I keep seeing all these crazy stories and pictures of folks pulling the Space Shuttle behind their S-10 pickup, and like comparisons.

While at a store's parking lot on my way to the lake the other day, some woman verbally accosted me due to my boat and where I was planning on taking it; a lake she felt my boat did not belong in part due to a recent fatal accident. My point is, she made a horrible statement of "It was just a matter of time before y'all killed someone." (At that point I lost my temper, but that's not important.)

However, just seeing what I mentioned above about those exceeding your tow ratings... it IS a matter of time before something BAD does happen, and we performance/power boaters are going to get another bad wrap. Take a moment to look up the labeled rating of your VEHICLE, and your HITCH (receiver, drawbar, ball, and coupler); as those ratings are on there for a reason. Learn what WC/Weight Carrying means, and what WD/Weight Distributing is, and make sure you are setup correctly. We can sit here and debate who has the strongest truck all day long, however, when something DOES go wrong; blaming the POS truck, etc is not going to help. Your insurance company is going to deny your entire claim if you are not setup correctly, and you are liable to get sued for everything that is yours when you mess up due to negligence.

And yeah, that was a soapbox speech, but needed to be said. Done.

you mean like this?

What is wrong with that picture?

Good post, it is a harsh reality. As you know, I upgraded this year for the very reason you list. It won't matter who's at fault, if you get into an accident and are found to be over your towing limit, you're going to find yourself uninsured. It's like driving around with a BAC of .09. You may be just over the limit and fine to drive, but if some idiot hits you and the cops smell alcohol, you're screwed. It only cost me around $200 to get me from a listed weight carrying limit of 5K to 12K, but the piece of mind is priceless.

Bill272 - what do you have to do to get your listed tow capacity changed??
What kind of truck, and what modifications did you make?
I had a thread going here about the gearing in my Chevy. I'm good to 6500#'s (but as Sydwayz points out, I really do need to check all the other equipment before I undertake that endeavour). Currently starting to "Kick tires" - or "Prop's" in this case. I know what I want, and know what it weighs, but don't want to have to buy a new tow vehicle if I can modify my current truck.

I've got a 2500 Avalanche with 4.10 gears. The truck with the stock hitch was rated for 5K weight carrying and 12K weight distributing, and I was towing between 11K and 12K with it and a 6K# reciever and ball. I replaced the stock hitch with a Putnam XDR rated for 14K# WC, 15k# WD, along with a heavy duty receiver and ball. I did call GM and ask if that would raise the truck's weight carrying tow rating to the 12K max of the truck and they said it does. Sydways has the same truck and went the WD route, I believe using the same hitch.

If you have a Super Duty, the stock hitch is only good for a pop up camper I am pulling close to the max for my F-350 Powerstroke so I replaced the hitch with the correct weight one and also have a solid forged receiver and a ball rated for 30K. I also replaced the cheesy safety cables on the trailer with some heavy duty chains in case it does come off the ball. Also make sure your tires are inflated up to the maximum psi so that they don't overheat and blow out. Also remember to increase the rear tire pressure on the tow vehicle when towing because the rear is now carrying some extra weight. You can never be too safe.

I'm just guessing with my setup, and i'm afraid it's kind of shaky. 27' fountain on tandem axle trailer behind a '91 suburban with a tbi 350. I don't know for sure what it weighs, and i don't know what the tongue weight is, but by my estimates i'm pretty close to the limit, maybe over by a couple hundred pounds. I believe the suburban is rated to tow 6000 lbs.

The question is, how soon can i afford a real truck. I hate towing with this suburban. Maybe by next spring, but i kind of doubt it.

The 2006 Chevy Silverado half-ton has a new optional 6.0L 345hp engine ( Extended Cab with Vortec Max Performance Pack ). With the 4.10 rear-axle ratio you can tow up to 10,000 pounds! Add in the Z71 (4x4) and the LT3 trim (leather heated seats, XM radio, 6-speaker Bose stereo, 10-way driver seats, power retractable side mirrors, and more) and you are looking at my next truck!

I drove a 3/4 ton (2500) and I didn't like it. I love the smooth ride of my current 2004 half-ton Z71, and the 3/4 ton was just too stiff for a daily ride.