Towing

I don't remember if I have photos with the chains, or square tubing. I will have to look.

There can be lots of side forces on any extension. Everytime you turn, you will have side forces. The longer the extension, the greater the force. The side force can be from hitting a hole in the road or many other possibilities. They are more obvious in a trailer that is not properly loaded, and the trailer whips side to side. I have never had a problem with the loading of my Samurai when flat towing, but have hot more than one hole, and many train tracks.

I prefer the side chains (or equal) with any extension over 18-inches. Hopefully, it will always be overbuilt. In flat towing, in my opinion, the extension only has to be heavy enough to pull your towed. If it does not stretch and break, why a solid bar. Just my opinion. I see no reason to be concerned as to how long the hitch extension is when flat towing. That is if you have chains (or equal) going side to side.

I will look for the photos.

Wayne

Reddog1 wrote:
I have been flat towing my Samurai for thousands of miles, since 2004. I have the OEM hitch on my truck, and about a 4-1/2 foot home made 2"x 3/16" wall extension. I use 5/16" chains or tubing from each side of the extension to the Hitch. Considering there is zero tongue weight,nothing heavier is required.

Hi Wayne,
Do you have any closeup pics of your towing setup that you can share?

Flat towing puts very little tongue weight, but creates a lot of lateral stress on the hitch which can be mitigated by using the side chains.

Reddog1 wrote:
I have been flat towing my Samurai for thousands of miles, since 2004. I have the OEM hitch on my truck, and about a 4-1/2 foot home made 2"x 3/16" wall extension. I use 5/16" chains or tubing from each side of the extension to the Hitch. Considering there is zero tongue weight,nothing heavier is required.

I think I would attatch the chains to the safety chain loops near the end of the hitch rather than the loops.

kerry4951 wrote:
Why don't you look at the Reese 2 1/2" extensions. They offer one in 41"-48" length. I use one with stabilizing chains for my ATV trailer and it works great. I did remove my factory OEM hitch and replaced it with a Reese Titan hitch. There was a big difference in how much better the Reese was compared to the factory GM hitch.

Whatever you decide, I'd suggest you check out the specs on your Ford hitch. This might be an apples to oranges thing but back in 2004 I bought a new F250 with a class 5 OEM 2 1/2" hitch. The gross trailer weight rating for the hitch was fine , but the tongue weight rating wasn't all that great when using an extension. I replaced it with a Titan hitch that actually had a somewhat lower gross trailer weight rating, but a considerably higher tongue weight rating.

*** oh, never mind - it looks like tongue weight won't be an issue - I misread . :S

Mello Mike wrote:
I can see the need for stabilizing chains for long hitch extensions greater than 40" but why would you need them for something much shorter? My extension is 18" long and I've run into zero problems without them.

Mike
With your size extension I would not worry about using stabilizing chains. My guess would be to consider using chains on anything longer than 3 feet or thereabouts.

I can see the need for stabilizing chains for long hitch extensions greater than 40" but why would you need them for something much shorter? My extension is 18" long and I've run into zero problems without them.

I too did make an extension with chains almost like Kerry4951's. Mine did not need to be 48 inches. I bought a 30 inch Curt 2.5" tube and solid bar with the pin hole and had it welded to the exact length so the ball was outside the camper bumper. also had the B shaped bar for my chains welded to it.

Looks like the one shown in the pictures in this thread.

I had a stroke of luck, at work some 3/8" thick angles with holes drilled in them got drilled with wrong hole centers. I bolted them to the frame. I don't really need the chains since my boat and trailer rarely weighs 1000 pounds (drift boat). But like being able to two someone else's boat if needed

Thanks. That's the way I'll probably go. Either that or manufacture something for the 2 1/2" hitch. Either way, I think I'll end up with another set of stabilizing chains. Next time I take the camper off (doesn't happen often), I'll post a picture of my current setup.

John

I have been flat towing my Samurai for thousands of miles, since 2004. I have the OEM hitch on my truck, and about a 4-1/2 foot home made 2"x 3/16" wall extension. I use 5/16" chains or tubing from each side of the extension to the Hitch. Considering there is zero tongue weight,nothing heavier is required.