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Old 04-08-2013, 10:24 PM   #1
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Thumbs down Hard to Pull

I am wondering if anyone private or commercial has completed any research on how much power it takes to pull toads of different makes and transmissions. I have a 2011 escape and it takes one mile per gallon to pull the thing. The Motorhome is a Tiffin Allegro Bay FRED diesel. It just seems to me that that is a lot of power to tow a small SUV.
Along those lines anyone thinking of buying a toad stay away from Ford, the will replace the transmission once but the next one they start getting snippy. Yes I followed the rules in the book. Gave up and put a $3,400 pump kit in. Fords price and Ford requires they put it in.
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Old 04-08-2013, 10:32 PM   #2
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That's an expensive tranny fluid pump. My Remco pump for my jeep was $1300 installed. I've driven over 15k miles so far and works great.
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Old 04-08-2013, 10:39 PM   #3
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I figure pulling a toad doubles your gas mileage.

Two vehicles get there for the price of one.
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Old 04-09-2013, 12:11 AM   #4
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I have checked this having towed with and without my toad over the last 2 years...I found - for me there is about a 0.2mpg increase without the toad.

Of course, if you drive faster when driving without the toad, then the savings will be lost.

Now about the Ford Escape - Ford says I can flat tow my Escape, and I have almost 10,000 towed miles on my Escape Hybrid, BUT with the front wheels on a dolly. No problems - ever.

I know a dolly won't work with many 4X4's but for others (most all modern front wheel drive cars and SUV's) I feel that it saves the driveline and I believe the dolly wheels roll easier than regular drive wheels.

Safe travels to all.
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Old 04-09-2013, 12:36 AM   #5
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I've towed a '97 Jeep GC, it was very easy to tow. I've also towed a '05 Honda Odyssey both four down and on a dolly. Just from the "feel" of it the Jeep was the easiest rolling, the Ody on our Demco dolly next and most resistance was the Ody four down. Never bothered to check the mileage though.
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Old 04-09-2013, 03:45 AM   #6
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I would think that the percentage of the overall combined weight would be a indicator of the impact of the toad.

Previous coach (28' 95' Safari Trek with GM 6.5 diesel) would consistently be 10.something towing, 12.something not towing. This with a 5000lb Jeep toad, oversized tires, etc. Current coach bas not been without toad enough for me to have a quantified difference, but I think the delta is less than 1. As to the feel of the toad being there, much more noticeable with the Safari Trek.
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Old 04-09-2013, 07:06 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by crslls View Post
I am wondering if anyone private or commercial has completed any research on how much power it takes to pull toads of different makes and transmissions. I have a 2011 escape and it takes one mile per gallon to pull the thing. The Motorhome is a Tiffin Allegro Bay FRED diesel. It just seems to me that that is a lot of power to tow a small SUV.
Along those lines anyone thinking of buying a toad stay away from Ford, the will replace the transmission once but the next one they start getting snippy. Yes I followed the rules in the book. Gave up and put a $3,400 pump kit in. Fords price and Ford requires they put it in.
We have a 2007 FRED like yours (35') that we use to tow a CRV. Ours has the smaller engine, and only a five speed tranny - yours probably has a six speed and the larger engine so I would expect your mileage should be better. On multiple identical round trips (650 miles one way), from Florida to eastern TN, for us the difference between toad and no toad was 0.3 mpg better without the toad. I am not sure I would worry about 1 mpg, but that is just me.
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Old 04-09-2013, 08:10 AM   #8
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The only way we know that our toad is behind us is when we look in the dash monitor.
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Old 04-09-2013, 08:26 AM   #9
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My toad goes more miles thank the MH, exploring and such.
It pays me to toad.
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Old 04-09-2013, 08:56 AM   #10
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Did my first extended pulling of my toad last night...I couldn't tell any difference in ride and control. I *THINK* I might have noticed a VERY SMALL change in accelerating up a couple hills from a dead stop but at interstate speed I saw the customary loss of 1 MPH I would see without the toad. Since I haven't done a significant number of miles before now, I won't really have a comparison of fuel burn but having the toad with us will be priceless.

BTW, we haven't had a chance to get it out to an open parking lot to test how hard we could turn the MH and toad without binding anything up but normal turns seem...normal. Perhaps I sub-consciously delay starting hard right turns a tad but otherwise normal turns with any kind of rounding of the corner curbs doesn't require any adjustment that I have noticed so far.

Sandee and I practiced tear down and hook up just in case we (*I*) screw up and put us in a bad position like a tight fuel island or such. We can get it unhooked in less than 3 minutes. Hook up takes about the same amount of time once the toad is in the correct position.
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Old 04-09-2013, 12:30 PM   #11
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We are getting ready to equip our 2003 Honda Odyssey to tow behind our 31' Sunseeker (Class C).
We've heard horror stories about towing Ody's but it's what we have to work with! We have to tow 4 down in consideration of the cargo weight of the RV (and our 5 kids).
Any advice/hints to make this work out right?!
Thanks!
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Old 04-09-2013, 04:12 PM   #12
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On our Ford Gas chassis, 2007, it appears that the penalty is less than .25 mpg with our 3500 pound toad.

Most of the fuel consumed on a motor home is due to the aerodynamic drag from pushing an incredibly unstreamlined shape through the air. Sticking a toad back behind it doesn't change that much. There's some fuel consumption penalty when accelerating or climbing but not that much.

In fact our motor home gets better mileage towing our 5x8 box trailer. I think this is an aerodynamic thing, smoothing out the turbulence behind the motor home.
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Old 04-09-2013, 11:55 PM   #13
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You are lucky you do not own a Ford. They told Remco that they would not warrenty unless they sold and installed thr pump so Remco will not sell the pump to the general public only Ford. Ford bumped the price to 2,000 installation was 1,400 overnight shiping 300. Best bet is do your research befor buying and do not buy a Ford.
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Old 04-10-2013, 04:19 AM   #14
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The $2K extra may be worth the ford warranty. I'm on my second pump. Although Remco is warranting the first one. I've read somewhere make sure gig never start the car with the pump on. The pump is destroyed. I'm very careful about that.
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