Tow vehicle miss match

[snowpeke]

While on the road I allways looking for miss matched tow vehicle and trailer. Today I saw one that was hard to believe! ( wish I had gotten a photo) This was a BMW sedan pulling a 23 to 25 foot travel trailer with ass end sagging way down. Wow! What have any of you guys seen?

[blt2ski]

JRscooby wrote:
Not RV. Hauling a "light" load on a 7 axle rig, thinking of a easy ride across the state on 2 lane and lightly traveled 4 lane. On a down hill, see a mini-van coming down side road to stopsign Holy Snot! He is PULLING A BOBCAT! I'm on the Jakes, dropping cogs, but he gets stopped at the sign. Watch him turn to follow me. Would prefer to have him in front, hamn sure don't want close behind. Twist the Cats tail to get up the next grade, and well Bell, looks like yep, just meet the State weight watcher. Yes, he's making a U behind the mini-van, strobes flashing. I'm thinking a possible disaster is missed, nope, he's passing the van. My CB "RGN, there is a wide shoulder about half mile up on the left, would you pull in there?"
And we spend some time making sure I have all the permits I need, and log book is up to date...
The machine I was hauling, I would be under 80 and 12-34-34 on my step-deck, but I was back haul with 4 axle tractor and 3 axle lowboy. No way to be over axles...

There was even less of a chance that said minivan was over the road bed design limits. Only a registration limit in that case. Hence you were the better target for getting ticket funds for the state.

Marty

[JRscooby]

Not RV. Hauling a "light" load on a 7 axle rig, thinking of a easy ride across the state on 2 lane and lightly traveled 4 lane. On a down hill, see a mini-van coming down side road to stopsign Holy Snot! He is PULLING A BOBCAT! I'm on the Jakes, dropping cogs, but he gets stopped at the sign. Watch him turn to follow me. Would prefer to have him in front, hamn sure don't want close behind. Twist the Cats tail to get up the next grade, and well Bell, looks like yep, just meet the State weight watcher. Yes, he's making a U behind the mini-van, strobes flashing. I'm thinking a possible disaster is missed, nope, he's passing the van. My CB "RGN, there is a wide shoulder about half mile up on the left, would you pull in there?"
And we spend some time making sure I have all the permits I need, and log book is up to date...
The machine I was hauling, I would be under 80 and 12-34-34 on my step-deck, but I was back haul with 4 axle tractor and 3 axle lowboy. No way to be over axles...

[Hannibal]

At a busy campground we stayed in two weeks ago, we noticed quite a few TV/TT combos using just a tri-ball or drop ball mount with no WD checking in. Several various half ton pickups towing long TT's that likely needed WD to satisfy the receiver's weight ratings. I mind my business.

[romore]

I saw a similarly loaded Volvo wagon last summer, it didn't look like it had any suspension travel left. The scariest one was a lifted CJ-7 pulling an old construction camp trailer, he struggled to hang onto it at anything approaching highway speed. Waddya mean a weight distribution hitch? What's that?

[naturist]

I've seen a few scary things, but the most frightening one of all wasn't towing. It was a station wagon with one of those basket things hanging off the hitch. Judging by the windows of the wagon, the back was packed really full, as was the car-top carrier, as well as the rear basket. So much so, in fact, that the car was clearly hunkered down on the rear suspension, and the front wheels were close to floating. The driver missed his turn, and was using the highway crossover to turn around. The basket scraped a bit on the downside of a very gentle hump in the middle of the crossover, and it looked like the front wheels got a little air at one point.

The vehicle clearly had a trailer hitch. I have no idea what the driver was thinking not renting a cargo trailer from U-Haul and putting that weight where it belonged, in the trailer. I hope he got wherever he was going without killing anybody.

[opnspaces]

Just yesterday I say a Honda Odyssey pulling about a 21 foot trailer. The trailer was severely nose down and the Honda was riding pretty low as well.

[Lwiddis]

If towing in a “V” wasn’t so unsafe...Duh...it would be funny. Edatlanta, did this guy shift cargo to the rear of the TT? Might have helped.

[edatlanta]

I saw this at Wal-Mart a few years ago. Turns out they checked in to the campground where I was hosting an hour or so after I took this picture. They had traveled 250 miles in this condition and no clue prior to that.


Click For Full-Size Image.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

🙂 I saw a car towing about a 20' travel trailer using a receiver made for a bicycle rack. I believe those are 1 1/4"s with an adapter to 2" receiver and a ball. According to the license plates this vehicle and trailer made it about 3/4s the way across the country. :E

[kknowlton]

A couple years ago at a rest area, we saw a family with an older fullsize van pulling an even older trailer, perhaps 18-20' max. No WD hitch. Man, did they sag in the middle!

[blt2ski]

A WD setup properly might have leveled said situation up, made it more sensible looking!

Marty