New section, post your tow rig?!

Truck: 2016 Ram 3500 4x4 Cummins auto, crew cab short bed. 

Trailer: old rusty thing with torsion axles held together with hopes and dreams. 

2014 Touareg TDI and a crappy utility trailer I bought at the scrap yard for $200. 

2002 Silverado 1500 4x4 with 267,000 miles, extended cab & long bed. I'm the second owner and I love this truck. I went in with my parents on a new wood deck trailer, which we found with the help of this forum.

2010 Dodge 2500 crew cab shortbed with a Cummins and a stick, usually dragging a 28' trailer with two Miatas in it. Owned since new because the resale value of these things are ridiculous and we get a great fleet price through my wife's  work. It was cheaper to buy new than used, even in 2010.

It's dropped off in the last few years, but last time I checked it had spent 85% of its mileage with a trailer on the back. It has never failed to proceed, the last thing I want to do is be working on my tow rig.

Truck: 2005 Ford Excursion "the Canyonero", 6.8L V10, 4 speed auto, Eddie Bauer trim and about 105k miles.

Trailer: Unknown, borrowed from a friend. It does the job, and the price is right.

2022 F150 3.5. My daily that became a tow pig to get the type aRgh to the challenge. Pulled an impressive 15.5mpg towing 

1995 c1500 with 2/4 drop and a 4l80e swap. 200k on it. 

Demco kar kaddy tow dolly. 

It works for me.

2011 Tundra Flatbed 5.7 4x4.  I like it a lot.

1997 regular cab 2WD F-250HD (that's the year the rest of F-series finally stopped evolving from the same platform since '63 or something like that, but the HD is a holdover of the old truck). 460 and auto with overdrive and limited slip.

It's a good solid truck now that I've sorted a bunch of stuff, and it was a good deal, relatively speaking, and is still under 90k miles a few years in. I'm still torn between thinking that's a happy medium and thinking I got all the capability of a '60s pickup with all the plastic interior of the '90s, but at least it's fuel injected, has discs up front, and other stuff my dad's '66 didn't. I'm still constantly wondering how long to keep it and what to next. Curse #vanlife for the silly Sprinter/Transit/Promaster prices.

I need to do some clear coat repair to the extent that works, fix a paint area the exhaust once got mangled and pointed at by a PO and bubbled up, and some general sorting. It's pretty much first in line as soon as the new shop can fit a vehicle. Hoping like heck the trans's tendency to hold a gear too long is due to the obvious vacuum leaks. Needs a RH exhuast leak fixed. Super excited to bolt on the Bilsteins I just picked up, and glad that I was able to get an actual Ford instrument surround. It'll still be full of '90s plastic but it should be nicer plastic in a couple of weeks. Surprised I haven't been able to find a pair of OEM wheels used for closer to $free. The fronts are, I think, off a Dodge or something and the offset isn't right so the tires can't be rotated and the front end looks a little tucked in. I think they're also narrower, so the tires are pinched up front. (EDIT: Yeah, I know I said it was solid after sorting a bunch of stuff in the prior paragraph, but... it's a 25 year old truck. This is all relative.)

I have long since gotten rid of all the silly diamond plate geegaws.

Okay, that's enough dilly-dallying, Aunt Effie (yep, that's the truck's name) and I are off for a yard of gravel to temporarily bridge the trough into the shop.

A little overkill for what I normally tow but it's exactly the truck I wanted.  

2021 GMC Sierra regular cab 4WD 8' Bed. 

Usually I'm just dragging around my little pond boat. 

Read it and weep. 1993 Cummins. The Carfax says "Junk". Not  salvage, or something like it, but JUNK. 200K some odd miles, blown computer, and unstoppable. Consistently gets more thumbs up than any of my serious builds (i am admittedly, lame).

Robbie gave me a great deal on the trailer, which is still a work in progress. Behold the SPEEDWAGON as it more or less sits at the moment:

2014 Silverado 2wd half ton with 120k miles on it. Trailer is usually Uhaul's finest.

In reply to GPz11 (Forum Supporter) :

That merkur is a beauty

Elmore. 1967 Ford F350 with a utility bed. 429, C6, Dana 70. My trailer is an Econo-Trailer that I bought a few years back from a local car club.

Horrible pic, but one of the newest vehicles I've owned. 03 F350. Camper was bought to tow behind the Merc, but... Merc needs work so, Big Red is pressed into duty!

My wife's DD and my hauler, a 2015 Expedition Limited with the 3.5 Ecoboost. We've had it since it had 13k miles, it's now at 83k and going strong. It's hauled our travel trailer all over the country.

Trailer is a wood deck 18-footer that I bought used almost 20 years ago. In that time I've rewired it twice, replaced most of the decking boards, been through 3 sets of tires, and I replaced the brakes a couple of years ago. I think it was homebuilt some time back in the 80s.

Nothing too fancy but loving some of these rigs!

Mine is a 2018 F-150 Crew Cab Short Bed. Lowered 3/5 It needs some helper bags but pulls great.

It's a house! Not technically mine though.

1997 f350 7.3 4x4 with a manual trans swap. Something like 350k? I never pay attention. It does exactly what it's asked, be a truck. My girlfriend calls it 'Mongo' because it's big and dumb.

Summers it spends hauling an '04 Malibu vlx to the lake and back. Car trailer is currently non existent but hopefully next weekend I'm picking one up.

Beater e-150 with a silly hat and tall doors.  Moto-hauler and a nice place to set my cot after a long day of dirt squirting.

For longer distance towing and some comfort: A 2007 Cadillac Escalade ESV AWD. 178k miles. 6.2l L92/6spd auto. It has been an excellent companion for the past 5.5 years or so. 

For local towing or times when I'm going to be filthy and don't want to care: 1998 GMC Sierra C3500 6.5 Turbodiesel/4L80/G80 Locker. 220k miles. Beat, but mechanically decent and not too rotten.

Regardless of which one I'm driving, it usually has my filthy Big Tex 17DM trailer hooked to it. 

I should add the Blunder Bus. If we are headed to the track for the weekend, tow duty usually falls to it. It's a 1996 Tiffin Allegro Star. 460, E4OD. Tows like a dream as long as you can afford the fuel. Keeping the speeds under 65 will usually get you around 7 mpg. 

Also known to drag the XJ out to the woods for a weekend as well. 

Ooo.  A tow rig thread!  I like tow rigs.

Here's my current truck with my old trailer.  It's a 2015 RAM 3500 with the diesel.  It's also my daily driver.

Here's some shots of my current trailer

When I bought it there was a hole in the side of it.  Rather than patch it I put in a window.

Here are some shots of the interior build out.

The electronics on the wall are the alarm system and the solar controller

Keith Tanner said:

2010 Dodge 2500 crew cab shortbed with a Cummins and a stick, usually dragging a 28' trailer with two Miatas in it. Owned since new because the resale value of these things are ridiculous and we get a great fleet price through my wife's  work. It was cheaper to buy new than used, even in 2010.

It's dropped off in the last few years, but last time I checked it had spent 85% of its mileage with a trailer on the back. It has never failed to proceed, the last thing I want to do is be working on my tow rig.

 

Hey Keith - can you tell us a bit about the requirements that lead to the DOT number on your truck.  You're doing commercial towing with your personal vehicle correct?  Do you need a CDL?

APEowner said:

Keith Tanner said:

2010 Dodge 2500 crew cab shortbed with a Cummins and a stick, usually dragging a 28' trailer with two Miatas in it. Owned since new because the resale value of these things are ridiculous and we get a great fleet price through my wife's  work. It was cheaper to buy new than used, even in 2010.

It's dropped off in the last few years, but last time I checked it had spent 85% of its mileage with a trailer on the back. It has never failed to proceed, the last thing I want to do is be working on my tow rig.

 

Hey Keith - can you tell us a bit about the requirements that lead to the DOT number on your truck.  You're doing commercial towing with your personal vehicle correct?  Do you need a CDL?

If you're towing across state lines for commercial purposes, you are engaging in interstate commerce and thus need a DOT number. That includes going to shows/events as a vendor - especially if I have product on board and not just show cars. Because we don't move stuff for other people or carry people, we don't need to register as a motor carrier which makes life a lot simpler.  I don't run the number when I'm towing my own stuff. The fact that it's a personal vehicle doesn't really change anything with regards to the number, the company reimburses me for mileage but that's all internal.

The DOT number comes with some overhead like daily and annual vehicle inspections, logs and driver hours of service - but those are all good practices that exist for good reasons. I'd honestly recommend that anyone who does a lot of towing adopt them for themselves. 

My GVWR is under 26k lbs, so I don't need a CDL. I do need a DOT medical card which is just a quick checkup.

And now, because I suspect that a lot of you are posting pictures of the cars more than the tow vehicles...