And you thought the Tundra drinks gas while towing...

Try towing a 7,500# travel trailer with the new Ford Ranger. Fellow snowbird has a '21 Ranger pulling a Freedom Express "Ultra-Lite" trailer with a gross weight of 7,500+ and he drives 65 MPH getting 7 MPH, 8 if he's lucky.

As my Dad used to say, "There's no substitute for cubic inches".

 

I didn't think that truck was even rated to tow that much but 7500 is its max.

 

That's the max towing weight the most stripped Ranger can tow. I don't know what his trailer actually weighs as towed but he's way over on frontal area. 55 sq ft is what Ford says. I doubt any travel trailer comes in under that with the exception of a Casita, Airstream or other aerodynamic shaped trailer. I found no frontal area limitations on the Tundra. Afterall, Space shuttle and all...

 

Fuel consumption would be the least of my concerns with a setup like that.

 

It did remind me of an elephant riding a tricycle when I saw him come in.

 

Ranger and travel trailer you say, all I can think is

 

All I can think of is final drive stripped out after 10,000 towing miles.

 

With that fuel mileage, tank capacity, and all the shifting involved that is a good hypothesis.

 

Ford Rangers look nice but I don't see many on the road! It looks better than the new Tacoma.

Seems like there is a big gap in small 4x4 truck ... with Ford quality and new Tacoma sluggish engine/trans and Nissan not that great either.
it forces the consumer to buy a V8 Tundra instead. Why bother with the little guys. Put the Tundra in S5 and forget about the 6th gear and you have a perfect truck.
I meant S5 when not towing. If towing S4. 6th gear gotta go. If Toyota drops a gear (6th) they should lower the price! No? Assuming if they were still making the v8 as they should along with Turbo for Turbo people.

 

But does it have a transmission cooler?

 

Better yet, drop that fancy automatic and give me back my 3rd pedal! Make it 5 speed for all I care! 3UR-FE and a manual would be my dream truck.

I'm with you though, 6th gear is so long the truck can't even go up a slight incline at highway speeds without unlocking the t/c...

 

you are right. my perfect truck would have been 5-spd manual v8 Tundra just like my old Tacoma.

I'm glad Tundra has the S5 the way it works. With 2 of our other cars, if I put the car in S4 and stop at a light, the trans downshift to 1st gear and stays there unless you manually upshift. Tundra S4 or S5 will upshift to 4th or 5th even if you stop.

I assume 10-spd auto trucks are constantly unlocking the torque converter.

 

Can't cool much driving around the gas station or on the ramps to and from all day.

 

I would have preferred a M6. So would my wife. Both our boys' first cars were sticks. Took the drivers test in those stick shift cars. Made Ma & Pa proud.

 

Picture of the amazing Ranger. Well, that and my wife walking the dog.

 

Might as well be a Maverick!

 

Serious tow rig to the left, though.

SPP

 

Dat it is.

 

From what I've heard, the new Frontier is pretty good.

@Black Wolf

 

Yep, my 09 Taco was alright, but my new 22 Nissan is damn good and one stout lil truck. The 2nd gen Frontier was severely outdated. Severely. The 22 is up to date, has a better powertrain and drivetrain than the current gen Taco. Hopefully Yota won't screw up the next gen Taco. (again)

 

I roll around town mostly in a 95 hardbody beater that I think could possibly outlive me. Very simple no nonsense powertrain and the a/c is still cool. Can't beat it with a stick for around town.

 

A set of 5.29's works wonders.

 

Supposedly this new gen 22 got some engineering inspiration from the old hardbodies as far as looks which were great trucks

 

I'll preface this by saying dry January is finally over and I'm getting shnokered. We're comparing the Ranger vs. a Tundra tonight? Mine gets 8 or 9 if I'm lucky towing a 6k lb trailer at 65. Am I doing something wrong?

My old hardbody (truck, not to be confused with my amazing physique) blew the tranny before 100k. Still makes me shy away from the Titan. Probably silly.

 

My brother in law has a new Ranger. It's a nice truck, no doubt. I would never feel comfortable towing that close to the max in anything.

As for mileage, I often get around 8 mpg when towing my TT at about 4500 lbs. If traffic, speed limits, and winds are favorable, I can hit 10, but any kind of headwind, sidewind, or traffic and I'm back to 8 mpg.

 

2021 CM SR5 V8 5.7L pullling this dude 2021 Grand Design Transcend Xplor 265BH loaded about 8000+ lbs
https://rvshare.com/rvs/details/1485515
MPG? Hell, I didn't even bother looking, I just drove and hope for the best. It was a short tow for sure (1st ever tow) of 35 miles, but yea, having a 38 gal tank does make me feel better about not getting left alone in the wild if anything.

 

More truck or less trailer would sure make a difference. MPG's don't matter to me, but a Tundra simply isn't adequate to pull over 30ft of TT.

 

There's a formula that uses TV wheelbase compared to trailer length and IIRC before buying my 23' when I plugged in the numbers the 30 was in the white knuckle zone.

 

One man's white knuckle towing experience is another man's idea of a dare devil adventure. Here's some more...

https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/worlds-best-daredevil-adventures

 

The formula is a vehicle with 110" WB can pull a TT that is 20' tongue to tail. For every 4 inches of additional WB adds 1 foot to the trailer lenght. According to this my Tundra can pull a 29' trailer safety. So that's a 26' box. Distance from the rear axle to the ball plays a lot into this as well.