New Truck, Soon new NL . How to prep the truck

I'm using a Harbor Freight engine lift to remove my tailgate. I have 2 lengths of light duty chain off the hook of the hoist with small 1/4 inch? shackles. On the end of the chains I use 1/4" add a links. I unhook the tailgate cables one at a time and connect to the add a links. I put a couple towels across the top of the bumper. Pump up the hoist and get the tailgate in its sweet spot and lift it off. Roll it wherever you're storing the tailgate. Put the towels on the floor to set the tailgate on.
Load the camper.
My 3rd back surgery was in 2017 I think. Whatever day the big eclipse was.

Ya, I was imagining a bunch of suction cups to hang the tailgate from so I could save my back. Seems like a two person job with the integrated step though I have never tried to remove one from a late model.

I sometimes use my original gate, but I often use one of those louvered tailgates with the dropped down middle section they sell for 5th wheel haulers.
It’s a lot lighter and easier to put on and take off for the camper, plus it’s easy to reach over or step over from the truck bumper so I usually don’t even need to open it. It’s also way less stress about scratching it while taking off or putting on. I kinda’ like it. You might check that option out.

Ordered, Superhitch Magnum, frame mounted tie downs and fastguns. Also NL 10.2 EXCDSELE Once UPS shows a delivery date, I will get my truck up on the lift and rip that brand new hitch off. As the truck will often be minus the camper, I need to hone my tailgate removal and replacement skills.

Torklift frame mounted tiedowns
Torklift Superhitch
Torklift Supertruss of the appropriate lentgh, so you can make a really sharp turn and not have the camper jacks hit the front of the trailer

Thanks all, I am smarter now! At least more informed.

Without weight in the back of the truck, towing with the extension is a bad idea as posted above. Once you have 3 tons or more over the back axle it reduces much of the negative effects.

I have told people they can make towing solutions that are less expensive than Torklift's, but they will not get the lifetime warranty or technical support that exceeds that savings. I also have more than one trailer I tow and other times I use a cargo basket off the extension. It would have been cumbersome and cost prohibitive for me to modify all the things I use so that I could connect directly up to the receiver.

As a rule of thumb, you should have enough cab height clearance if the underside of your cabover to the bottom of the camper is 4'. Don't forget to take the additional height of cab clearance lights and cab mounted antennas into your measurements if checking how clearance you need. I used 3/4" thick horse stall mats on my bed to clear gooseneck hardware that protruded up - These wear well but are heavy. There are lighter solutions if you need additional height to clear bed hardware or the truck cab.

Back in the stone age when I had my first TC, I was towing an 18 ft flatbed with a 3400 lb car on it all over the place with my F250. The camper was 10’ long, weighed about 4000 lbs with my gear, and I was using a homemade 36” extension with a 2” receiver. There were no forums to get direction from, and no Torklift company that I knew of. I was doing it the only way my 25-30 year old self knew how.

Lengthening the three member tongue of that trailer would have been very expensive, and then very difficult to hitch up. The trailer was already too heavy to manhandle around. I would have had to hit the alignment perfectly, with no way to see what I was doing.

My point is this: by everyone’s standards today (including mine) I was overloading the F250 a lot. I wouldn’t do the same thing today, but one thing that IS relevant to this extended hitch discussion is the way the whole thing behaved. Towing the trailer with the TC loaded was a totally different experience from towing with the extension, and an unloaded truck. I did that one time with an unloaded trailer, and in the first downhill curve I took I could feel the trailer pushing the truck sideways. It was the same “eureka” moment Archimedes supposedly had. This is some kind of physics thing! Levers, moment arms, with a little youthful ignorance thrown in! Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to use the trailer brake controller to pull me back straight.

I never did that again. I did continue to tow the trailer with the TC loaded, on dry and wet pavement, but never snow. I was always on the lookout for that same effect again, but fortunately never encountered it. I don’t need to tow with the TC loaded anymore, and haven’t done it in almost 30 years. If I did need to do it again, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a Torklift supertruss.

With all due respect to my fellow forum members, we should probably not belabor this any longer. We are hijacking his topic.

:):)

Yup, I have FIVE trailers to tow myself. Getting each trailer modified would be cost-prohibitive vs. buying one extension. Plus they wouldn't fit in the barns anymore.

That, and nobody local will touch the tongue on any of my trailers. Trailer shop will only repair to factory original specs. Independent welding shops don't want the liability. It may be different where you are, but around here everyone is deathly afraid of being sued into oblivion.

SoonDockin wrote:
I have one trailer and plan on a second plus the occasional vehicle tow, I might be better off going with a superhitch magnum. Better to plan on that now so I can get the proper camper brackets.

Bingo. Do it right the first time. Oh and congratulations on that F450, nice TC hauler.