Pics of your tow vehicle?

Another 30mph and he may have made it.

phatsat67 wrote: Wow, that Nissan had to look like an compressed accordion after it hit the opposite bridge embankment.

He fell asleep at the wheel. From the post on reddit:

Doctors Tuesday evening said that Moerland suffered a fractured leg and lower back and dislocated ankle. He also suffered a partially collapsed lung.

The end may be near for my ultimate tow vehicle, the Saturn Ion. I took my wife's "new" ( used rental car ) 2013 Ford Escape 2.0 4WD on my first road trip without a trailer today from Chicago to De Pere WI and back, 406 miles. This is the result of the drive there.

I had a bit of a tail wind and tried to get good mileage, setting the cruise at about 65-70 most of the time going up.
On the way home I ran into a very violent thunderstorm for about 100 miles of the trip. I also couldn't keep my foot out of the gas ( it is a fun car to play with ) so I ended up with 30.7 round trip. Not bad for a 4WD SUV that is rated for towing 3,500#. I may have to get her a new one and take hers. Whats the point of driving my lemon squeezer to get good mileage when hers gets within a couple MPG.

Mine towed my friends 24' pontoon effortlessly. Much better than my Ion would. I am averaging right around 30.5 on the highway with the air on and the cruise set between 65-70. I use premium to get that little extra out of the boost. Probably only helps in high boost conditions though.
Around town it's another story. It's so peppy I like to use it. I have gotten as low as 18 but my wife averages about 23 in town. I checked a few Escape forums and found that many people say it is capable of doing better than the published figured, but few get it around town because they like to use their right foot. Some even suggested they come out with a flash that would reduce the responsiveness.
Ford Racing is taking orders for a flash that that gives the Focus ST ( same engine and platform) a solid 360 pound feet of torque at 2,500 rpm and an estimated 320HP (91-93 octane required) and doesn't void the warranty. I hope they come out with a similar one for the Escape 2.0. Livernois, an aftermarket performance company, has an Escape flash for 300HP and 350 foot pound of torque, but it may or may not affect the warranty.

john b wrote: The end may be near for my ultimate tow vehicle, the Saturn Ion. I took my wife's "new" ( used rental car ) 2013 Ford Escape 2.0 4WD on my first road trip without a trailer today from Chicago to De Pere WI and back, 406 miles. This is the result of the drive there. I had a bit of a tail wind and tried to get good mileage, setting the cruise at about 65-70 most of the time going up. On the way home I ran into a very violent thunderstorm for about 100 miles of the trip. I also couldn't keep my foot out of the gas ( it is a fun car to play with ) so I ended up with 30.7 round trip. Not bad for a 4WD SUV that is rated for towing 3,500#. I may have to get her a new one and take hers. Whats the point of driving my lemon squeezer to get good mileage when hers gets within a couple MPG.

Thats cool! Would love to see that on my dash!

I just bought a GMC Sierra 2500HD over the weekend. Powered by 8.1 Vortec, with the Allison 5 speed automatic behind it... something tells me I'm going to be happy with about 1/3 of those numbers...


.

John, this is still an "old beater" truck, It is going to replace my existing work/plow, truck.

It's a 2001, one owner, 4x4 Standard cab/8 foot box, with 89,xxx miles and most of the "toys" ... (Power bucket seats and mirrors in my work truck!??!! ..and whats that "fuzzy stuff" on the floor? ) . I cant justify 50+G's for a new truck. Finding a nice 3/4 or 1 ton, standard cab / 8 foot box is next to impossible.... not a lot of selection in used ones.   

I do plan to work it, has max trailer wt. towing capacity around 14,000 lbs. Not good on mpg, I'm hearing 8 to 10 all around. But my current 97,3500 4x4 averages maybe a mile or so better, so hoping not to see much dif in fuel costs.

Steve, I know you're a guy who needs and uses a truck. I remember the snow photos.
This is an average of what we have gotten in the approximately 5,000 miles since we got it.

It includes about 1,000 miles pulling a 1,000# utility trailer, launching two pontoon boats, one wave runner, and one runabout for a total of about 300 miles. the rest is a combo of city and highway.
It would not do your work around the farm and it is not intended to go off road. It has ground effects on the bottom and even the rear diff is faired with a pretty tough plastic piece. A lot of people are going to tear that stuff off trying to take them off road. The old Escape wasn't too bad in deep sand, rocks, and mud. Big difference with this one.

john b wrote: bkhallpass wrote: Actually, I guess I have a 2 liter turbo. We're not seeing 35mpg, that's for sure. BKH I tried pretty hard to see what I could get out of it. It will probably be the mileage record because I don't normally drive like that. It takes very light traffic, few stops, and a concentrated effort. .

I get it.

Not sure what state you are in. Do you have a bunch of emissions control (smog) requirements? We seem to have as much of that as anyone here in California, plus a bunch of "stuff" added to our gas. I don't think that helps either.

BKH

Well it isn't a Nautique but at least I was able to get on the water.
Here's my 2014 F150 STX in black (the only color). Still need a tri-fold cover but I love it (besides the annoying USB selection issue).

Do you still have the Kammback? Those were some great looking cars. The GT hatchback looked like a little Z28. My wife had a notchback and a friend had a hatchback GT. I spent a lot of time in them. Their styling and performance were at opposite ends of the spectrum. You seem to have solved the performance issue.

No, we don't have the Kammback anymore. We found out another grandson was on the way and having the boat was more practical. So we got rid of it. Loved it while we had it!

john b wrote: Do you still have the Kammback? Those were some great looking cars. The GT hatchback looked like a little Z28. My wife had a notchback and a friend had a hatchback GT. I spent a lot of time in them. Their styling and performance were at opposite ends of the spectrum. You seem to have solved the performance issue.

Loved Vegas. I recently read an article that said the Cosworth Vega was priced well above the Z28 and only $1000 less than the Vette.

That is a very difficult decision I would like to have to make!

The Day I picked her up.

IAughtNaut wrote: isn't it funny how many of our tow rigs match our boats on this site?   Morfoot, red Durango (and pickup apparently), red and white 88. What came first, the chicken or the boat?

If you go back to the first page in this thread you'll see 'Melly' pulling 'Miss Scarlett'. It's an 86 C-10 that gets a whopping 10 mpg when pulling. Got much better fuel econ using my dads 2002 silverado hauling the bike and pulling the boat.

Aaron....VERY nice!