I'm buying a vehicle that I can tow my jeep to the trails with and pull my ski boat (20' @2800 lbs loaded).

One is the ford explorer--V8 --- 239 hp, 280 torque.
Or the nissan pathfinder--V6 but 260hp!!!! only 235 torque.

Both show 5000lb trailering capacity.

So which would you go for -- more hp or more torque??????
Or would you even be able to tell a difference?

Both are 4x4.


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<font face="Comic Sans MS">I'd personally go for more torque.. Better low end grunt to start pulling from a stop, etc... It also depends upon the gearing. I'd personally go with at least a 1/2 ton pickup or possibly a little bigger but that's just me... [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]</font>

Tim "Sandman"

ORC Land Use columnist:
My May Column

Yeah, I'd look at gearing. Which one's got the best gearing in first? Wheelbases about the same? I'd want the longest wheelbase too.

I love my old 79 F250. [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif[/img] NP435, nice granny low first gear. Super tow mobile. Maybe someday a nice 460 in there. mmmm... For now the 'little' 400M will have to do.

Pete

88 YJ - trails/beach trips only![img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
79 4WD F250-hauler/tower of my toys
70 Jaguar E-type - the best car England ever made. [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/cool.gif[/img]
90 Honda CRX - Daily pavement-pounder. 42 MPG. [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

I would also go with the 1/2 ton truck, the engines in the Sport utes will do just fine, but the wheel base is short. I replaced my Grand Cherokee with a 2000 Silverado with the small V8. Besides my Jeep, I pull a 23' boat and it does a great job. Mileage is about the same as my Grand was(16-17), cost was actually less, I bought the 4-door,4x4 extended cab, tons of room and a great ride! Besides... the box is great for hualing Jeep parts!

"It's not ugly! It just has a lot of "Character"!

Gotta throw in my old shop teacher's favorite phrase here...

"There's no replacement for displacement."

I'll put my .02 in for the V8.

Sully

HP without good torque is just a number.

HP is for speed, torque is what gets you rollin' and acceleratin'. In a tow vehicle, torque is king.

'86 'glass CJ7, 33x12.5 BFG AT's 258, T5, D44

Here is my experience maybe it will help you in some way. I am going to assume you will be flat towing. I had a 97 Chevy 1500 extra cab short bed that I used for towing my CJ5. The 5.0 had enough power to pull easily pull the CJ but the 1500 brakes were used up quickly and when the CJ would wander it would pull the truck side to side. The trans in the 1500 smoked at 50,000 miles. I now tow with a 2500 Sub and like it allot more, the extra weight of the Sub keeps it steady even when the CJ tries to follow ruts. The biggest suggestion I can make is to put as much of your load in the truck with you and make the Jeep as light as possible, when you try to stop during flat towing the Jeep will try to push past you. I have seen several people brake during cornering and have there Jeep push them sideways, BRAKE BEFORE THE CORNER.

No mater what you get if it has an auto trans add the biggest trans cooler you can and maybe add a deeper trans pan. My Sub holds eleven quarts of synthetic trans fluid and still gets warm towing in the California desert.

Good Luck,
Rob

WildCJ5
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/Album...6143&a=2127776

3/4 ton Suburbans are probably as good as it gets for towing light to med. wt. trailers. I'm towing with a 2500 pickup 350/700r with overload bags and it has worked great for 12 years, I wouldn't want to tow much with less truck tho. ...fwiw, the jeep weighed around 5200 the trailer 2200 and I'd put about 1000 lbs. of tools/parts in the bed of the truck, Once I put the harley on the trailer tongue also, it had plenty of power but, that was a lot of tongue weight and it was hard to keep the front tires gripping thru the turns and exit ramps... : 0

Don't fall for the manufacturers ratings. I think they are grossly exagerated. Especially if you are flat towing with no brakes.

The smaller utes are fine for small trailers. You will not be happy with performance in the mountains.

The big thing in my mind is saftey. I assume your family will be riding with you. A small ute with lots of weight behind it is not what you want to be in in a panic stop. I say this from experience. I had to put my family into the desert one day to keep from hitting the idiot who pulled out in front of me. Very scarey. I had brand new brakes on the boat trailer and was under the manufacterers limits. This was with a ZJ.

After that experience the wife aggreed it was time to upgrade to a bigger tow vehicle. F350 crewcab diesel. Best thing I ever did. There is no doubt in my mind we would have not have had to leave the road if we were driving this truck.

BigHG
84 CJ7