Hi Ed,
Before anything else, Let me say I'm not flaming you or trying to put
you down. I respect you and every other Dakota owner out there simply for
owning one of the finest trucks on the road. You towing a full size
trailer with a QC is your business and that's entirely up to you and your
judgement. Personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable towing that large of a
trailer with a mid-size truck. Before I bought my Dak, I owned (Gulp! I
really hate to admit this here!) a Ferd Ranger 4X4 with the V6 and 4spd. I
used it to tow a loaded, 6X12 U-Haul to Louisiana from just outside Philly
back in 96. That was an adventure in moving. When I got ready to return to
the east coast after my retirement from active duty, I used the same truck
to tow my boat from Louisiana to Dover. The boat, motor, and trailer weighs
in at 1800 lbs. I used the boat as a U-Haul, loaded it down and had the
whole thing weighed. Total load on the back of the Ranger was 3150 lbs.
When I had to get on the brakes a little hard, it really swayed so needless
to say I took it easy driving home. I just wasn't comfortable having the
boat push the truck around. Even after I unloaded the boat of all the extra
stuff, I towed it, using the Ranger still, to my Dad's home in PA. Some
hills in that part of the country, and even then, when I got on the brakes,
it swayed some. After I bought the Dak, I towed the boat home. Going down
the road in the Dak with the boat on the back is no problem. Takes a little
longer to get up to speed, the truck knows the boat is back there, but
nothing compared to the Ranger. If your comfortable towing that much with
your QC, more power to you. Again, this is only my opinion, I wouldn't care
to tow anything much heavier then 2000-2500 lbs with any Dakota. Once you
hit the 1.5 ton mark its my belief you need to start looking at a full size
truck or SUV with the weight and braking capacity to handle that kind of
load.
Ray Irons
Dover, DE
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