New tow beast time

[dlandersson]

Ditto.

If new is imperative, ignore this - but I must say I like having two inexpensive vehicles to cover all uses. I tow with a 2001 GMC Yukon Denali - all were tricked out, top of the line 4wd SUVs with a full tow package including load leveling and a tow setting for the trans. Rated around 10,000 lb, and tows the Mac without noticing it's there. 600 mile 1 day trips from Detroit to the North Channel without a white knuckle the whole way. When I don't need room/towing, I run around town in a 1992 Miata. Pure fun, good milage, minimal upkeep, great reliability and did I mention - fun, especially with the top down. Both vehicles can be bought at a low price, and the combined price will still leave a huge gas fund compared to buying new. Insurance is very low. Best of both worlds.

[Seapup]

Have to bring it up one more time for nomination since its my favorite picture...The Smart for Two

You can get it to match and it even tows in the snow

Think it could be hung from a set of davits

[mastreb]

–Mastreb- for any number of technical and safety reasons, FWD is the last choice of drivetrain, particularly when towing a heavy trailer. It does have an advantage if you’re backing up a hill, (or have a hitch on the front bumper) but that’s not a common situation, but, of course, FWD has an economical benefit, its very raison d’etre.

The presence of the trailer puts more weight on the rear wheels, the drive wheels in a RWD vehicle, where you want it. On FWD, on the other hand, the tongue weight reduces the weight on the drive wheels, so they lose traction. Even if they are located higher on a less slippery part of the ramp.

I had not considered the fact that rear weight reduces the downforce on the front axle--of course it does. FWD would be a disaster. Withdrawn. I've never actually owned a FWD vehicle, and was only thinking about the position of the drive wheels outside the water on a ramp. So yes, I'm just going to say 4WD/AWD would be a requirement for me.

The reason for specifying new is that we're trying to compare vehicles. Getting a great deal on a used vehicle is not repeatable for everyone.

So I guess what we've come to here is that sufficient tow beasts for the Mac start new around $40K? Not feeling at all bad about my $62K Mercedes-Benz GL350 turbodiesel in that case. U.S. Made in Georgia. It gets a solid 21MPG while freeway towing at 65mph, routinely gets 23MPG around San Diego (60/40 freeway/town mix) and does 26MPG on long trips on the freeway. Overall its the best vehicle I've ever owned. The Durango/Aspen are based on the same chassis but have Chrysler motors and trim.

[Sumner]

Ditto.

If new is imperative, ignore this - but I must say I like having two inexpensive vehicles to cover all uses. I tow with a 2001 GMC Yukon Denali - all were tricked out, top of the line 4wd SUVs with a full tow package including load leveling and a tow setting for the trans. Rated around 10,000 lb, and tows the Mac without noticing it's there. 600 mile 1 day trips from Detroit to the North Channel without a white knuckle the whole way. When I don't need room/towing, I run around town in a 1992 Miata. Pure fun, good milage, minimal upkeep, great reliability and did I mention - fun, especially with the top down. Both vehicles can be bought at a low price, and the combined price will still leave a huge gas fund compared to buying new. Insurance is very low. Best of both worlds.

Ditto..Ditto...


'99 Suburban (17 mpg not towing and 11 towing Mac) and my mom's '99 Buick with 65,000 miles that gets 30 mpg on the highway with a V-6 consistently. An interesting fact is that the Suburban got 14 mpg....



...towing the trailer above loaded to the ceiling down to Florida and back. I then towed the same trailer empty except with a transmission in it over to Colorado and back (180 miles) and only got 16 mpg using the Buick. As soon as you put a load on it the 30 mpg goes away big time.

The trailer has an up, pictured above, where it is about even with the top of the Suburban and a...



...down where if I would of had it there behind the Buick it probably would of done a little better.

We are thinking of getting a used, under 50,000 mile, Colorado 4X4 crew cab with the I5 this next year. It could pull the Mac with a 5500 rating, but we will keep the Suburban for that and will use it for our smaller trailer and hopefully back and forth to Florida with the dinghy and other gear in the back.

I've only bought 2 new vehicles and didn't like either one and hate what I have to pay the state for plates and insurance and sales tax and the big depreciation hit the first couple years. Vehicles are so good now that if you get one with 40,000 to 50,000 miles and it got service it is basically new and should go over 200,000 and the person selling paid a lot of money for those miles.

Sum

===================================
Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[NiceAft]

Vehicles are so good now that if you get one with 40,000 to 50,000 miles and it got service it is basically new and should go over 200,000 and the person selling paid a lot of money for those miles.

And they may not care One man"s trash is another man"s..........well, you get the idea. Somebody has to keep the economy going

Ray

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

...towing the trailer above loaded to the ceiling down to Florida and back. I then towed the same trailer empty except with a transmission in it over to Colorado and back (180 miles) and only got 16 mpg using the Buick. As soon as you put a load on it the 30 mpg goes away big time.
Sum

Pretty cool looking Buick there Sum, what is it a late 50's model?

And RobertB,thanks for the tips. Let me see if I can find the codes and then maybe you can help me decipher them. Even a couple mechanics told me to go to an auto electric shopt to have it figured out (because the second code is something to do with the immobilizer system and it seems dormant too) because they would charge me a ton of money in trial and error!

[Sumner]

....Pretty cool looking Buick there Sum, what is it a late 50's model?..

The car in the background in that picture is a...



.... 1951 DeSoto Limo (they made probably less than 300) that I drug home...





...from a yard in Missouri a number of years back. Ruth wants me to work on it pretty bad. I did manage to buy a wrecked '99 Chevy Van for the 350 V-8 and overdrive transmission and have a late model frontend to put under it, but somehow up to now none of that has happened . She sits out front and people stop and take pictures of her and some ask if she is for sale. I think it would be pretty cool to pull the Mac down the highway behind her and she is heavy enough to do that,

Sum

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Kind of looks like that Hudson Hornet (is that a real car?..lol) from the Cars movie that my kids watch!

[dlandersson]

I looked hard at a 2000+ Suburban 1500 with tow package and 9 seats for soccer mom.

https://www.google.com/search?q=suburba ... 00&bih=894

Vehicles are so good now that if you get one with 40,000 to 50,000 miles and it got service it is basically new and should go over 200,000 and the person selling paid a lot of money for those miles.

And they may not care One man"s trash is another man"s..........well, you get the idea. Somebody has to keep the economy going

Ray

[Russ]

I do have the check engine light on for a couple years now (yea, my bad..lol) and have had the codes read and was told it was the O2 sensor..but apparently, there is one on each cylinder and to figure out which one ias bad is not so easy, so, I've just been putting it off. And as I said, the engine runs very well so it wasn't like I really needed to do anything about it immediately. After reading up on it a bit, I think i found that the worst possible thing that could be happening is that my mileage is a bit off.

My '04 Toyota Sienna had a bad O2 sensor. Not a biggie, but it also triggered the computer to shut off the stability control logic. Reading up on it, the computer thinks something is wrong and the engine is sick, so it disables stuff that controls the throttle and AWD transmission logic etc. until you fix it. Poor gas mileage is only one problem. Sometimes unplugging the 12v battery cable for 30 mins to reboot the computer solves it also. Didn't for me.
The code reader did report exactly which O2 sensor was bad and why. It was the "heater" in the O2 sensor that was faulty. Easy fix for the mechanic who knew what he was doing.

--Russ

[RobertB]

And RobertB,thanks for the tips. Let me see if I can find the codes and then maybe you can help me decipher them. Even a couple mechanics told me to go to an auto electric shopt to have it figured out (because the second code is something to do with the immobilizer system and it seems dormant too) because they would charge me a ton of money in trial and error!

On my car, the immobilizer is the lighted ring that surrounds the ignition key. Ignition keys today are built with a small transmitter that is keyed to the car. The immobilizer is the antenna that communicates with the key circuitry. Sometimes, the transaction does not work exactly as intended but recovers in a moment. This will register a dormant code - has happened to me. You will know if this is a hard failure when you cannot start your car. Unless this happens more than once in a great while, I would not worry. If you do decide to repair, the part is pretty inexpensive but you will need the manufacture's service manual for the instructions on how to change (then it should be pretty easy).
As far as the O2 sensor, what kind of code reader are you using? I have a generic Actron (TM) tester that will display codes unique to each sensor. BTW, these are the Federally defined OBDII (On Board Diagnostics generation 2) codes that are not manufacturer specific - each O2 sensor is assigned a unique code (codes P0130 to P0167 are all O2 sensor codes - see http://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/). I also have a code reader specific to my Volvo that will read every code in every module on the car. Some dealerships will also read codes for free but charge a nominal fee to troubleshoot. Other dealers charge just to read codes - shop around.
I read codes occasionally and record them in my car log (I also record in this log every tank of gas, item of service, and odd symptom) and then clear the codes (can do this for powertrain with a generic code reader). This way, I can keep track of how often each code is occuring. Then, if I do need to take the car in for service, I provide a summary of the symptoms and code history and it is much easier for the mechanic to diagnose.

[Catigale]

You an also buy a kit from Harrison Engineering that let's you grab OBD and clear codes on your laptop.

Just a happy customer ....I've had a fewer older cars that got intermittent codes that are auto fail in the NYS inspection....clearing them has saved me quite a bit of money over the years...a lot easier fixing cars in spring than dead of winter too.

[RobertB]

There are a lot of options to access/clear codes. For my wife's VW Bug, I have the VAG.COM setup. Computer based and can have full dealer functionality (except for keying the ignition switch), not only read and delete codes but can run adaptives (such as setting the throttle body after cleaning). Catch, no charge for the program but need to buy the proprietary adapter cable to run the program. Another option I have is the Android smartphone application TORQUE where all you need to buy is a Bluetooth OBDII adapter. This one is neat in that you can collect real time data while driving, 0-60, fuel economy etc.

As far as clearing codes for inspection, this works if you do not have active codes. Also, after clearing, there is a certain amount of driving you need to do or the inspector will know you just cleared the codes. Maryland is similar on emissions, any car after 1995 (OBDII became law in 1996) will tell if the car is compliant, no more requirement to hook up an exhaust gas analyzer.

[Sumner]

I bought one of....



...the ones above from HF....

http://www.harborfreight.com/can-obd-ii ... 98614.html

...and it works fine on our Buick and Suburban to read codes, real time readings, and erase codes and has more than paid for itself,

Sum

===================================
Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[dlandersson]

Ugh...Igor, go and fetch me what I crave...

I have Dodge Ram 3500.. With more than 16,000 pounds of towing capacity, this Ram is the king of the towing hill, topping the nearest competitor by more than 2,000 pounds. Sure, it's not practical for use as an everyday vehicle, but it sure can tow! If you need more towing ability than the Ram 3500 can offer, you might want to look into renting a dump truck.