Atom Ant wrote:
Agree with Michelle, 4 down could be an issue. It didn't work out for this guy:
According to the thread in the FJCruiser site (The owner is also an FJCruiser fan), this happened shortly after he hooked up for the first time. The buddy said the Jeep just started whipping uncontrollably behind the 5er, then rolled multiple times before the driver could pull over. The Blue ox tow bar never let go.
I think the swing in the back of an RV is too much for towing 4 down and expecting the turn to move the front wheels. A tow dolly might have done better, but I would prefer a trailer with mid axles so it can pivot.
I couldn't ever tow that much anyway behind my 3000/300 factory hitch, but I would be willing to try a Polaris Ranger on a trailer. I know several folks that do it with 5ers.
Wow. That looks pretty rough. I did think about the 4 down possibly being a problem, but this picture really drives it home. So, here I go, derailing my own thread...
I was considering an alternative - Class 8 RV Hauler with Smart deck pulling the 5er. The problem with that idea is that we aren't that fond of Smart cars and we just LOVE off road and LOVE Jeeps. So, the Smart would give us transportation, but not the fun type of transportation we'd prefer to have.
We're only planning to move in 3 or 6 month increments, so we could follow each other. That's just a gas guzzling option and we lose each other's company during the moves. Not a problem if it's a 300 mile move, but a real bummer if it's a 2000 mile move. I guess we could rent a car hauler trailer for the occasional long moves and put it behind the 5er. In that case, if we got busted, we unhook and put the car hauler behind the Jeep until we're out of that jurisdiction.
The smaller Wranglers are about 3000lbs, and the rated towing capacity on the 5er is about 3000 lbs, so adding a dolly or full trailer would put it overweight, but I could probably avoid putting it over tongue weight.
I looked into putting the Jeep on a Class 8 tractor like the Smart, but that would require it being loaded front to rear, which would most definitely put us WAY over length with no ability to remedy the problem if a cop decided to enforce it. At least with the Jeep triple tow, we could follow out of his jurisdiction if we got busted. Plus a Class 8 designed for a Jeep would be so long as to be unusable except while moving the 5er. If we buy a Class 8, I would want a short single rear axle so it could be usable and manageable in town.
Argh... Decisions, decisions!
