Tow to Virginia Beach from Kentucky or rent?

[RobertB]

Since most bathroom scales do not read high enough, cut two heavy pieces of lumber, one shorter by the height of the scale and the longer one the height of the tongue. Cut another piece of heavy lumber a few feet long and place on top of the other two. Lift the tongue at the midpoint of the cross piece (actually, lower the trailer jack) between the two uprights and multiply the scale reading by two.

[Seapup]

Feel free to send me a PM, we are in the area.

[Chinook]

I can't speak about the proposed tow vehicle, but I have towed our 26X through the mountains of West Virginia, three times. Living in the western US as we do, I can say that westerners have a somewhat arrogant attitude regarding our mountains (Rockies, Sierras, Cascades, etc.), especially when compared with the relatively low lying eastern mountains. After driving through them, however, I find towing through the Appalachians to be much more challenging. Instead of one grade up and then down, when crossing a typical western mountain range, back east you often have to climb several ridges, with lengthy side trips up or down narrow river valleys before reaching the next gap. If you do opt for a do-it-yourself tow job, I recommend paying particular attention to your route, and stick with the major interstates, even though they might be longer in distance. I once made the mistake of taking a "more direct route" on a US highway through West Virginia, which appeared on the map to rather directly connect two different interstates. As I recall, we turned off the interstate at Wheeling WV onto a US highway which more closely resembled a goat path. It wound up a tortuous ridge, around countless hairpin turns. We followed a cement truck up the ridge at a maximum speed of 15mph. You simply wouldn't believe the looks on the locals' faces as we towed our sailboat up that road. It was a sight I'm sure had never been seen before, and I suspect they're still talking about it today. When we finally got across (it took over 3 hours to cover less than 60 miles) we dropped into a town of about 15000 souls and got lost trying to find the one gas station which sold diesel (it was on the wrong side of the road, of course).

Life's an adventure, right? Best of luck. If you make the trip, I'm sure you'll end up with some great stories afterwards.

[Highlander]

All auto trans are cooled via the rad usually through a bottom or side mounted tank for small tow packages they usually just make the rad bigger cappacity for extra eng. & tranny coolong , if u have a big tow package u will have a very much larger rad , fan blade & belt, also have an air trans cooler , heavier suspension & steering , plus bigger brakes & tires . Its not all just about keeping the eng & tranny from overheating !!
I towed my 1,200 k/m from Ontario & Quebec @ 70mp/h with my 5speed auto Ford Ranger supercab was white knuckle driving all the way there & back u could not relax & enjoy the trip of course with 14hrs driving basically none stop just for fuel I would not even consider driving slower as I had planned on only two days total driving time there & back 11 days , 2 driving , 9 boating , Glad I got my Ford F-150 supercrew with 9600# towing cap.

J