5th wheel with Class III hitch on back - Excel - who else?

We have a 07 Lakota 5er and I bilt my own hitch. I'm sure I could
haul a house but don't. I just wanted to know that it was right when
we pull the atvs.:@

Dannyabear1 wrote:

Atom Ant wrote:
You can beef up the hitch if necessary. My 3000/300 is what the factory provides. I pulled a 4,000 two axle boat with my first 5er on a hitch shop installed hitch, and I said to heck with warranty.

Just watch the rating on your pin box, and the 5er hitch, as it all has to be rated for the combined.

And never mind what the additional weight does to the frame of the 5th

Sure you have to be concerned. In a linear tow, it's not a big deal, but in turns the weight can put additional stress on the spring hangers, and even the rear frame. I had to strengthen the spring hangers, which are weak by any standard, and the welded hitch served as additional strength to the trusses.

Its all a gamble, but I have never actually seen one come apart or suffer damage as a result of triple tow. All of the failures I have seen on 5ers was just from carrying their own weight on a poor design.

I have seen a couple of jeeps and SUV on the back of class 8 haulers ,they mount them on a 45 to keep the length in check.

Dannyabear1 wrote:

Atom Ant wrote:
You can beef up the hitch if necessary. My 3000/300 is what the factory provides. I pulled a 4,000 two axle boat with my first 5er on a hitch shop installed hitch, and I said to heck with warranty.

Just watch the rating on your pin box, and the 5er hitch, as it all has to be rated for the combined.

And never mind what the additional weight does to the frame of the 5th, unless you pulling with a 1/2 ton huh?

And that's what I would be worried about! I'm sure some of the better units like Excel, Continental Coach, maybe DRV and Redwood could handle it, but I'd sure like to see a very heavy well constructed frame before I started towing anything too heavy off the back of the 5er. I am strongly considering a Class 8 toter, so I'm not really worried about combined weight - just what it might do to the 5er - like you said.

Atom Ant wrote:
You can beef up the hitch if necessary. My 3000/300 is what the factory provides. I pulled a 4,000 two axle boat with my first 5er on a hitch shop installed hitch, and I said to heck with warranty.

Just watch the rating on your pin box, and the 5er hitch, as it all has to be rated for the combined.

And never mind what the additional weight does to the frame of the 5th, unless you pulling with a 1/2 ton huh?

You can beef up the hitch if necessary. My 3000/300 is what the factory provides. I pulled a 4,000 two axle boat with my first 5er on a hitch shop installed hitch, and I said to heck with warranty.

Just watch the rating on your pin box, and the 5er hitch, as it all has to be rated for the combined.

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!

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.

I think I would be concerned towing anything 4 down behind a 5er or TT. That would put a lot of strain on the frame during turns. On a trailer or dolly would seem to lessen the strain a bit. I've often thought one of the new Fiats or Smart Car would be handy when Snow Birding, but just not sure the advantage would out weigh the possible issues.

The late model Crossroads have a hitch on them.