RV Dangling off bridge

Mortimer Brewster wrote:

dodge guy wrote:

Mortimer Brewster wrote:
He’s extremely lucky. Even if it wasn’t his fault, an Explorer pulling a trailer that’s just under 25 ft long with a GVWR of 6005 lbs is trouble waiting to happen.

Just because it has a GVWR of 6k lbs, doesn't mean it was loaded to that. At 4k lbs dry and not much storage, I don't see them loading to more than 5k lbs. not to say they couldn't have done that, but it would be hard.
they had more than enough tongue weight!

I have an Explorer very similar to the one pictured, so I have a fairly good idea how it handles (sluggish). We considered getting a small trailer for local camping. I decided not to in part because I didn’t want to pull a trailer over 21 ft long with the Explorer. Anything less than 21 feet was too small inside for us. In addition visibility was a problem. The sideview mirrors on the Explorer are useless for towing, you can’t get mirror extensions and I didn’t want a McKesh style mirror.
Whether he was at 5000lbs or over doesn’t matter. IMO, a near 25 ft long trailer on a mid-sized SUV is a bad idea. Combine that with a trailer which is heavy for the Explorer is going to make for bad emergency handling. That is what I meant by “trouble waiting to happen.” Accidents happen and you don’t get to choose their time and place. Good visibility can help in avoiding them and having a stable combination of TV and trailer is important as well. Given the circumstances, it could have been a much, much, worse outcome.

I too have a 13 Explorer limited with the factory tow pkg. the only thing I tow with mine is a 3 place snow mobile trailer weighing in around 2k lbs. it does well. And yes 5k lbs behind it will be noticeable, but setup properly will be OK.

I used to tow a 5k lb 25 ft Award TT with a 95 4dr Explorer with the factory tow pkg. it too was setup properly and it performed well. A V-8 with more power would’ve been great, but it was stable.

I agree it could’ve been worse!