Using drop hitches

Hank MI wrote:

Jim@HiTek wrote:
...If the dolly were mine, I'd have a welder make it a gooseneck so I could maintain Winnie's recommendation of no more than a 4" drop. Then I'd use electric brakes...

Seems to me a gooseneck trailer would put the same stresses on the hitch as a drop receiver. Not sure but in the end you have basically the same thing either way.

You might be right, I'm no expert, just speculating on why Winnie would recommend against a 10" drop hitch and against surge brakes.

I think in an emergency stop, the gooseneck mod would make a difference in how expensive it would be to repair afterwards. Especially if you have a dreaded rear end collision. Surge brakes wouldn't help there.

It's interesting to speculate, but in the end, the OP will do what he thinks is best in his situation.

Hank MI wrote:

Jim@HiTek wrote:
...If the dolly were mine, I'd have a welder make it a gooseneck so I could maintain Winnie's recommendation of no more than a 4" drop. Then I'd use electric brakes...

Seems to me a gooseneck trailer would put the same stresses on the hitch as a drop receiver. Not sure but in the end you have basically the same thing either way.

The leverage is on the hitch/tongue on the tow dolly, not the MH hitch...requiring the tongue of the dolly needing to be plated on both sides, not just dropped.

Jim@HiTek wrote:
...If the dolly were mine, I'd have a welder make it a gooseneck so I could maintain Winnie's recommendation of no more than a 4" drop. Then I'd use electric brakes...

Seems to me a gooseneck trailer would put the same stresses on the hitch as a drop receiver. Not sure but in the end you have basically the same thing either way.

We flat towed.

The current Winnebago cautions are the result of past legal actions. Back in 2013 I had an extended conversation with one of their reps on the same subject. It seems Winnebago has in the past been sued by people involved in accidents that were pulling overweight trailers with either surge brakes or no brakes at all.

The end result was that the trailer either tore the hitch from the frame, the hitch was folded under the frame, or bent the frame extensions due to the force applied. Keep in mind a surge brake system applies pressure to the hitch to activate it. An electric braking system needs a signal, usually from the brake light, in combination with a deceleration signal from the controller to apply the brakes.

Also many motorhomes use frame extensions at the rear of the chassis manufacturers supplied frame to support the house. Often times these extensions are made of smaller, lighter gauge material than the than those supplied by the chassis manufacturer.

As a CYA measure Winnebago has adopted a policy that if followed would not result in any of the above mentioned damage.

I do believe the policy is being reviewed. As far back as 2013 Winnebago started making their own trailer hitches for some models. Their hitches are supposedly 50 percent stronger than the ones they were buying.

In addition on many models frame extensions are no longer added to the rear of the chassis manufacturers supplied frames. They are now split at an existing joint and an additional piece of the same size and gauge as the original is added.

I do not know if these modifications carry through to every model in their lineup. I believe the warnings will stay intact until such time that they do.

As a side note in 2014 the Jeep we were towing behind our 2013 Winnebago Adventurer was rear ended when we were traveling at 65 mph. The Jeep was hit hard enough to inflict over $10,000.00 in damage. Additionally the towbar, Jeep mounted brackets and drop receiver were destroyed. There was absolutely no damage to the Winnebago built trailer hitch, or the motorhome.

Jim@HiTek wrote:
I don't remember all the maths from my physics classes all those years ago, but I believe that the drop spec'ed by Winnie is based on what would happen in various emergency stop situations. With a 10" drop, it seems to me that the inertia from the toad could twist and bend the tow bar attached to the RV too easily, causing costly damage just from one hard braking event. Remember levers? And how they helped reduce force? That's what the 10" drop would become, a lever. Along with that, surge brakes don't prevent all that force from being applied in a twist to the tow bar (on the RV). Whereas electric brakes would.

If the dolly were mine, I'd have a welder make it a gooseneck so I could maintain Winnie's recommendation of no more than a 4" drop. Then I'd use electric brakes.

Winnie likely knows how strong the installed tow bar is on their own product, and how resistant it would be to twisting, so I'd trust their engineers to know what they're talking about as far as warnings.

Good Advice. :)

I would go with a 5" drop and not worry about being 5" out of level on that long of a tongue.

I don't remember all the maths from my physics classes all those years ago, but I believe that the drop spec'ed by Winnie is based on what would happen in various emergency stop situations. With a 10" drop, it seems to me that the inertia from the toad could twist and bend the tow bar attached to the RV too easily, causing costly damage just from one hard braking event. Remember levers? And how they helped reduce force? That's what the 10" drop would become, a lever. Along with that, surge brakes don't prevent all that force from being applied in a twist to the tow bar (on the RV). Whereas electric brakes would.

If the dolly were mine, I'd have a welder make it a gooseneck so I could maintain Winnie's recommendation of no more than a 4" drop. Then I'd use electric brakes.

Winnie likely knows how strong the installed tow bar is on their own product, and how resistant it would be to twisting, so I'd trust their engineers to know what they're talking about as far as warnings.

We tow a 2006 HHR (3,000 Lbs.) behind our '94 Southwind using a 10' drop hitch. No auxiliary brakes. Have towed it at least 15,000 miles so far with no problems. You have to be careful and watch entrance/exit to gas stations etc. I've dragged the hitch a couple of times but not real bad and I have a roller on the bottom of the drop hitch.

Were you towing 4 down? I want to use a dolly. If you were using a dolly, did it have brakes at all?