PeteCress wrote:
V-8 or six-cylinder?
Most seem to be focusing on the perceived load when cruising at speed.
I am thinking more about acceleration on on-ramps into 70-mph traffic.
What exactly are you looking for? Just how short are your on-ramps?!?
My '98 S-10 with a normally-aspirated 6-cyl and manual transmission (that I never knew the max RPM of so wound up driving like my old VW - I was shifting before I even made it to the power band!) hauled my TI just fine and I never had any problem merging into traffic.
My big Transit van (high-roof - I can stand and stretch inside, and long enough for my Outback to sit on the floor with room to spare) has the EcoBoost V6 and it can smoke most cars on the road!
Merging into traffic with my TI in tow isn't even a consideration - heck, I have to keep reminding myself it's back there, since I can't see the trailer in the rearview mirrors...! (First-world problems... I added a 3rd-brake light camera so I could keep an eye on it!)
I think even the NA 3.7L V6 that I could have gotten for the Transit would do just fine as well, it just has to rev higher. That's the main reason I went EcoBoost, I don't like "screamers".
Modern engines are far more powerful than just a decade ago, let alone two. I was at first a bit worried that I could only get a 6-cyl in a large van but when I started looking at the specs I realized I was worrying about nothing. Even the 3.7L (non-turbo) has roughly the same HP and just a slight bit less torque than the 5.4L Triton I had in my Econoline work vans. The EcoBoost handily beats the Triton's numbers. (Only reason I focus on Ford numbers is that's what I researched the most when I was looking at vans last year. There is a very limited range of options in that category right now.)