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Towing a car on a car hauler? (EB, 4K & FX4)

25MavEB4K

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Hello everyone,

I ordered a 25 EB with the 4K tow and FX4 pkg... it was between a Maverick or a Santa Cruz 2.5T with a 5k tow rating.

I would like to know if anyone has hauled a car on a car trailer and how it did... mid Spring, I will need to pull my G70 with a curb weight of 3900 plus a U-Haul car trailer that weighs approx. 1800 pounds, I know that combined car and trailer it is roughly 2k lbs over. This would never be a common thing but hopefully once and never again, the travel distance is about 80 miles of interstate with mild/moderate hills and a speed limit of 55-70 posted and a couple miles of city streets. I know most will say it is way too dangerous and whatnot.

Again, this is almost guaranteed a one time thing only and will never happen again. I appreciate all input.
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Nw_adventure

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I think the Tongue weight would be the deal breaker here- 400 LBS Max for the 4K/Maverick- If Nothing else an F150 one day rental doesn't sound too expense.
 

RideSolo

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I can't disagree w/ the above advice. I'll tell you up front that for some time I towed a 9,000# 5th wheel w/ a 2x4 Tundra that was rated for something like 11,800#. I know that by the time I added the weight of passengers, dogs, and everything else I was pretty much right at my max weight. I went w/ HD 10-ply tires, Timbrens, and a Tekonsha brake controller to add some extra safety and then just tried to be super aware to drive well-aware of my surroundings, situation, and limitations. In your case by the time you add the weight of the trailer and the vehicle on it you'll be WAY over your safe limit. Sometimes U-Haul will refuse to rent a trailer to you if they don't think your tow vehicle is up to the task anyway.
 

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I would opt to rent a truck to haul that much or have a friend with a truck that can tow that much weight have him tow it. Why take a risk with warranty and issues with frame or transmission. I would think it smarter and safer to rent a truck, especially a one time thing.
 

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Ron Neal

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With your numbers don't think I would try but if no choice then maybe a tow dolly to cut down on weight or ask a friend with a bigger truck or rent one for the day.
 

bgn

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Way, way above the capabilities of the truck.

Your local U-Haul will rent you an F-150 XL for $19.95 a day and whatever they charge for mileage.
 

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In my experience, U-Haul has a database of vehicles, tow ratings, weights, etc. They do not just rent you a trailer because you walk in and ask for one. Most likely, they know the max rating is 4000 pounds. So if the trailer is 1800 pounds, they will want to know what kind of 2200 pound car you are going to tow. If you tell them you want to put a 4000 pound car on it, you're not going to get very far into the rental process. Your best bet is probably to rent the truck and trailer.
 

NotARealTruck

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In my experience, U-Haul has a database of vehicles, tow ratings, weights, etc. They do not just rent you a trailer because you walk in and ask for one.
They won't even rent you a car trailer if your vehicle can't tow at least 5k or 6klbs. op can go on uhauls website and plug in his car and trailer combo and it will spit out an error message and won't even let you rent it. You can lie to them and say it's a ford ranger or something and hope the employee in the yard doesn't notice when they're hooking the trailer up. But good luck if something goes wrong, you'll likely not be covered by insurance at all for both uhaul and your own insurance provider and could face jail time if there's say a fatality.

Ironically a small part of the reason I bought my maverick was to do this same thing. Although I'm going to get an aluminum car hauler to tow my 2500lbs track car 30 minutes twice a year so it's not going to be much over the limit if at all.

This is purely speculation but it seems to me like the maverick is really underrated so that ford can sell more full size trucks. The Santa cruz is almost the same vehicle but is rated for 5000lbs and suprise, hyundai doesnt sell trucks so they dont need to worry about it cutting into sales. Keep in mind it also has a dct which in my mind is the worst transmission choice for towing next to a traditional cvt. Those clutch packs would get eaten alive in traffic on a hill.

A ford ranger from the early 2000s has a 9000lbs tow rating despite weighing less than the maverick and making less/the same power. With arguably less safety features. And before you harp on body on frame an all that, physics is physics. If a lighter vehicle with worse brakes and worse tires and less safety features had a team of engineers say it can tow 9000lbs there's no reason a heavier vehicle with better brakes and tires can't tow 5000lbs.

Lastly, there's loads of forum posts and videos of people towing heavy loads online with the maverick over the rating and they all said it did perfectly fine and felt good to drive. I know its anecdotal and completely unscientific to just throw random strangers opinions at something involving safety but i do think some real world experience shows a bit of truth to what im saying.

Would I recommend anyone do it? No. But I'm just bringing up the discussion that I think these trucks are underrated becsuse if ford rated them properly would cut into the sales of full size trucks.
 
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jb_cb900

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"physics is physics"?
Just for clarification, what early 2000s Ford Ranger had a 9000lbs towing capacity? The highest I found was about 6000lbs.

Ok, I'll answer my own question.
2002-2008 Ranger had a max towing capacity of 6000lbs: with the 6 cylinder engine and higher ratio rear end. The GCWR was 9500lbs.
The 4 cylinder engine had a max tow rating of 2600lbs with a GCWR of 5500lbs.
 
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jb_cb900

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The suggestions to us a dolly or renting a truck sounds more practical. My biggest concern would the load on the drivetrain of the maverick.
 
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25MavEB4K

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In my experience, U-Haul has a database of vehicles, tow ratings, weights, etc. They do not just rent you a trailer because you walk in and ask for one. Most likely, they know the max rating is 4000 pounds. So if the trailer is 1800 pounds, they will want to know what kind of 2200 pound car you are going to tow. If you tell them you want to put a 4000 pound car on it, you're not going to get very far into the rental process. Your best bet is probably to rent the truck and trailer.
When I made the reservation, I told them I was hauling a side by side and they allowed the reservation. May have been stupid to lie like that but I knew this was coming up and went ahead with it.
 

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Seems like you already decided to do it. You want to tow 2000lbs. over max and doing 50-70 mph.
Good Luck to you and those sharing the road with you.

I think you posted hoping for more encouragements. Sorry
I feel the safest option is. Rent a full size pickup truck.
 

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I think the Tongue weight would be the deal breaker here- 400 LBS Max for the 4K/Maverick- If Nothing else an F150 one day rental doesn't sound too expense.
That’s what I’ve been doing all these years, or just renting a Home Depot truck or Menards truck for an hour.
 

Robot-Wrangler

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Hello everyone,

I ordered a 25 EB with the 4K tow and FX4 pkg... it was between a Maverick or a Santa Cruz 2.5T with a 5k tow rating.

I would like to know if anyone has hauled a car on a car trailer and how it did... mid Spring, I will need to pull my G70 with a curb weight of 3900 plus a U-Haul car trailer that weighs approx. 1800 pounds, I know that combined car and trailer it is roughly 2k lbs over. This would never be a common thing but hopefully once and never again, the travel distance is about 80 miles of interstate with mild/moderate hills and a speed limit of 55-70 posted and a couple miles of city streets. I know most will say it is way too dangerous and whatnot.

Again, this is almost guaranteed a one time thing only and will never happen again. I appreciate all input.
Want to borrow my truck? Don't risk the possibility of damage to your Maverick or loss of control. While you are at U-Haul, rent a vehicle that can tow more.

Ford Maverick Towing a car on a car hauler? (EB, 4K & FX4) 20250105_122054
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