Tow Vehicle Recommendation That Is Not a Truck

[cristalle]

@LCDR

I towed for my first 20 years with horses using 3/4 ton Suburbans with big V8 engines. Also used them as my commuter vehicles. They were just a pain to park at work. Plus 6.5 mpg while towing the horses really sucked. But I also used them for off road rounding up hounds after fox hunting, and never lacked for dog space.

I had a 3/4 ton big Suburban for years, and it could tow anything, and had room for a football team in back. Gas mileage and parking in tight spaces were the disadvantages. However, finding your truck in the mall parking lot was always easy.
I moved on to a pickup when I decided to change from a bumper pull to a gooseneck.
I did love that Suburban though.

[kaya842]

Again, spot on!

OP - likely not a realistic option but if you really must have an SUV to tow and want to keep a front ramp option, IIWM Id sell the Hawk and get a Euro trailer. That will open up a ton of tow vehicle options to you that may be more suitable for your daily driving needs than a truck. Tongue weight for Euro trailers is a non issue really.

[tabula_rashah]

I would get my car/ SUV to haul the dogs and for DH to drive and then get a used beater type truck to haul the horses (assuming you said DH is a car guy so he could do whatever repairs you needed to make it safe)

[kaya842]

Ah yes this is a good option as well! We are not mechanically inclined and have done the maintain-the-beater/older-truck thing for the past decade. It was hard for not mechanically inclined people to deal with (in our experience) so when the time and funds came available we did the 1 daily driving SUV (hybrid even) + under warranty truck.

[greysfordays]

I agree with this idea. I had a Bockmann Portax LK, which had the front offload ramp and more space in front of the horses. The front ramp was lovely when we arrived at our destinations and leaving it open for loading made it extra light and bright in there. The suspension in there is also pretty terrific so the horses came off the trailer pretty spry.

I towed it with a Range Rover Sport and didn’t feel it back there even on hills. The inertia breaks were outstanding, I first drove it empty and hit the breaks and there was no sense of push behind me. I drove it a lot all over California and it was always really easy to work with. You don’t have a lot of tackroom space admittedly, but I kept my tack in a stanley trunk in the back of my car. I have a stephex van bc parking in LA became an issue, but I miss that trailer so much. They are not for everyone, but they might work for you.