LapseofReason

With all the hualers out there now in the 40-70k range it makes me want to get one more and more insted of spending the same for a F450-550 Plus I like the extra room in the cab and the back seat/bed a lot of them have,plus they are still better to tow with and the all air ride makes them nice to ride in. So witch ones are better and what motors are holding up the best. Freigtliner, Internatinal, Sterling, or go bigger like the Kenworth or Peterbilt?

JPD Motorsports

you can find some low mileage semis now in the mid teens to mid twentys. put a hauler bed on em and go. more room than the any mid size rig and towing cap. but if a medium duty freightliner sportchassis hard to beat or a sterling.nicely loaded up

fountain 47 sc

I've towed with a big truck and now I have an f450. I live in the chicago area so it is nice to have a 4 wheel drive pickup in the winter as my daily driver. If I didn't have to worry about snow, I think a committed tow vehicle would be ok; however, they really aren't practical for anything but towing on the highway.

LapseofReason

I have a few 4x4's for the snow and wheeling, I pulled my 42 Sonic with a F350 psd cc 4x4 drw and it did a good job but a few times I had to jump on the brakes it wasn't a good feeling, the truck could pull it fine and way faster than it needed too just didn't stop the best, then I moved to waterfront property and got the 50 Nortech and that thing owned the F350 and I only pulled it about 5-6 times, I sold the truck just so I wouldn't be temted to go somewhere with it anymore. Now my next boat will be a 40-45 foot boat and not as heavy as the 50 but I want to be able to bring 4-5 people motorcycles or scooters and have the boat loaded for a trip and know when I get on the brakes it will stop. I know the new 450-550's are way better than my 2000 350 but it would be a pain trying to put 2 street bikes in the bed even with a hauler body they lack the big cab room I want. Plus I want to buy a toy hauler trailer down the road so I can take the kids out to cool places to ride dirt bikes. Still I will only put maybe 6-8k miles a year maybe so I know it's a bit of a waste. I have never driven a dually that drove worth a dam in snow or even a flat wet grass feild.

Beak Boater

Lapse, the stopping with a F350 was a concern of ours also. After pulling that Outerlimits around, or it pushing me around, I made a decision to go with Electric over Hyd. brakes. on our next trailer. It stops better than anything I ever towed. It doesnt solve your space problem, but you can feel more secure in panic situations, than we used too using surge type brakes. We rode with some friends that had a F650 6 door with air-ride, that thing was the ticket. He pulled a 39 Nor-tech with it, and took his family with him, so he needed the seating. It was a very nice piece.

LapseofReason

Yea I am sure the POS Rocket trailer the Sonic was on was one problem and I was always adjusting the brakes, still the boat on a travel lift was 14,700#'s that was 1/2 gas no waste and full water tanks and all the normal crap. I would think the trailer was another 2000-2500# and the truck had what 13,500 rating back then. Then I had the NT weighed on the trailer, are you ready for this full gas (500)gal. full water maybe 30 gal. maybe 1/4 waste 10 gal. and all my crap 26,200. If I ever hit somebody I would be in a lot of trouble. The NT trailer has 4 axles with brakes on 3 and I had seen all 6 tires locked up and pushing me like I wasn't even there, I was on 234 going out to Chantilly mid day on like a Tue. running 55-65 mph when a light turned yellow, I wasn't even thinking of stopping but the 2 cars ahead of me were talking to each other and wanted to stop and make it easier for them. Lucky for me there was no road to the right and the trucker coming from the left had saw what was going down and gave me room do do what I needed to do and stayed still. I went though on the intersection on the shoulder with tires smoking and my nuts in my throat. As soon as I knew I was not going to crash I said to myself, self you are selling this truck and getting something bigger. I hit the brakes and felt no real change in speed, looked in the mirrors and smoke poured out of both sides of the trailer the ABS on the truck was going nut's, I remember it was about 200-300 feet to the intersection when the light turned. I looked at the speedo when I was going though so I would know for the crash report, 35 mph. I only slowed down 20-25 mph in 200-250 feet would be my est. When I got to the shop I looked at the tires and all 6 with brakes were flat spotted so I know they worked it was just way to many #'s for that truck.

fountain 47 sc

Pete 389 with a 70" sleeper and ultrashift. Try Truckpaper.com

LapseofReason

Yea I am on that site all the time, the problem with the class 8 trucks are I don't need a 2 axle truck, I want a hauler body they are very long and hard to move in tight places, most have no rear doors or windows so people are always looking over your shoulder and I don't want to get a CDL. I want other people to be able to drive it, so by the time I remove an axle shorten it up put a bed on it and do some custom work to the cab/sleeper and then reg. it as an RV to get out of the CDL I would have a 100k+ making it a truck I could have for 50k but it would cost more to run and repair. Now I could just buy a big rig, reg it as an RV and just live with all the stuff I don't like about it for about 25k but whats the fun in that.

Catmando

Dam that was close I would have hit the bathroom to change my shorts. Pete or an F650 will tow that NT no prob as you know.

MDGperformance

I was looking at a pete sportuck for towing my boat and toyhauler would be real cool and safe towing,the one thing i did discover was if you are towing multi vehicles the insurance was real high 4-5k,if you had a trailer rv hooked to it it could be insured as an rv for around 1k,if it was a pro converted tote with sleeper and bathroom could be insured as an rv and could tow the boat or rv,I ending up buying a gmc 3500 drw long bed tows my 40ft toyhauler 12-14k 5 wheel and my 38zrc 10k or so just fine,I wouldn't want to tow that 50 nortech with it,there are a lot of good deals out there on totes and sporttrucks but none of them 4wheel drive which comes in handy when taking it dirt bike riding,the 450-550 has that option a lot of different things to think about