Whats a good vehicle to tow a 16ft trailer with a Z on it?

[josh817]

As stated, I'm looking for vehicle ideas because I don't wish to drive my Z to the track anymore. I figure I'll need a 16ft trailer with 2 axles? Z car is a '72 stripped out so it can't be that heavy... I don't want a big honkin' truck. Whatever vehicle I get is also going to be for daily driving so it needs good gas mileage.

 

Right now I drive a '98 Honda Civic that has a new automatic tranny, new radiator, new exhaust manifold, and good tires (better trade in/sell value?). I'd like to sell it and put the money towards the tow vehicle. Looking for something as small as I can get but can still tow the trailer with a Z on it safely.

 

Thanks guys.

Edited October 8, 2010 by josh817

[turboHLS30]

My dad uses a '99 Dodge 3500 dually with a Cummins. We once towed a 3rd gen RX-7 from here in Daytona Beach, Fl to Atlanta, Ga and back and we managed about 25-28mpg after we calculated everything. Either a Dodge 2500 or 3500 dually would be a great tow vehicle, plus the Cummins is an AMAZING motor

 

P.S. My godfather used it to transport 30 ft. boats and also operated a 5 car, car hauler. Just to show how good of a truck it is.

Edited October 8, 2010 by turboHLS30

[jhill]

Yeah, a 2500 and up series pickup is your best bet, and don't forget, real pickups don't have sparkplugs

[turboHLS30]

Glow Plugs FTW

[josh817]

Yah when buying used I think I'm going to be scared away from the diesels. I have a hunch they will be expensive to buy and expensive to repair. Plus that sounds a bit big for my use. Remember I said I want to keep it as small as possible while still safely towing. If it can pull a 5 car trailer then its too big.

Edited October 8, 2010 by josh817

[JSM]

I'm still voting for my Frontier! A V6 would make towing easier, but the gas mileage is aweful on the V6 in my opinion.

 

I've been to Jacksonville, Miami, Ft. Myers, Tampa and back many times with my trailer and Z in tow. Poor gas mileage while towing.

 

http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/95296-whats-your-parts-chaser/page__p__896489#entry896489

 

 

Edited October 9, 2010 by JSM

[johnc]

Any small pickup with a V6 will tow a 240Z on an open trailer just fine as long as the trailer has good brakes. The longer the wheelbase the better so an extended cab with a long as a bed as you can get makes things nicer and gives you more room for the inevitable "stuff" that goes along with racing.

 

I would look at a used 2wd Toyota Tundra or Nissan Frontier extended cab long bed V6 auotmatic.

[josh817]

That looks pretty good. I was thinking about that or maybe a Toyota Tacoma, or my room mate has a GMC Sierra but it has a V8. My dad bought a 1980 Ford F100 or something. Its alright and it has an inline 6. You can find those all day cheaply but I don't want to deal with problems (although probably easy to fix) from previous owners since its old.

 

EDIT:

John, do trailers usually come with brakes? I thought those were the expensive ones. The only brake setup I have seen in person was some dudes Porsche trailer had a bar or something in the toe hook/neck thing so when the truck slowed down, pressure was exerted and pushed the brakes on the trailer.

Edited October 8, 2010 by josh817

[johnc]

That looks pretty good. I was thinking about that or maybe a Toyota Tacoma, or my room mate has a GMC Sierra but it has a V8. My dad bought a 1980 Ford F100 or something. Its alright and it has an inline 6. You can find those all day cheaply but I don't want to deal with problems (although probably easy to fix) from previous owners since its old.

 

EDIT:

John, do trailers usually come with brakes? I thought those were the expensive ones. The only brake setup I have seen in person was some dudes Porsche trailer had a bar or something in the toe hook/neck thing so when the truck slowed down, pressure was exerted and pushed the brakes on the trailer.

 

Pretty much any dual axle trailer will have brakes on at least one axle. Do not buy a trailer without brakes.

[J Taylor]

I've had lots of trucks and suv's as tow vehicles over the years and the full size gm's are my favorite by far. You can pick up a 99+ chevy 1500 with the 4.8 or 5.3 and they make decent tow vehicles. Decent on gas, very comfortable imo, and very reliable in my experience. The price on them has really come down since the new body style came out. A few years back I had a 2000 Sierra ex-cab and it was great until I got the diesel bug and bought a 2003 f-250. Sold it and went back to a 2002 chevy 1500hd and I think I'll be keeping it for a while. Oh yeah, they are relatively inexpensive and easy to work on as well.

 

Jon

[blue72]

That actually is a pretty good vote as far as pulling ability goes. My dad had one of that vintage with a 5.3 that did great with a ski boat behind. I can't offer experience with any of the others mentioned.

 

On a side note, as the son of a transmission mechanic and as a matter of semantics, there is no such thing as a new transmission for a '98 Honda. Either used, rebuilt or remanufactured.

[josh817]

That actually is a pretty good vote as far as pulling ability goes. My dad had one of that vintage with a 5.3 that did great with a ski boat behind. I can't offer experience with any of the others mentioned.

 

On a side note, as the son of a transmission mechanic and as a matter of semantics, there is no such thing as a new transmission for a '98 Honda. Either used, rebuilt or remanufactured.

Well... you know what I mean. It's my moms old car. When I retired the Z I got the Honda. The tranny was dead in it and she took it to a shop where she inevitably got owned. She paid $2000 for it and my brother in law was like... are you serious... I paid that much for my heavy duty diesel truck tranny. Then a week after we got the car back it started over heating. I urged her to take it back under warranty. She took it back and I knew I should have been with her because once again they owned her. They said the radiator was clogged up and she needed a new one for another $200.

 

When she got home and I found out I was like that makes NO SENSE! It never over heated for the past 100,000 miles and then we give it to THEM for a week and now it does? That's under warranty, we shouldn't pay anything. Of course typical Mom, she says to not hassle her about it and "whats done is done" which is not the attitude that should have been used when needing to go kick someones ass. I feel bad for her, I really do. When I get a good paying job I think I will do something super special for her that costs the same amount that she got snatched away from. I should have been there to be like OH LAWL WE DON'T NEED THAT.

 

Thus the reason why I do my own work. I've seen certain shops puposely brake **** on cars. Or if they didn't make enough hours on something or went over budget, they'll say something else is broken or needs fixing, to get the extra money. Seen all those things happen. I have a hard enough time giving the keys to the guy so he can drive it into the garage. Let that happen one time and never again.

 

That's the end of my rant. Thank you. Point is its 115,000 miles and the stuff that usually goes out has been fixed so it should look peachy to dealers.

[randy 77zt]

later model 1/2 ton chevy with a 5.3 makes a good tow rig for something under 5000 lbs.any trailer more than 3000lbs is required to have brakes in california -probably is the same i most other states.i got the crap scared out of me 1 time towing a z out of laguna seca with no trailer brakes behind a ford ranger.road out of laguna is very steep-no stoppy on truck.i currently use a ford e150 van with a 5.8 and e4od trans.van has good towing power and is good to sleep in at night to save on motels.you will not get gas mileage on anything while towing-gas mileage is a function of moving weight-you will burn just as much gas with a v6 mini truck towing 3500lbs as you would a full sized modern pu.stay away from ford diesel trucks with 6.0 engine

[jc052685]

Good times...no trailer brakes either.

 

:D

 

[grumpyvette]

Obviously the truck towing the trailer should have great brakes weight at least what the loaded trailer weights,a truck that has 4 doors and room for 4-5 adults is a big plus while towing.

a 4x4 truck can be a huge help under some conditions.

Ive used a crew cab dually f350 ford for several years and that worked very well,

my current Chevy avalanche is great, but strictly as a tow truck the f350 had advantages

Edited October 10, 2010 by grumpyvette

[bobbyc]

i towed my z about 400 miles with my xterra...and towed the most recen z with a 3rd gen 4runner with the 3.4....both did just fine and are solid cars for normal driving as well.

[260DET]

Small turbo diesel pickup truck or SUV. Don't know what you have in the US but Nissan for one do a four cylinder turbo diesel that will tow a 240Z on a tandem trailer as far as you want. The big thing with a turbo diesel for towing is fuel economy plus the later model ones perform surprisingly well.

[blue72]

Small turbo diesel pickup truck or SUV. Don't know what you have in the US

 

In the US there is a sum total closely approximating 0 of what you describe.

[FlatBlack]

As stated, I'm looking for vehicle ideas because I don't wish to drive my Z to the track anymore. I figure I'll need a 16ft trailer with 2 axles? Z car is a '72 stripped out so it can't be that heavy... I don't want a big honkin' truck. Whatever vehicle I get is also going to be for daily driving so it needs good gas mileage.

 

I'm in the same boat as you. Going to start towing the Zed next season.

 

Luckily I have a 4.0L Jeep, and an extra set of street tires for when I tow. It's very docile around town, really light for a truck [~3100 stock], and even with a 4" lift and buckshots it's not a pain or loud to drive around as a DD.

 

Gas mileage isn't fantastic, but could be much worse with a V8.

 

My $0.02

[josh817]

Well the truck thing is going to be put on hold for a little while now. My computer took a dump on me 2 days ago so now I have to rebound from it. Never buy an HP laptop. I literally turned off the computer, brought it into the other room, turned it on, and it wouldn't come on at all. Geek Squad said my motherboard is dead and I'm like... all I was doing was watching a youtube video on welding... Would cost me $500 to replace and it wouldn't be warrantied so if it happened again I'm just further more screwed.

 

So... $1100 laptop gave me 1.5 years of use, suppose to five me 4 years at least. I'm 1 month outside of warranty and from what I've read, HP has had dead motherboard problems for not just their DV7 series but DV6 and DV9 series as well, so they knew about this. Nice. Going back to a desktop now.

 

Seeing that little Toyota is promising yet scary. I wouldn't mind buying a nice set of Hawk pads for the truck. I'm seeing all sorts of trailers for under $1000 with dual axles and wood floors. Only thing I don't like is that they have rails on the sides. I can see them being useful though.

 

EDIT:

I'm in the same boat as you. Going to start towing the Zed next season.

 

Luckily I have a 4.0L Jeep, and an extra set of street tires for when I tow. It's very docile around town, really light for a truck [~3100 stock], and even with a 4" lift and buckshots it's not a pain or loud to drive around as a DD.

 

Gas mileage isn't fantastic, but could be much worse with a V8.

 

My $0.02

I was thinking about a Jeep Wrangler just the other day when I saw one at school but I read online that anything over I think 3000 pounds and it may be unsafe. Also noted that it was short and stubby for a truck and like you said pretty light. No bed to put stuff in... Nevermind, they're pretty expensive. Do realize that I won't get more then $4000 for this Honda. realistically probably $3000.

Edited October 11, 2010 by josh817