What's new
By:
Ram Heavy Duty Forum

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Towing with new 6.4L

I can drive 17hrs in a day, if I start early. But as I get older, and move from one very hectic business to another less hectic business with less hours and as my kids move through high school I can take more time off....I will see the need for banging out 12 hour drives on vacation fade. I want to work towards 8hrs or less, and take a lot of time to stop at places I would not. If you are retired or semi retired, why kill your self. I have already been showing up a day early for events and such as well, instead of blasting in a the late hour. Love it.
 
The wife and I made a financial decision due to the high cost of ownership, i.e. cost a place to park it when not in use, then cost of insurance, maintenance, monthly payments, so we got rid of ours, by doing that and cutting out a few other things the wife will be able retire about 2.5-3 years early… Heck just the storage cost for the TT alone covers hotels stays for a 2 week vacation and we are not limited to where we have to stay, for me the older I got the less I enjoyed sleeping in a TT on windy & stormy nights…
 
56ram2500 said:
The wife and I made a financial decision due to the high cost of ownership, i.e. cost a place to park it when not in use, then cost of insurance, maintenance, monthly payments, so we got rid of ours, by doing that and cutting out a few other things the wife will be able retire about 2.5-3 years early… Heck just the storage cost for the TT alone covers hotels stays for a 2 week vacation and we are not limited to where we have to stay, for me the older I got the less I enjoyed sleeping in a TT on windy & stormy nights…
Click to expand...
I just assumed in your earlier post you were talking about towing a TT. Not that doing 700 miles just driving the truck is an easy day, but driving that far towing a big TT is more than I would want to tackle.
 
Clearly you live in a different world. Me, partial retirement at 56 but still working on a new business with less hours involved. ( got to keep relevant as you move into retirement) 2026 Power Wagon gets the job done. But since I have a new project that would ummmm, require....no wait that's not right....Ok, so I want a little air plane next :D Wish I could retire cheap...then I log in and see some land I could develop and pay for more toys :eek:
 
SolidAxleorBust said:
Clearly you live in a different world. Me, partial retirement at 56 but still working on a new business with less hours involved. ( got to keep relevant as you move into retirement) 2026 Power Wagon gets the job done. But since I have a new project that would ummmm, require....no wait that's not right....Ok, so I want a little air plane next :D Wish I could retire cheap...then I log in and see some land I could develop and pay for more toys :eek:
Click to expand...
Yup. Different strokes for different folks. I outgrew the “he who dies with the most toys wins” mentality decades ago.
 
After spending five days at a nice resort in Tucson, we picked up our new Ember 22ETS TT today and drove 4 hours to an RV park halfway home. Decided to drive through Tonto National Forest for the first time and it was great scenery. The 6.4 handled the 6,000 lbs. TT just fine. Gas mileage sucked do to the never ending steep hills. Holy crap! So many. We climbed 6,000 ft. Once on flat roads it indicated between 10-12MPG.

I drive with zero rush since I’m retired. I retired at 52 in 2023. We didn’t trade our old camper, a 2021 Geo Pro 19BH because our neighbor said he is interested in buying it from us.

We prefer to drive less than 8 hours a day.
 
LeRamona said:
After spending five days at a nice resort in Tucson, we picked up our new Ember 22ETS TT today and drove 4 hours to an RV park halfway home. Decided to drive through Tonto National Forest for the first time and it was great scenery. The 6.4 handled the 6,000 lbs. TT just fine. Gas mileage sucked do to the never ending steep hills. Holy crap! So many. We climbed 6,000 ft. Once on flat roads it indicated between 10-12MPG.

I drive with zero rush since I’m retired. I retired at 52 in 2023. We didn’t trade our old camper, a 2021 Geo Pro 19BH because our neighbor said he is interested in buying it from us.

We prefer to drive less than 8 hours a day.
Click to expand...
It seems like driving in Arizona is like walking to school. It always seems uphill both ways.
 
Both directions on the interstate in AZ have endless up and down hills, drives me nuts! 8hrs or less is a nice place to be! I am kind of weird with the toys. Step 1, I buy real Estate to develop. Step 2, I buy a new toy that is relevant with the proceeds. Since the one I am looking at would be half air park, and half off road and outdoor recreation enthusiast linked home sites...a Gyro Copter seems like the perfect fit. And, I think one of them off road dump trucks :D I would say altitude the 6.4 is tolerable up to maybe 8,000lbs before it starts to get challenging. 10K is challenging, and 12K plus is brutal.
 
Last edited:
LeRamona said:
After spending five days at a nice resort in Tucson, we picked up our new Ember 22ETS TT today and drove 4 hours to an RV park halfway home. Decided to drive through Tonto National Forest for the first time and it was great scenery. The 6.4 handled the 6,000 lbs. TT just fine. Gas mileage sucked do to the never ending steep hills. Holy crap! So many. We climbed 6,000 ft. Once on flat roads it indicated between 10-12MPG.

I drive with zero rush since I’m retired. I retired at 52 in 2023. We didn’t trade our old camper, a 2021 Geo Pro 19BH because our neighbor said he is interested in buying it from us.

We prefer to drive less than 8 hours a day.
Click to expand...
Those little hills in Arizona are nothing like what i encounter on a regular basis in Colorado.
 
SolidAxleorBust said:
Both directions on the interstate in AZ have endless up and down hills, drives me nuts! 8hrs or less is a nice place to be! I am kind of weird with the toys. Step 1, I buy real Estate to develop. Step 2, I buy a new toy that is relevant with the proceeds. Since the one I am looking at would be half air park, and half off road and outdoor recreation enthusiast linked home sites...a Gyro Copter seems like the perfect fit. And, I think one of them off road dump trucks :D I would say altitude the 6.4 is tolerable up to maybe 8,000lbs before it starts to get challenging. 10K is challenging, and 12K plus is brutal.
Click to expand...
Well, I wanted a camper so I bought a property in the mountains to park it. Ended up building a cabin as our vacation home which then turned into our main home after I retired. Needed a tractor to work the land, but that required many attachments. Then we got an ATV. Then got an excavator to complement the tractor. Sold it because it was a solid piece of crap. Then we needed something more capable than the ATV so we got a UTV. Sold the main house and moved to the mountains. Now I’m looking into buying another mini excavator with a diesel engine.

Without the property there wouldn’t be so many toys. I tell my wife we need all that but all I get is a sideways look.
 
sanda said:
Those little hills in Arizona are nothing like what i encounter on a regular basis in Colorado.
Click to expand...
Ever driven through Tonto National Forest from Phoenix? These aren’t little hills. Even on the Ike you don’t gain 6,000 ft. like you do there. That is quite a bit.
 
Last edited:
The total drive was 450 miles from the RV dealer to our house. The first leg towards an RV park in Springerville AZ then from there to our house. I kept my top speeds between 65-68 MPH. Total trip was 10 MPG hand calculated. Camper was around 6,000 lbs, plus our gear and a boatload of beer and wine we purchased at Trader Joe’s since we don’t have one. 10 MPG is half a mile per gallon less than with our smaller camper. Considering the roads were much steeper than our last trip with the smaller camper, I’m happy with 10.
 
Last edited:
I picked up an 8K Yanmar brand new at auction for 37,500. 75K new. They were running quite a few through the Richie Brothers auction. But stick with quality. Cheap Chinese wont cut it for home steading. Coming back to Albuquerque from Phoenix I was able to hold 50MPH on those hills with 15K. Compared to less then 30MPH on Highway 550 in Colorado with that weight, so a slight difference :)
 
SolidAxleorBust said:
I picked up an 8K Yanmar brand new at auction for 37,500. 75K new. They were running quite a few through the Richie Brothers auction. But stick with quality. Cheap Chinese wont cut it for home steading. Coming back to Albuquerque from Phoenix I was able to hold 50MPH on those hills with 15K. Compared to less then 30MPH on Highway 550 in Colorado with that weight, so a slight difference :)
Click to expand...
There are some Chinese excavators that are quite nice. I'm looking at a 2-3 ton mini ex.
 
Dave01 said:
I just assumed in your earlier post you were talking about towing a TT. Not that doing 700 miles just driving the truck is an easy day, but driving that far towing a big TT is more than I would want to tackle.
Click to expand...
I drove OTR so driving a pickup truck with a 25 ft TT behind me for 700 miles is not all that bad and I can say it is much less stressful then driving the 75 feet long, 7 axel truck & trailer with a gross weight of 101K ;) that I drove for a few years.. As my old boss would tell some of the drivers, its called mine over matter, you may mind but it dont matter :eek:
 
56ram2500 said:
I drove OTR so driving a pickup truck with a 25 ft TT behind me for 700 miles is not all that bad and I can say it is much less stressful then driving the 75 feet long, 7 axel truck & trailer with a gross weight of 101K ;) that I drove for a few years.. As my old boss would tell some of the drivers, its called mine over matter, you may mind but it dont matter :eek:
Click to expand...
I drove a school bus for ten years - regular route and field trips. Driving any vehicle that doesn't have other people's children in it is nice!

I'm glad they make the variety of trucks that they do, and we all have the freedom to travel in a manner that suits us.

Enjoy!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top