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Maria
Dodge Dakota
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7/28/2005
20:19:22
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 Subject: my husbands truck towing my car
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I had a question about my husband's truck. sorry, but i don't know where to look for the answer in all these messages.
I want to know if his 2003 quad cab Dakota w/ 4.7L engine and stick shift can tow my 2000 mitsubishi galant. he is looking on uhaul at either the dolly or the full trailer, and i don't trust him, so i thought i would ask you all. It will be from Missouri to DC, through the mountains of West Virginia. I don't know the gear ratio is (i saw that it was important on another post) truck, but I do remember it is a sport plus model?
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modain
Dodge Dakota
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7/28/2005
21:39:35
|  RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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To know what rear-end gears your husband's truck has you will find a sticker on the glovebox door (inside) that lists the options. It'll either state a 3.55 or 3.92 gear set. I don't remember what the option codes are. Maybe you can find it and post it on a reply. I'll look mine up tonight and compare.
I'm not sure what the tow rating for your truck is, but mine with the same transmission/engine and 3.92 gears is 6050#. With the 3.55 gears you'd drop 1000# in the rating. I imagine yours is in the same range. Check you owner's manual for the specifics.
As far as towing the car there should be no problem at all. I have towed a Geo Prizm (a rebadged Toyota Corolla for those that don't know) on a U-Haul car trailer. The trailer weighed 2100# and then the car was probably 3200#. I have towed up steep hills with no problem at all.
I would strongly urge you to go with a car trailer instead of a tow dolly. Even though the dolly won't add much weight to the towed load, your truck will be supplying *all* the braking for the entire rig. When using a car trailer you will get the huge benefit of the trailer having its own brakes. Well worth the piece of mind during panic stops, etc.
For the car trailer you and your husband should look to get an aluminum one instead of the older and heavier steel ones. That will save some weight and be better for the gas consumption.
I hope this is a help to you.
The trust thing??? Ouch!!!
====
2002 QC SLT+, 4.7, NV3500, 3.92 LSD, loads o'fun...
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Maria
Dodge Dakota
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7/28/2005
22:22:48
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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Trust?!?! He LOVES that truck and thinks it can do ANYTHING! Haha.
I looked in the glove compartment and it said 3.55. My car isn't huge, so I hope it will be ok. But you think we should go with the trailer and not the dolly? How does the trailer 'know' when to brake? He's been eyeing the dolly cause it is cheaper, but if the other one is safer, I'll definitely get him in line. Thanks for the reply!!!
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Justi
Dodge Dakota
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7/28/2005
22:27:53
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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As long as he has the towing package he can haul that on either the dolly or full trailer no problem. The rear end ratio will not matter as far as capibility in this case as either rear end can haul that load. The tow capacity of that truck should be 6k+ and your car and the trailer combines will not be near that..
I can also tell you that if I were your husband and I came across this post you'd be asking for an edit feature so you could change your post to include the prefix "ex"..
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Justi
Dodge Dakota
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7/28/2005
22:30:17
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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Oh, and modain, unless the trailer has inertia braking it will require a electronic brake control to utilize any trailer braking so it would likely be useless to them anyway.
Justi
My Dakota Page
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Maria
Dodge Dakota
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7/28/2005
22:34:47
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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Justi-
The website says that the Uhaul trailer has "Automatic Hydraulic Surge Brake." Does that mean we would need the brake controler? I don't think he has the towing package though cause he had to buy the hitch later on.
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Justi
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
00:44:11
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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The surge brake would work fine with you husbands truck, it is actuated thru pressure on the hitch. As the truck slows down and the trailer in essence pushes against the truck the trailer brakes are activated.
Personally I've always preferred using a full trailer over a dolly as I don't like racking up the miles on the towed vehicle. Towing a front wheel drive car such as yours on a dolly shouldn't be a big deal, but that's up to you.
Justi
My Dakota Page
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Maria
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
10:13:11
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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So I called Uhaul this morning and they said that the full trailer wasn't rated or something for the dakota, so we could only get the tow dolly. would you all drive your dakota towing a galant on a tow dolly 1000 miles? is it safe? the trailer doesn't have breaks or anything on it.
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NEWS_SOL
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
10:54:44
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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Maria, hope your still there but as long as your tow rating is ok, i would definately go with the trailer, reason is, i used to work for u-haul. the tow dolly's suck, you are limited to 45mph! and if you try to go fast they start swerving really bad, with the trailer your limit is 75mph, which you could always push just little.
MY .02
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mpbronso
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
11:02:36
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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Maria--
If I were you I'd use uhaul.com. I went there and punched your data through their site, and it is telling me that your dakota towing the mitsubishi is approved either for the dolly or the trailer. You might have mistakenly told uhaul that you have a class I or II hitch, which is maybe why they would have come back saying that you can only pull the dolly. Your dakota should have a class III hitch, especially if it is rated to tow up to 6000 pounds like i think it is. look on the inside of the frame on the driver's side door, there should be a sticker there that should give you the truck's vehichle weight and towing capacity.
i actually have lots of experience towing uhaul trailers with my 2000 4.7l 5-speed. granted, i have the 3.92 rear end, but i don't think that should make a difference with your little mitsubishi.
as far as the brakes go, it is a very nice feature to have. i pulled a uhaul that was about 5000+ lbs. loaded over the mountains of southern utah, southern colorado, and northern new mexico and then down to houston. it was very reassuring on some of those steep downhill grades to feel the trailer brakes kick in. i never felt like the trailer was pushing me down any hill. i've been on the interstate through west virginia and i'd prefer having the brakes behind me, though i think you could go without.
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Maria
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
11:32:55
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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thanks news and mpbronso.
i called again after reading your posts and asked the guy to check again. he had put the club cab when i talked to him before, but when i told him it was a quad cab, he apparently said it was ok. i'm not complaining, but i sure don't know why that makes a difference.
but after what everyone else said, i would feel better having breaks on the trailer too especially when we are in the mountains of WV.
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NEW_SOL
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
11:55:27
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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COOL! Have an nice and safe trip!Enjoy!
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mpbronso
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
12:12:34
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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well, mine is a club cab and i am rated to pull their heaviest stuff, so who knows. uhaul is not my favorite company to deal with over the phone--case and point.
one more thing i would say is that uhaul has a somewhat proprietary brake light hookup. they will make you buy like a $3 adapter that will enable you to hook their trailer lights up to your system. make sure the guy hooks it up right. last month i pulled a trailer and wasn't paying attention when the guy hooked me up. he did it all bass-ackwards and it blew my trailer light fuse. it's only a $2 part to fix but it can be an annoyance. i didn't realize mine were out until i was stuck in a horrible rainstorm, flipped on the lights and nothing back there happened. anyway, moral of the story is make sure the lights are all working before you leave the uhaul lot.
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Maria
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
12:22:58
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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mpbronso
thanks for the advice. we definitely don't like uhaul either. in fact, when we moved out to MO, we rented a two wheel trailer from them and drove a thousand miles with it only to have the entire wheel come off the hub (?) when we got to the bottom of the hill of our apartment complex. not a fun experience at 11 at night in a strange place. but they are the only ones that will rent a auto trailer without renting one of their trucks. i'll make sure my husband is watching the guy hook it up so that they dont mess it up. thanks again!!
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jayb
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
12:37:29
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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i rented a car hauler fron u-haul. i put a 1985 s-10 blazer on it. they say these blazers weigh about 3500-4000 lbs. most likely 4000lbs. the trailer weighs about 2000lbs. so my 93 cc 4x4 v8 auto was pulling around 6k. it did really good too. the only problem i had, was there was some really steep hills on the highway, and i had to use quite a bit of pedal to maintain speed. other than that it was fine. my gears ar the crappy azz 3.55:1 ratio. i want the 3.92's.
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modain
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
12:42:23
|  RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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Justi -
In my experience with U-Haul trailers with brakes they were all equipped with surge brakes. Because of this I didn't think I had to qualify the statement to exclude electric brakes/controllers/wiring. I was not aware they rented electric brake equipped trailers requiring the consumer to provide/purchase a controller and wiring to use their trailers. Thanks for pointing out your superior intelligence.
========
To add to mpbronso's heads-up regrading the light connectors...
If the U-Haul trailer has a standard four pole flat connector, Maria needs to buy a 4-way-to-7-way converter (provided the factory tow wiring is present) and she'll be in business.
I could rant about my experiences regarding this little subject and them wanting to increase their revenue in this shady manner, but I won't.
Good luck Maria, and husband.
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jayb
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
12:43:47
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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u-haul wants the load to weigh 900lbs less than the tow vehicle for brakeing purposes. just tell them your towing a toyota corrola. it works for me and my dodge is a 93 cc 4x4 auto that weights at least 400 lbs less than your gen III
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Maria
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
12:53:22
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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modain- i'm sure they'll find some way for us to have to buy something. they did it to us last time too. grrrr.
jayb- what happens if the trailer is heavier than the truck? my car weighs 2950 lbs (according to the uhaul guy) and on the uhaul website it says the trailer ways 2000 lbs. so that is 5000 lbs. i dont think his truck weighs that much? even with both of us, the two dogs, and some stuff we are packing, it'll only be another 500lbs. will our truck be heavy enough?
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mpbronso
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
13:17:04
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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i'm not sure jayb is right about that. if he is, then it is uhaul that is wrong, or just super anal retentive.
your truck will have a sticker (again on the inside frame of the driver's side door) that lists the "GVWR" or "Gross Vehicle Weight Rating". If I am not mistaken, this is the maximum weight of truck, trailer, passengers, dogs, etc. combined that dodge suggests the truck can pull. also, the truck's "gvw" or "gross vehicle weight" should be listed, which means the weight of the truck by itself.
so the mr. wizard equation would look like GVWR - GVW (figuring in the two of you and anything else you might put in the cab or bed) = MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE TRAILER LOAD.
look at the truck's gvwr and gvw and it should put your mind at ease about all of this.
besides, despite what jayb says you ran it through the guy on the phone and i ran it through uhaul.com and it all checked out.
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modain
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
13:27:47
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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There is no need to worry about the towed load being heavier than the towing vehicle (most RV trailers you see on the road are heavier than their tow vehicles), as long as you make sure that the tongue weight is correct (12%-15%) of the trailer's gross weight, and that it has brakes if it is over 2000#s. Of course, within the capabilities of the truck for total GVW as mrpbronso pointed out.
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Maria
Dodge Dakota
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7/29/2005
14:13:13
| RE: my husbands truck towing my car
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Well this has been more helpful than I could have imagined! I hope you all are all right, but I guess my husband and I will find out on Thursday! I have visions of driving my car up on the ramp and the dakota's front wheels slowly lifting up in the air! oh god i hope not! thanks everyone!!!
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