Tow Vehicle & Rig Photos

[Forrest-X45]

Originally Posted by flashydubber

If a Touareg, Cayenne, Q7 is driven like this you'd be paying for full brakes ($1,500.00 for brembo pad, brembo rotors, labour) every 20k miles and tires ($1,000.00)

I've seen this too many times when I worked at a local VW dealer during my school days.

With proper driving you can get 35-40k on a set of brakes and tires. I can prove this easily.

There are many owners with pickup trucks and they put on oversized tires and rims that far exceed the OEM tire circumference... this contributes to longer braking distances and poor handling.

The point I am trying to make is that every vehicle has its respective towing capacity, every truck has its target market (people in a big city are not going to driving a f-350 long box, quad cab into the downtown underground garage as it won't fit due to length and height issues)

City lifestyle is also difference that rural, priorities are different with transportation tastes/likes, but everyone likes to get out for some boating on the weekend to kick back and relax.

Most towing is done in a safe manner and I am sure most take the time for safety checks because they care about the safety of their family, vehicle and care for their boats

The audience on here needs to be more receptive to other trucks other than the "big 3" and be open to opinions/suggestions of others.

I am very open to other makes and I feel the majority, not all, but most on here are as well. My point was not to say the German SUV's are not good tow rigs, they are great tow rigs and I am a big fan of BMW's and Porsches, already own a BMW and looking to purchase a BMW X5 for the wife in the future. But I am not going to go throw the 45 on the back of the X5 and tow it to the lake.
The point I was trying to make is I like have extra towing capacity with my tow rigs. I don't understand or have concerns with folks that tow at or above their rig's towing capacity, especially above with any make of car or truck. I am not saying they will have problems towing or their rig can't do it but where I have concerns is when you need to make an emergency maneuver, Not Stopping in a straight line, but swerving into the next lane or shoulder at 60+ MPH. Those smaller wheel base SUV's that are towing above the limit are going to have a tough if not impossible ablilty to keep everything going straight. It doesn't hurt to have extra capacity but it might if you don't.......

[pmkkdx]

Originally Posted by Forrest-X45

... I am not saying they will have problems towing or their rig can't do it but where I have concerns is when you need to make an emergency maneuver, Not Stopping in a straight line, but swerving into the next lane or shoulder at 60+ MPH. Those smaller wheel base SUV's that are towing above the limit are going to have a tough if not impossible ablilty to keep everything going straight. It doesn't hurt to have extra capacity but it might if you don't.......

back to the old dog & tail theory I mentioned earlier ... not slamming any make, model or brand ...

[Forrest-X45]

Originally Posted by pmkkdx

back to the old dog & tail theory I mentioned earlier ... not slamming any make, model or brand ...

Exactly - you and I have both mentioned it. It makes a lot of sense and I don't think some understand the theory. I am not calling anyone out here but just a general observation when talking with other boat and RV haulers at boat ramps and RV campgrounds. I have been in two situations where the tail wagged the dog and one of them we ended up in the ditch with a crumbled truck and tailer, I was not driving but I will never forget the feeling of no control while being pushed and throw side to side - we were in a short wheel base large SUV. The other in a very long wheel base 1 ton truck and I didn't have any control issues, but there was a better driver in the second situation and we were not where near the towing capacity of the truck.
To this day I still flash back to that day and play the what if's and it scares the crap outta me becasue my wife and kids were in the truck with me.

Originally Posted by pmkkdx

back to the old dog & tail theory I mentioned earlier ... not slamming any make, model or brand ...

As I said. If that theory was true you wouldn't see fully loaded 4 trailer long semi trailers over here. You also wouldn't see trucks moving huge mining equipment or other obscenely heavy loads. Your car will swerve with a heavy load on the back if it's incorrectly dispersed on the trailer and the ball weight is wrong (usually when the load is too far back on the axles and there is neutral or negative ball pressure)

There are many commercial vehicles that tow loads greater than their own weight. I'll bet you'd find that the tow rating for most large private vehicles is way higher than what they are actually sold as for the simple reason that local laws govern what size loads you can tow with a private vehicle and non commercial drivers license. They regulate it very strictly here, probably to stop people who don't know what they're doing from towing massive loads incorrectly.

To prove a point, an F250 over here has a tow capacity of 3500 Kgs,... so does the Audi. Now I know the F250 is rated higher than that in the States and can handle a lot more, but local laws here prevent the F truck from towing more. You can increase the F truck towing capacity by taking it to an engineer and getting it replated as a light goods carying vehicle.. Again that is a commercial vehicle.

Also the F truck its self takes much longer to pull up than an Audi or other performance SUV. If there were a point that the brakes on the trailer did fail and I had to pull her up I would actually prefer to be in the Audi. Provided the road were straight and I had enough room (which I always try to leave myself) You can use the Audi brakes to pull the load up dead straight. I know this because I've tried it. I wanted to know what it felt like to have the boat push me in case it happened in a real situation and I had to deal with it. I found a long stretch of road, got up to 80K's and turned the brakes off on the trailer. I was surprised myself how quickly the Audi actually did pull up,... Still wouldn't like to rely on it alone. Also for safety sake I try to tow it empty,.. empty fuel, gear in the car etc, and even at 120K's towing the X80 the Audi still doesn't wag.

I'm not saying that massive problems can't quickly arise from towing a much larger weight than the tow vehicle. I'm just saying that your theory is flawed.

PS, HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY

[thatsmrmastercraft]

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[CantRepeat]

Originally Posted by thatsmrmastercraft

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From what I remember, those blokes really love to drink and fight.

[thatsmrmastercraft]

Originally Posted by CantRepeat

From what I remember, those blokes really love to drink and fight.

Not sure if you have that in the right order.

[CantRepeat]

Originally Posted by thatsmrmastercraft

Not sure if you have that in the right order.

Well for the 8 days that we had R&R in Cairns all we did was drink and fight and then drink some more. I was taking a leak in the john and some dude walks up next to take a leak. 10 seconds later two more Aussy Army guys walk and just beating the living crap out of this guy. Finally broke it up and 5 minutes later all three of them were drinking off the same pitcher of beer.

The other thing about it, they never talk or danced with any of the girls that came in the bar. Many American GI was happy.

Cairns is a good place to spend 8 days drinking. I only live an hour from there. You've got to love those hot sunny days sitting out in the beer garden watching all the "birds" walk by in their summer clothing.

[jeffbare]

Another one from down under.