Brief Discussion About Tow Rating and Other Related Quantities

Are you planning to start a towing business of your own, or work as a full time hauler for a firm? If you are thinking that it is going to be as easy as hooking the trailer to the tow vehicle, you are wrong. There are plenty of details which you will have to bear in mind, the most important element out of which is perhaps the one related to weight. Before starting out, you must make sure your vehicle is capable of towing your trailer while it is loaded, be it a 4 or 5 car hauler. And that is where tow capacities and ratings come into play.

The tow capacity or rating can be defined as the maximum weight a vehicle can pull without any problem. You can find it inside the owner’s manual of your tow van or truck. Not only does this measure will represent the weight of your trailer, but also the load that it can carry efficiently. The tow rating of any vehicle usually takes multiple factors into account:

• Structure of vehicle
• Design of suspension and chassis
• Axle ratios, engine type and other variables of drive train
• Class and design of hitch
• Load capacities and tire ratings

These numbers are never arbitrary, rather the result of comprehensive real-world testing performed by engineers for pushing vehicles to their extreme limits to determine accurate physical abilities of the trucks or vans.

Though it is very important to not exceed the tow rating of your vehicle, there are several other limits which should also be never crossed while towing. They include:

• GVWR - GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) is the maximum load your vehicle can possibly carry, including fuel, cargo, passengers and the truck or van itself.
  
• GCWR - GCWR (gross combined weight rating) is the combined weight of your trailer and tow vehicle when fully loaded.
  
• GAWR - GAWR (gross axle weight ratings) represents the most load a certain axle is capable of carrying, including tire and wheel
  
• HWR - Hitch weight rating indicates the amount of load a hitch has been designed for carrying safely
  
• Tongue Weight - it must be between 15-30 percent for fifth wheel or gooseneck trailers and 10-15 percent for conventional ones, of the gross load.

Exceeding just one of the above mentioned can not only cause significant damage to both your trailer and tow vehicle, but also create a dangerous situation for you as well as other people on the road.

How To Prep Your Equipment Before Diesel Towing

In general modern diesel trucks are designed for towing heavy loads with ease. However, their performance can be improved with the help of effective upgrades, a strategy which can prove to be beneficial in case you are planning to drag a full loaded 5 or 6 car trailer behind your truck. Given below are 5 different upgrades which will help you to prep for diesel towing:

Artificial Intelligence

No, we are not talking about robots, rather computerised products which can regulate your towing vehicle better than you would ever be able to. For instance, using transmission controllers will help you to enhance the performance of your overall equipment, reduce wear & tear and even prevent disasters inside the costly automatic transmission.

Driving Force

Towing can take tolls on the drive-line which sits right behind the diesel engine. Even if one hard part gives out, it would put an end to your hauling adventure then and there. To be on the safe side, perform internal upgrades on the transmission and torque converter by substituting them with heavy-duty units. Besides that, you may also need to increase cooling performance of axle differentials and transmission.

Cold Filtered

Apart from the driveline, towing is also tough on all fluids throughout the drive-train of diesel truck. In order to ensure that everything is cool and clean, install aftermarket filters for oil, transmission and fuel fluids. The filters would remove particles which are smaller than that the factory components can allow to pass through. This in turn, will guarantee safety of the vital parts.

Work Boots

The contact between trailer/truck combo and the road is important for everything starting from safety to fuel economy. Therefore, besides having tires which are rated for carrying as much weight as the GVWR of your equipment, you must also get wheels which can take care of all the weight.

Heavy Breathing

If you wish to gain a significant amount of additional power for your truck, replace its factory airbox with a cold-air high-flow intake. It would be the elementary step towards entirely enhancing the breathing of your diesel engine. In the steps which follow, you will have to upgrade the intake manifold, inter-cooler, up-pipes, exhaust manifold, exhaust, down-pipe and turbocharger. All of these enhancements will substantially improve efficiency of the diesel and also allow other upgrades to function at their full potential.