anyone tow a 382 with a gas K-3500? impressions? - Page 2

gottahaveone · 10-15-2009, 08:33 AM

basically if everything works out, boat goes in water for week or two for shakedown, i buzz trailer back to amigoes shop and all bearings/brakes, blah blah's get uber/anal gone thru.

i have had my fun hauling off road race cars/trucks and have spent a couple nights on different occassions, waiting for 8am to go to closest town for bearings! not fun.

cute not so fun story at the time.............

once upon a time we owned this fourwinns 26ft bote. it was new. we bought from brand new 4 winns dealer here in tempe az. named surfside marine. one weekend noticed how when we arrived at lake hubs were red hot. i mean RED HOT! hmmmmm i wondered. next monday i take to shop and since under warranty, i dropped off with instructions to check brakes and bearings due to being RED HOT! had them do a coupla other warranty items.

pick bote up a week later. get to lake friday night dark. do standard 1/2 hour rigging of bote to allow for bearings to cool off. notice they are still red hot. WTH? anyway dump bote in water. cant get drive all the way down! WTH? pissed off at this time we just putt putt to anchorage area and throw the hook for the night. slam beers and go to bed. next morning at dawn the drill begins on finding out why drive wont come down. check fluids/hydraulics/fuses/switches blah blah. said the hell with it. slap it on trailer and go home.

following day,monday, i take to surfside marina. im kind of pissed but can handle it. as i'm driving down hayden road a guy honks and states my trailer is SMOKING! as i get to light and stop, i notice smoke. i am about 3/4 mile away from surfside. i figure i can make it as there is nowhere to pull over with this pig behind me in rush hour traffic.

next cars pull up honking yelling my trailer is ON FIRE!

i pull into front of SURFSIDE MARINE(aka GOOFY-VILLE) and jump out in suit and tie and let loose with (3) bottles of ABC extinguishers and get trailer fire out! gelcoat is smoked, bunk carpet burnt and I AM PISSED!

walk in, secretary watched commotion, didnt say a word to me, i throw down (3) ABC extinguishers on owners office floor and stated "FIX IT OR ELSE!" brand new, under warranty, and as i write this, i am LMFAO knowing they are no longer in bizzness, because of their crap service.

this is but one story of POOR SERVICE POOR CUSTOMER FOLLOWTHRU , FAILURE TO LISTEN , FAILURE TO HIRE EDUCATED EMPLOYEES, FAILURE TO LISTEN TO CUSTOMER!

man get me going here on this. feed me some beers and i will spill my guts on how much fun i had with "stupid and stupidier", aka "GOOFYVILLE"!

gawd i love TRAILERING! and 1/2 a$$ed untrained uneducated wrenches and moron mgmt.

Catmando · 10-15-2009, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t500hps

I've been looking at campers and briefly looked at those big toyhaulers. 38 footers loaded down are hitting 15,000lbs. I have a 382 and tow it everywhere. With fuel, etc I'm also hitting 15,000lbs with only slightly better aerodynamics......I would expect the boat to tow like that camper did, and if you didn't like it, you won't like towing the boat either. Being a 3,500 it would seem the truck could handle the weight so who cares if it takes forever to get to speed.....how does it STOP!!??!!

Went to an RV show last month and was talking to a guy at the Heartland exhibit. Turns out we had the same trucks-2006 Dodge quad cab duallys with 6 speed manual transmissions. He was towing another brand and didn't like it but it weighed about the same as the Heartland Cyclone toyhauler(16,000-17000lbs). He said he had no trouble getting it up to highway speeds or stopping it. He upgraded his brakes, put an intercooler, air filter system and water/methanol system on it and straight-piped his exhaust. Other than that his truck was stock.

I said all that to say that a Dodge dually will tow a 38' Formula with no problem and will stop it very well if all three axles have electric/hydraulic brakes. Or maybe just two axles.

t500hps · 10-15-2009, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catmando

.....................
I said all that to say that a Dodge dually will tow a 38' Formula with no problem and will stop it very well if all three axles have electric/hydraulic brakes. Or maybe just two axles.

I agree......I tow my 382 with a dually, but I upgraded and bought a F350 4 door 4x4.

It tows great and I have disk brakes on all 3 axles.

Catmando · 10-15-2009, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t500hps

I agree......I tow my 382 with a dually, but I upgraded and bought a F350 4 door 4x4.

It tows great and I have disk brakes on all 3 axles.

Well you may want to upgrade again when you check out the new 6.7L Scorpion. 400hp/750tq.

I don't know why Ford stayed with the V8 configuration but it is what it is and should be a monster tow motor.

As for me, towing a big toyhauler every day, I'll stay with the Cummins. I know what that engine is capable of.

baywatch · 10-15-2009, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeff32

I agree. pulled my 357 hitting 15000 lbs with great pleasure and confidence with my single wheels 3500.

Ditto on the single wheel. My 2008 has the factory Exhaust brake which also helps stopping immensly. My 36' apache is on a 38' 18k trailer and when full of fuel is over 15k lbs as well and I am old school with the surge and drums on all three axels.

One thing I would add is pull off the crap Receiever and get a Class V 18,000 Reciever and Hitch.

gottahaveone · 10-16-2009, 08:48 AM

now for those interested in toy hauling aside from botes, heres a lil glimpse of how well most are made.

my buddy bought this rampage 38ft monstrosity. it has dishwasher 2 bedrooms,full kitchen, shelves cabinets blah blah blah. a/c heat. its freeking loaded.

baja is not known for good roads. EVER! we obviously being old farts kinda know the drill after being down there for the races since our late teens on our own. rocky point directly south of phx is one thing. going 60 miles across(water)thru calif. to san felipe takes leaving at 8am from phx and getting in about 6pm with this monster load.

roads are beyond bad with giant potholes cow steers donkeys pigs and anything else you can imagine to dodge or avoid. rule of thumb if you like living is only drive at night.

every dirt road is washboarded beyond belief. so......you go very slow with a load. this was its maiden voyage.

after we got back to phx we noticed some of the shelves kind of pulling from the walls. buddy took it in for some warranty items and the cabinets pulling from walls.

gets rampage 38ft monster back and decides to load the hell out of it with quads/beer/soda/orange food groups and more beer from wally world. brilliant plan is to avoid az. summer and park the pig at BIG LAKE az.(aka troutville) in the pines and leave it there all summer.

well getting to big lake takes some doing considering the dirt road is about in the same shape as baja roads. when he finally arrives at big lake, he goes to trailer door hoping for a nice cold one after a long drive.

he opens doors and is greeted with ALL CABINETS ON BOTH WALLS IN A GIANT HEAP! thereby crushing the living hell out of all beer(OMG!) and soda. the ensuent mess was captured for posterity on film. im talking ALL SHELVES/CABINETS/MICROWAVE/TV/STEREO/DISHES ETC! IN A CRUMPLED HEAP. LIKE MAJOR BROKEN!

so my advice................make damn damn sure all cabinets are triple secured to wall of toyhauler before venturing on dirt roads!!!!!

formula 382 sr-1 · 10-16-2009, 10:33 AM

We have a 2003 2500HD 6.0 and tow a 1996 382 all the time . We got it in FLA and towed it back at 80 to 85 mph with no prob. The only bad thing is the 7.2 mpg we get.