Well today was my first time ever towing a trailer. I have a 2000 F150 4x4 regular cab with the 5.4 It started out with my roommate and I driving up an hour north to my parents house to sell our camaro (which is now gone ) so we decide since we are up there to tow his mazdaspeed protege down to columbus from his moms house where it has been on jackstands for 2 years. If we brought it down to columbus we could actually work on it and get it running so I call the night before to schedule a uhaul trailer. This after noon I went to pick it up as soon as it started snowing. The guy at the uhaul place hooked it up for me since I had never done it before and that is where the problem started. I knew I should of done something when he said he had only hooked up one trailer before but at the time I didnt think twice about it. I drive to my buddies house and put his wheels on his car and park my truck at the end of his drive way. We were going to have to get a little bit of a running start to get enough speed to get it up on the trailer. We got the front wheels up on the ramps when the hitch came undone and flew up and forward into my tailgate the idiot at uhual didnt secure it all the way. So I unhooked everything, got the trailer on its jack and decided since I was already unhooked to just run a tow rope to his car and pull it up onto the trailer which worked fine. Got the trailer back hooked up (the right way) and we were on our way. By this time theres an inch of snow on the ground so I cruised down the highway at 45ish for the normal hour drive which took two. I was surprised I averaged 14.1 mpg in 3rd gear. We are going to unload the car tomorrow and when I take the trailer to the local uhual they better be paying for my tailgate!

 

Glad the towing went so well, sorry to hear about your u haul troubles. I have heard some real nightmares with them and I hope they do the right thing and fix your tailgate

 

Truck did really well didnt even feel like there was a trailer on the highway. The 14mpg surprised me.

 

Not trying to be a jerk here but if you had no idea how to hook up a trailer, back up a trailer, check the connection on a trailer, or drive with a trailer, maybe he wasn't the only one. I'm super glad your trip went well and you got the car there, but there was likely a little luck involved. Live and learn I reckon. I'm sure that the next time you tow things will go much more smoothly now that you have a little bit of experience with it. Good luck at UHaul.