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January 9th News Topics

happy Wednesday

Patrick Rall    January 9, 2013 - 12:07PM

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That commercial talks about how the shuttle weighs like 200,000 pounds or whatever but the Tundra very clearly doesnt have a 200,000lb towing capacity so where is the trick? A friend of mine suggested that the wheels on which the space shuttle is riding provide assist and the tow vehicle only needs to provide some slight pulling force and then the casters provide forward motion of their own...which means that my lawn mower could pull the shuttle.

Aaron Turpen    January 9, 2013 - 1:12PM

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The wheels on the shuttle's rig were self-powered, but they had to remove them to cross the bridge, which was the whole point of the commercial. The real trick is that with all those wheels, the tongue weight was almost zero and the tow was done at very low speeds, so any respectable pickup could probably have done it. I put the video on my YouTube account and there's been lively discussion about it there. lol

Patrick Rall    January 9, 2013 - 1:28PM

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where Tundra owners will try to tow way too much weight because of that commercial. After all, Toyota did blame the unintended acceleration issues on the lack of intelligence of the drivers in question. Even though most Tundra owners have probably never towed anything, I would be shocked if some misguided redneck buys a Tundra then tries to pull his 20,000lb trailer because it weighs less than the space shuttle..lol

Aaron Turpen    January 9, 2013 - 1:31PM

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I'll wait for it to happen somewhere around here. I see people pulling all kinds of weird things with their trucks out here. Saw an old Ford Ranger (when they were full sized, 1970s) pulling a loaded 6-horse trailer not too long ago. Wondered if he's modified the drive train at all for that, since even a modern F150 can't pull that.

Patrick Rall    January 9, 2013 - 2:29PM

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with a 1998 cavalier. he only had to go a few blocks so he rigged up the hitch to pull the trailer at low speeds. It destroyed the transmission and ended up stretching the little tiny hitch assembly but the car pulled that trailer. Im surprised that GM didnt make a commercial...they must not have heard about it.

Aaron Turpen    January 9, 2013 - 5:25PM

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When I was a teenager, we used to pull a full cord of wood in a trailer behind my dad's Lincoln Town Car. Not sure what year it was, mid-80s anyway. That car, though, was both a monster in terms of its capabilities (power, handling, etc) and a total POS. We theorized that it was built on a Tuesday after a long weekend and just before a general strike had been called. All of its problems were the little annoying things that aren't supposed to happen with luxury cars (door handles breaking, knobs falling off, plastic engine cover pieces shattering and littering the highway..)

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