Pulling A Train
How Safe/Unsafe would it be to pull a 30' camper with an 18' pontoon boat behind it with a pick-up truck?
Forum Discussion
It's ironic that the best info I get is also the most disappointing.
I checked on this link: towingworld.com/towinglaws.cfm.
After looking at the states I will be passing through, most states had a max length of a triple tow (also called double tow) of 65'.
Here is what I came up with:
34' 5th wheel minus 5' overhang gives a road length of 29'
PU Truck with crew cab approximately 20'
That gives me a sub-total of 49'.
The length of the hitch for a boat trailer = 5'
My new subtotal for total length of train is now 54'
Subtracting the 54' total from the max allowable 65' total length gives me a maximum boat length of 11'.
Not much of a boat is it? And we dont want a jet ski - at least for now.
So, here is where we are at:
We don't want a MotorHome
We don't want a pull-along type camper.
What we do want is a 5th wheel - no debate there.
What about the boat?
My first boat was an inflatable around 1967 or 1968. I had a great time with it. I lived in Brooklyn, NY. I carried it and the motor up the stairs to my second floor apt. - one at a time. The boat and O/B went in the closet and on weekends it fit in the trunk of my 1965 Impala.
When I graduated to real boats, I always had a dinghy and they were always inflatable. That includes my new 11' Azzurri inflatable.
Soooooo..... I guess I'm still ok with an inflatable. Since I wont be limited to the dinghy length (hanging off davits across the stern of boat) because I will no longer own the cruiser, I can go up to about a 16 to 20' inflatable with proper size O/B.
This will also keep the admiral happy because we can now get a slightly larger 5th wheel.
If the inflatable ( deflated) and the O/B wont fit in PU bed, I can always get a small trailer at Lowes that will be under 11'.
I want to thank everyone here for their help in resolving my situation. Even though I didn't necessarily like the outcome, everything is still do-able.
This is really starting to get exciting
Now, to start a new thread with new questions.
I checked on this link: towingworld.com/towinglaws.cfm.
After looking at the states I will be passing through, most states had a max length of a triple tow (also called double tow) of 65'.
Here is what I came up with:
34' 5th wheel minus 5' overhang gives a road length of 29'
PU Truck with crew cab approximately 20'
That gives me a sub-total of 49'.
The length of the hitch for a boat trailer = 5'
My new subtotal for total length of train is now 54'
Subtracting the 54' total from the max allowable 65' total length gives me a maximum boat length of 11'.
Not much of a boat is it? And we dont want a jet ski - at least for now.
So, here is where we are at:
We don't want a MotorHome
We don't want a pull-along type camper.
What we do want is a 5th wheel - no debate there.
What about the boat?
My first boat was an inflatable around 1967 or 1968. I had a great time with it. I lived in Brooklyn, NY. I carried it and the motor up the stairs to my second floor apt. - one at a time. The boat and O/B went in the closet and on weekends it fit in the trunk of my 1965 Impala.
When I graduated to real boats, I always had a dinghy and they were always inflatable. That includes my new 11' Azzurri inflatable.
Soooooo..... I guess I'm still ok with an inflatable. Since I wont be limited to the dinghy length (hanging off davits across the stern of boat) because I will no longer own the cruiser, I can go up to about a 16 to 20' inflatable with proper size O/B.
This will also keep the admiral happy because we can now get a slightly larger 5th wheel.
If the inflatable ( deflated) and the O/B wont fit in PU bed, I can always get a small trailer at Lowes that will be under 11'.
I want to thank everyone here for their help in resolving my situation. Even though I didn't necessarily like the outcome, everything is still do-able.
This is really starting to get exciting
Now, to start a new thread with new questions.
