Hey guys, welcome to another fun episode of TFL Car Chat. Hello! Yep, but we got Andre Smirnov next to me the managing editor of TFL Trucking. You may be wondering to yourself why is the managing editor of TFL Truck here instead of Nathan, while Nathan, as you know, is moved to California and he's still setting up his studio at his house for the podcast. Yeah, so he'll be back. He'll be back and Tommy, where's Tommy? He's on his honeymoon in Hawaii. Yeah, yeah, he's surfing.
I'm not joking dude, he's here. Wait, I can't show you guys, but I can show you. Okay, I've tried surfing once in California and it was terrible. I'm now good at it, I'm out of shape and I did not, it was not good. I couldn't do it. There, I'm showing, I'm showing. Wait, there is a picture of a long board and Tommy is on it. Yep, he's in Maui and just took a surfing lesson. Wow, so Tommy is better than me with this. Here's another one from the side. Well, he's a star. What else can I do?
And the way I could do is I could give these to the editor and then they can put it in. They can put it in the podcast. I can see him. So why am I here? Because we're talking about towing, Andre, and you are the towing master at TFL. Of course, you're mainly towing trucks or towing with trucks or towing trucks and cars, but we thought it'd be fun to get the list of the most and least tow or the cars. So basically the cars that tow the best and the tow the worst.
And we've run a bunch of them up the Iconnet. I count it. So I believe our Iconnet list, as we have a playlist on YouTube, is 176. Wow. So we were all tested and that may be missing a couple. Because we've published a couple of Iconnet on other channels as well. So we have a lot of experience over the last 12 years of doing this. We do. And a lot of them are crossovers and SUVs. And we have some list of these right here.
Yeah. And then we're not if you're waiting for the big old boys, I'm talking about the suburban Tahoe Yukon truck based. Those are trucks. So we consider those trucks to TFL because basically as I'm sure you know, a Tahoe sits on pretty much the chassis of a Silverado. And so it has a very similar towing capability profile as a Silverado would. So we're talking about cars, unibody vehicles that are smaller SUVs. Yeah. Yeah. And let's start right away as I like to with number one.
Because first of all, before I start with number one, are we going to publish that video this weekend? Yeah, we are. Okay. So you can go over this. So where? OltFL.com is where we have everything we do in one place. So you can always stay up to date. And what we're publishing, which you can see at oltFL.com is our Icon that of Lexus GX 550, which is a brand new very popular as popular SUV in the enthusiast community. And it has a humongous tow rating.
Yeah. I was at the launch of the vehicle and they had not yet announced the tow rating until you got there. Until we got there. And when they did announce that there was a hush that fell over the room. A commotion. And then it took people's breath away, Andre. It was so high. So it's 9,066 I think. It's 9,062 pounds. Oh, which is a weird number, but high number too. Yeah, it's, I mean, this is full size truck territory. We're looking forward at 150,000, 500, some around 50,000.
Yeah, these are big numbers for what is essentially a three row mid-size SUV or a two row if you get the overtrail. Yeah. And that's the vehicle that we had. Yes. So I remember right ours came in at just over $80,000. $84. So we had the overtrail. We had the giant rack on the roof. We had it was fully option available. It was very expensive. And what was under the hood? Hey, podcast listeners and TFL talk viewers.
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You know, that's until out of podcasts and I always hate when they say, and head on over to the video to watch what happened, but we figure you're here. So we're not going to say that. We're not going to say that if you want to go over to Altia, if I'll see it, but we're going to tell you what happened because it was very interesting because while we were towing a lot of weight with a car that seems to have been a little bit over its head. Would you say that was fair?
Yes, so we hooked up in Cole and team in Gavin and Mr. Truck was there. We all worked together. We loaded my Chevy Colorado pickup truck onto our heavy duty trailer for how much weight. So total combined weight was 8,500 pounds. And you know what, we should, if you're new to TFL, you may not know what the IK is. So why don't you define what the IK is, too? Yeah, so we call it the world's toughest towing test and the IK gauntlet, the name comes from, actually Nathan, Nathan coined this term.
That name comes from the Eisenhower Johnson tunnel. So IK was Eisenhower's nickname, right? So IK gauntlet. And this is the highest, well this is a continental divide, right? This is basically one of the highest elevations for a tunnel of that length. It's like a two mile long tunnel. And leading up to that tunnel is a huge grade. So this is eight miles, seven percent grade. And elevation is 11158 feet above sea level. So it tests every vehicle to the limit because elevation.
Because we don't just tow up the IK, we also come down the IK and then let's talk about our methodology. Well, how do we rate cars on the IK? So antrocks. Yeah, just so happens that we do downhill first and then we climb back up the mountain. Because that's the way, well that's the way it goes. Yeah, we're going west. Yeah, we're going west. But the downhill is actually more important than the uphill because if you lose your brakes or your brakes overheat on the way down, you are in huge risk.
I think there are not one, but maybe two. There are two runaway truck cars. Runaway truck cars. Yeah, and they get used. Well, we follow I-70, you know, Instagram pages and almost daily you see, you know, overheated brakes or a semi truck losing control or something like that. Yeah, let's face it, when you're going up a very steep grade, if the vehicle overheats which happens, then you can pull over and stop and then you've just got, you know, figure out a way to get home.
But when you're going down and the brakes overheat, then you've got serious troubles slowing down. Exactly. And it could be a runaway. And so what we do or what Andre does is he counts brake applications. Yeah, so we come out at the top of the tunnel, top the mountain at 50 miles an hour and we are in tow home mode usually and we're usually allowed a vehicle to think for itself. So we're not manually shifting gears. We're not using our skills.
Yeah, often people say, why don't you manually shift gears and the reply we always give to that is this is a test of the vehicle, not a test of the driver. We're trying to take the driver out of it as much as possible. Yeah. And then as soon as it goes over the speed limit, which is 60 miles an hour, so as soon as that's just 61, I apply the brake and bring it and we count those applications. And you bring it back down to 50?
Yeah, down to 50. And then hit the brake again when you see what happens. Yeah. So that's the more the vehicle, in this case, the car can control the load using something that many people call great shifting and once you're explaining great shifting. Yeah, great shifting. Sometimes in newer vehicles either comes on automatically, you don't have to do anything. Or sometimes it's available under tow home mode.
So as soon as you push that button, wherever it's in your vehicle for tow hall and actually the Lexus GX has that, it has a button for that. The great shifting basically changes the way the transmission works. And as soon as it either senses, you're going downhill and speeding up, it automatically downshifts. So it brings up the revolutions for the engine and the engine helps you slow down.
So you're using engine braking instead of burning out your brakes because brakes will burn out on that eight mile stretch very easily because you've got all this weight pushing you down a very steep grade. Now before we get to the uphill part, let's talk about how the GX did going downhill. Oh, and then before we get to that, sorry, Andre. We should also talk about brake controllers, the different kinds of brake controllers because you guys over here at CARM, maybe new to towing.
So we want to make sure that we're addressing all of your questions. So let's talk about when you need a brake controller first. That's actually even further. What's a brake controller? It's a way to, if your trailer has brakes and most trailers over 3,000 pounds capability have brakes because they're required to by law, then you need a way in the vehicle to control those brakes. So usually it's electric, right? In this conversation for cars and trucks and SUVs, it's an electric mechanism.
So usually when you have that hitch on the back of your car or SUV and you have those either four pin or seven pin connectors, there's some sort of wiring that helps you connect to the trailer and you need that seven pin connector to activate brakes.
Yeah, so that seven pin connector not only lights up the trailer so that when you hit your tail light, when you're, when you're breaking the vehicle's tail lights light up, then the trailer break, yeah, tail lights light up so that people know you're breaking. But then the other wire is also the control of the brakes. Accuation of the brake. And then there's a little, it's a little squeezy, squeezy thing.
Yeah, it's two little tabs, usually sometimes on the right side, sometimes on the left side, and there's two little buttons. So what you can do is you can squeeze that and you'll activate the brakes manually, but there's also a thing called gain, which are these two little buttons. And the gain is basically how hard the brakes are breaking. Yeah, so it basically goes from zero, which means no brake actuation to 10, usually means maximum trailer brake actuation.
And so you have to judge each vehicle may be different. I usually start at five, so I start in the middle. And if the brakes on the trailer feel too grabby, like when you touch your brake pedal, if you feel like a jerk from the trailer, then the gain is too high, so you have to bring it down just a little. And the reason for that is because you're changing the weight that is, let's say, a car trailer, right?
So obviously if it's a camper or something like that, you're not, well, you can also change the weight in the camper because you can add water, you can add stuff to it. You can add dirty laundry. Wow. Yeah. So the weight determines how much you want to break or not. And you set something interesting, and that is you have to have a brake controller over 3,000 pounds of weight. Why is that? So that's a law in Colorado. And actually some states have slightly different regulations on trailer brakes.
Well, because we have mountainous terrain in Colorado, right? And anything heavier than determined by the state over 3,000 pounds, you've got to have a weight to stop that trailer. So it could be surge brakes. Yeah, I noticed that that's very popular with boats. And I noticed that surge brakes are very popular in Europe. You want to define what a surge brake is? Yeah, a surge brake is actually a mechanical actuation of brakes. And it's relies on hydraulics, just like your car brake, right?
There's hydraulic fluid inside of your trailer brake system. And basically when you're slowing down, the weight of the trailer pushes down on the tongue of the trailer, and actually that pushes the fluid and stops. So that activates the brake and the hard of the trailer pushes in the car or truck the hard of the brake controller. And then for that one, you don't need a brake controller. And you don't, in fact, have a brake controller.
Yeah. And the brake controller would be useless because the trailer is basically handling the brakes for you by itself. And the reason why it's usually on boat trailers in the United States is because electric actuated brakes, when you put that trailer in the water, when you're launching the boat, you could have a short or something going on, right? Because it's electricity. So you want the surge brake on the boat trailer? Yeah, usually. All right.
And before we get to this list, I know I'm putting it off a little bit, but we'll get there. Don't worry. We'll get to the GX. Most sedans, small crossovers, don't have the capacity to tow much more over, let's say 15, it's like a Subaru cross track. Yeah, we look at it. It's usually at $1,500 pounds. And so for those vehicles, we're not talking about brake controllers. Now you're probably pulling, I don't know, at a max, maybe one like Jetsky. These are very small loads.
Yeah, maybe one Jetsky, two Jetsky. Are you telling the trailer? Maybe a little tiny teardrop trailer. Yeah. And we did, we did something small. And we did for a while do what we call the Tike. Where we basically got, I think it was a tiny, was it a tiny teardrop? What do we have? It was a tiny teardrop and we bought a little Tike car, you know, a little kit baby. Yeah. And we put it on top of it. So when we get down to the Kia Sportage, we'll have the results of the Tike.
But it wasn't all that popular. I think people in general, if they're going to tow, they're going to use much bigger vehicles because obviously 15, or a pounds, or for a long time, the Wrangler was the 3,000 pounds. This is not a lot of capacity that doesn't get you a lot when you need to tow anything significant. And we're of course doing this in the mountains to make the job for these vehicles as hard as possible.
So this is, once again, like Andre said, the world's toughest towing test and that's on purpose. So if it can conquer the I got it, it'll probably be fine if you're towing from your brother's house to, you know, your sister's house or whatever you're doing. Yeah. If you're on the Kansas, it'll be cool. Exactly. All right. So what happened with the GX Andre when you went down the hill? Because you did something that you never do and that is you actually took manual control of the load.
Why was that? So, so the great shifting feature of the transmission, talked about it already, was not helping me out much. So what was happening is as soon as the speed was getting like above 57 miles per hour approaching the speed limit of 60, all of a sudden the transmission would upshift, like go into a higher gear and that doesn't offer me a lot of slowing down power. And so by the time Mr. Truck and I counted eight brake applications, we only went halfway.
And I felt like, well, I have no idea how hard the brakes were going. But my experience tells me after doing 178, I got a lot of it. My experience told me if this continues, we may have a problem with brakes. So I manually shifted it. So that in our test, that would be extraordinary. And I would consider that a failure because all of a sudden the vehicle really isn't doing a safe job or potentially a safe job of handling that much weight.
Because now you're forced to take over because you don't want to burn out your brakes. Yeah. So what I did was, you know, you really flipped a console shifter, I believe it's to the left. And now you're in manual shift mode and you can go up and down on the shifter and select for example third gear, I believe I was in third for some of this. And then that's helping you out a little bit. And now you can kind of control your speed a little bit more.
So I did that on the GX and I almost maybe I've done it once before in this history of us doing it. But I wasn't comfortable with the GX braking. Yeah. And so we've got 12 brake applications, but that's because you kind of helped. I came I love the GX. Yeah, I helped it. Yeah. So it could have been more, but the downside to actually not doing what you did is you may have we may have been 12 or 13 or 14 God knows how many or you may have been going up the runaway truck route.
Exactly. Right. Which I did not want to do. Yeah. So, so of course part of what we do is the downhill part and then we turn around and we get to the bottom in Silverthorn and we had right back up. And the great thing about the Icon it is it's three lanes. And so up and down what we're trying to do is we try to hit a target number in terms of how long it should take to get to the tunnel. And what is that target number and why do we choose that number?
It is eight minutes and we determined it because it's eight miles. And so if you're going at 60 miles an hour, which is a speed limit, you should travel that distance in eight minutes. Yeah. So that's our goal. Yeah. And with towing, we're always focused on safety.
And so the reason we made sure that you could go to speed limit is because it's also dangerous when you're going 25 miles an hour and we've been in that situation because the vehicle is struggling to hold a gear or struggling to make it up the hill and then cars are flying by you at 65 because even though the speed limit is 60 a lot of those guys are going to speed. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so, so keeping up with traffic is a safety concern and so that's why we made it basically eight minutes.
And how's the procedure work? So we turn around and then we get on the on and then what happens? So on the on ramp usually there's like the traffic, you know, the throttling traffic on the on ramp and usually at that particular light because it's always off when we test during the day. At 35 miles an hour, I put the hammer down, which means we start about 35 miles per hour and then full throttle until we can get to 60 and then maintain 60.
And then of course we also check out what the fuel economy is. So we use a truck for that or the car for that because there's no gas station so we can't use our two click pump method but we reset the odometer and we reset the trip meter and we reset the fuel economy gauge. And so what time did the GX get and what was the fuel economy? The GX got eight minute and 32 seconds at one up. So it was about 32 seconds. So the slower the worse.
Yeah, the slower there's the worse eight minutes it would be ideal. And it registered 4.2 MPG and actually for that heavy over trailer of 8500 pounds that we were towing 4.2 or over four is actually a decent result. So but the time once again, I thought that twin turbo V6 is going to have no issues. It will fly up there but it actually was taxed. Well, I think taxed by this way.
I think that's fair because Toyota slash Lexus would tell you that that engine is replacing a V8 and so it's torquy, too. It's torquy, yeah. So it's all the power of a V8 with better fuel economy. And yet when you get into the turbos, we have found that the fuel economy goes down. But usually the power goes up, but in this case at 8500 pounds, it's struggled. And that's a lot of weight, Andre. I can't stress you guys how much 8500 pounds is for a state boat.
So this would be like a 24 foot or a 25 foot boat potentially. This would be like a large trailer. I'm talking about like 30 or 32 foot camping trailer. So this is the type of thing that we're talking about here. Yeah, let's kind of just quickly go over because it's a lot easier to give you context as to what each different segment of the truck world tow. So well, let's start with now compact trucks, the Manant Brick and the Santa Cruz. How much do they tow? Those are like cars basically.
But 4,000 to 5,000. And then you can just relatively high vehicles. It is. And then you get into because they're based on car chassis and then you get into the mid-size trucks, Ranger Tacoma, Canyon, Colorado, Frontier. How much do those usually tow? We're talking about about 6400 pounds to about 7700 pounds. So now this GX has a higher capacity than all of mid-size trucks. I think the number one best-towing mid-size is maybe a gladiator, right? I think it's got.
It's actually tied between the Chevy GMC and the Jeep. Okay. So all those three are tied at 7700 pounds. And then you get into half tons or full-size trucks, the Colorado, obviously F-150, Ram 1500, Tundra. Tundra. What do those tow up to? Depending on the configuration. So depending on the configuration. Yeah. So usually it's either 11,000 pounds for like the Toyota or the Ram or about 13,000 pounds for like the Chevy 1500 with a special package or the F-150.
And I think here is where we have to talk a little bit about payload. Yes. Especially for all your Europeans out there because you have a whole different way of towing than we do. Because I've been watching some of the old top gear episodes and they've got some little teeny tiny diesel Hyundai that's throwing this massive camper right there. Caravan, they were saying. Oh, that'd be right. Caravan. Caravan. And it's holding up this line of cars because it's a caravan of cars. Yeah. Right.
And the way that you can do that is by not doing a lot of tongue-weight. You want to, I just said a lot of things that probably don't mean a lot to many car people. So what does that mean? Why can they do that with no tongue-weight? How those little cars would work? Yeah. It depends on the trailer, right? So normally if the trailer weighs 5,000 pounds, you need at least about 500 pounds. 10 percent. 10 percent of that weight on the tongue. Pushing down, the tongue is a huge. On the hitch.
And the reason we do that in America is because that mitigates trailer sway. Trailer sway is when you drive it along and all of a sudden the thing behind you that you're towing is going left to right, left to right, and then it becomes worse and worse and worse and very, very dangerous. Yeah, very unstable and eventually it can flip you over. Yeah. And so in America we use a lot more tongue-weight.
But if you, and then the reason that that's can be problematic is because then you've got all this way pushing down on the back of the vehicle. So the vehicle squatting really badly. And that's why on the on the on the Ike we also measure squat. Yes. In other words, we see how the distance between the fender on the back tire and to the ground basically.
Versus it being hooked up to a trailer with the weight and usually we get, you know, it's usually one to two to three inches of top to three inches of difference. Yeah. And I think, I mean, I haven't lived in Europe that long or tow trailers there much, but you know, they don't have the high speeds that we experience here, you know, across Texas, the speed limit could be 80 in Colorado, the speed limit is 75. Yeah, usually long highways.
So you'll see like on the Autobahn, I think at the minute to 80 kilometers, right, for towing or on the beast, I think they're called beast streets in Europe. It's 50 kilometers, which is, you know, a lot slower, a lot lower speed. We can look at the trailer, go to Montana or Utah, America and take it up to 80 miles now, which would be 120 kilometers. Yeah. So we told a lot faster than the Europeans do. And so we have a lot more tongue-weight.
And then the other thing that happens when you squat something in the back, you get kind of this issue where the headlights then are pointing into oncoming traffic. Modern, that used to be a bigger problem because modern headlights now adjust. So you know, they know that you don't want to blind oncoming traffic, so they kind of tilt down. But in the past, we had issues with actually blinding people when we were towing.
Cars especially tend to squat a lot because trucks have very firm coils, spring springs and coils, right, depending on what kind of cars usually don't. Yeah. And also, the squatting issue, right? So if you're vehicle, let's say you're in a little crossover or a wagon or something like that, station wagon, if you're squatting, you're basically unloading the front axle, right?
So what happens is, less steering, you know, a capability and also maybe the brakes are not working as well as they could have worked. So it's actually multiple issues. Yeah. As all you car guys and girls know, most of your braking comes from your front wheels. Yeah. And unload the front wheels. You don't have enough traction on it, exactly. So it could be a big issue. All right, so let's go down this list. So next on our list is the Land Cruiser.
Now, this is the current Land Cruiser, the brand new one that just came out, not the old one before, not the old one before. Not the old one before. Not the old one with the V8. We're not talking about the Venerable one that everybody thinks of. We're talking about the new one, which is much cheaper and smaller. Now a hybrid and smaller. And smaller and a hybrid. So what were you talking, Andre?
So we were talking much less weight in the Land Cruiser because it's not actually rated as highly as the GX. They share a lot of the components, but we were talking about 5,500 pounds. We're talking a little on that. It's a really big thing. I think 6,000. So just a little 500 under here. So once again, we either try to hit the maximum or stay just below the maximum on these tests. And it's a hybrid. So you and I had this thought to ourselves that the electric motor should.
It would help slow us down because it would regen some of the energy, right? And it wasn't helping us much. No. And we've actually told with electric cars, and electric cars, and even Model X. Remember? Yeah, the Model X and even plug in hybrids, if you have a lot more origin than breaking. I think the problem with the Land Cruiser is that it's a mild system. It's just a small hybrid and it's got a small battery.
And so you can quickly have the battery going down, pushing a lot of weight behind you. So it didn't exactly help us in the downhill run. But it did help on the uphill run. It did. Yeah. So 12 brake applications on the way down in the Land Cruiser, which is not a good number, but I did not manually shift. So I let the Land Cruiser do it. And then eight minutes, 13 seconds on the way up. So actually pretty good performance almost a perfect time by about 13 seconds and 5.8 MPG.
But once again, we're telling a lot lighter, 5,500 pounds. So the MPG was pretty good. But you know what that hybrid system does as we realized during this test? It adds weight to the car, right? We're talking about five or 600 pounds more of battery and electric motor and other components that add to it. So let's talk about this other part of the payload equation. And that is just how much a payload a vehicle has.
And so you would think that a car or truck with four wheel drive or all wheel drive would tow more than a car with two wheel drive. I just make sense. You've got four wheels pulling the vehicle, stopping the vehicle. Well, I don't even know if it's not the vehicle. But you see what I'm saying. Yeah. But in fact, that's not the case. Because let's say, let's just pick a vehicle. Let's say it's got 1,000 pounds of payload from the factory bear.
Like there's nothing like the Kia Sportage or something. No, just any vehicle. Make believe vehicle. I make believe. It's got 1,000 pounds of payload. Now the first thing that happens is you get into it. I'm pretty heavy. So you let's say you're 250. I'm 240. OK, 240. OK. OK. I'm just doing where our numbers make it easier. Yeah, 250. OK, so you're 250. I'm not saying you are. And that now reduces the payload down to 75%. 75%. 750 pounds.
The payload is as much as you can put in the car safely without overstressing it. So now you're at 750. And now let's say you want a tow, a trailer that has a tongue weight of 250 pounds. OK, so you put that on. So you put that on the hitch. Right. And now you're down to 500 pounds. 500 pounds. But now you've bought the fancy version of that car, which means that it's a sunroof. And four-wheel drive. And heated seats and massaging seats. And all that stuff is heavy.
So now you've taken the payload down another 250 pounds because of all that. So now you're down to 250 pounds of payload left. And now the question becomes, your family wants to come in with you? Your wife and two kids. And now you're over payload. And you don't want to tell that to your wife. Yeah. And this is what happens with cars very quickly when you start towing heavy with them. That's why their tow ratings are much lower than that of trucks. Because trucks have sturdy your frames, right?
Big trucks especially. Their body on frame, they're not. Unibody. Law and wheelbases, heavy components. Heavy debris springs. And so they're much better at towing heavy than cars are. All right. Here's something interesting. The first two that we've mentioned are off-roaders. And that's also detrimental to towing. Why is it, Andrea? Why are off-roaders worse at towing than on-roaders? Good question. Usually it comes down to off-road components are heavy.
Yeah. So we have a picture of a Ford Bronco, a new Ford Bronco behind us. So when you add locking differentials, heavy axles, big tires, that adds way to the vehicle. And that's what we're talking about. The Bronco by the way. Yes. But also what happens is, first of all, cooling is a big part. So if you don't have a big grill, you know, and a lot of these vehicles are stylized and they don't have huge grills. Wait, wait, wait. You mean those cool lights that I put on the front of my vehicle?
Your fog lamps? Yeah, the block, the air coming into the radiator. And your car needs cooling to tone. Yeah. And there's the best example of that is, I think when Jeep built the Gladiator, and they basically, now they're saying about when it first came out, they had 100% said that the Gladiator was not a Wrangler with a bed. And we were all like, it looks like a Wrangler with a bed. It's a Wrangler with a bed.
Oh no, no, no, no, but the one thing they did tell us was that they had to redesign the front front end. And so that's because the Wrangler just could knock it enough air for towing. Yes. And they did. And then also, off-roaders usually have softer springs. And bigger tires. And bigger tires. And you need a softer spring for an off-roader because you want to handle those, you know, bumps and rocks off-road. So having said that, that's not good for towing.
So having said that, how much is, what's the payload? Not actually the way. What's the towing capacity of the Bronco? Do you remember? I believe it's 3,500 pounds. Okay. And so we towed, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see it. We towed this little, who are these guys? It was Burez. Yes, yeah. That's right. That's right. It's a pretty tough looking teardrop. Basically, it's a place for two people to sleep, but it's a very low profile trailer, right?
So it's basically within the same height as the Bronco. It weighs about 2400 pounds. Yeah. And how did it do? Not good. No, didn't do good. So here's what happens. Like we said, if you do have a dedicated off-roader, and this was a first addition, Bronco, right? So it had the Sasquatch package. It had big tires, soft springs, or soft-dish springs. We did nine brake applications, eight minutes and eight seconds, run up the hill. So actually, uphill, the run was not bad.
No. And 7.2 MPG on the way up. But the field efficiency was really higher because of low weight, because we're towing. And you know what else? You know how I knew that the Bronco wasn't really designed for towing? Yes. Two things. So the rear camera on the Bronco is on the spare tire. And you can't see the hitch from that camera. So when you're backing up to hook up a trailer, you can't line up the hitch. You can't light the hitch because the hitch is hidden underneath the spare tire.
Makes sense. That's number one. And number two, it has no brake controller. Yeah. Or actually wiring. Remember, we have to take it to the dealer to add wiring to it. And this is a big deal for a lot of cars. They don't either have, well, first of all, they don't either have a hitch. So you got to go to U-Haul. And install a hitch. And then you got to spend another 200 bucks installing the wiring for it.
And usually the way that they do it at U-Haul is what they do is they hook up your lights to the trailer lights. In other words, they splice into the lights on your vehicle. And I always felt that was kind of, um, floccuated to do it. And now that's becoming problematic because the cars are all computer controlled. And if you add something to one of the circuits, it knows. And it starts flashing warnings. Or if that circuit maybe doing have multiple functions, right?
The new vehicles are a lot smarter now. So that wire you may be tapping into, it may not just control the lights. It may control something else too. Remember when I went out? No. When I was moving to Prague, this is back in the 90s. I had a 300 ZX. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And what? You put a hitch on it? I did. Yeah. I told him motorcycle. I'm not 300 ZX. I did. I got a little U-Haul camper. Will U-Haul trailer. And I put a motorcycle on it and told him to crop. Help clube, I'm telling you. Uh-huh.
So they did make a hitch for a 300 ZX twin turbo. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping bakers. Where you'll find over 30,000 mouth watering choices that excite your inner foodie. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices. Plus extra ways to save like digital coupons worth over $600 each week. You can also save up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with fuel points.
For savings and more inspiring flavors, make shopping bakers worth it every time. Bakers fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. So I always thought it was all about power. I'm like, this thing's got 300 horsepower. I can do it. It's got four wheel super high-casturing. Uh-huh. I did it. But yeah, it was probably not a good idea. Yeah. It's a tow with a 300 ZX. But today that is getting much more difficult because it's becoming also integrated into the car's computer.
Now, let's talk about the Wrangler. So a couple of years ago, I got the tow not up the Ike, but just in the program with the Jeep Wrangler. And what they did was they added a full floating rear axle to the Wrangler. Yeah, this is a 2024 model. Right. This is the latest model. This is a Rubicon. And so they hooked up an air stream to it. And I think they raised the tow and capacity from 3000 to 5000, if I remember right. Yep. And they said, go for it. And I did.
And had the penistar, the six cylinder. And it towed. But dude, I would not want to take that up the Ike. And this is a single axle air stream. So this is not a big, it's not that little tiny one, you know, the base camp, but it's not the huge giant one. Okay. So what happened? Was the trailer swaying a tiny bit? Well, I mean, he's a cliche, but it was definitely the tail wagging the dog. Okay. In other words, you know, there's a rating here that we don't put in there numerically.
And that is, you know, how comfortable do you feel with that much weight behind you? How? Because if you're especially if you're telling cross country, you know, you have to pay attention. You got to be on your game. You're told it's cross winds. Yeah. It's no longer just driving and putting in cruise control and letting the car take you away while you're, you know, playing your spot, favorite spotify. You're like, you're on it.
Let's say there's a putthole, you noticed, and you swirve a little bit to avoid it. All of a sudden, that can upset the trailer, right? If you're making a sudden motion with your steering, your trailer may start swaying. By the way, I'm watching your video with the Wrangler. Yeah. And they have a weight distribution hitch here. Totally. Probably. And we use, let's talk about weight distributing hitches. Why do we use weight distributing hitches on our, the, what is it?
We're using new hitches now. Yeah. So for the last year. Yeah. We've partnered with Waysafe. Yeah. The great, one of the things that they do is they have a little, a little scale. Weight scale. That's built into the hitch. So if you need to know your tongue weight, you can see it. Most of their products are aluminum. So the biggest super lightweight. Biggest problem, especially when you got those big ass hitches that you're putting on. If you do any trucks, they're very heavy for Andre's.
Dick and way, 80 pounds, 100 pounds per hitch. So, so lifting those hitches could be a problem. So making aluminum is, it's nice because it decreases the weight. But there's a thing called a weight distributing hitch. Tell us what that is because I've never, I didn't even know what it had in it. And you should. Yeah, you could see the bars. Yeah, we used it with, what do we just use it with? Well, we use it on JX 550. Yeah, that's right. It's a Land Cruiser. Yeah, what is it?
And why do you need it? So basically, it's, we talked about squat. Yeah. Right, you want a hitch to kind of try to correct it. Okay? Yeah. You want a hitch to try to correct that squat. So that's what weight distribution hitch does. And the way we're using a new way, safe, true toe, middleweight hitch, which has those bars. And I always like to describe it like this. It's like a brake controller. Ooh, they put a brake controller in your Wrangler? Yeah, and that's cool. I'm sorry, I didn't know.
I'm sorry. No, it's like a knob. Yeah, it's a knob. It's a knob. Yeah, around that. And they're different, they're different kinds of brake controllers. Yes. And it's a way to distribute the load. So it's a way to push a little bit more weight forward into the vehicle toward the front axle and make it all level and nice. And the way I describe it usually is like a wheelbarrow. Imagine you're doing gardening work and you have a wheelbarrow full of, I don't know, mulch, right? Rubber rocks.
Rubber rocks. So you pick up the wheelbarrow very close to where your rocks are and you try to lift it up. That's very heavy. That's very heavy. What if you have long handles on your wheelbarrow and you pick it up way out here and it's using basically leverage, right? And it's very easy to pick up your wheelbarrow. Now you're carrying it. That's similar to where how those bars work, right? They try to distribute that load a little bit further back and try to lift it up.
So it's changing, but in many trucks you get, especially if you're at 1,500 other words, full size or higher, they come from factory with brake controllers. Yes. And all the wiring and all the brake controllers. Which is nice. But a lot of cars don't. Right. Because until now there's not been, I guess, the competition or the focus on these things. So what can you do if you have a car that doesn't have a brake controller? You could try to retrofit it.
You could think of the dealer, but it's kind of a pain in the butt. Yes. So it's a lot of wiring and then it's a lot of cutting, not a huge amount, but still it's not easy to retrofit a brake controller. But there is a simpler solution. You want to talk about the wireless brake controller that you can get? We're not sponsored by these guys. We're just trying to help you. No. And there's several different ways of doing wireless brake controller. Really on your trailer, we use a Prodigy RF.
That's the name of it. And you basically, I think it was, we bought it several years ago, but it was like about 20 bucks. We got the tiny tank. We got the hike. The tight hike going, yeah. This is Nathan's trailer. Sorry. We're like squirrels here. You buy it in your mountest box, the receiver, wireless receiver on the trailer. And then it has basically a wireless signal that it sends to your little device, handheld device inside the car.
And you plug it into 12 volts usually, just to power your little handheld controller. And now, Wemmo, all you need is a 7 pin connector mounted to the rear of your car or crossover. And now you can use that little handheld device to actually control the brakes. And of course, of course, if you're a trailer, it doesn't have brakes like this one, then that controller will be useless.
Yes, but if it does have brakes, and I can't stress enough, I just think you should always tow with a brake controller when possible, especially here in Colorado or I don't know, in the hill country in Texas. No, I mean, California has many mountains, Utah. Yeah, there's just American, I guess doesn't matter. Everywhere, even if you're towing in Florida, just think about this. Let's say you need to do an emergency stop, right? And you don't have a brake controller.
The first thing that happens is all that weight goes pushing against the car because the trailer isn't braking. And then you run the risk of jackknifeing. Yes, and then you're already using all full capacity of your car's brakes and now you're overheating those brakes. And by the way, Andre is being a little not timid, I would say, his usual kind self, but he actually... No, no, you have a CDL. So he has a commercial driver's license.
And I'm guessing because I don't have one, but this is a lot of the kind of things you go over when you get your commercial driver's license. You have to know this. And I have an air brake endorsement too. So basically I can drive anything up to a semi with air brakes. I was not talking about air brakes. No, no, no, I was watching that big time video where they bought that semi and the guys were like, they weren't sure what they needed a CDL to drive that. And he's got air brakes.
I'm like, well, where's your endorsement? You need a CDL if you got air brakes. I don't know why that is, but I know. Yeah. And then the other thing, speaking of that video, if you haven't watched it, these guys from doing our media left and they started their own YouTube channel. But here's something else. And we might as well just talk about this because it's fun. So they bought a truck that was a dual axle that was converted to a single axle.
And then they were wondering if because it's a single axle, it took a lot of weight out of it. Right. And so usually there's a weight number that you have to have a CDL if you get above. What number is that? I don't know what number that is. How much can you tell without a CDL? Well, and it depends on the state a little bit too. But it's usually between 10,000 pounds and 26,000 pounds. If some of your weights are above that, it requires a class A or a CDL license, commercial license.
And then the way that the police check that is if you're driving along and seeing those like pull into the waist, they should write. And the vehicle that you're using to tow, in this case a truck, will have a sticker on it, like a wind plate, right? Basically. And it'll have, well, it has gross vehicle weight rating of that vehicle. And also every trailer has a little wind plate too. And that wind plate on your trailer will also say a gross vehicle weight rating of the trailer.
And what the state policeman does, it's usually state police, right? On the highway. They check those stickers. And if the sticker says 50,000 pounds for a semi truck, that's what the officer goes by. Yeah, and it doesn't matter if you cut off one of the axles because he doesn't know what you cut or what you didn't cut. Yeah, you're still have to conform to what's on that plate. Yes. And so you need your commercial driver's license. Anyway, that was a little bellving to TFL talking trucks.
So if you want, no more about gears, you know, towing with big trucks or even pick up trucks set out over to our sister or brother or uncle podcast talking trucks. All right. So let's go back to cars. Kia Sportage. Yeah. So we had the Kia Sportage with a little turbocharged engine and we couldn't resist. This was a couple of years ago. This is Nathan and I. I remember this because we bought little tight, little child car. And strapped in the back, strapped in the back to designate the Tyke.
Yes, a little tiny pop up, Kimper, which is a single axle, really tiny thing. And I think it weighed gosh, what, 1500 pounds. And the Kia did have a little forping connector. So everything was legal. We had lights, we had blinkers. And boy, dude, we did 10 brake applications on the way down. That's a lot. That's quite a lot. Yeah. Eight minutes and seven seconds on the way up and 8.9 MPG on the way up. So the uphill performance was okay.
The downhill performance, even with this tiny trailer, was already becoming a little problematic. And we say tiny, we mean light because the thing is about the same size and looking at the picture. As a car. But it weighs a lot less than that car. It weighs a lot less than that car because it's basically just cloth in there, right?
And then remember, Nathan bought that Santa Cruz and he went to the dealer and tried to get him to install the wiring for the lights and he could never, he owned it for like a year and he could never get him to do it. So there was like a recall on the wiring harness and it was sold out. So he was trying to use his Santa Cruz to tow and he couldn't. So so yeah, Nathan was kind of bummed by this. All right. Number five on our list, the Dodge Durango. Tell me about that.
I do not remember it anymore. It's been so many years. No, I think it was me and Mr. Truck. I tell you about the Durango. So I put this on this list and it's kind of chronological order. We're going in. We'll go back in time. But we're going a little bit back in time, but also I put this on this list because it was, it's a unibody SUV. It's a three row. So in the way, it's kind of similar to the GX 550, but I think it's one of the better towing machines for for the CV.
Yeah, I noticed on your list you got the word best. That's what I wrote. Yes. So we were towing. I can pull up this video maybe. We were towing 7,000 pounds with this Durango. It was a horse trailer. It was a horse trailer loaded with cargo with a horse. No, we didn't have any horses. A cow. No. No. We had water tanks and center blocks. We used to use water tanks and center blocks as we could control the weight, right? So with the water tank, these big giants are, they're honey containers.
240 gallon containers. 250 gallon containers. Yeah. And the upside of that is if you're overweight, you can just let out the water and pour it out. Or if you're underweight, you can just add water. Or if it's freezing temperatures, you could pour it out, right? Yeah. And the great thing about water is it's heavy. So it did really well.
I mean, for that heavy of a load, nine brake applications, so under 10 brake applications, and under eight minutes on the way up, dude, it had a heavy V8, seven minutes, 49 seconds on the way up, and 4.7 MPG, and also very stable, very comfortable to drive. So all those things are played for it. And you know another thing. Here's, I just want to say one more thing. When you have a unibody vehicle, like most cars and crossovers, here we're showing the Durango now.
You can kind of hear the hitch, because the hitch is basically connected to the entire body. Oh, it was by myself. No, there you go. Maybe it was during COVID. It could have been during COVID. That's a big horse trailer. You can hear the hitch inside the cabin, because the hitch is connected to the entire body of the vehicle. When you have a frame underneath you, like the GX 550, you don't hear the hitch, because the hitch is kind of going into the frame, and you're actually not hearing it.
All right. Now, since we're here at over a car, let's take another little sidebar, because I feel like this is towing 101 for a lot of car folk. Okay. Hey, Mr. Truck. Oh, there he is. Yeah, you're a good person. So let's talk about how you hook up a trailer to the tow rig. Now, first and foremost, I think people understand how the ball and hitch work, right? Ball and... Yeah, you have the receiver. Yes, you have the ball receiver, basically.
And the tongue of the trailer goes on top of it and kind of matches, and there's a lock. Because you don't want to have happened. On the bumpy highway, you don't want that tongue to pop off the ball, right? And there's usually a tongue lock.
And with most trailers, there's like a little foot that you deploy, and then there's a little crank, and then you crank up the trailer, and then you put your hitch into the hitch receiver in the vehicle, and then you back up, and then this is where the camera has become very important. Because now you need to exactly match the ball with the tongue. Yes. And I mean, people usually tell me, Andre, I did this way before cameras, right? Right. And we did this before cameras.
And with the cameras, they show you like a little line. So sometimes if you see that on the screen, when you put in reverse, there's a little line, and that line lines up with the receiver and the ball that's then on your vehicle when you're about to tow. Now, but that's not all, Andre. So you back it up, and then you lower the tongue onto the ball, right? And then what happens? And then you have to make sure you lock the tongue, right? So you're doing that and that was when we had the Hummer.
Well, this was T.F.L. Bidz. Oh, OK. It was my little commercial. We're still playing the Durango eye gauntlet. So you want to lock the tongue, right? Once again, you don't want to prevent that trailer tongue to come off your ball hitch receiver. Yeah, this is easy, right? But that's not all because this is where I was going with this. But then you want safety. So there are two chains that usually crisscross because you don't want them hanging down and creating sparks.
And then there are two little eyelets on the hitch receiver that you hook the chains to. But there's a third thing you hook. What's that? Usually, well, there's supposed to be a breakaway cable. Tell me about that. If the trailer has brakes, and we're talking about heavier trailers, so they always have brakes, the breakaway cable is basically a safety measure.
So if a hitch somehow fails and the chains fail and the trailer disconnects itself from the vehicle, it will pull that cable out of the trailer. It's just a little plastic connection. And that immediately locks up the brakes on the trailer. So potentially, if you're going down the eye gauntlet and you lose the trailer, the car, in this case, could keep going, but the trailer will apply full brakes and stop. And hopefully lock up and hopefully not hit anything.
Yeah, without cart wheeling and rolling and listening. Now, the one thing that we always give manufacturer is a lot of grief about are those two eyelets, because those safety chains are big. And those hooks that you hook on are pretty big. And for some reason, we've been doing this now, 15 years on right now, the manufacturers, especially with trucks keep redesigning those eyelets.
And they keep like, it's like people who've never told before that either tuck them way underneath the car, same thing with the Land Cruiser too. Exactly. Same thing with the Land Cruiser. It's got this binocle and you take these little pieces of plastic off and then those little eyelets are tucked way down there. And sometimes like, we told with the Tacoma, we told it in snowstorm. And then you got this ice cover thing and you're trying to undo it.
It's just guys, make those very prominent, easy to hook up. Ford is especially bad at it. And we complain about it and sometimes manufacturers redesign it for the better. But then sometimes it changes back for the worse. So the Ram 1500, we have, we change the hooks for the chains, those eyelets and now they're worse again. I'm not quite understanding why this is happening. Yeah, neither do I. So anyway, yeah, let's keep going. So next on our list is a Volkswagen Atlas cross-sport.
We were towing a smart car. So actually, we compared it to an Infiniti QX80. Okay, let's talk about that. In this video, we did two at once. So it was a double-like. All right, so which one did better? And I can probably guess pretty easily because the QX80 is based on a truck. The QX80 did way better. We basically told the same trailer with both vehicles. QX80 is a larger vehicle, heavier frame, frame-based vehicle, right? It did better on the way down.
It was quicker on the way up, but it was less efficient. Do you want to do some numbers? Give people the numbers. So Atlas cross-sport did 10 brake applications with 5,000 pounds, eight minutes, eight seconds on the way up and 5.7 MPG. And the QX80 Infiniti eight brake applications, so two less, seven minutes, 49 seconds on the way up and 5.1 MPG. So quicker on the way up, better braking.
So we just had a shout-out from Nissan, thank you, from the PR team, because I recently went and looked at the new QX80, which is not based on a Titan, as far as I know. Well, but there's just a lot of Titan bones. It is, I mean, the frame's there. But there's no new engine. But it hasn't. Yeah, there's no new generation. And just like everybody else, they took the V8 and, you know, when we moved it, removed it with the V6 twin turbo.
But I said at the press meeting, so the way these programs work is usually have a little press conference, a little press briefing before you go out and drive it. And I asked the end, I said, you know, how much is this tow? And they said, it's a lot. It's like, it's like 85 hundred pounds. Yeah, I said, okay, does that have a brake controller? And they said, brake controller. And I'm like, yeah, a brake controller. And they said it can tow 8,500 pounds.
And we were kind of like at this moment where they didn't quite understand that legally, the most you could tow with that vehicle, even though it's rated for 8,500 pounds without a brake controller is 3,000 pounds, especially in Colorado, I think in California as well. And so then I had a long conversation with the CEO of the brand and then I explained it to him. And of course, the engineer was like looking at me like, like, I know, dummy, I know. And I was like, well, now the CEO knows as well.
And then who has recently went to the Tommy? Was it Tommy? Yeah. So he went to the infinity launch of, no, no, this was the, this was the infinity QX8 maybe Tommy went to the Nissan launch of the Armada, which the infinity, wait, wait, yes. The Armada is embargoed. Oh, okay. I can't say everything. Okay. I can't say anything. Okay. But anyways, so when is the embargo? September 2nd. Oh, it's way is off. Okay. All right. Well, we can't say anything.
So all that build up for, poop, poop, poop, poop, sorry. Just remember this. That's good. I don't want to break an embargo. I certainly don't want to break an embargo. Well, we could talk about the QX8E. Yeah. So they gave it a twin-therbov6, very somewhat to what Fort has done and very similar to what, you know, Toyota has done with the Sequoia and the Tundra. And so Nissan is basically following suit and a lot of this. Yeah, it's a good car.
Yeah. I really enjoyed it and I really think, you know, it needed an update because that thing was long in the tooth, my man. Anyway, it killed the VW Atlas cross-border. And we kind of expected it. So and that's kind of why we did this video, we're specifically talking about a large crossover, the Atlas cross-sport competing against Infinity QX8E. And with the same trailer on the same day, everything was, you know, we tried to do it as closely as possible.
And yeah, bigger vehicle, bigger engine, slowed down the trailer better and went up the hill better. I'm going to put a controversial statement out there and you may or may not agree with it, but let me throw it out there. And this is my core belief, Andre. I believe if you're going to tow, get a pickup truck.
I mean, we're doing this because it's a car podcast, but having spent a lot of last 15 years, not as much as you towing, I just feel that that that factor that we don't put in these numbers and that is how comfortable do you feel towing is always, always much better on the truck side than on the car side. It just feels like when they design a truck because the truck is a tool for the most part, from the get go, bake in towing. Whereas with cars, it seems like an afterthought.
Not the big ones, not the QX8E. Right. This is a big vehicle. And I've been watching the press briefing. You know, they had these happy couple towing, a giant air stream. But with a car, it's always an afterthought. Whereas at least that's what it feels like. I'm not, I don't want to disparage any car engineers. But with the truck, it's like this is one of the things that they had on their list. How much it was a hyper-eurite. Yeah, how much does it, how much does it tow, right?
And also just the size of the vehicle. So yeah, so let's, let's mention it briefly. Okay. So what makes a vehicle really great at towing? It's really the stability of the chassis, right? So the longer that wheelbase, specifically, the distance between the front axle and the rear axle, that distance, the longer that it is, the better for towing. Because you have a more stable chassis, right? And pickup trucks are what? They're long, right?
Usually they have four doors, they have a long bed, so they're usually longer. Then the vehicle's weight, right itself. Right now I'm showing you guys, if you're watching, this is the lender of a defender 110. This is a new defender doing the I-Gon-let. And we can talk a little bit closing out with this, right? Yeah, but let me finish this truck versus car towing.
Yeah, so whenever you have that heavier weight, big frame, long wheelbase, and heavy springs, that's already a recipe for great towing. Yeah, and then the other thing I like about trucks is they tend to just be taller. So you tend to sit up higher, and then the other thing, like you said, when it's baked in, they tend to have towing mirrors.
I can't stress to you how nice it is to have a mirror that either extends out or is big enough so you can see what the heck that load is doing while you're towing. And then there's all this other technology that trucks have. So for instance, Ford, and then they all do this to some extent, but Ford has a specific screen where when you hook up a trailer, Andre, it asks you for the name of the trailer. So if you're often towing the same trailer, it knows. You could recall that profile.
Yeah, and then it sets parameters. And it's just like, okay, this is like, I get it. This is like, I just bought a machine that's meant to toast bread. Not an oven that can do a whole bunch of other things. This is specifically built to do the one thing I'm going to be doing with it. Yeah, and especially it's helpful to us because we usually have multiple trailers, multiple trucks. But Ford is really good at this. GM is really good at this for their pickup trucks.
It's very easy to recall a trailer. And you could track, because the other thing about trailers, if the trailer needs maintenance too, you know, your tires, trailer tires. We've had our big text, right? Tilt trailers. Two years now. And we've already had to replace the tires because trailer tires are just, they're just the cheapest. Yeah, and the whole industry is kind of cost driven, I guess. Yeah, I mean, I think all of the trailer, this is the Tilt trailers, you know, the hire haulers.
A lot of that is owned by venture capitalist and they're out to make a buck. Yeah, so I don't make a lying when I say that. No, no, and also like wheel bearings on the trailer, you have to grease. So if you do have that great software inside your truck, like Ford does and GM does, and I think Ram is getting there as well. You can remember, you know, I've driven this trailer for a thousand miles. Oh, it's time for me to, you know, once a year to actually grease those bearings or change the tires.
There's really smart things like they'll do TPMS sensors. Remember when we bought the Hummer EV, it came with an extra sort of TPMS sensor. Yes, you can monitor pressure in there. Oh, it's for a nice one. They're like, oh, it's for towing. Yeah, that's really thoughtful. For your trailer. And the other thing that GM does is you can get cameras that you can actually put inside your trailer. So let's say you're telling your favorite horse or cow or your car, your prized car.
Yeah, so you can have a, you're going to Pebble Beach. You can have a camera inside the trailer. That's Pebble Beach, speaking of Pebble Beach. Yeah, it's now. Yeah. There's no truckster, Andre. No. And there's probably not a lot of other trucks there that brought the million dollar Bugatti's there. And there's probably not a lot of like any of these cars either. I don't think there's any Broncos or GX or GS portages. Yeah, probably not. Or during those at 12.
So that's why we're not there in case you're wondering. It's, well, honestly, we haven't invited. I guess if we were invited. Number one, we're not invited. We're number two. We're not specialists in the hypercars. Yes. We're not Pagani people. I think for yourself, I'm a Pagani person. Oh, you are? I am. I am total Pagani. Do you play piano? I am. I am. I am total my box. I am all over that stuff, Andre. Okay. Parasengue, I would love Ferrari to cross country of Paris. Ferrari to.
No. Can we tow with Paris and gay? Paris and my sing, that's correct. I don't. I drove a Lamborghini on the track in Rome. See? Yeah, I know that. Yeah. I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Hot Pursuit, the Bloober podcast. Yes. And Hannah got to drive a Lamborghini up to Pebble Beach. I think she's driving a Parasengue down. So she's driving the Volto, which is a new hybrid up. And then, you know, so I'm all over that. And Andre Abbott, you would be too.
I would love to stay in the Ferrari. I would love to stay in the Ferrari. Okay. Ferrari, if you would like to do a night gauntlet run. Put a hitch on it with it with the controller. Yes. And we'll find the most expensive, the most premium trailer. It's going to be beautiful. And we're going to tow it. Yeah. You got it. So we'll tow like that base camp. The best stream, the best air stream or the best, you name it. Ferrari, you know that the active lifestyle is just red hot right now.
Just red hot. So maybe you're tired of selling to all those billionaires with their private yachts and all those millionaires, you know, with their... How about million-year school camp? Yeah, with those guys, they love camping. I know they may have 14 homes, but they love to go off. I'm just joking. All right. Let's go back to the defender. How did the defender do, Andre?
It actually did really well, but your comment about mirrors is very valid because the defender has tiny small mirrors because it's an off-roader or at least the character of the... of the CECV is for off-road. So when you go off-road, you want those mirrors as close as possible, right? Because so branches of trees as you're off-roading don't hit your mirrors. But that mirror is not great for towing. But it did really great.
So we told 7,500 pounds with the defender, 10 break applications, really quick on the way up, 7 minutes and 57 seconds, and 3.8 MPG on the way up as well. And I was very happy if you watched this defender towing video, it was super stable, very quiet, very powerful. It's a good machine. Yeah, so I would say once again, if you really want to tow seriously, arrange yourself a truck while these cars will tow, and especially like the GX or the Land Cruiser or the Durango.
And they do a good job for the most part if you ever car. I had a friend and he bought one of those base camp air streams. You know, they're really tiny ones, which still are single axle. Single axle, 50,000. And he has a BMW iX. No, X1, sorry, that's an X. X1. X1. So the smallest BMW actually. Yeah, and he bought it in Texas, we're in Colorado. And he's like, hey, Roman, can I tow this thing with the X1?
And I have no idea what the, what the, but what maybe it was an X2, but it was one of the tiny. Crosso, yeah. And I don't know what the tow rating is, I wanted these. And I was like, you know what, I've got a stable full of trucks, just borrow one of our trucks. But he was, you know, hell bent on towing with it. So he drove his BMW down to Texas, bought the trailer and towed it back up and towed it with it all the time.
But that to me is kind of the towing that I don't like to do, where you're either right at the edge of the vehicle's towing ability or just a little bit over it. And you've got to worry about safety first and foremost, both for yourself and for the people around you. And so when you're in a truck, you feel like you've got complete control of the load and you feel, and I feel, I should be on the truck podcast on drain nine. Yeah, you should come over.
And I'm actually over there because, yes, I know. I know. But yeah, so I kind of feel like if I'm going to be towing, if I have the ability, friend, home depot, or I just get the truck. Well, you want, that's why don't do what I did with the 300ZX do what I say today. Yes. When you see a person and they're Nissan 300ZX towing the motorcycle, please tell them no. I could have probably got, you know, one of those motorcycle little trailers.
No, not even a trailer, the little like mounted, you know, the hitch mount, the hitch mount, yeah, I got for that. No, then you would have squatted that Nissan so badly. It would have been like a Carolina squad. It was a Nissan 300ZX twin turbo, Andre. Yeah, it could have had that motorcycle. So here's what I would say if you're buying, and if you're only what the motorcycle was, it was Suzuki Contana. How much does it say? So this is sizable bike. 600 pounds probably.
Yeah, if you wait too much for a Z. Yeah. Here's what I would say. Even though your neighbor probably, you know, he got home from Texas in his little BMW crossover. But you need safety margin, right?
You always, like you're saying, you need a bigger vehicle because it just takes you a little bit of side wind or a little bit of ice or a little bit of, I don't know, a rainstorm or a hail storm for that margin of air, you know, that capability to really kind of bite you and become a very dangerous situation. So you do need to try to count for that and get a bigger vehicle. Look at that. A BMW X1 can tow 3500 pounds. Yeah. How? Well, this is what BMW says.
Yeah, that's what, so let's see how much the base camp is. How heavy is the air stream base camp? Yeah, air stream. You want Google, you're probably quick on that. Yeah, let me try this. Yeah, so maybe I was too harsh on it. Maybe he was well within the people's capability. No, but I think the comment still stands. Yeah, air stream base camps. How much are ways? The comment still stands. If you're the dry weight is 3500 pounds, Roman. What if you had water to it? So he was right at the limit.
Yeah, because he bought it new. Well, it was had nothing in it. Yeah, nothing in it. Yeah, yeah. So he was right at pushing it, Roman. Yeah, he was. And I've driven from, actually many times, once with you, from Texas through Amorello. It's really windy down there. I mean, the winds are high. And if you're, you know, if you're telling with you a small SUV, that's scary. Well, guys, thank you for joining us for this episode of TFL Car Chat. Andre, thank you for filling in.
We'll either get time for Nathan on next time, once the boys. How about you ask Tommy next time how his surfing went? Yeah, once on how, you know, ones in Hawaii, the ones in California. They're both in the Pacific Ocean. They're both in nicer places in some ways in the summer than we are. But I love the mountains, so maybe not. And where should they go if they want to listen to the truck pockets? What did we do about the truck pockets this week? It was affordable off-roaders.
Yeah, we actually, we had one of you Patreon supporters, patreon.com slash TFL Car. We had one of you participate on our truck podcast. So thank you. We did affordable off-roaders and a way to affordably modify your pickup truck for off-roading. And all TFL.com rum and it's where everything is in one place. Right, we'll see. We'll see you guys next time. Ciao.