Quote:
Originally Posted by Attacking Mid
Yes, I towed our 26' travel trailer from CO Spgs to Big Sky, MT with our E53 3.0. It worked very hard, but absolutely no issues with the cooling system running the 1.4 bar cap.
AM.
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I've towed some trailers with under-powered trucks before, and always tried to upgrade them before the next long-haul tow (drag car on a tandem axle trailer). Examples, towing the same trailer, about 6000 lbs (3800 lb car + 2200 lb trailer), with three different trucks (each with 1000 lb booster springs installed), :
- 1a) 1969 Chevy C-10, (3600 lb), with a 355 high perf engine with 272 degree cam/350 hp/3.07 rear axle,then
- 1b) same truck, with a better 3.73 rear gear, and
- 2) 1975 Chevy C-10, (3900 lb), with a 358 high-torque engine with 224 degree cam/<300 hp/3.40 rear axle, followed by
- 3) 2004 Chevy 2500HD WT, (5800 lbs), with a 6.0L engine/300hp/360 lb.ft. torque/4.10 rear axle
What I learned from improving the towing vehicle to better tow the basically same load, was that more is better. More weight, more torque, more gearing.
I got the X5 after I quit racing and started camping, so the load to be towed isn't the same. Though my home-built trailer is heavy for its' size (2225 lbs, 4x8 cabin on a 12 ft long trailer), my '04 truck is way more than a match for it. But, I'm wary of using my 6-cylindered 21-year-old X5 to haul the trailer, on long trips (500+ miles).
I know it is rated for 6k lbs, but it is very old (though with a well-maintained engine, and rebuilt suspension), even older than my truck, with 210k miles vs 140k miles on the HD truck, so I'm hesitant to use the X5. Plus, I've only got a 4-way connector on the X5, and can't utilize the brakes on my trailer.
But, I'm encouraged by your 800+ mile trip thru mountainous country, using your 3.0 X5, especially since your trailer probably weighed around 3x what mine does. Maybe I'll try it on a short trip, soon, to a campsite within 200 miles (and over Texas' non-mountainous terrain).