Towing Vehicle Dilemma

[Mrd8ker]

Hey all -

Wondering if anyone wants to weigh in on my towing rig dilemma. I have a 2014 Mondo (3800 lbs dry) that I currently pull with the wife's GMC Yukon Denali with the 6.2 V8. Her employer recently moved locations and she went from a 2 mile commute to a 50 mile commute. We are burning some petro! I have started wondering if I should get her into a commuter car and buy another used tow rig that I can pull the boat with during boating season. I drive 50 miles or so to work so I need a daily driver as well. Could of been a GREAT excuse to buy a new truck. :cool:

So there in lies my question. For those that need to pull with something other than their daily driver, what do you use? Pickup or SUV? Gas or diesel? How is the maintenance on something that isn't your daily driver? How much engine? How many miles are too many for something used?

All opinions welcome. Thanks guys.

CJ

[trayson]

I seriously thought about this when we needed to upgrade the Ridgeline to something more robust. When I looked at the idea of adding another insurance payment + registration + maintenance, it just didn't make sense for us. We're of course in the opposite scenario as my wife only drives maybe 10k a year. so it was fine to get her into the Ecoboost instead of having 2 less expensive vehicles (tow rig and DD).

I don't like having redundancy in our vehicles. So for us it made sense to have her drive a truck because it's something that we don't already have in my cars. (My Audi wagon pulls triple duty as a "utility" vehicle, a snow wagon for winter, and sports/luxury car.)

So if you don't have a truck then maybe add one to the mix if you see yourself using the bed for truck duties. We ended up getting the hard tri-fold tonneau because we wanted things protected when we put luggage/gear in the bed for trips. With it being 2 of us most the time (my son is only with us 1/2 the time), she doesn't need her rear truck seats, so she uses that area as the indoor "trunk".

Also do the real math on what the gas is actually costing you. For example, if I assume that we got 16mpg in the Ridgeline and 12 in the F150, then for her small 10k miles a year the difference is under $500 a year with today's gas prices. That's not hard to eat up in additional monthly insurance and yearly maintenance and licensing costs (not to mention the initial investment of a replacement tow rig).

So let's take your commute as an example:

100 miles a day for a year (less vacations) would be a difference in gas of about $3k when comparing 12mpg vs 35mpg.

[zabooda]

Car pool together, car pool separately, move to a home closer to work. Eating up money and time is not a good proposition and more family time living closer to work.

[mmandley]

Buy a RAM Cummins.
15k oil change costs 80 at the dealer
Fuel filters are 15k cost 100 do it yourself.
I get 20mpg all day driving and that's my big ass crew cab long bed 4x4
It costs me $60 a tank and get 560+ miles.

If you get a used one get 12+ so you get the new factory tuning.

Once you tow with a 3/4 ton diesel you will wonder why you ever towed with anything less again.

I've had
06 F150
06 Ford F350 6.0 Diesel
08 Ford F350 6.4 Diesel
2013 Ford Ecoboost FX4
2014 Ram 2500 Cummins (hands down the best)

[evoimport6]

I have the ram 1500 Eco diesel and wife has the Touareg tdi. No issues pulling anything and both get 25 mpg.
That Touareg pulls the mojo like nothing is behind it.

[patrick232]

Look around for a 2016 Cruze Eco that the dealers are taking 25% off or have great lease deals one. We are getting over 35 mpg around town with the 15 year old student driver behind the wheel. Got 40+ on the one road trip I took it on.

[sandm]

based on the fact that she's in a denali, my guess is the bells/whistles are important and an econobox isn't going to cut it, especially for a 50mile commute. happy wife is happy life so I would look for a nice car to replace the denali.
I tow with a 2000 ford f150 that i bought in '06. good truck. reliable and tows my 4k boat well. I only put 3 or 4k a year on it so it's strictly a tow pig. they can be had, along with several dodge/chevy variants for 4-6k for good examples under 125k miles. it cost me around $50/yr in basic maintenance and I keep just liability on it so insurance is pretty cheap. you could actually cancel in the winter if it's strictly a summer tow pig. I would pick gas over diesel due to the cheaper oil changes and perceived cheaper parts since most diesels are 3/4ton and higher demanding a premium on basic maintenance parts.

that would be the route I would go based on the limited knowledge of your lifestyle above.

[sivs1]

I had a similar situation, went from zero mile commute to a 78 mile one way five days a week. The wife was already doing a 50 mile one way commute in our Honda Pilot getting around 24 MPG. Our truck is a lease, as we really only use it for the boat and boating trips. Based on simple math I would be over my milage limit in a year. In the mountains we have to have awd. I looked at Subaru, honda, Acura, Lexus, and Mercedes. Bought a MB C300 4matic. Has all the bells and whistles, plenty of power, comfortable and get decent gas milage. I get a car allowance from work and that covers my payment and insurance. I would never move closer to work. I'm 8 minutes to the boat launch and 16 minutes to the chairlift, plus my views are amazing.

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[07STI]

Hey all -

Wondering if anyone wants to weigh in on my towing rig dilemma. I have a 2014 Mondo (3800 lbs dry) that I currently pull with the wife's GMC Yukon Denali with the 6.2 V8. Her employer recently moved locations and she went from a 2 mile commute to a 50 mile commute. We are burning some petro! I have started wondering if I should get her into a commuter car and buy another used tow rig that I can pull the boat with during boating season. I drive 50 miles or so to work so I need a daily driver as well. Could of been a GREAT excuse to buy a new truck. :cool:

So there in lies my question. For those that need to pull with something other than their daily driver, what do you use? Pickup or SUV? Gas or diesel? How is the maintenance on something that isn't your daily driver? How much engine? How many miles are too many for something used?

All opinions welcome. Thanks guys.

CJ

I've toyed around with this idea a few times as well, but my commute isn't quite as long as yours. The few things that keep me from purchasing something different are:

1) The actual savings on gas isn't significant enough (typically $100/month or so).
2) I have a 3 stall garage, which houses the boat and our 2 vehicles. I'd prefer not to have an extra vehicle sitting in the driveway all the time.
3) I'm really happy with my Yukon. I want to have full confidence in my tow vehicle and if I bought something used it'd take a while before I felt confident taking it on longer trips w/tow duty.
4) This goes along with #3...I just know I wouldn't be as happy with a commuter car. I'm a bit of a car-guy, so if I'm driving a car I want some hp/tq. I know that if I was driving a commuter car every day, I'd be thinking "why am I doing this to save $100 a month?" And realistically, after maintenance/insurance, it's probably $50 per month.

What are your wife's thoughts about moving from a Yukon Denali to a commuter car? Does she think she'll be okay with it? Has she asked her employer about getting some reimbursement for gas/travel? I would think that if a company is doing well and decides to move (growth reasons?) that they can justify helping out employees for the inconvenience.

Good luck in your decision!

[patrick232]

based on the fact that she's in a denali, my guess is the bells/whistles are important and an econobox isn't going to cut it, especially for a 50mile commute. happy wife is happy life so I would look for a nice car to replace the denali.
I tow with a 2000 ford f150 that i bought in '06. good truck. reliable and tows my 4k boat well. I only put 3 or 4k a year on it so it's strictly a tow pig. they can be had, along with several dodge/chevy variants for 4-6k for good examples under 125k miles. it cost me around $50/yr in basic maintenance and I keep just liability on it so insurance is pretty cheap. you could actually cancel in the winter if it's strictly a summer tow pig. I would pick gas over diesel due to the cheaper oil changes and perceived cheaper parts since most diesels are 3/4ton and higher demanding a premium on basic maintenance parts.

that would be the route I would go based on the limited knowledge of your lifestyle above.

You hit the nail on the head with this one, my wife has only driven the cruze a handful of times.

[yooper]

I have the ram 1500 Eco diesel and wife has the Touareg tdi. No issues pulling anything and both get 25 mpg.
That Touareg pulls the mojo like nothing is behind it.

Agree. I also tow a Mojo with a TDI Touareg. Amazing performance, and it is a great daily driver with all the bells and whistles. When I'm not towing, I get around 24 mpg average in mixed driving, and get about 30 (almost 700 miles to a tank) on a long trip.

[gregski]

How is the maintenance on something that isn't your daily driver? How much engine?
This shouldn't be a significant issue. I don't do anything different for my summertime Jeep than I do for our daily drivers and haven't had any issues. I do put the battery on a tender while in storage but that's really it. For fuel, I've tried storing the tank empty and filling fresh in the spring or storing the tank full and I've also done each way using fuel stabilizer - each way has worked just fine for me.

[gpd005]

I lease a truck, I only use it to go to the lake, go to my ATV races, and go deer hunting. it is a quad cab, 4X4 and we love it!!!! It's right at $300/mo and I drive a 04 Caddy every day that is paid for but I love the leasing option. Get's me a new vehicle every two year and I'm paying a lot less for my monthly payments and even less than I would spend for the depreciation on a new one if I was buying. Not the right move for everyone but it works well for us.

[wolfeman131]

I lease a truck, I only use it to go to the lake, go to my ATV races, and go deer hunting. it is a quad cab, 4X4 and we love it!!!! It's right at $300/mo and I drive a 04 Caddy every day that is paid for but I love the leasing option. Get's me a new vehicle every two year and I'm paying a lot less for my monthly payments and even less than I would spend for the depreciation on a new one if I was buying. Not the right move for everyone but it works well for us.

Since you use the truck for all of those activities, I'm guessing you get some scratches, dings, dents, etc. Do you get hit with penalties for that sort of damage?