Towing capacity - what's realistic for bigger machines?

[BanDHMO]

I feel like a cheat when I pull a tipper with 21000L of soybeans with a pickup truck. Soybeans and wheat are close to water in density, so the crop weighs around 20 tons. Adding the trailer itself, the whole thing must be well over 50000lb. There isn't a single pickup on the market that comes even close to handling that. RAM has 30000lb towing capacity and they brag about how high it is.

To handle 50000lb, it seems you'd need something like a Ford F-650 or a similar monster.

It feels the game doesn't do a very good job with realism in the towing capacity department (or rather, it allows the player a lot of leniency, presumably in the name of fun). Just like with not driving over crops, it's up to the player if they want to restrict themselves with the limitations of realism.

So, getting to the point, I'm not posting this to rant, but to solicit ideas if anybody else is interested in the topic:

- What is realistic for a pickup truck to pull in farm conditions?
- For tractors, what's a reasonable horsepower/towing capacity formula to use?
- Same for semi trucks, although these should be easy to look up online, since they are basically the same for all trailers, whether shipped from farm to elevator or from port to store.


EDIT:

So, here's what I dug up. I'll put it into the first message, unless somebody comes up with better sources and more precise numbers:

1. Pickup Truck (TT model): about 20000 lb = 10 tons (approx) = 10000L tippers or full water trailer or similar.

Reasoning: the top trucks have a tow capacity of 30000lb, but they also cost quite a bit more than the $54K of the fictional TT model, so I think it's reasonable to guesstimate 10 tons. Besides, listed rating is one thing, but owners do overload their trucks every day, so 10 tons is not too crazy, IMO.

2. Smaller Tractors: 20t = 20000L tippers
Larger Tractors: 20t on public roads

Reasoning: this is a hard one and I didn't find any reliable numbers on what's the maximum, but I did find UK's legal limitation for trailers towed by agro tractors, which is a little over 18 tons. I guess most reasonable tractors will be able to tow that much, but I wouldn't use the smallest ones.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/agricultural-tractor-and-trailer-weight-and-speed-limit-regulations

3. Semi-trailer trucks: 36t = 36000L tippers (safe US-wide) or up to 78t = 78000L tippers in some states, local roads only.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-trailer_truck

Unfortunately, a lot of these limits are legal as opposed to practical, which is what I hoped to find. These legal limits wouldn't apply in all jurisdictions, and where they do apply may not be enforced. I highly doubt local cops have the resources or desire to check the weight of tractors on rural roads as they deliver to the nearest silo. And real-life operators of semis on public highways have been known to overload their vehicles without blowing them up. Then, of course, on your own land none of these limits apply and if you really want to pull 700000lb with a Toyota Tundra VERY SLOWLY, you are allowed to do it.

Also a simple personal formula from the answers below:

Originally posted by teccer:

when i choose trailer for tractor(ingame ofc) i use formula like - 10hp per 1530 liters(1.53m3)+ 50-80 hp for empty trailer. for example - for tow 21000liters kroeger i use fendt 720. think its look enough realistic

[Lord of Asswood III]

I agree. This is an excellent post.

[Stellar ❤️💙💛]

I agree, noticed that game hp requirements for equipment are almost nothing but a hot air, as for an example we have plovs that state 400hp requirement and still I can pull those with 250hp tractor, with no big difficulties. I think as for now it is pretty much players job not to use it to his advantage like not using money cheats etc. Maybe we will see somekind of realism mod later, but would not hold my breath while waiting Giant to fix this.

[Alshain]

An F-450 can Gooseneck tow 32,500 lbs, and 21,000 conventional according to ford.

[margalus]

Originally posted by Alshain:

An F-450 can Gooseneck tow 32,500 lbs, and 21,000 conventional according to ford.

Unfortunately the little pickups in the game are not equivelant to the heavy duty F-450.. It's more like an f-150

[Spec]

Although the pick up can pull the wagon, it really doesn't do a good job. I used the pick up for a long time, but have since used a tractor with 240hp....you definitely notice a difference. Also some of the really hilly area your pick up will not make it up. Nothing like driving a load towards wright agribusiness and not being able to make it up the hill. Use higher hp you won't regret it.

[Alshain]

Originally posted by margalus:

Originally posted by Alshain:

An F-450 can Gooseneck tow 32,500 lbs, and 21,000 conventional according to ford.

Unfortunately the little pickups in the game are not equivelant to the heavy duty F-450.. It's more like an f-150

A Toyota Tundra pulled the Space Shuttle Endeavour, weighing in at 172,000 lbs, though I have a feeling that was not your average Tundra.

[Spec]

Same with tractor equipment. I use the vaderstad seeder/cultivator combination tool which says it needs 180 hp to use. The original case 1455xl you start with only has 145hp. It can use the machine with no problem...but after hitching my fendt with 240hp it's about twice as fast. Some of the power notices are recommendations. You will notice poor performance if not met.

[margalus]

Originally posted by Alshain:

Originally posted by margalus:

Unfortunately the little pickups in the game are not equivelant to the heavy duty F-450.. It's more like an f-150

A Toyota Tundra pulled the Space Shuttle Endeavour, weighing in at 172,000 lbs, though I have a feeling that was not your average Tundra.

Pulling something at 1/2mph on a flat surface is a bit different... My f150 could do that, even toyota admitted that it was nothing special.. Heck, a single man pulled a 737 waying 200,000 lbs on foot...

[Alshain]

Originally posted by margalus:

Originally posted by Alshain:

A Toyota Tundra pulled the Space Shuttle Endeavour, weighing in at 172,000 lbs, though I have a feeling that was not your average Tundra.

Pulling something at 1/2mph on a flat surface is a bit different... My f150 could do that, even toyota admitted that it was nothing special.. Heck, a single man pulled a 737 waying 200,000 lbs on foot...

Lol, it was just a joke.

[BanDHMO]

So, here's what I dug up. I'll put it into the first message, unless somebody comes up with better sources and more precise numbers:

1. Pickup Truck (TT model): about 20000 lb = 10 tons (approx) = 10000L tippers or full water trailer or similar.

Reasoning: the top trucks have a tow capacity of 30000lb, but they also cost quite a bit more than the $54K of the fictional TT model, so I think it's reasonable to guesstimate 10 tons. Besides, listed rating is one thing, but owners do overload their trucks every day, so 10 tons is not too crazy, IMO.

2. Smaller Tractors: 20t = 20000L tippers
Larger Tractors: 20t on public roads

Reasoning: this is a hard one and I didn't find any reliable numbers on what's the maximum, but I did find UK's legal limitation for trailers towed by agro tractors, which is a little over 18 tons. I guess most reasonable tractors will be able to tow that much, but I wouldn't use the smallest ones.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/agricultural-tractor-and-trailer-weight-and-speed-limit-regulations

3. Semi-trailer trucks: 36t = 36000L tippers (safe US-wide) or up to 78t = 78000L tippers in some states, local roads only.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-trailer_truck

Unfortunately, a lot of these limits are legal as opposed to practical, which is what I hoped to find. These legal limits wouldn't apply in all jurisdictions, and where they do apply may not be enforced. I highly doubt local cops have the resources or desire to check the weight of tractors on rural roads as they deliver to the nearest silo. And real-life operators of semis on public highways have been known to overload their vehicles without blowing them up. Then, of course, on your own land none of these limits apply and if you really want to pull 700000lb with a Toyota Tundra VERY SLOWLY, you are allowed to do it.

[margalus]

If you want to see what real life towing capacity is, just look at this simple comparison.

http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/10-tough-trucks-boasting-the-top-towing-capacity.html/?a=viewall

[-Fields-]

To be fair I think the game does give the weight to the equipment, I think the player really has to use common sense, sure it does feel you can tow anything and everything but as someone said above try going up a hill, even with a semi and fully loaded trailer it slow as fcuk.

The game could be better in some elements though, it's just not about the pickups with to much power but the semi trucks I think could do with a lot more power, trucks do not slow down to 10 going up hill, if they did boy the freeways/motorways would be rock solid with trucks going up hill so slow

[SeniLiX]

Seems like this is for you:
https://www.modhoster.com/mods/filltypemassadjustment-fur-ls17-realistische-ladegewichte

[BanDHMO]

Originally posted by SeniLiX:

Seems like this is for you:
https://www.modhoster.com/mods/filltypemassadjustment-fur-ls17-realistische-ladegewichte

Thanks. Also, this line explains why it feels like it does in stock:

Just as in FS15 the mass of most of the filltypes in FS17 is about half of the real value.

[Nomad]

On the other hand I think the towing power of tractors is inadequate in this game.

I used one of the starter tractors and was having trouble getting a large loaded tipper up a hill. It would slow down to a painful crawl. So I upgraded to a tractor with nearly twice the horsepower, and the experience was much the same.

What happened to all that extra power? I think it was going at least a little faster, but still so slow that I started to avoid going to a number of selling locations because of the painful hills I had to climb to get to them.

My solution now is to use one of the fast JCB tractors instead. It goes fast enough that the increased momentum I built up on the level area before the hill carries me up the hill, even though the tractor itself is weaker. That really feels wrong to me.