose short pulls on low-speed roads so it wouldn't be apparent to anyone (including myself) how underpowered the truck was (IS).  The deep granny 1st more than made up for the high-speed gears & slightly-oversized tires when starting off, climbing, or descending hills on small roads.  But hills at speed were either embarrassing or scary.  A stalled Peterbilt dump truck; a stuck cement truck; an empty 20yd dumpster; my father's ~35' travel trailer or his flatbed trailer with his tractor; loads of construction or demolition materials; another 351W Bronco (while my rear d'shaft was out due to the Peterbilt)...  Those were the days.

I tell myself I don't do that any more because I'm smarter now, but it sure was fun.

[Tallyho]

Sounds like I wasnt really near my limit compared to what you guys have towed.  Lol.  Now that I'm older I try to stay within the limits of what the manufacturer intended.
I guess I just need to get used to the fact that these newer Tacomas have a higher tow rating than my big burly Ford with a 460....

[Gary Lewis]

Blue has a higher GCWR than Big Blue.  F150 vs F250HD.  And I'd much rather tow with Blue.  The 3.5L has a lot more power than the 7.5L.  And it rides better.  And the A/C is much colder.  The seats much more comfortable, and are heated, cooled, and will massage you.

But I still like Big Blue.  

[Tallyho]

I'm a fan of the newer stuff also.  They just aren't aging very well.  I'm starting to think of a straight up timing chain with and rv cam.  Maybe a free flowing exhaust.

[Gary Lewis]

The new stuff is never, at least in my mind, going to look as good as the older stuff.  But technology has come a long, long way and right out of the box the new stuff is more capable than the old.  However, when the tech goes bad it'll be really, really expensive to fix.