Downside of Towing a Full Size Pickup

[Rocky68D]

I'm wondering if any of you folks who tow a full size pickup behind your DP have had any issues. I don't mean mechanical but things like handling in tight quarters or finding pull thru sites long enough to avoid detaching. Have you had to detach to deal with those challenges very often?

At 65' of overall length I'm wondering what the downsides are besides going up the hill slower?

Thanks,
Rocky

[Triker56]

At 65' of overall length I'm wondering what the downsides are besides going up the hill slower?

Less MPG possible on the Cat C9
Less MPG then smaller toad
Truck will ride rougher then a car
Depends on truck model, parking spots in town may be harder to find.
Probably won't fit in older campground sites without unhooking.

[Randyman1]

No down side that I can see. Our truck rides better than our Lincoln MKS! Sit up higher and see out better when sight seeing. Literally don't even know it is behind our rig. Have towed Jeep Gr. Cherokee, Cadillac Escalade (99 so could flat tow that one) Suburban, Ford Flex and now this King Ranch. Ease of tow obviously depended on the horse pulling it and with this coach it has the horse to make it easy. The Flex and the KR are the only ones behind this coach, those other tow vehicles were behind a 35' 300hp diesel and you did notice them being back there.

[Cousin Ed]

We have been towing the Sierra for about 6 years and 70,000 miles. I don't see any downside.

[Pigman1]

We've been pulling the Silverado since we got it new in 2011. Three 11,000 mile trips to Alaska and 6,000 annually to the southwest and have had NO problems. When coming down from AK, we have a 17 cu ft chest freezer FULL of fish and shrimp plus a mess of gear. About 7800 pounds. Just make sure the pickup has a good front end alignment. Pulling at those weights and miles can wear front tires fast when you get an alignment from a klutz. Personal experience.

[FIRE UP]

Yep,
Like Pigman, we too have been towing an '11 GMC Sierra 1500 Extended Cab 4x4 and, there is ZERO downsides to it. If you tow just about ANYTHING, you'll need a longer space in an RV park. Everyone's got their priorities and, what's important or not. Disconnecting a toad at an RV park or campground due to the unavailability of a pull-through site is certainly no big deal to us. We've done it a bazillion times.
Since we travel at whim, (zero reservations of 98% of our travels), we leave ourselves options at campgrounds/RV parks. Another words, if all they have is back-in spaces, yahoo, at least it's a spot for the night or two and we don't have to continue driving and searching.

But, we too are in the neighborhood of 62'-63' long. Yep, you have to plan turns, parking, fueling, and all that. We don't get any worse mileage towing our '11 GMC than we do any other toad we've towed, with this Diesel coach. It's the EXACT same with any of them, POOR!! As for less power due to towing a 5,300 lb. truck, (yep, I weighed it with full tank of fuel), well, again, this coach goes up the same hills, at the same speed, towing any of our toads, including multiple Jeeps, an '11 CRV, our GMC truck and our present Jeep, a '15 JKUR.

Rocky68D, don't overthink this. If you're worried about mileage, power, extra long considerations for driving, parking etc., then get an old Suzuki Sami for a toad. But, if you have a need for a full sized truck for a toad, as we do, then hook one up and tow it down the road without worrying.
Scott

[hilgert]

We have a Class C, so 10 feet shorter in total, but still the same concerns with tight quarters. However, with your DP you don't have the fuel stop issues we have with our gasser...you can use the same diesel lanes as the truckers, while we have to be a bit more careful to plan our exit before entering a fuel stop. There are some sites with pull-thrus that we have to disconnect the towed when overnighting, but it only takes a minute to do so.

We like the visibility, ride (the F150 rides really nice) and utility of a pickup...the bed is basically a trailer into which we toss any junk we want for a particular trip. It weighs about 5500 lbs as-loaded (full fuel tank, usual stuff we carry in 2nd row or bed of truck, etc.), but we have not yet encountered a hill we could not go up at a reasonable speed.

[walt2137]

No down side for us , it is a comfortable toad but we also have a smaller toad we tow some time that we also like.

[Gary RVRoamer]

Well, longer always has some drawback - every extra foot requires a bit more care in selecting campsites, maneuvering on twisty roads, making sharp turns, etc. So if you could be happy with a toad that is 14 ft long instead of 20 and cut the overall length by 6 ft, there would be some modest benefit. But if a full size pick-up is what you want to tow & drive, I see no reason not to do so. The extra is simply not a big deal in the overall scheme of things.

[XBoater]

Started towing my 4wd Ram 1500 Quad Cab. Rides better and quieter than my PT, gas mileage not much worse either. No downside. If site is too short for pickup, it was probably too short for PT anyway. No difference in turning, surprised to hear that one as it tracks behind the RV and is narrower. No change in MPG

[pointrow]

Only downside for me is I'm 72 feet long when I tow my f150 super cab long box with the tailgate down for my RZR.
Never even thought about it till the wife commented that we were taking up 7 parking spaces at WM one night. I stepped it off and sure enough 72 feet.
As long as some po doesn't make a issue I'll be ok.

Pointrow

[barmcd]

Our '17 F150 only weighs a couple hundred pounds more than our Jeep Cherokee on a dolly.

[Norweta]

Originally Posted by Randyman1

No down side that I can see. Our truck rides better than our Lincoln MKS! Sit up higher and see out better when sight seeing. Literally don't even know it is behind our rig. Have towed Jeep Gr. Cherokee, Cadillac Escalade (99 so could flat tow that one) Suburban, Ford Flex and now this King Ranch. Ease of tow obviously depended on the horse pulling it and with this coach it has the horse to make it easy. The Flex and the KR are the only ones behind this coach, those other tow vehicles were behind a 35' 300hp diesel and you did notice them being back there.

Hi Randy, new to the forum. traded up from a 2000 newmar dutchstar 38' last year for 2007 HR Navigator PBQ ISX 525 with all the bells and whistles and loving it. tow a 2016 F150 Lariut sport supercrew, little harder on MPG but don't even notice it being pulled. just wanted to comment that I'm following your posts as you answering all my questions and I don't even need to be asking them.

[ColeFalls44]

I think it works fine. If you are real picky you may see some downside, but realistically it wont be a problem