# New To Me And Never Towed Before



## jeepers128 (Jun 30, 2013)

We bought a 2008 32BHDS and I need a tow vehicle. Do you think a Excursion with the diesel can tow this beast? Should I only be looking at trucks? Opinions please.

Thanks for all of the help.


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## Todd&Regan (Jul 1, 2010)

A diesel Excursion should tow your camper just fine. The 7.3L Navistar diesel is kind of a dog, but will have plenty of power to tow your camper. The biggest challenge will be finding an Excursion in good shape without super high mileage. It's been about 10 years since Ford last produced the Excursion.


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## Sandlapper (Apr 12, 2010)

Check out www.handpickedtrucks.com 
They have 2 excursions to choose from, both with the 7.3. If nothing else, his website is very enlightening and not to mention he's one of the best guys I have ever met. He specializes in diesel trucks.


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## Camp Life (Mar 27, 2013)

jeepers128 said:


> We bought a 2008 32BHDS and I need a tow vehicle. Do you think a Excursion with the diesel can tow this beast? Should I only be looking at trucks? Opinions please.
> 
> Thanks for all of the help.


We have a 31QBS and tow it with an Excursion with a v10 gas motor. I comfortably tow it on the highway cruising at 65+ mph. The V10 gas motor is considerably less expensive to purchase and maintain and an excellent alternative to a diesel. We have well over 200,000 miles on it and have had no major issues.


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## Bill & Kate (Apr 28, 2012)

Another alternative is a one ton van with either a big gasser or diesel. You will have more cargo capacity than with an Excursion, and you can probably find a newer vehicle.


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## Collinsfam_WY (Nov 9, 2006)

An Excursion with a V-10 Gas is a great option. AFAIK the only V-10 option offered in the Excursion was the 2V model. There are numerous upgrades you can do to one that will really wake up that motor and improve mpg as well. There is a V-10 specific forum over at Ford-Trucks.com. They can really help you with that. Among the mods, get a tuner from Mike Butler at 5-Star Tuning. Mike is a V-10 guy himself and knows how to make the V-10 sing. I had one of his tuners for my 3V V-10 in my old SuperDuty and I loved it. The 2V V-10 is a good option but I sure would be prepared to mod it like the guys on that FTE forum say to do. They know what they are doing. My In-laws have an Excursion with a 6.0 diesel. I begged my FiL to mod that 6.0 to make it more reliable. I offered to help him come up with a list of things he needed to do so that the 6.0 wouldn't fail him. He declined, he said he knew what he was doing. I think they are 6k in the hole in repairs on it so far. Good luck and put airbags on that Ex before you tow. They remove a leaf from the rear spring packs to make it more comfy and it can make it into an unstable tow platform. At least my in-laws did that.

Ford V-10 Forum

-CC


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## Donzi-T (Aug 9, 2012)

I have a 2007 32BHDS that I tow very successfully with a GMC Sierra 2500HD CC SB Duramax Diesel / Allison Transmission. We've owned our 32BHDS for 1 year (first travel trailer) and I just completed my longest tow from Central Virginia to Niagara Falls, ON Canada at nearly 600 miles each way. We were gone a week, so the wife, two daughers had the truck and the Outback loaded to the gills and the DMax did a fantastic job. The sticker on my 32BHDS says that it weighs in at 9600lbs empty. I have not weighed it at a scale, so I have no idea whether this is an accurate number or not. Obviously you have to add some sort of weight estimate for all of the gear, accessories, food and personal effects that you take on a week-long trip, so let's assume 10,000lbs plus. I have a basic Fastway E2 10,000lb hitch, so nothing special there. I did tweak the hitch setup for 2 or 3 trips prior and found that one additional washer for head tilt made the Outback handle perfectly with no sway and a lot of weight.

I've towed a lot in my days from heavy utility/equipment trailers to large boats and now my Outback with a variety of tow vehicles. I would highly recommend diesel power for this kind of weight and wind resistance, in whatever flavor you like (Ford, Dodge, GM). I'm partial to GM, so that's what I've always owned. The torque that a diesel provides for powering through the mountains of Western Virginia and Pennsylvania was fantastic. I had the cruise control set for a lot of the trip both going and coming and cruised at a speed of around 70mph most of the time. I averaged 10.5mpg and cut the truck no slack, whatsoever. My truck is also "unmolested", so no tuners or chips have been added. One of my camping buddies tows his Outback 311BH (a little lighter according to the sticker) with a Nissan Titan and he struggles and is afraid of a trip longer than about 2.5 hours. I can say confidently that I'll stick with a heavy duty truck and a diesel after this experience.


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## foxspizza53 (Jun 12, 2013)

It will easy tow it.


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## jeepers128 (Jun 30, 2013)

Update:

I bought a 04 F350 diesel. Can you tell me what kind of drawbar to get? 10,000 pound I am guessing.


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## Donzi-T (Aug 9, 2012)

That's what I use with my 32BHDS.


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

According to the Keystone web site, the 2008 32BHDS has a shipping (dry) weight of 7,595lb, with a hitch weight of 805lb. Loaded for travel, you're looking at probably 8,500lb or so and a hitch weight of between 900 & 1,000lb. Just about any 3/4 or 1 ton vehicle should have no trouble pulling the trailer.


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

Donzi-T said:


> I have a 2007 32BHDS that I tow very successfully with a GMC Sierra 2500HD CC SB Duramax Diesel / Allison Transmission. We've owned our 32BHDS for 1 year (first travel trailer) and I just completed my longest tow from Central Virginia to Niagara Falls, ON Canada at nearly 600 miles each way. We were gone a week, so the wife, two daughers had the truck and the Outback loaded to the gills and the DMax did a fantastic job. The sticker on my 32BHDS says that it weighs in at 9600lbs empty. I have not weighed it at a scale, so I have no idea whether this is an accurate number or not. Obviously you have to add some sort of weight estimate for all of the gear, accessories, food and personal effects that you take on a week-long trip, so let's assume 10,000lbs plus. I have a basic Fastway E2 10,000lb hitch, so nothing special there. I did tweak the hitch setup for 2 or 3 trips prior and found that one additional washer for head tilt made the Outback handle perfectly with no sway and a lot of weight.
> 
> I've towed a lot in my days from heavy utility/equipment trailers to large boats and now my Outback with a variety of tow vehicles. I would highly recommend diesel power for this kind of weight and wind resistance, in whatever flavor you like (Ford, Dodge, GM). I'm partial to GM, so that's what I've always owned. The torque that a diesel provides for powering through the mountains of Western Virginia and Pennsylvania was fantastic. I had the cruise control set for a lot of the trip both going and coming and cruised at a speed of around 70mph most of the time. I averaged 10.5mpg and cut the truck no slack, whatsoever. My truck is also "unmolested", so no tuners or chips have been added. One of my camping buddies tows his Outback 311BH (a little lighter according to the sticker) with a Nissan Titan and he struggles and is afraid of a trip longer than about 2.5 hours. I can say confidently that I'll stick with a heavy duty truck and a diesel after this experience.


Either the sticker is incorrect, or you may be looking at the GVWR for your trailer. Keystone's web site shows a shipping weight of 7,650lb for the 2007 32BHDS, with a cargo capacity of 1,950lb, which would add up to 9,600lb. Depending on the model year, your friend's 312BH weighs right around the same as your trailer, and that helps explain why he struggles to pull it with a 1/2 ton truck and 5.6 liter gas engine.


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## jeepers128 (Jun 30, 2013)

So what kind of hitch ball mount do I need?


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

You can use just about any class V shank and ball combo out there, but for a long and heavy trailer I'd look at either the Reese Dual Cam or Equalizer hitch. You'll get a heavy duty hitch with integrated sway control.


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