B3000 Dual Sport towing--factory hitch installed?

Hitch pictured, was this factory? If there was a factory tow package, what else would it include?

Might be towing all of my possessions and a 3400 lb FWD Audi on a dolly 1000 miles, need to know what I have to do to make it work and not kill the truck.

Truck is a 2003 B3000 Dual Sport, 5R44E, open diff.

I don't have a whole lot of experience with dollies, well....none. I would be worried that the dolly has no brakes. The load would be pushing you when braking. On flat ground I would try it, but any downhill will get scary really quick when your brakes heat up and quit working. I've experience overheated brakes while NOT towing and that was very scary.
Also you don't mention engine size. 4.0l OK, others not so much but the auto could help.

alwaysFlOoReD said:

I don't have a whole lot of experience with dollies, well....none. I would be worried that the dolly has no brakes. The load would be pushing you when braking. On flat ground I would try it, but any downhill will get scary really quick when your brakes heat up and quit working. I've experience overheated brakes while NOT towing and that was very scary.
Also you don't mention engine size. 4.0l OK, others not so much but the auto could help.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Looking on UHaul's website, looks like the truck needs to weigh 750 lbs more than the car towed, and my truck isn't 4250 lbs. So that's out.

But I would still tow a UHaul cargo trailer which is 2000 lbs empty, and I'd fill it to the brim.

Would be a fairly flat drive. The front pads/rotors are new and quality but need to check brake fluid. I have the 15" wheels so I guess it's the smaller brakes?

It's a 3.0L, not sure what the gears are but has plenty of pep around town. It's a B3000 Dual Sport, so think Ranger Edge 3.0 automatic extended cab 4x2 with torsion bar suspension.

When going down hill, GEAR DOWN. Its important! Let the engine do most of the braking. Don't worry about traffic behind you, its the ones in front that you don't want to run over.

Sent from my XT1032

2003 B3000(3.0l engine) 4x2(2WD) Supercab with automatic weighs 3,200lbs, with no driver or any other load.

GCWR(gross combined weight rating) for above truck is 7,500lbs

7,500 - 3,200 = 4,300lbs load, including driver, passengers, bed load and trailer(dolly) load

4,300 - 3,400(Audi) = 900lbs for driver, passengers, dolly, and bed load.

Trailer hitch looks to be class II so rated for 3,500lbs, so OK for Audi, but..............

Because it is the same weight as the truck, and as alwaysfloored point out, it will be pushing the back end of the truck around when slowing down, especially if slowing down when going around a corner.
So do all your slowing down on straight a ways NOT corners.
Do not store any thing IN the Audi, it needs to be as light as possible, put any load in the bed, and do not exceed the 900lbs including driver, if you have a passenger that has a drivers license you would be better off having them drive the Audi

Automatic transmissions fail because of heat, you need two transmission coolers, for sure, the one in the radiator is not enough, if you have a factory towing package you may already have this, look under the truck in front of the radiator that is the usual location for factory added trans cooler, it you don't have one get one, or you will burn up the trans pulling that much weight long distance, it will overheat trans fluid.

Another option to save the wear and tear on your truck is to see how much a 1-way ticket is, i.e. airfare, trainfare, ect........, weigh that cost against what dolly will cost you(assume it is a rental), and the extra fuel cost for towing.
Then cost of 1-way ticket and fuel for the Audi.

EDIT:
3,200 + 2,000(u-haul) = 5,200lbs
7,500 - 5,200 = 2,300lbs load

Put heavier stuff IN the truck.
U-haul Trailer will have a tongue brake which is a "react" brake, so same as above, do as much slowing down on strait a ways as posible.

Second Trans cooler is still needed

alwaysFlOoReD said:

When going down hill, GEAR DOWN. Its important! Let the engine do most of the braking. Don't worry about traffic behind you, its the ones in front that you don't want to run over.

Sent from my XT1032

Click to expand...

Good point!

RonD said:

2003 B3000(3.0l engine) 4x2(2WD) Supercab with automatic weighs 3,200lbs, with no driver or any other load.

GCWR(gross combined weight rating) for above truck is 7,500lbs

7,500 - 3,200 = 4,300lbs load, including driver, passengers, bed load and trailer(dolly) load

4,300 - 3,400(Audi) = 900lbs for driver, passengers, dolly, and bed load.

Trailer hitch looks to be class II so rated for 3,500lbs, so OK for Audi, but..............

Because it is the same weight as the truck, and as alwaysfloored point out, it will be pushing the back end of the truck around when slowing down, especially if slowing down when going around a corner.
So do all your slowing down on straight a ways NOT corners.
Do not store any thing IN the Audi, it needs to be as light as possible, put any load in the bed, and do not exceed the 900lbs including driver, if you have a passenger that has a drivers license you would be better off having them drive the Audi

Automatic transmissions fail because of heat, you need two transmission coolers, for sure, the one in the radiator is not enough, if you have a factory towing package you may already have this, look under the truck in front of the radiator that is the usual location for factory added trans cooler, it you don't have one get one, or you will burn up the trans pulling that much weight long distance, it will overheat trans fluid.

Another option to save the wear and tear on your truck is to see how much a 1-way ticket is, i.e. airfare, trainfare, ect........, weigh that cost against what dolly will cost you(assume it is a rental), and the extra fuel cost for towing.
Then cost of 1-way ticket and fuel for the Audi.

EDIT:
3,200 + 2,000(u-haul) = 5,200lbs
7,500 - 5,200 = 2,300lbs load

Put heavier stuff IN the truck.
U-haul Trailer will have a tongue brake which is a "react" brake, so same as above, do as much slowing down on strait a ways as posible.

Second Trans cooler is still needed

Click to expand...

Ron, your thorough post is much appreciated. The Audi will be the airfare + drive down separately so will be towing the UHaul cargo trailer.

As you point out, it's not as much a question of "Will the truck pull the trailer?" but "Will the trailer pull the truck?" (tail wagging the dog)

You wont have any trouble as long as you take your time. if you try to pull it 80mph you might get some tail waggin that you don't like. especially if you have to brake suddenly.
I pull my ski boat with my B2 but take my time and give plenty of room to stop.

The math and physics laid out here is all good on paper, but skill factors in a LOT.

Back in May I bought an 87 S-cab 4.0 4x2 and dollied it home using my 87 S-cab 4.0 4x4 as the tow vehicle.

I planned out my stops and starts just like I would towing any other load and except for two times, once when I was cut off, and once when a light changed faster than it should have, I never even noticed the other truck back there, aside from the feeling of being tailgated the whole way home.

Uhaul will not rent you the dolly with that setup, but I would not hesitate to do it.

I would check to see if there is an aux trans cooler installed, and if there isn't I would get one before doing that trip.

Couple comments just to set record straight (not necessarily to change your mind about driving the Audi).

That is the Ford factory hitch and is a Cat III - would be good for 6k lbs trailer if truck was properly equipped (4.0/5r55e/4.10/etc).

15" wheels don't determine big/little brakes but some magic combination of options. Note: the 'big' rear drums are still only 10". Given SuperCab/auto, odds are better than 50/50 you have the big ones (look for size cast into the drums you should be able to find it through the spokes of the wheels).

RonD's got his numbers correct even without the edit: 7,500 - 3,200 = 4,300lbs; which would be maximum trailer you could tow. Out of that you must subtract, you and your luggage (200lbs?) & the dolly (750 lbs off U-haul site). So, 3,400lb car would be maximum officially condoned by Ford (which means insurance is still valid).

RonD's edit for the 2,300lb load would be how much you could jam into cab/box/trailer, including you. I find I can overload the smaller 5x10 U-haul trailer - so, don't get the larger 6x12, and the smaller trailer is 750lb lighter. If you need more space/weight rent a little u-haul truck and dolly the Audi, then fly back for the Ranger.

On door jamb is Federal sticker, it will tell you what axles you have. On the tech page, you can convert the sticker into ratio. Theoretically, you could have the 7.5" but I doubt it...

I told U-haul I was dollying my focus SVT behind my Ranger (it was on my insurance, so they couldn't call me a lair in store.) before I towed a '98 s/c 4x4 Ranger behind my daughter's 4x2 r/c 3.0 Ranger. To be fair - engine from 4x4 was in back of 4x2, so the 4x4 didn't weigh 3,200lbs and towing Ranger had good weight on rear axle. Like adsm08, I planned most of my stops and ignored those testing their horns when I waited for larger gaps before pulling into traffic.

Only real pain was I couldn't ever back up (brakes come on on dolly). So, it was...exciting...getting 4x4 up the driveway.

Take it slow and let us know how it turns out.