Travel trailer, cargo trailer or.....

[Captain Goddammit]

Thinking about buying used truck to pull my trailer with this year. I like Toyota Tundra's because of Toyota reliability. But it may be cheaper to buy a domestic and just pay for the repairs when they are needed. Figjam, what do you pull your trailer with?

Wow... you have a lot to learn about trucks!
Lesson number one: A Toyota Tundra is not a heavy duty pickup truck well suited for towing anything substantial!

Figjam uses a real pickup. So do I. So does everyone who wants their truck to do any heavy work! If all you want to do is drive around town carrying an occasional lawnmower or sofa, buy the import. It'll get OK MPG and work quite well. If you want to tow something, get a 3/4 ton or 1-ton American pickup because the Japanese simply don't sell a stout pickup. Those Isuzu and similar cabover trucks are pretty stout though.

By the way I drive a Japanese car daily myself, this isn't an American-cars-only rant. They simply aren't in the big pickup market.

[Jackass]

They simply aren't in the big pickup market.

says who??

toy 1 ton.jpg

[Captain Goddammit]

Says me! I know about those silly things... I wanna see that carry the stuff an American one-ton dually does, over the mountains to BRC! The "Toyota one-ton" is a joke!
That same chassis was used for some Class C motorhomes. A friend of mine had one, thinking the same crap about Toyota reliability.
He found out it was at or beyond full capacity, empty! It had tiny water supply, minimal everything, and little capability to carry any gear because it wasn't beefy or powerful enough.
Toyota trucks are fine, for LIGHT service!

[GreyCoyote]

I owned a Toyota Tundra V8 and I currently own an F250 Super Duty.

The Tundra was a fine truck. Well-mannered, a good daily driver, and easy to park. It would pull a couple of horses + gear/tack/feed at 75 mph over flat land forever in great comfort. But the minute you hit a hill, its game over. Time to start futzing with gears, anticipating hills, loading-up on octane booster, etc. It was a great truck as long as you didn't ask it to work hard. You could go through a set of brakes in a couple of thousand miles towing.

In contrast the F250 SD is a brute. It will pull a loaded 5-horse trailer over the continental divide without straining. It's 450 hp and 600 lb/feet of torque. Just set the cruise control and listen to the turbo whine. Of course, parking it in the city is an exercise in humility, and the ride is a far cry from the Toyota unless you have a thousand pounds of feed in the bed... but the brakes are amazing. It will stop a 15,000 lb trailer without drama.

In the end there are trucks, and there are TRUCKS. Once you cut through the advertising hype and drive them for a while, you soon will learn there isn't a gasser alive that can match the flat torque curve of a diesel. There is a *reason* they put these things into big trucks, and it isn't because the mechanics are allergic to spark plugs. It's because they love to work, under load, all day, every day, and without drama.

[Captain Goddammit]

there isn't a gasser alive that can match the flat torque curve of a diesel.

Well there is... but it's so expensive to build one that will stay together and then feed it fuel that you don't see it often outside of the powerboat racing world! But yeah, in the normal world, amen.

It's not just the engines though. The import pickup trucks have the aforementioned sissy-ass brakes, plus wimpy axles, light springs, weeny transmissions etc.

If you plan on towing a SMALL trailer and you want a Toyota, go for it. But realize you are not buying a truck well suited to any real work. You are, however, buying something that you can cut down and use for a pretty decent base for your next Mutant Vehicle!

[ygmir]

are we all related?
I had a Tacoma, and have a Dodge one tone dually 4x4 diesel and a F250 7.3 diesel.
Each has an advantage........I call my Ford, now, my car (since I sold my beloved 300 SDL).
but yeah, my Dodge vs a Toyota "one ton"..........nope.
I've made many 300 mile trips with up to 4K lbs. on it, yeah, it goes slow, but handles it just fine. I've had as much as 6K on it, but not far not fast. It was pissed, but did no damage. I'd say, that load would break the Toyota in half.

[GreyCoyote]

That 7.3 Ford is one hell of a nice engine. None of the high-tech crap to get in the way. You can actually work on it too.

Building on Ygmir's post, here is a good real-world demonstration of load-carry capacity: Hauling water for livestock I use a 330 gallon IBC tote strapped in the bed. With the Toyota I could fill about 120 gallons before the frame was sitting on the snubbers. I had to drive SLOW as a hard bump would have bent the axle. Conversely, on the F250, I can fill it most of the way up and I still have suspension travel left over.

FWIW a full tank of water at 2700 lbs would have simply crushed the Tacoma just sitting there in the driveway. The Ford just motors along, happy as a soggy clam.

[ygmir]

yeah sadly (in the tech sense) my 7.3 is a 2000 model........they say probably the best year for that engine, but the computer controls the injectors and fires from high pressure motor oil, and adjust timing and all. I do have a chip, and can dial from my dash from 50 to 140 extra h.p., even on the fly. That's a cool thing.

[Ratty]

You are so talented. Not everyone could make such a great home on wheels.

[FIGJAM]

I'll have to disagree.

I didn't have a clue when I built the first one and it turned out ok, you saw it.

It's more about just taking the risk and trying.

You might suprise yourself!

Be sure to come by and see the new one.

I don't have special skills.

I'm not a carpenter, but I can use a tape measure and saw.

I'm not a welder, but I can make some ugly welds that will hold.

I don't have special tools, but I can put a steel cutting blade in a skill saw.

I bolted some wood to a trailer frame.

With a little forthought, anyone can do this.

I just thought about it as I was going to sleep, then built what I concieved.

[Ratty]

Kind of like a costume. I often wake up with the solution. Driving is the best time for me to work it out.

[FIGJAM]

First trip in the new "Playapod" was a great test run.

Went to Bequinox this weekend!!! (600 miles round trip)

Dry ice chest, big water cooler, tool box, and batteries in the nosecone.



Didn't need the big shade, so I set up a small shade.





Sooooooooo cozy with plenty of room!!!!!!!!!

[sadie]

Nicely done!! The pod looks great.

[Joeln]

Nice work Figjam!

A few q's;
Are all your electrics DC or do you invert?
Sub question - what do you charge your camera/phone/whatever with?
How many days do you get out of your batteries / what % discharge?
Insulation?
Is that a window on the left rear?
The box with the fan in front - is that an oversized Figjam swamper?

[FIGJAM]

I designed everything to be 12 volt DC.

Inverters use extra power, so I designed to avoid that.

I do have a 3000/6000 inverter in the truck, but I only use that for the big drill to install and extract my lag bolts on the playa.

I don't use my phone on the playa and the charge on my camera lasts all week, but a car charger could handle that easily.

One big battery runs the pod for the week, the other runs the trike for a 30 mile range.

I don't discharge my batteries below 50%.

If I really need some extra power, I hook jumper cables to my truck and let it idle for an hour which gets the batteries back to 80%.

No insulation as the exposed wood allows me to put hooks and hangers anywhere I want.

Yes, it's a slide down window to allow venting for the cooler.

The cooler is a little larger version of the unicooler.

Needed a bigger air intake for the endless breeze fan to work on high speed. (900 CFM)

Low speed has always been enough, but I wanted it to work affectively on all speeds!!!

[Mojojita]

I got a chance to see it at BEquinox. It's amazing with all the little gizmos and doodads that Figjam has installed. There are dropdown this and fold up thats and plug ins and lights and buttons and, and, and,....... Pointed nosecone even drops drag on the road, making for faster trip, better gas mileage.

[FIGJAM]

Bump.

[FIGJAM]

Bump

[Sunbeam56]

Looking forward to seeing this
What i really admire is there is no wasted space

[Vladar]

Great job Figjam. That looks great.
If I end up running into you on the playa I would love to see it.
Looks very comfy in there.

[fernley1]

Thanks for the tour of your playapod this burning man.
It is so awesome.
It was nice meeting you.

[FIGJAM]

bump

[FIGJAM]

Bump.

[fireheadwhale]

I love this thread and these trailers.
Bump