Towing
My F450 is equipped with a stock class V hitch. Am I correct in that I would only need a TorkLift SuperTruss Extension Bar to be able to tow? Thanks, John
Forum Discussion
Yeah it does too much. That photo was taken when I was test fitting. It wasn't too hard to load at home especially using a long tube in the lower socket so I had a ramp to walk up, but I needed to make sure I could load by myself AND only using stuff I take with. I cut my wood ramp short so it would fit on the bumper between the jacks. With that config I needed help to load/unload. The rack was one a friend used on their class c and it had been backed into the ground a few times and is bent and beat up and she gave it to me when she sold her dirt bike.
The first test run was last May to the Overland Expo. I used about 6 ratcheting tie downs to tighten it up. By the time the Glacier Park Rally happened it had gotten pretty wobbly. But I'd figured out it was going to work pretty well. So back to my welder to design a new rack for the bike. He designed a rack that has a pin and can rotate....so the idea is when loading. You pull the pin and it tilts downward on on end and up higher on the other end to make it easier to load, once you roll the bike up and the weight is on it it will tilt back and latch with the weight of the bike. He test loaded some giant street bike and it made him decide it wasn't strong enough and told me he need to beef it up a bit. Then when we picked up the Jeep and towed it we realized that not only is there a little too much slop but also the "rise" is not enough to keep the bike rack above the towbar if we go through a deep dip. So now additional modifications to the rack to rise it a little more (I think it will angle up some). He's also going to weld in some shims into the tube (which he verified is legal/acceptable for engineering standards). He may be done already but I need to call and check.
I tell you what, having a seriously good welder is worth his weight in gold! Speaking of weight though, I DO wish he could do everything in aluminum. I reached a point with weight that I can't really add weight without removing weight elsewhere for me to stay at my target weight (the GVWR of a 5500 which is 19.5K). I have a list of a bunch of mostly small welding changes he is going to do at some point soon.....adding a second fill spout on the passenger side recessed into the flatbed and doing the same to the driver side....replacing my forward lower boxes with shorter ones that are wider (more tire space and a better fit for the big 8D batteries)....better front tow loops.....a front pair of receiver hitch tubes....more D-rings for tie down on back....the stabilizer chains to go from the top of the X-riser we were talking about....etc. it is pretty beefy but thinking of it as a Frane-extension rather than a hitch extension helps understand. I tell you what though, when I am towing my dump trailer with skidsteer on the extension plus riser in addition to the riser/extension it's nice to know it is strong. I have bent two different extension in the past. It was also comforting a bit when you are getting that while rig towed on a low-boy semi-trailer that was too short for my rig...very spooky to see the rear axle if the trailer hanging off the back of the semi and all tied down, but the pulling backward force of all that must have been pretty huge. Long story on that one - we were 15'8" tall and it was a long tow!
Sorry if we have gotten off topic too much, but I guess it fits in pretty well....
The first test run was last May to the Overland Expo. I used about 6 ratcheting tie downs to tighten it up. By the time the Glacier Park Rally happened it had gotten pretty wobbly. But I'd figured out it was going to work pretty well. So back to my welder to design a new rack for the bike. He designed a rack that has a pin and can rotate....so the idea is when loading. You pull the pin and it tilts downward on on end and up higher on the other end to make it easier to load, once you roll the bike up and the weight is on it it will tilt back and latch with the weight of the bike. He test loaded some giant street bike and it made him decide it wasn't strong enough and told me he need to beef it up a bit. Then when we picked up the Jeep and towed it we realized that not only is there a little too much slop but also the "rise" is not enough to keep the bike rack above the towbar if we go through a deep dip. So now additional modifications to the rack to rise it a little more (I think it will angle up some). He's also going to weld in some shims into the tube (which he verified is legal/acceptable for engineering standards). He may be done already but I need to call and check.
I tell you what, having a seriously good welder is worth his weight in gold! Speaking of weight though, I DO wish he could do everything in aluminum. I reached a point with weight that I can't really add weight without removing weight elsewhere for me to stay at my target weight (the GVWR of a 5500 which is 19.5K). I have a list of a bunch of mostly small welding changes he is going to do at some point soon.....adding a second fill spout on the passenger side recessed into the flatbed and doing the same to the driver side....replacing my forward lower boxes with shorter ones that are wider (more tire space and a better fit for the big 8D batteries)....better front tow loops.....a front pair of receiver hitch tubes....more D-rings for tie down on back....the stabilizer chains to go from the top of the X-riser we were talking about....etc. it is pretty beefy but thinking of it as a Frane-extension rather than a hitch extension helps understand. I tell you what though, when I am towing my dump trailer with skidsteer on the extension plus riser in addition to the riser/extension it's nice to know it is strong. I have bent two different extension in the past. It was also comforting a bit when you are getting that while rig towed on a low-boy semi-trailer that was too short for my rig...very spooky to see the rear axle if the trailer hanging off the back of the semi and all tied down, but the pulling backward force of all that must have been pretty huge. Long story on that one - we were 15'8" tall and it was a long tow!
Sorry if we have gotten off topic too much, but I guess it fits in pretty well....
