The New Tow Hog. Ford E350 content

Ian F wrote: In reply to Toyman01: Why does trailer wiring get so messed up? The wiring on my Cummins looked like it had been reworked by a monkey.

We discussed that here recently.

In reply to petegossett:

Ah yes... In my truck's case, I blame it on the fact some DPO hacked up the factory trailer harness wiring to hook up the slide in camper lights. It was a mess...

I haven't started on that yet. I'm not particularly looking forward to it. I am sure it will require cutting a roll of cheap electrical tape off the wiring harness. If I'm lucky, it's just a case of someone doing a "custom" job of wiring their trailer rather than using the industry standard.

Toyman01 wrote: I spent some time on the Beast today. The paint is officially dead. A fair portion of it will never get it's shine back, but I polished it anyway. It helped, but not much.

Looks pretty good for a use-it-every-now-and-then tow beast. All it needs is for you to hit those headlights with some 2000-grit wet/dry, follow up with some plastic polish and you'll be golden.

The beast got some new BoBos yesterday. Wow, what a difference that made. Rides and drives like new now. Well, not new, but much better. That solved 75% of the rattles. A few well placed screws took care of most of the rest of them.

I got the trailer wiring straitened out this afternoon. Someone obviously failed at wiring comprehension. The running lights were crossed with the aux 12v and the brakes weren't hooked up at all. I changed out the connector while I was at it. The original was looking a little green in places. Problem solved.

I also pulled the trailer from behind the shop and replaced the break away box on it. The original on it was wired wrong as well. It had the switch and the battery, but no charging circuit. That meant I had the joy of re-wiring the front of the trailer as well.

Now I just need to install the 5th wheel rails. I didn't get that done Sunday, but I did pick up the rails and my father's 5th wheel. I hope to get them in by the end of the week.

After that, I'm done until something breaks.

141 miles on the interstate at 68 to 72 mph netted me 6.5mpg.

That is towing my 20 foot enclosed. It weighs in at about 5500 pounds as it sits. Unfortunately it's a flat front which kills me at higher speeds.

The truck ran great but the rear tank won't burn anything below a half a tank. It must have a pickup problem.

I think I'll get off the interstate on the way home and see if I can get the mpg up a little.

Over all, I'm thrilled with it.

Toyman01 wrote: 141 miles on the interstate at 68 to 72 mph netted me 6.5mpg.

Sounds about right to me. I had a similar truck that got around 6-8 pulling horses. Only one tank worked so I only had a range of about 80-100 miles before I needed to get gas. Giant PITA!

Slow down. I bet you net another 1mpg running 60mph.

I get about 8 mpg at 65-70 mph with my 79 GMC Dually, that is towing my 28ft enclosed trailer that weighs in about 8500 lbs or so. That is with a 350 Chevy and 4-speed m/t, no overdrive. Not sure if a 460 will do any better, but it will pull better than my 350 does. I have one tank (20 gallon) and only get about 120-130 miles before stopping.

We are back to the house in one piece. Still love the tuck, even though the gas mileage sucks. It used no oil, no water and no transmission blood. That's always a good sign.

On the way home I ran the interstate again. I was too tired to fight the back roads. I dropped my speed to 65 and shut down the cruise control. That got me 6.8 mpg, including idling for about 40 minutes this morning trying to defrost my feet and legs after running tech in a 40 degree rain.

The truck was great, the autocross was miserable. Cold rain all morning, cold blowing mist all afternoon. I think the high was 43. I didn't even bother to pull the Abomination out of the trailer. On slicks it would have been un-driveable not to mention cold and wet. I ended up co-driving the Super Coupe in F Stock with the wife. I ended the day in first place, so I was pretty happy with that. That thing is a blast to drive on a wet course. The cheap Sumitomo tires did amazingly well in the wet.

Yep, still love it.

I towed this to CMP for a SCCA club race last weekend. SWMBO was the race chairman and wanted to stay on site rather than a hotel.

It's my fathers camper. 32' long, 12000 pounds. Towed like a dream. It's twice as big as my enclosed and over twice as heavy. I got better gas mileage. 7.2 compared to 6.8. Granted my average speed was only 60 but I was figuring on getting 5-6 mpg. Must be aerodynamics. Now I'm going to have to build a nose for my enclosed trailer.

Since my father hasn't used it in two years, I do believe I'll be doing some camping this summer.

Sounds similar to my old '78 F150. If kept at 60 mph, it would get 10 mpg. If ventured above 60 mph, you could watch the gas gauge needle drop...