Jeff Johnston: Greetings, I’m Jeff Johnston for “Rollin’ On TV.” Regular viewers of our show probably are familiar with our little Nissan truck. This little Frontier has been a dynamite vehicle, 100% rock solid reliable, and it’s a darn good tow vehicle for trailers that are lightweight, like under 3500 pounds or so.

Well, that situation may change, and there’s some things that we have to consider about the size of this little truck. Well, as good as this little truck has been as a tow vehicle, and it’s been fantastic, things could get a little bit better. Thirty-five hundred pounds is not a great rating to handle any of the larger vehicles, obviously. So, in order to consider our other options and look at maybe upsizing a little bit, we’re going to take a hike up to the Portland Auto Show and see what they’ve got to offer for new vehicles. You can go online, you can–you know, you can visit the car dealerships and whatnot. But go to an auto show, and it’s all the brands in one place at one time. It’s a great place to look around at new options, and we’re looking forward to the trip.

Jeff: We’re here at the Portland International Auto Show. We’re going to take a look around and show you a few of the new, interesting things that might be of interest to those who would like to tow a trailer.

Zach Stevens: And this is the 2020 Silverado 1500, so it’s the most advanced and powerful Silverado yet. There’s a lot of options here on the new 2020 Silverado. You have eight trim choices. Right here, we have the LTZ, so there’s a lot of different chrome accents here. And in sticking with choices, we have six engine options, including a 3.0 liter turbo diesel. So, that’ll get you about just under 400 horsepower, 460 pound feet of torque. But we know that towing is a big focus, so right here, this baby can get you about 13,000 pounds to tow. And also, what’s really great is the in-vehicle trailering technology that we have in the Silverado. We have 15 camera views that can help you easily hook up to anything you’re looking to tow. And it really makes it easy for those that are familiar with towing that need a little extra help, and those who have never towed before. So, the Silverado comes equipped with all the bells and whistles and all the things that everyone is looking for in terms of technology. You have 4G LTE Wi-Fi connectivity. You have Apple CarPlay, Android Auto.

And there’s also a ton of safety features, including rear seat reminder and also teen driver, which if you like your teen to take out your new Silverado, you can monitor their driving habits to make sure they’re making safe choices on the road.

Scott Brown: Yeah, so Jeff, 2020 Ram truck, this is a Laramie. Late last year, late ’19, the late duty diesel came back into the truck market for us. It’s a VM Motori, it’s a three liter V6, 260 horsepower, 480 pound feet of torque. In a 4×2 model, you’re getting up to 32 miles per gallon. In a 4×4 model, you get up to 29 miles per gallon. Now, the trucks have– you can get a 33 gallon gas tank, so you guys can figure the math out and do a little math. And you get close to 1,000 miles in range on this thing. So, for the truck owners, monstrous amounts of efficiencies and range for the people that are looking for that. Also, on these eco diesels, you can get a tow rating up to 12,500 pounds. So, the truck, not only is it– does it get the good efficiency, but it still works super hard. And again, it’s Ram 1500, so things like the coil suspension, so class leading ride and handling, the best infotainment, 12 inch screens. The Uconnect 4, so Wi-Fi hotspots.

When it comes to safety, you’ve got things like adaptive cruise control and blind spot monitors and cameras. So, whether it’s safety tech, powertrain tech, you can even get this with a mild hybrid. If you’re not into the diesel, you can get traditional gas, you can get a mild hybrid, or the diesel is an option. So, with the Ram 1500s, there’s basically a flavor for anything that you need.

Annette Falconer: Just recently, Nissan released the new Frontier engine. And it still has the same body style as the normal Frontier
that we’ve had for years, but now we’re going to give you a little bit more power with the 3.8 V6 engine. That’s going to give you about 310 horsepower. But new for 2020, we’ve included the nine-speed transmission that goes along with the V6. So, the tow rating for the Nissan Frontier is around 6,300 pounds, which is fantastic for a mid-size truck level.

Jeff: If you’re looking for a tow vehicle with a tremendous fun and adventure quotient, the Jeep Gladiator pickup is an interesting option. And the new Mojave edition bumps up the adventure capability a little bit more. If you notice, the badge tells the whole story. It’s the first ever desert rated vehicle for jeep. We have trail rated vehicles, and desert rated is a natural extension for what’d be going a little bit beyond trail rated. Hugely important for Jeep and with the Gladiator that– and we talked about this I think last year, 100% truck, 100% Jeep.

So, it’s going to have the Jeep capability, the open air, doors come off, the top comes off, all of that. But it’s got to work as a truck, and so it’s still 6,000 pound towing, 1,200 pound payload.

Jeff: Stop by your local auto show for a great look at many of the exciting new tow vehicles available today. Well, that was fun. We enjoy going to an auto show. Get to take a look at a lot of new products, new technologies, and so on. The window stickers are a little bit scary to say the least, so I think maybe we’ll stick to our little used Nissan here for a while.

Now, if you’re in the market for a new tow vehicle of any kind, an auto show is a great place to take a look at a lot of products
in one place.