Topic: Towing cars on trailers with an RV?

[rar]

  Hello , Was wondering if anyone is towing a trailer behind something like a 1985, 33' chief . i am going to reinforce the tail section on the frame. but what about air bags or something like that. We haul our jeeps on trailers , its better for us in case we break it.  I would use weight dis. bars as i did  on my truck and camper . this way i will have trailer brakes . i would love any feed back on this . Thanks Ron..........

[bluebird]

3 out of my last 4 coachs had poor frame extentions at best. I started with a 77 Gimmy and broke the frame where they extended it, That was a big job to fix. 2 was a Minnewinney, same poor frame extention, but I fixed it before I started towing with it. The poor old 318 couldn't cut the mustard so I didn't have it but a month. 27 ft Itasca class A, only had an angle iron extention on the frame but had a 5000 lb hitch. I cut the angle iron out and added and boxed a C channel frame and pulled with it for 4 years. No problems. My currant coach had the best setup for pulling and had a 5000 lb towing capacity, but I reinforsed it too. You just have to look and decide for yourself if it is good enough to tow with. I have an all steel car trailer, with race car and a golf cart riding on the tounge. About 600 lbs tounge weight, with a 8000 lb spring bar setup. Been pulling it for 5 years now, no problems. Well mpg sometimes if I runer a little too hard.

[DonD]

16' steel car trailer w/eq hitch. Total wt about 4000. Brakes of course. Stock frame.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Just what kind of Jeeps are you towing?  4 wheels down towing is always preferable, unless you mean you are towing more than one Jeep at the same time.  Automatic or standard, Wranglers or Cherokees, just stick the transfer case in neutral and you are all set to tow (steering unlocked and transmission in gear or Park, of course).

Wranglers and Cherokees both are light enough to tow without a Brake Buddy or trailer brakes...your rig would hardly notice them when it comes to braking.

Multiple Jeeps on a trailer?  Then yeah, you might want to heavily reenforce the rear frame of your RV.  In fact, you'd be negligent not to.  Our friend Robert pulls a HUGE heavy trailer behind his 77 Winnebago, using what is called a Toad...it goes into the receiver hitch and has its own set of heavy duty wheels...and then the trailer attaches to the toad in tandem.  It takes the weight off the coach suspension and frame, while allowing the coach to straight pull a very heavy load.  NOT a cheap item.

Kev

[rar]

Hey, Kevin . We put one raised jeep rubicon on a trailer. could tow on ground but being in Oregon we have to travel south to find sun, usually death valley area. or Moab area. We usually look for the hardest track to go on. So if we bust something we can always get it home.  one thing i was wondering about is do you all think air bags would be a good thing or not needed. the motor home is new to me and haven,t hooked anything up . I am a welder so the frame rebuild isn,t a problem . Thanks for the input Ron......                                     

[rar]

Don, my setup is a lot like yours  do you have air bags on it, nice looking setup. thanks Ron...........

[DonD]

Yes Ron, air bags. Thank you.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Unless its a monster truck type lift, I still say its better to tow it all 4 wheels down with a tow bar.  Yep, you'll need a hitch riser, but that's not a big deal.  The less weight on the tongue the better.  The more weight on your drive axle, the more rolling resistance on those wheels, so by spreading the weight of the Jeep over the area of its own tires and straight pulling it, you'll get better control and better gas mileage.

Kev

[tmsnyder]

We'd like to add a Toad to our RV trips.   Our current car is not capable of being flat towed or on a dolly without disconnecting the axle.  So the only option would be to tow it on a car hauler or get another car.  So we are considering buying a car hauler.


For my 1990 31' Holiday Rambler, healthy 454 and TH400 transmission, does anyone foresee a problem towing a 3600 lb car on a 2080 lb car trailer?  Total weight would be 5680 lb, tongue weight about 570lb. 

[legomybago]

You'll eventually get a lot of feed back on this issue I'm sure, but I used to own a 1987 36' Beaver coach on a P30 chassis, it weighed in at 20k on the road going to camp by itself. It did have the Banks kit on it, and a Gear Vendors over/under drive set up on it. It rolled surprisingly good down the road, and stopped ok (had a tag axle too). I'm not sure what your camping/travel gross weight is on your Rambler, but towing 5k with trailer brakes, and a sturdy receiver/hitch on the back, Id say go for it.

[Rickf1985]

I went with a Trailer Toad, it takes all of the tongue weight of the trailer on the toad and leaves zero tongue weight on the RV hitch. You are still pulling the weight though. I actually don't have a picture of the toad in the hooked up position but here is the entire rig all put together.

[tmsnyder]

Ok, hearing no major objections I'll take that to mean it should be ok. 


Yeah Rick you need that Toad with that much overhang and an enclosed trailer.   I'm not looking at that much tongue weight, just the equivalent of two or three people sitting in the back bedroom while going down the road. Shouldn't be an issue but I might run a weight distributing hitch anyway.   I love the way those prevent the bucking bronco effect when going over lumpy roads with a trailer. 


On our trip this summer it would have been very nice to have had a small dingy vehicle around for getting around once we were 'docked'

[MotorPro]

You had better have that much tongue weight. If you have low tongue weight the trailer will sway and throw it and your motorhome all over the road until it jack knifes and crashes or flips.

[Rickf1985]

The tongue weight on the toad is about 950 lbs.. There is no need for tongue weight between the toad and the RV because it is just that, a toad. It is attached solid to the rear of the RV as far as side to side movement. It can only move up and down. http://www.trailertoad.com/


I have towed that trailer with my pickup and the load distributed at center just to see how it pulls and it is straight as an arrow with only 100lbs. of tongue weight. Even if I induce sway and straighten up it tracks right behind me. I have had trailers that act as you say and general rule of thumb is ten percent tongue weight but t is not always so. On any motor home with the trailer pivot point 15-20 feet behind the axle it is going to push the rear end around a bit and I don't care what you are pulling or how it is weighted. My other trailer is an open trailer and I pulled that without the toad, (which is how the hitch got bent!) and that trailer pushed the rear end around also. You have to understand that when the front of the RV turns right the front of the trailer turns left due to the overhang going that way and then when you straighten out it comes back fast and has to play catchup and it will sway.

[tmsnyder]

Rick I think MotorPro was responding to my fairly low tongue weight of about 500 lb.


Thanks MotorPro, I'm familiar with that regarding towing safely.  There's a cool video somewhere depicting that.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jk9H5AB4lM

[Rickf1985]

Before adding any tongue weight be damn sure to get up under there and look hard at the welds and construction of the frame extensions! That is why they are always rated at 300/3500lbs. That is also why I had to tow more than one motor home that the entire rear section dropped down, separated the rear cap right at the roof. I put pictures up on here somewhere of my frame extensions and it is scary! A weight distributing hitch only puts more strain on the hitch. When you hit a dip with that long extended rear end and it drops 15 inches think what is happening with that WD hitch!!! TONS of weight on the hitch and if the trailer is not heavy enough it can actually lift the trailer wheels off the ground! I think the tail of the RV will give first though. Research the geometry, don't just take my word for it, or not.

[Oz]

I recall the frame extensions being a dangerous weak point with the extended end Elandans too.  The 37'-39' ones, as I recall.

[tmsnyder]

I'll check it out, one thing going for me is it's only 31' with a tag axle so the overhang is about as short as they come.  And it's a Holiday Rambler, I havent' seen much sketchy on this.

[Rickf1985]

The extension is behind the axles so the number of axles does not matter and I doubt the the manufacturer does either. If it is butt welded straight across the frame then it is not a strong frame joint. Mine is actually a piece of channel butt welded to the frame and the channel is a different size so it is only welded on top and side and those welds are poor at best. The passenger side has a cabinet that goes all the way over to the drivers side so that rail is divided into two parts, top and bottom which join at a 90 degree angle with no gussets. Very little strength. Look it over good and don't do it with the rose colored glasses on.