Thinking about towing 5,500 lbs from Phoenix to Seattle...

crd260 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:28 pm **Posts:** 103

06' CRD

~90K miles

-euro TC
-GDE HOT tune
-aftermarket (the good one) fan clutch
-timing belt done
-head gasket done ~10K miles ago (did it myself, blew it because of overheating because of poopy stock fan clutch)
-When I did the headgasket, I burned off the intake plenum gunk, it's good as new(stupid EGR)
-new Fuel head installed
-Upgraded class 3/4 tow hitch (5,000/500 load, 7,500/750 w/distro)

I tow my 24' travel trailer (4,400 empty), like a boss, with a distro hitch

I'm thinking about towing a 24' tournament boat on a tandem trailer (no distro hitch) from Arizona to Washington..... ~1,400 miles.

working disc surge brakes
tandom boat trailers tend to be closer to the 5% tongue weight than 10%......

The boat's spec'ed dry weight is 4,400 lbs.
I estimate the trailer to be ~1,000 lbs.

that put's me at about 5,400 lbs and probably about 400 on the tongue.

In my experience, boats tow easier than travel trailers.....
Travel trailers are top heavy, have more weight on the tongue, tend to sway more, and create a LOT of air friction.
Boats have their weight much lower, have less weight on the tongue, tend to sway less, and practically draft the tow vehicle.

Thoughts?

diesel_guy86 · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2014 5:48 pm

As long as the trailer has good brakes, do it. Towing is more knowing what your doing and thinking ahead, than it is staying within rated limits. A guy knowing what he's doing could tow 25,000lb coast to coast, while a kid fresh from drivers ed would total a 1,000lb u haul going across town.

JDaPP · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2014 6:02 pm

diesel_guy86 wrote:

As long as the trailer has good brakes, do it. Towing is more knowing what your doing and thinking ahead, than it is staying within rated limits. A guy knowing what he's doing could tow 25,000lb coast to coast, while a kid fresh from drivers ed would total a 1,000lb u haul going across town.

What he said. I did 6000 twice. Reno to San Diego, San Diego to Tampa. Keys are don't go faster than you can handle, good brakes on trailer, slow up and down the mountains. One thing I found useful was to turn heater on full blast when you see temps rising (usually going up steep grades)

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2014 7:27 pm

JDaPP wrote:

One thing I found useful was to turn heater on full blast when you see temps rising (usually going up steep grades)

That means your towing to much and your cooling system is nowhere close to operating at 100%.If your overheating,or temps starting to raise,your vehicle is not properly maintained to tow and most likely not for normal driving.

JDaPP · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2014 9:31 pm

Nothing wrong with the vehicle, and it is very well maintained. It only did it to me twice, both times was going up very steep slope in the Sierra Nevadas with the 6000 lbs. I was probably going too fast to start the climb, but I found the heater trick to be useful to keep the vehicle from overheating until I evened out the speed to match the workload. These were the same grades that had the 18 wheelers going ~20mph up.
The rest of the time the jeep was right where it needed to be for operating temps.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2014 10:11 pm

JDaPP wrote:

Nothing wrong with the vehicle, and it is very well maintained. It only did it to me twice, both times was going up very steep slope in the Sierra Nevadas with the 6000 lbs. I was probably going too fast to start the climb, but I found the heater trick to be useful to keep the vehicle from overheating until I evened out the speed to match the workload. These were the same grades that had the 18 wheelers going ~20mph up.
The rest of the time the jeep was right where it needed to be for operating temps.

Towed 5k with my 3.7,lifted with 32" tires and no HD cooling up many passes at 65mph and never once past 219 degrees(cooling fan turn on speed).Those 18 wheelers may be going slow but towing a lot more then 6k and there not overheating.

Sorry but overheating while going up hills your overloaded and the vehicles cooling system is not working correctly and could be more then the cooling system at fault.

crd260 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:28 pm **Posts:** 103

Re the cooling system debate... there is truth to what both of you guys are saying....

I will however say this about the CRD:

The stock fan clutch is piss.
It fails after like 10K miles.

you would never know it's failed, because diesels are quite thermally efficient, and the CRD has a pretty beefy stock radiator.

When you start towing some weight up big hills in 100+ weather, you start to notice the effects of no mechanical fan.

In terms of "normal" I've driven everything from class 3 90,000lbs crane trucks, to 1/4 ton pickups, 1 ton pickups, SUVs, etc...

Close to your max GVW, under extreme conditions, pretty much any vehicle's cooling system will start to show it's limits. Most vehicle owner manuals talk about the limitations of the cooling system under extreme situations....

Now, having said that, my CRD with the stock fan clutch was limited to about 50% throttle up some long mountain climbs...... with the new fan clutch, I have yet to see the needle move past dead centre...

Mountainman · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2014 2:25 pm

I've towed more (6,000lbs) with the 32's that my CRD came with (I since sized down), but I have deleted a bit of extra load by gutting all of the crap. And I didn't use any AC since I gutted that also. It was another CRD that I pulled a few hundred miles with the trailer brakes inoperable, not advisable, but there weren't any real steep grades. 65-70 mph with no problem with the other, also lifted CRD, sticking up on the tow dolly and bobbing around.

Oh, I also had a warm air intake (pulled the tube to headlight), so it was running a little warmer with less power.

I'm about to pull 6500 pounds the same config about 1,000k miles up some steep stuff. I will definately be putting the cold air tube back in, and take it real easy, and I sure hope my trailer brake fix works... :5SHOTS:

I hope I don't have to pull off too many times to let things cool down...
I'm going to try and time the big mountain (Donner pass especially) for evening or morning.
Wish me luck!

mtbdemon · **Joined:** Fri Aug 24, 2012 5:15 pm **Posts:** 179

This is a great thread as I plan on pulling my cargo trailer, but not near this weight. However, I would like to upgrade my fan clutch and since it seems some of you have upgraded for this application, what did you upgrade to? Thanks

Ken

weeks101 · **Joined:** Mon Jul 30, 2012 3:29 pm **Posts:** 747

mtbdemon wrote:

This is a great thread as I plan on pulling my cargo trailer, but not near this weight. However, I would like to upgrade my fan clutch and since it seems some of you have upgraded for this application, what did you upgrade to? Thanks

Ken

HAYDEN Part #2905. Should run about $40-$50.

http://www.amazon.com/Hayden-Automotive ... B002WLFAB4

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2014 11:48 pm

If your CRD is properly prepped and in good shape, the weight is not an issue. Keith has towed 7000 lbs extensively with both his KJ CRDs.

HOWEVER, your problem is the trailer with surge brakes. Something that length REQUIRES a weight distributing hitch with a KJ. You cannot combine the two. I think you will be OK with a WD hitch and a trailer with electric brakes. Also, with surge brakes, you have no way to just apply the trailer brakes when you get into a serious sway situation.

Keep in mind, while you are just under the US 25' length limit for the vehicle, you are 500 lbs over the weight limit. An accident followed by a law suit could leave you uncovered by your insurance.

DOC

Thinking about towing 5,500 lbs from Phoenix to Seattle...

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