Your towing rigs and trailers

   / Your towing rigs and trailers #3,341  
Coming from five generations of railroaders, I know pretty much any full size truck can do the same (trains have very little rolling resistance). Just wondering if anyone is even considering such a thing...

 
   / Your towing rigs and trailers #3,342  
Coming from five generations of railroaders, I know pretty much any full size truck can do the same (trains have very little rolling resistance). Just wondering if anyone is even considering such a thing...


The train is on wheels and level ground. Not impressed at all.
 
   / Your towing rigs and trailers #3,343  
The train is on wheels and level ground. Not impressed at all.

And have very low friction. That’s kinda the point of a train. Agree that it’s not impressive.
 
   / Your towing rigs and trailers #3,344  
Coming from five generations of railroaders, I know pretty much any full size truck can do the same (trains have very little rolling resistance). Just wondering if anyone is even considering such a thing...

Yeah, obviously nowhere need 1 million pounds of actual force on the truck. My 4" recovery strap similar to what they're using is "only" rated for 27,000 lbs so probably much less than that in actual pulling power by the truck. My big thing is how far can you drive on a charge, and how long does it take to recharge? Being all electric means you'll have to plug it in eventually, and can't use a gas engine to recharge or extend range like hybrid vehicles. If you can't get 300-400 miles on it that's going to be tough.
 
   / Your towing rigs and trailers #3,345  
I have wanted an electric F150 after they had one with 600 HP at an auto show in 2014. A 400 mile range would address my towing needs I expect. Currently I am just glad to have my 2010 F150 back from the body shop. I learned the hard way about the blind spot created my the factory tow mirror option.
 
   / Your towing rigs and trailers #3,346  
Anyone that lives near Roanoke VA can visit the Transportation Museum that is in town.
They have a demo set up showing how you can move a massive weight by hand when on steel wheels, and tracks.
A much lower weight on rubber tires can hardly be moved at all.

Chevy did a TV ad ~30 years ago, pulling a very similar train,, with a dumb ol' gas engine,,,
 
   / Your towing rigs and trailers #3,347  
Yeah, not a big deal.
I laugh every time I see Elon Musk's statement that a Tesla pickup will have a 300,000 pound towing capacity.
Sure a Toyota Tundra towed a space shuttle (super slow, probably with substantial modifications as well), but towing capacity is more than "what can you move eventually" and is now actually standardized (though I believe it's still voluntary; SAE J2807).

Presented without comment, man pulls train car with his teeth:
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   / Your towing rigs and trailers #3,348  
Coming from five generations of railroaders, I know pretty much any full size truck can do the same (trains have very little rolling resistance). Just wondering if anyone is even considering such a thing...

Tesla pulled the same type of stunt so Ford is just going for some EV attention.
 
   / Your towing rigs and trailers #3,349  
Smoke and mirrors. I don't care how many train cars it will pull. I just want to know what kind of range it has empty, towing say a 5-6,000lb load or hauling X amount of payload. Those are the thing that I would be doing with it. I don't even live close to a railroad track. :)
 
   / Your towing rigs and trailers #3,350  
Meh. As mentioned above, there is very little rolling resistance with solid wheels and a solid track under them. A small team of horses could probably do the same. I'd be more impressed if they showed the F150 stopping the train from 50mph...

Rob
 
 
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