What's the best way to break my rig while towing?

[HadEnough]

I have a 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 crew cab short bed.

It's got an Arctic Fox 811, 4569lbs, fully loaded and wet, in the bed.

I am getting ready to go south for the winter and need to bring about 15 trash bags of clothes and shoes, about 150 lbs of boat equipment, and another 100lbs of tools.

So I think I'm looking at bringing about 350lbs of junk along.

Would it be better to stuff all that into the crew cab, into the crew cab and truck camper? Or get an enclosed cargo trailer and tow it in that?

It's a one way trip and the extra junk would be left in the cargo trailer at a marina once I arrive there. It's a 1 way, 1000 mile trip on a smooth interstate.

Can I get away with this?

The 2500 is all modded out with ridiculously over spec rims and tires, extra leafs in the rear springs, exhaust brake and air bags. It's already set up with a frame mounted towing hitch.

Am I good to go with this?

[HadEnough]

Yeah. Seriously. I've learned a lot from this thread and it saved me some potential disaster out on the road. No need to close it.

[burningman]

GeoBoy wrote:
Close this thread it’s now getting ridiculous.

Don’t read it then??

There’s all sorts of bits of wisdom floating around. No harm done.

[GeoBoy]

Close this thread it’s now getting ridiculous.

[Grit_dog]

Bottom line is that there are many products out there to use and about 1000x as many individual scenarios as products to use.
If a person has the mechanical aptitude/education/experience and horse sense, a lot of things can be done safely that others would not be able to do safely for lack of the above personal qualities.
Being aware of how you trailer tows, backs up, where the pinch points are falls mostly in the horse sense category and if you don’t check how tight you can turn your trailer in a controlled situation, eventually you’ll find out another way.

[Kayteg1]

GeoBoy wrote:
Bottom line, your factory hitch was never designed for ANY kind of extension!

Say it again?
New Ford come with 3" receiver rated for 22,000 lb trailers.
Ford has no business in rating the hitches for extensions, but doesn't take much to do quick comparison.


Click For Full-Size Image.

[burningman]

I used to have a 2 wheel drive Chevy dually that sat lower than the 4 wheel drives.
My camper is built very much like a Lance with a rear bumper that’s below the camper floor.

What I did was instead of stretching the tongue in a straight line, I cut it off and welded the extra C-channel stretch section below the original trailer frame. Then I put the hitch coupler above that at the front. That way it laid low and gave extra clearance for the camper above the trailer.
I also tossed a sheet of 2” thick rigid foam insulation under that camper to buy a little room.
I ran that thousands of miles.

If you stretch a trailer tongue, put triangle gussets in all the corners and add a crossmember or two so it doesn’t twist and it’ll be totally solid.

I have a heavy trailer. For the record, I do believe that lightweight (say 7000 or less) trailers on short extensions (maybe 18” or so) are just fine. It’s just the four-footers with substantial trailers that I think aren’t good engineering.
Plus there’s all that extra heavy junk to install every time you load and unload the camper.

[GeoBoy]

Do you have a picture of the receiver?

[HadEnough]

GeoBoy wrote:
Bottom line, your factory hitch was never designed for ANY kind of extension!

I don't have a factory hitch. I have a Torklift class 2 hitch receiver. But still, definitely a lot of lever arm on the thing.

Stinks we have so very few options. As TCs seem to be gaining in popularity, there is a nice market here for someone to make a receiver that extends.

[mkirsch]

Wow, two 10" extensions. Glad you let that slip out, otherwise *THAT* would have been the answer to your thread title...

Yeah, the solution is a ONE-PIECE extension.

As far as your receiver not being rated for an extension, that may be, but if you de-rate the capacity appropriately, it will be fine.

E-trailer recommends you de-rate your capacity by 50% regardless of the extension length. I call shenanigans on this one, because as an engineer I know that the force on the receiver is proportional to length. The shorter the extension, the less you have to de-rate the receiver. This has to be CYA on the part of E-trailer, but it does make it simple because you can still "legally" tow 50% of your receiver's capacity with that 20" extension.

[GeoBoy]

Bottom line, your factory hitch was never designed for ANY kind of extension!

[HadEnough]

jaycocreek wrote:

And about hitch extensions: no matter how strong it is, it still puts lots of extra leverage and unwanted weight transfer on the truck. Stretching the trailer tongue is physically and mechanically superior, it keeps the hitch closer to the rear axle.

While this is very true as well as a 16" ball mount extension is stronger than just an open extension itself,it just don't work for everyone and there type of use..

If I extended my trailer tongue to reach the truck hitch, it would be to close to the Lance bumper on my TC for any vertical bumps/ditches etc that I frequently encounter off the highway.It would not let me be anywhere close to the trailer being level..It would be the old V look at hookup.If my Lance did not have a bumper,it would be better but the bumper extends down past the bottom of the TC.

I would take either the extended trailer tongue or the extended ball mount(16" max for a 2" receiver) if it would work for my use being stronger and all,but it won't, so I chose to go with a solid extension that clears my Lance bumper and allows me to put a hitch ball on that raises the trailer tongue to make the trailer level and avoid any vertical travel contact.

With a good sturdy truck hitch,this method was my only logical choice other than supporting Torklift and there outrageous prices that are not in my budget.

Not to mention Torklift isn't the be all end all.

My Torklift front mounts for the TC broke apart. Ripped at the seams.

My new off brand ones are more robustly constructed.

[jaycocreek]

And about hitch extensions: no matter how strong it is, it still puts lots of extra leverage and unwanted weight transfer on the truck. Stretching the trailer tongue is physically and mechanically superior, it keeps the hitch closer to the rear axle.

While this is very true as well as a 16" ball mount extension is stronger than just an open extension itself,it just don't work for everyone and there type of use..

If I extended my trailer tongue to reach the truck hitch, it would be to close to the Lance bumper on my TC for any vertical bumps/ditches etc that I frequently encounter off the highway.It would not let me be anywhere close to the trailer being level..It would be the old V look at hookup.If my Lance did not have a bumper,it would be better but the bumper extends down past the bottom of the TC.

I would take either the extended trailer tongue or the extended ball mount(16" max for a 2" receiver) if it would work for my use being stronger and all,but it won't, so I chose to go with a solid extension that clears my Lance bumper and allows me to put a hitch ball on that raises the trailer tongue to make the trailer level and avoid any vertical travel contact.

With a good sturdy truck hitch,this method was my only logical choice other than supporting Torklift and there outrageous prices that are not in my budget.

[HadEnough]

I see. Thanks for all this information.

You guys probably saved me a huge problem down the road.

I've always driven pre-configured trailers. Like the bigger ones with Bobcat loaders on them behind 1 ton dump trucks. It was a ring on the trailer and a clamp type receiver on the truck.

This is new to me setting my own stuff up and having such terrible, limited choices to make.

My chains and light cabling both reach the proper spot on the hitch still at 20" of extension. Should be ok there.

I'm thinking it's not the extensions that could fail so much as the welds on the hitch/receiver on the truck , due to the increased lever arm of the longer extension.

Guess I've done all I can at this point short of welding a new tongue on.

[Ski_Pro_3]

Here's a photo of my tow set up for flat towing my Samurai. Now, keep in mind; flat towing a car means there is ZERO tongue weight. Also, the towed car has brakes slowing down the car when the truck is slowed down. There is no forward forces, or at least, not much since the towed car's brakes are kicked in.

In the photo you will see that I use a 18" extension that is chained to the truck using turn buckles. The chains are long and looped back to make a loop of chain that my Samurai tow bar chains attach to. (Not really chains, I use coil cables to keep chains from sparking on the ground when the terrain is uneven)
From the 18" extension is a Brake Buddy surge brake. This attaches to my Samurai's brake peddle to apply the brakes when I slow down. Attached to the Brake Buddy is the receiver hitch and ball.
Look close and see that I use anti-wobbles on each connection. Along with the tensioned chains, this extension is SOLID. It could handle maybe 100 to 150 pounds of tongue weight I suppose, but if I ever did that, I wouldn't drive that way on mountain terrain and I would definitely keep my speed 55 and under.
This photo extension total length is 39" long.


When I do tow a trailer with tongue weight, I use my double receiver "Torklift Super Hitch" with a Super Truss extension, a dual 2" tube that are trussed together in order to increase tongue load at the ball.