New Tow Rig

To talk about the new tow rig, we need to talk about the old tow rig. It has been literally the worst financial decision we have ever made.

We bought this 2006 6.0L Diesel 4x4 Ford with a 6-speed manual for $9000 nine years ago. Yes, I know the reputation of 6.0L Fords, but my two Ford Service Tech cousins assured me that if there are deleted and stay at stock boost, they will run forever.



We bought it with about 219,000 miles on it and it had been deleted when it was new so we thought we were good to go for at least another 100,000 miles. 8,000 miles later it lunched one of the roller lifters and destroyed the engine. A re-man engine was $10k. More that we paid for the truck(!), but we sucked it up and did it. About 6 months after that, the turbo went out, another $1k.

Things were decent for a few years, but then the up-pipe needed to be replaced, and we decided to add a bullet-proof EGR cooler back onto the the truck to get the check engine light to go out.

Then the glow plug controller went out. Then the electronics in the instrument cluster went out twice. The first time, the door open chimer would stay on the entire time you were driving. The second time the power to the dash accessories like the radio and AC would go out randomly.

Then the FICM went out rendering the truck completely dead.

Along the way, at least three sensors failed and needed to be replaced. The parking brake backing plates rusted though even the the truck has no rust.

The turbo failed again. The post intercooler plastic intake pipe developed cracks and had to be replaced.

There are other things I'm forgetting.

After the final round of fixing stuff, the check engine light was staying off for more than a week, but we hated the truck so much we decided to sell it before the next thing went wrong.

We've been trying to sell it since November and finally took a whopping $5k for it. A kid flew up from Monterey, CA and drove it back. Here it is in its new home which is NOT HERE :


All in all we put somewhere around $25K into that piece of to drive it 80,000 miles over 9 years (and that's subtracting the $5k back from selling it). That's about $2750/year. My typical vehicle costs are more like $1000-$1200 per year. Don't get me wrong, we did get use out of it, but at a huge dollar cost. I've also learned to never listen to my Ford loving cousins about vehicle advice.

After that thing I will never buy another Diesel truck. They are too complicated, and the parts are way too expensive. I don't care what brand it is. ...And that truck was pre DPF and DEF. They are even worse now. The fuel mileage difference will never pay back the upfront and maintenance costs over a gasser.

Good riddance to that thing.

Note: I'm not telling others to never buy a Diesel. Get what works for you. I'm just never buying another one for me.

 

The new tow rig is something completely different. It's replacing both the old truck and our runabout Nissan Xterra. Since reliability is key after the last experience, we went with a 2012 Toyota Sequoia:


It's rated to tow 7600lbs which is enough for us, and it has plenty of room to have the dogs in the back seat and still haul a bunch of stuff in the back.

It's an interesting drivetrain. Engine is a 4-valve 5.7L V8 that makes 381hp and 400ft-lbs of torque:


The transmission is a 6-speed automatic with two overdrives:

• 1st: 3.333
• 2nd: 1.960
• 3rd: 1.353
• 4th: 1.00
• 5th: 0.728
• 6th: 0.588

It has a really nice transfercase. Choices include:

• 2wd driving the rear wheels only
• full-time 4wd with a Torsen limited slip that sends 30% if the torque to the front and 70% to the back.
• 4wd with the center differential locked
• 2.62 low range that can be used in full-time 4wd and locked 4wd

The final drive is 4.30. The double over drive is equivalent to 2.5:1 and it only turns 1800 rpm at 70mph. One the other end of the spectrum, it has a about a 40:1 crawl ratio.

I was chatting with ITLKSEZ about the specs and he commented that it sounds like really nice drivetrain for "such a tank of a road queen". That name is so great it's stuck. We call it "The Queen" for short.

That great drivetrain isn't so hot for a short wheelbase Jeep though. It's really, really long:


The thing drives like a Cadillac and has more luxury than I know what to do with. But I could get used to it.

 

Since we always buy used and pay cash, this 2012 Sequoia had 134,000 miles on it when we got it and needed a few things.

The rear shocks were completely shot so I thew some Bilsteins on it:


That is some beefy IRS.

The headlights were full of water:


So it got OEM Toyota replacements:


It had some alarm we had no remotes for sliced in all over the wiring harness with crappy crimp splices:


That came out:


It also had an occasional check engine light about the driver's back catalyst efficiency. A new downstream O2 sensor didn't fix it, so in went a Walker bolt-in replacement cat for only $266:


It's a great runner now.

 

The final chapter is the mods to adapt it to our muddy, dusty, dirty lifestyle.

It comes with a receiver hitch and 7-pin connector from the factory. There is a pre-wired trailer brake connector behind the kick panel. I bought a RedArc controller. The brain goes behind the dash and the knob to control it mounts in one of the switch blanks in the dash:


Out testing the trailer brake controller "around the block" with the stock trailer. The trailer brakes work great, and the full-time 4wd tows pretty good on roads that were snowier than expected:


You can see how dirty it is living here. It was clean before that 4 mile trip around the block.

Since it's so dirty here, all our cars get Carhartt seat covers we can pull off and wash. Also all weather mats:


The dog zone gets the Carhartt covers plus another cover, door protectors, and dividers walls that keep them in the dog zone:


The dogs love that the back windows roll down all the way. They only go down about halfway in the Xterra.

The back gets an all weather mat too:


The last project was replacing the Toyota navigation radio. It has exactly zero data for rural areas and is useless to us. It got replaced with an Android Auto capable radio.

Some disassembly required:


You need some special boxes and harnesses to hook up the factory steering wheel controls, factory amp with 14 speakers, and the factory back-up camera:


All done and we have useful navigation:


Now it's time to drive the wheels off it.

And, oh yeah. It only gets 18mpg, but that's not much worse than the old Diesel.

 

I highly recommend this wd hitch but find one closer to your towing capacity. It dampens left to right and up/down shimmy which is helpful with the shorter wheelbase. That 30/70 will be nice when towing. Any traction aids in the axles?

Equal-i-zer 4-point Sway Control Hitch, 90-00-1000, 10,000 Lbs Trailer Weight Rating, 1,000 Lbs Tongue Weight Rating, Weight Distribution Kit Includes Standard Hitch Shank, Ball NOT Included https://a.co/d/bKBKQUF

 

Nope, both open diffs with the normal electronic brake-type traction control. Some one did make a locker for the rear, but we won't need that for our use case.