trclk1

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

How so, Carol? As far as can see it just sets a minimum performance standard for a tow rating to prevent over-rating. Nothing I've seen in the standard would prevent a manufacturer from down-rating a vehicle. Could be a conspiracy to sell larger vehicles, or merely an engineering decision that some aspect of the vehicle's design unrelated to any of the performance tests was not suited to a higher rating.

LOL yup your right there is nothing that bets a good conspiracy theory

[Jim Bennett]

Just a reminder to folks, especially those of you who seem to repeatedly love to rehash this topic, to respectfully give an opinion, supply whatever data you may have, and move on to let the OP make their own decision.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by MC1

Sounds like your vehicle was a lemon.

A guy I knew a few years back towed a 5,500lb TT with a full size Dodge Ram V8. He was well under the tow rating. Almost every part on the vehicle was replaced in the 5 years he owned it. 10's of thousand dollars worth of parts. A lemon!

Every vehicle has it's own plus and minus's and luck has a lot to do with how well the reliability goes.

I would agree with the Lemon theory based only on the good repair history of the previous two vehicles of the same make/model I owned, if it were not for the fact that another member here who pulls with the same vehicle has had to do a lot of the same work/replacement parts I had to do on mine and they are also towing a trailer just under its tow spec.... they also have a high number of tow miles on it as I did. They feel its just part of the price one pays for towing and to be expected. Of the 60,000 miles on mine about 65% or more of the miles were towing miles. And yup it was services regularly and it had all the fluids changed more frequently than required per the manual and it had an overside transmission cooler.

Bottom line is towing is hard on a vehicle and the closer you are to the towing spec or the more over you are, the harder it is going to be on it.

[Borrego Dave]

Carol I think you've hit the nail on the head. Vehicles coming down build line are going to be different for a lot of reasons, most good but a few are going to be lemons. I had a new car that started falling apart 30 days after I bought it but that's another story. I worked with a guy that bought a new Yugo, drove it for over ten years before it finally gave up. Towing does take it's toll. Some times you win, some times you pay the price.

[MC1]

Originally Posted by Borrego Dave

Towing does take it's toll. Some times you win, some times you pay the price.

I believe too that is the net.

I know of some pro set up FWD cars that towed large TT's for a decade and had no major issues while one car in particular, Chrysler sedans with the 2.7L V6 were dogs and it was suggested do not tow anything with them.

[Ice-breaker]

Originally Posted by The Minimalist

...The suggestion that it is good to get 'professional advice from various sources' seems to imply that the opinions of some may be suspect, and how are we, the non-professionals, to know which to trust.

The first rule and best advice that could be given to people should be to "DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET OR ON A FORUM". If you adhere to this, you should be fine. Of course, keep in mind where you are hearing this.