yeah, i went up to Willow Springs this past weekend and towed my integra using my truck and a rented Uhual car hauler trailer. I have a 2005 F150 5.4L with the OE tow package and rented a double axle Uhual trailer. Well up in Palmdale Lancaster CA area in the hot afternoon my truck felt a bit sluggish. Down shifting did not really help. Was it that high elevation? I think its about 3000 ft. Back in LA the truck runs GREAT. My truck is rated to pull 9500lbs. The Uhual trailer and my race car cant be no more then 3300lbs. Anybody else have this problem in high elevation? or does my truck suck. Thanks.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by lastturn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The Uhual trailer and my race car cant be no more then 3300lbs. </TD></TR></TABLE>


Your estimation is off a lot!

Those Uhaul trailers are VERY heavy. I think they weigh in right around 2000lbs. So, your load was probably more like 4400 pounds.
Just some food for thought!

 

I was told around 2500#, by the local uhaul rep

 

My 5.4L tows fine for a small gas engine.

If you're not over 65, keep it out of overdrive... or maybe alltogther with that trailer - those Uhaul trailers are very heavy.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">those Uhaul trailers are very heavy.</TD></TR></TABLE>
not much heavier than a closed deck steel trailer like you use.
mine is listed at 2100 pounds

 

the UHaul ones are indeed heavy. But my '05 Tundra towed those to ButtonWillow and Willow Springs a few times w/o issues. I just downshift to 4th and hit VVTi w/ the V8 wailing.

Sounds like your F150 is lacking in the power department. high altitude, winds, and hot weather will slow it down sure, but it shouldn't struggle up the grades. At least my Tundra doesn't!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by WWDTrackRacer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the UHaul ones are indeed heavy. But my '05 Tundra towed those to ButtonWillow and Willow Springs a few times w/o issues. I just downshift to 4th and hit VVTi w/ the V8 wailing.

Sounds like your F150 is lacking in the power department. high altitude, winds, and hot weather will slow it down sure, but it shouldn't struggle up the grades. At least my Tundra doesn't! </TD></TR></TABLE>
....or maybe its the blue oval stuck to the front

 

Just pulled 4,000lbs of Trailer and 6,200lbs (that's 10,200 total for the math wizards) of old shingles/tar paper/plywood etc... up a 250ft pea gravel hill just to pay $200 to dump the crap. Either way, I didn't run into any issues of power struggle, weird shifting patterns, braked a LOT better then I thought, and made it up in 2WD even. I guess that LSD is good for something. I don't even notice ~4,000lbs of trailer/car behind me.

Staying out of O/D is your friend. Unhooked, O/D stays off until 55mph, hooked 65mph. Those U-Haul trailers I've seen are pretty small. Are the decks even solid steel? Or steel framed with wood planks? The solid steel closed deck trailers 16-20' are only checking in around 2,000-2,400 lbs. I would imagine the UHauls to be the same or less.

My buddy has the same truck. '05 F-150 FX4 Super Crew w/ the 5.4L Triton and 3.73 rear end and he tows a Bri-Mar 16' closed deck open hauler and a Super Stock Camaro and never has any problems even towing up and over the local mountain here to get to the track. Just turns the O/D off and goes. Really don't notice it's back there from when I've rode with him. Elevation is ~2,000 ft.

 

You get a lot of tail sag when hooked up to the UHaul trailer?

Maybe it's causing the trail to drag. When I hooked up my weigth distr. hitch it seemed to make towing easier and there was less sag.

 

Since the U haul trailers get less maintaince than a red headed step child, the problem could be as simple as the brakes where locked on your tow there, then something gotsorted and they worked properly on the way home.

I had a trailer with locked up brakes for 40 miles and you could def feel it! Maybe yours were partially on.. I doubt its the truck!

 

Did it smell like cooked brakes during your tow? Might be the giveaway sign there!

 

http://www.uhaul.com/guide/?eq...sport

2000lbs empty supposedly.

 

Yeah, I think those uhaul trailers have a brake. could have been not adjusted right. because i remember going up hill it felt like the brake was tugging on and off.

My truck is rated at pulling 9500lbs. that was only about 4000lbs.
I was hoping to get one of those inclosed trailers with a kitchen and bathroom. the Gross weight including car is 7000max. I wonder if my truck is able to pull something like that. Something like this. (i think this one is for ATVs and Motorcycles) but something along this line.



Modified by lastturn at 9:04 AM 5/19/2006

 

I've towed the Uhaul trailers with a 2004 Trailblazer I6. Just kept it out of OD when accelerating and or passing or uphills and only used the OD for superflat cruising. The truck had no problems towing up to posted limit 75mph. Sure more power would be great but I didn't think it lost power when towing even uphills in the mountains. My truck is only rated at 5,500lbs towing capacity, you're should have had no problems. I think if the brakes which are inertia type were locked through a faulty mechanism you woulda noticed it.

Gawd the horrible sotries I could tell about towing with a Uhaul trailer

OK the new trailers which are few and far between are listed at 1,800 lbs empty, but there are a **** load of older rust buckets in their fleet that are indeed 2,100 lbs.

Service through Uhaul sucks ***. The local shops are usually nice guys but will always share stories of how Uhaul has screwed them in the past.

Availability as per reservation and actually where you have to pick one of these things up is dismal. I had to travel 100 miles to get one once. Sure it's within a 50 mile radious as they advertise of where I live but that doesn't count highways and byways and all that jazz.

More than 1 Uhaul trailer that I've rented has either had minor damage to major defects, IE missing turn signals or license plates to GET THIS NO BRAKES!

Yep, I had to return a trailer one time when I went up to Watkins Glen because 50% the way through the trip the brakes completely gave out. So I had to spend the better part of one of my days up there going from WG to Ithaca to trade the crap in on another piece of crap that at least was in working order.

Also, the trailers do not have good spots to use tie downs so most times you have to use at least their front tie downs and I have always supplemented with rears of my own to the car doesnt get tail happy. And since you use the front Uhaul straps the thing is stupid tongue heavy with virtually no way of evening up the load.

Would I use them again? Not unless it was an emergency. Dealing with them over the past 3 years has convinced me to save my money and just buy my own.

Did I forget to mention that their rates are too high imo for what piece of crap you get?

I'm sure I also forgot to mention that you can't outright rent a trailer for a round trip since they only rent one way. Which requires you at least show up to a local renting shop to rerent or have it inspected.

Uhaul trailers suck. But they get the job done if you have to, just be very aware of the trialers condition before you're ready to leave the shop.




Modified by 1GreyTeg at 2:51 PM 5/18/2006

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by lastturn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

My truck is rated at pulling 9500lbs. that was only about 4000lbs.
I was hoping to get one of those inclosed trailers with a kitchen and bathroom. the Gross weight including car is 7000max. I wonder if my truck is able to pull something like that. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Consider a weight distributing hitch.

 

Sounds like the compression brake they put on some of those trailors....was compressed. my dodge tows them like it isn't even there...Now my father's 44ft long, double deck high tag trailor is a wholenother question...haha...