Jay4200
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2005
- Messages
- 2,053
- Location
- Hudson/Weare, NH
- Tractor
- L4200GST w/ LA680 & BX2200D w/ LA211
Before I brought my L4200 home, I was really worried about towing it. I never towed a heavy trailer before, so I was asking all kind of questions about towing and trailer brakes, etc, in places like here and RV forums. Most in the RV forums were fairly paranoid, suggesting not going beyond 80-90% tow rating, and using weight distributing hitches for anything over 50% rating. Add to that the seller telling me that towing the tractor with his 1/2 ton Dodge was scary (but then, it IS a Dodge). Silly me for worrying - after all, I have a Toyota /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif.
Incidentally, adding margin to tow rating is rediculous IMHO - as an engineer, I can tell you that EVERYTHING is specified with considerable margin already, and something that could have significant litigous ramifications will have HUGE margins built in - you can trust me on that one.
OTOH, a friend of mine that has a Tundra told me that he towed a heavy dump trailer with two 1-ton pallets of stone recently and (other than taking a little extra time to get up to speed) it was nothing.
My tractor weighs ~3200#, plus 1300# for the backhoe, probably another 500# for the subframe mount, then whatever the FEL weighs, maybe another 1000#? My tandem-axle trailer weighs 2000#. I figured I was looking at somewhere around 8000#, which is a solid 1000# over the rated tow capacity for my truck. I use the factory hitch, with a standard ball - no weight distribution equipment.
I calibrated tounge weight by sitting a couple of my co-workers on my tailgate and measured the drop at the hitch. Two guys weighed in at 400-450 pounds or so, which resulted in a 3" drop at the hitch. When I loaded the tractor on the trailer, I set it such that the hitch drop was similar, giving me that same 400-450# tounge weight. This is about 5% of total load, which is half what is typically recommended, but it proved more than sufficient.
I won't say that you can't feel 8000 pounds behind the truck, since 0-20MPH times grew from 2-3 seconds to about 10-12 seconds, but other than that, it was virtually effortless. At higher speeds, once the motor could rev up, the truck actually accelerated fairly well, considering it was pulling 3x its normal weight - the Tundra does have an excellent motor. At 50MPH, it was like the trailer wasn't back there at all. The trailer did bounce the truck up and down a little when it hit bumpy areas, but I never got the feeling that the trailer was yanking the truck around at all. I have the off-road suspension package and BFG T/As run at 50psi - which probably helps too. Stopping distances weren't bad (electric trailer brakes work excellent) - I even had a panic brake situation when a minivan pulled out of a Duncan Donuts about 100 feet in front of me when I was doing about 50MPH - the heffer driving evidently couldn't see me or the 22ft long bright orange tractor barrelling down the road, since the cruller that was half stuffed into her mouth evidently obstructed her vision (I'm not making this up). In any case, I slowed the rig down with room to spare, though I did use two feet on the brake pedal /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif.
In conclusion - towing with a Tundra at 115% of tow capacity is a piece of cake.
Jay
Incidentally, adding margin to tow rating is rediculous IMHO - as an engineer, I can tell you that EVERYTHING is specified with considerable margin already, and something that could have significant litigous ramifications will have HUGE margins built in - you can trust me on that one.
OTOH, a friend of mine that has a Tundra told me that he towed a heavy dump trailer with two 1-ton pallets of stone recently and (other than taking a little extra time to get up to speed) it was nothing.
My tractor weighs ~3200#, plus 1300# for the backhoe, probably another 500# for the subframe mount, then whatever the FEL weighs, maybe another 1000#? My tandem-axle trailer weighs 2000#. I figured I was looking at somewhere around 8000#, which is a solid 1000# over the rated tow capacity for my truck. I use the factory hitch, with a standard ball - no weight distribution equipment.
I calibrated tounge weight by sitting a couple of my co-workers on my tailgate and measured the drop at the hitch. Two guys weighed in at 400-450 pounds or so, which resulted in a 3" drop at the hitch. When I loaded the tractor on the trailer, I set it such that the hitch drop was similar, giving me that same 400-450# tounge weight. This is about 5% of total load, which is half what is typically recommended, but it proved more than sufficient.
I won't say that you can't feel 8000 pounds behind the truck, since 0-20MPH times grew from 2-3 seconds to about 10-12 seconds, but other than that, it was virtually effortless. At higher speeds, once the motor could rev up, the truck actually accelerated fairly well, considering it was pulling 3x its normal weight - the Tundra does have an excellent motor. At 50MPH, it was like the trailer wasn't back there at all. The trailer did bounce the truck up and down a little when it hit bumpy areas, but I never got the feeling that the trailer was yanking the truck around at all. I have the off-road suspension package and BFG T/As run at 50psi - which probably helps too. Stopping distances weren't bad (electric trailer brakes work excellent) - I even had a panic brake situation when a minivan pulled out of a Duncan Donuts about 100 feet in front of me when I was doing about 50MPH - the heffer driving evidently couldn't see me or the 22ft long bright orange tractor barrelling down the road, since the cruller that was half stuffed into her mouth evidently obstructed her vision (I'm not making this up). In any case, I slowed the rig down with room to spare, though I did use two feet on the brake pedal /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif.
In conclusion - towing with a Tundra at 115% of tow capacity is a piece of cake.
Jay
