Tow Vehicle

"Dan, danl, Redbeard uh Greybeard now" wrote in message
...
On 17 Sep 2006 18:23:28 -0700, "Ronnie"
wrote:

I have been pulling my 20 foot Skeeter with a 2000 Z71 pickup. Love the
truck, handles the boat real good, gas milage not very good, got about
12 mpg on the road on my trip but I drive pretty fast, usually set the
cruise control 10 mph over the posted limit. It has 140,000 miles on it
now.

I had planned on replacing this truck with another one just like it,
keeping the old one to haul wood and do dirty work, keep the new one
for trips and pulling the boat. Sleeping in the cab of the truck and
trying to load it for a 2.5 week trip made me think about getting
something different, like a Surburban.

I pulled boats with full size vans for about 20 years and like the
truck better for backing, especially, but think I can handle most
anything. Not real worried about gas milage. Want something that will
handle the boat as well as my truck but give me more inside room.

I talked to Chris and Jim I think it was with a Surburban and a Tahoe
at the NWC and both liked their choices.

Any comments on tow vehicles?

Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com

Hi Ronnie,

I would look at the same truck in a 3/4 ton and put a pop up style
slide in camper in the bed. Some are pretty light, don't appreciably
increase drag over a topper style cap and in most cases you wouldn't
even need to raise it to catch a few zzz on the "Settee". When you
want to clean up or cook you can do it where ever you can park. Plenty
of storage too. Throw a porta potty in and you have everything you
need. Cross wind effect would be about the same as a van/suburban.

I agree whole hardily! I tow a 4400# boat and trailer that scales at about
4400# with a 2004 Chevy crewcab, shortbed Duramax diesel. I get about 14
mpg towing at 65-70 (speed limit in Calif for towing is 55) That is with my
Palomino B-800 slide in pop-up camper. Since this is a shortbed, the
sleeping on the settee would suck if you are over 5' tall. But the good
part is that it takes about 5 minutes to pop up the camper. Has queen size
bed, heater, stove and 3 way fridge. We do not cook in the camper as do not
want the food smells, so use a colman stove outside. Without towing and
with the camper, I get about 17 mpg at 55-60 mph. We just came back from a
drive to Alaska and for the 8200 miles averaged 15 mpg. Fourwheel popup
campers out of Woodland, CA have a slide in that is about 800#, where mine
is 1200#. I would go with gas if you do not drive a lot of miles a year, or
do not tow in mountains. I tow into the Sierra Nevada mt's and favorite
lake is at 4400' elevation, but do tow to Lake Tahoe and Reno, NV.