towing with a global expedition vehicle

[Jeep]

I gave up some departure angle for a better hitch but I will also be pulling a substantially larger load quite often. The bumper has a 4x4x.250 wall receiver that will go into the brackets on the bottom of the bumper and hinge up when not needed, the receiver isn't built yet, but everything is there to accommodate it.

 

[weissbrewer]

Looks sweet, i am also considering a mog build that would see double duty hauling a stacker trailer at times. keep the pics flowing of the progress! Thanks for sharing.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Keyne]

I know this is an old thread, but wondering if people with these large Expo rigs flat tow Jeeps and drive them off-road? Nothing super aggressive but wondering if it would reliably work to flat tow down fire roads, washboard, etc.?

 

[waveslider]

Well, I don't tow a jeep but I have towed 3 place and 2 place atv trailers with zero issues down some pretty nasty roads and it worked perfectly.

 

[Keyne]

Well, I don't tow a jeep but I have towed 3 place and 2 place atv trailers with zero issues down some pretty nasty roads and it worked perfectly.

Thanks for the reply. Another alternative to flat towing could be a trailer for the Jeep. I haven't found a trailer for towing a Jeep with an off-road style suspension height and travel. Is your ATV trailer a standard trailer or specifically made for rough roads?

I also wonder if people have done a flat tow on rough roads using flat tow equipment like Blue Ox, etc. I wonder how the system would hold up over the washboard roads, etc.

 

[waveslider]

Its a standard ATV trailer that has been reinforced and upgraded slightly - from a suspension perspective - to be suitable for some rough territory. It's not uncommon for us to take the GXV down fairly rough roads to the point at which it becomes a point of diminishing returns to an extent, and then use the ATVs till THAT road runs out and then start walking with packs on our back.

So the whole system gets a workout across the board. In any case, when towing the big truck is the thing that sets the speed of progress so I can't imagine a flat-towed jeep having an issue - but then again I'm not familiar with how those flat-tow rigs hook up and how robust they are.

 

[foxhunter]

So I flat towed my Rubicon once with my rig. My mileage went from 8.5 mpg to 4.5 mpg. Didn’t do it again.

 

[waveslider]

No kidding? I would assume something as small as a Rubicon wouldn't even get noticed by your rig. Interesting.

 

[foxhunter]

No kidding? I would assume something as small as a Rubicon wouldn't even get noticed by your rig. Interesting.

Planning to tow a tractor on a flatbed (about8k lb) to my daughter’s place south of Fort Worth on my way to Big Bend in 3 weeks. It will be interesting to see what that does to the mileage

 

[waveslider]

Oh boy, now I would image that would take a bite out of things.

The "biggest" thing we've towed with our KW is three atvs on a single-axle trailer - which when you think about it is a blip considering our truck is waaay way under GVWR. A full water tank adds more weight than an atv. I confess I didn't track the MPG when we towed it but the truck certainly didn't act like it even knew it was back there.

 

[foxhunter]

So I just towed a tractor on a flatbed from Illinois to Texas with my U500. Vehicle is rated 33k GVWR. It was loaded to the tune of 23k plus towed about 8500 k. I drove 60 mph at 1900 rpm all the way. I was pleasantly surprised to get just over 7 mpg from my nontowing 8.5. A U500 GXV towing a tractor is not something one sees everyday .

 

[waveslider]

That seems like really good gas mileage. I'm gonna be towing a lot less weight up White Bird Hill in a few days and will be happy to get that kind of action.

 

[foxhunter]

Here she is, ready to tow

 

[waveslider]

cute

 

[Nimbl Vehicles]

One of the reasons we like building on 1-ton pickup truck platforms is they are designed to tow. We have a customer who also owns a Winnebago Revel, because the Revel can only tow 5000 pounds and when he wants to go out racing in the salt flats he needs to tow more.

We are a big fan of the new 7.3 gasser that Ford has introduced in 2020, but the big exception would be that if you plan to regularly tow with your F350 it might make sense to consider a diesel. You have to remember that the 7.3 is over 550 pounds lighter and $9000 cheaper - so you better be towing a lot to justify the extra cost and decreased load capacity!