Tranny went out in Excursion so I'm having to use the Durango for a little while.

(Before anyone starts badmouthing the Ford, it went more than double the miles than the Durango before the tranny crapped out towing WAY more weight than the Durango will ever tow with ZERO maintenance from previous owners.)

And, while we're on that subject, I'm having Brian at BTS build me a 4R100 tranny for the Excursion. That's the Ford equivalent to the Martin Saine tranny in my Durango.

Load of sweet gum chips anyone?


That's just over 3,000 lbs of chips plus the 3,500 lbs dump trailer.


These are yellow pine logs 6' long. The bigger ones are about 1,000 lbs each.


9 logs total in that load.


This was the heaviest by far. Also the heaviest load I've EVER had behind the Durango. I just took the back roads and kept it around 45 mph. Pulled it just fine.




Anyways, got about 1.5 weeks to go before I get my Excursion back running. (I'll actually be taking the Excursion tranny from Jackson, MS to Lead Hill, AR with the Durango to get it built. That will be a 1000 mile round trip.)

 

Oh, I put about 900 miles on the Durango this week working with it and filled up 4 times in 5 days! Last tank got 8.56 mpg and that was the tank that I towed everything in those pictures.

 

wow, im going to ask how you got those big logs up on the trailer (the ones you said weigh in around 1000lbs)

 

wow, that's impressive and I can't knock excursions, I love them and thought about getting one but just wasn't in the budget / I didn't want that big of a truck...


anyways here is the only picture I have of what I usually tow. 2002 Mastercraft Prostar 209 (weighs in at about 3000)
0327001547.jpg?t=1273414098

besides that boat I also tow around a Super Air 220

weighs 4000lbs

and also a Moomba outback (about 2000lbs)



I only have a stock rig though (5.9 with 3.92 gears, no trans-cooler, and an aftermarket hitch), so I want to get stuff to help my D live a bit longer and tow better and safer but I'm not really sure what all I need to/should get besides a trans cooler when I go get the transmission worked on.

 

looks great guys!

 

The log on the top on this side of the trailer was more like 1,500 lbs. I know because that's the limit of what my skid steer can pick up and it was starting to tip over as I moved. Probably means that it was more like 1,600 lbs. I actually had my partner stand on the back of the loader while I lifted it.

Here's my skid steer:


Here's some of the type loads I carry with the Excursion:

 

nice, sounds like you have a good system set up there, im showing my mom those pictures, she keeps trying to tell me that a durango is essentially useless for anything except passengers, lol

 

gr8scott---quite the loads you've got going on there!

 

By far the hardest tow job.. Why? Because of all the labor that follows

 

That's like renting a splitter at my house: