1300 mile tow report

My pops and I had an American Panga 22 built for us by Panga Marine in Sarasota Florida. It came time to pick up the boat, we live in NY. Our tow vehicle options were, his 2.7 MT taco, his GMC 2500 with a bench seat and no cruise control or my spankin' new(5000 mile) TRD OR DC MT. Guess which one we took? We left on a Thursday night and got back on Sunday morning, it was a full on canon ball run. 2600 miles round trip. The 1300 mile trip down, not towing anything, I averaged 17.2 mpg. Fuel consumption suffers on these trucks above 60~65mph. We did about 80mph most of the time. On my 25 mile commute to work I will get 22mpg if I take state roads around 50~60mph but if I take the highway at about 75~80mph I get about 17mpg.
The tow home; The boat and trailer weigh about 2800 pounds. I don't know what the tongue weight is but it towed beautifully. The tongue sat a little low because I only had a 3 1/2" drop hitch. I was going to stop and pick up another with less drop but it wasn't really an issue. On the 1300 mile trip home I averaged 12.5mpg. The truck had no problem maintaining 75mph with cruise control on in 6th gear. On some grades it would slow down to 68mph or so with cruise set at 75. There was only a handful of times when I would actually have to downshift to 5th. As I drove hundreds of miles in 6th gear with cruise control, I just kept thinking, "what would an automatic transmission be doing right now?"

 

Dont tow in overdrive gears

 

Love the Pangas, congrats on truck and boat

 

It's a manual trans. I don't think 6th is an overdrive gear.

 

Manuals still have overdrive gears

 

Thank you. We've had a lifetime of small runabouts that beat you up in choppy water. Can't wait to slide along like butter in the panga.

 

Doesn't matter in a stick shift.

Thanks for the write up.

 

I know that but I don't think it is an overdrive gear in these trucks. Can anyone confirm?

 

@gearcruncher

 

Nice boat! What are you going to hang on the transom?

 

5th and 6th are both overdrive gears, but the 4.30 rear end keeps the RPMs fairly high in 6th anyway.

 

We're going with a Suzuki 140.

 

Any transmission gear that is over a 1:1 gear ratio is overdrive. Another way of stating is if the RPM of the output shaft is turning faster than the input shaft, it's overdrive. Whether that's going to be a problem towing ~ 4,000 pounds with a MT after you strap on a motor and fill the tanks with gas is something to consider.

 

The beefy rear end on the manual definitely helps make it a better tow vehicle. I felt like I could pull out tree stumps from a dead stop on the manual I tested.

 

Understood. Personally, I would go no higher than 5th when towing after you get the motor, gas and coolers full of Sam Adams. FWIW, the manual states this:

● Vehicles with a manual transmission: To maintain engine braking
efficiency and charging system performance when using engine
braking, do not use the fifth gear (5-speed manual transmission) or
the sixth gear (6-speed manual transmission).

 

Awesome all around. Thanks for the tow review.
Have fun with your new boat.

 

I was fixin to call bs until I realized you have a manual transmission.
Just curious, what axle ratio do you have in the diffs?
I have a auto trans with3:90.1 gears and only pulled a 4seater utv and it struggled trying to find a happy gear. I honestly think the auto would do fine with some reprogramming. My truck only gad 100 miles on it when we hauled the utv. I'm sure that didn't help any either.

 

Question.
What is an overdrive gear?

How would you not tow in that if you have an automatic?

I don't tow I'm just curious.

 

Simple. Your auto has a stick shift to select the gear range? Mine does. Just back off one gear and you are done. It is not about whether you CAN tow in O/D, it is about whether you SHOULD. It runs transmission temps way up, and also lugs the engine down out of its optimal power band. That makes it use more fuel, not less.