Mountain Towing Advice

Happy New Year, good people of Colorado. I come seeking your insight. I have a 2020sr5 with v6 and 265/75/16 tires. I have a 22' winnebago (5500lbs loaded) I plan to tow from NJ to FairPlay, where I own a couple acres in August. My current plan is to have a Magnuson SC installed in the coming few months to enhance the truck's pulling capability. Way cheaper than buying a v8 something or other, especially considering I got 0% financing during the pandemic.
Nevertheless I'm having some jitters about dropping 8k on the SC. We plan to build on our land in the next 3 years or so and I know that money would be really handy in that context. I just don't want to spend it if I don't have to or should not.
Does anyone else tow close to your truck's limit out in the mountains? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Have a great day.


Noah

 

Doesn’t sound like a fun trip supercharged or not. Doable I guess, but should look into a half ton truck.

 

You could tow it to Denver, rent an F150 or even a Cummins from U-Haul/Enterprise/Whomever to get the trailer up the hills and then go back to get the taco.

I towed 5k pounds from San Jose to Austin, it fucking sucked and I didn’t get above 65mph

Buying a supercharger for this seems hilariously unnecessary. Isn’t most of eastern CO flat?

 

Towing it a single time to park on the property.... Sure go for it in July or August... No need for a supercharger.

Towing it around traveling out if it.... The supercharger is not going to do what a full size would do... I wouldn't do it.

 

2 things, towed my 4K Lbs many times up there many times, literally must have a full tank of gas to get up to fairplay from Golden area and in a few spots 45MPH is the best/ all you can do.

Watch your trans temps too.

 

Suggest getting a transmission cooler and a monitoring device (e.g., Scangauge II).

 

Towing it to FairPlay to park it for three weeks and then back home.

 

I would think renting a trailer here for 3 weeks would save you a ton of gas money plus the wear and tear.

 

I have a Rockwood G16BH. Not as heavy as yours, but it tows fine behind my Taco. I've done some extensive mods. Dobinson Suspension, E-rated tires, 4:88 gearing, KDMax wifeytip Tune, RedArc brake controller, and airbags. I wouldn't feel comfortable towing without these mods. A supercharger would be the icing on the cake, but the gearing, tune, brake controller, and airbags are more important, IMO.

 

presuming you are AT - just be sure to us the S Mode for towing and not the D mode. You should be fine just lock it to S4 when you are heading up to Fairplay from Denver and use S5 when you are on the downhill or flat sections. If you have Tuner available get the KDMax tune as noted above, and yes you will want a suitable suspension for towing also as noted above.

 

I should have noted originally: I have bilstein 6112 units on front 5-6th clip and 5160s with much stiffer springs out back. usually around 3" lift. about level under load of trailer.
I have a blue ox weight distribution hitch with sway bars, a brake controller, stock transmission cooler, obd plug for bluetooth phone app as monitor

Ive not presumed gears to be as important as the supercharger and proper tune. I have C rated tires and the math just doesn't add up to beef them up to E's.

Thank you all very much for your input. Any and all thoughts are welcomed.

 

then we'd have to find places to stay on the drive out. Im bringing dogs, tools and milling equip. to clear trees on my land, so wife and I will both be driving our vehicles.

 

Regear would be better then a supercharger, would help reduce the strain on motor and transmission

 

Rent a bigger truck. Tow it there rent it again to take it home.

 

im having trouble understanding why. im not saying I think you're wrong at all. but the transmission changes gears based on the tune's prescribed shift points and my wheel/tire combo are modest. why regear?

 

Despite what some may think you indeed have control over your transmission provided you manually change gears with the selector. If you yank it back into low that's where it will stay.

 

Some more thoughts/opinions: You should get the supercharger if you want it. It's on my list

I'm guessing that you have a 4x4, so that will cost approx $2,270 (link) to regear. That's 1/3rd the price of an $8k SC, which should arguably be mated to proper gears to take full advantage of the gains. Lower gears will compound the ratio in your favor, and give you more control under additional load. Regear puts the transmission into the "sweet spot". No doubt, you can tow without a SC or gears, but it won't be as pleasant.

With regards to tires, 5,500 lbs is on the higher side of the towing capacity, so switching up to E-rated tires will help with the additional weight. Stronger sidewalls will help with stability in the corners and overall #per sq inch weight to tire ratio.

Just some more thoughts/opinions. Take it for what it's worth. I've hauled with stock gears and C-rated tires, but it wasn't fun. Sloppy cornering characteristics and erratic shifting points. GL!

 

It can be done just remember Mechanical Things that get heat soaked do all manor of strange things .

How many days are you planning out and back the Mrs and You and the pets are used to long days ??

Why drag the camper all the way home ??

I have pulled a heavy trailer with a undersized Truck I more then doubled the time I thought I could make and that was not with two vehicles and 4 legged family members

We do what we need to I would really think of a bigger Truck

 

I do want a SC. Also, 5500lbs may be an overestimate. its 4300 dry. I also won't have to transport everything else for the trip in my vehicle. My wife will be driving her jeep. She'll have the majority of the "stuff" we need. Ill have the camper, myself, dog and a couple hundred lbs of tools.
And to be clear, Ive towed it a bunch around here. It does fine on the short, steep hills we have in the east.
Id like to hold off on gears *for now*
I just got a Tom Woods shaft and I read that gears can force that thing to spin too fast at speed. I rarely drive faster than 70. When towing I keep it at the speed limit and if it goes above 65, I just get over to the right.

 

4 days driving out and 4 days driving back. I think about a bigger truck all the time, but unfortunately, it does not fit into our life right now. I have a 55 mile/day commute to work. The Tacoma is bad enough. Maybe once we move to Fairplay a full size will be in order, but it doesn't work for us now.