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Looking for some towing advice

dbrannon79

dbrannon79

I'm getting there!
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Seguin, TX
Good morning fellas,

I know lots of you guys here on the forum have done hauling and are experienced, as for myself I have hauled lighter things but nothing heavy.

I'm looking around for some advice on hauling a vehicle weighing about 8-10k with a truck about the same weight for about a 200 mile stretch. other than renting a gooseneck or calling a wrecker, are there other options like using a tow bar that connects to the bumper and lets the vehicle roll on it's four wheels? Or one of those car dollies that cradle the two front wheel?

one of the issues I'm running into is with a gooseneck the state requirements are I need to be under 26K lbs total without having a CDL license.
 
What vehicle you are towing counts into the equation along with what is towing it.

Imagine it is one gmt400 towing another one.
I would use a tow bar and flat tow. Remove both drivelines of the one being towed.
Harbor freight sells magnetic lights that plug into regular 7pin connections and sell adapters to get to any configuration needed.

Realize the truck you are towing will not have working brakes so act accordingly.
There is the kits you can buy to install in/on the brake system usually done for rv towing.
Thats a convenient set up to have around incase needed in the future. But I been on the wrong side of broke more than once and simply hung a sign, drove slow yet up to minimum speed and stayed way off everyone’s back bumper.

There are some rigs that flat tow will absolutely ruin parts like trans so always do some research
 
Am with AK. Appropriately rated trailer with brakes. If the trailer needs new tires, take a look at LT as ST does not have all that good a reputation.

Yes, dingy towing is possible, but as Will mentions, can get complex to do it right.

If this is for the truck in Texas, don't forget some sort of winch. Packing an air compressor is probably a good idea as firm tires make easier loading. While towing a 2WD GMT400 is possible and there are kits for turning it into a toad, might as well go ahead and buy a good used trailer rather than mess with with installing the brake kit, tow hitch, and yanking the driveshaft. Getting a good used trailer is probably less expensive than all the toad kits as well.

Fun fact, there are a few States that limit speed to 55 mph when anything is in tow, so check to see if one of them is along the path. Some trailer tires are only rated to 55 mph as well. When towing that heavy, I limit speed to 55 mph anyway as the time savings is actually minimal, but the fuel consumption starts going way up after that point.

At the risk of insulting, one last nugget. If towing via a flatbed trailer, despite popular practice, do NOT criss-cross the tie-down straps. In the event of an upset condition and one of the straps in a criss-cross configuration fails, the survivor is likely to fling the load off the trailer.
 
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That crossing the chain thing- it’s the law here you have to do it.
Basis is if socket pops off ball the tounge won’t hit the ground and catapult the trailer.

An Uncle of mine lost the connection, trailer made a hard left and he flipped along with the trailer. Every since then- he bought the yellow plastic safety chain, painted it black. Had that as the link attachment at the truck and steel chain for the rest so if something happened it would pop the chain.

So each man needs to find his risk and run with it as he sees fit.
 
Will L. said:
That crossing the chain thing- it’s the law here you have to do it.
Basis is if socket pops off ball the tounge won’t hit the ground and catapult the trailer.

An Uncle of mine lost the connection, trailer made a hard left and he flipped along with the trailer. Every since then- he bought the yellow plastic safety chain, painted it black. Had that as the link attachment at the truck and steel chain for the rest so if something happened it would pop the chain.

So each man needs to find his risk and run with it as he sees fit.
Click to expand...
Friend of flagged down a family member toting our Little trailer by the chains. He said it was all over the place but no damage was done
 
dbrannon79 said:
U-Haul only has dollies and trailers for lighter and smaller vehicles. for a dollie, nothing over 3500lb, and a trailer nothing over 7500lb and only 16' in length. They sell tow bars but not rent them.
Click to expand...
My 2000 K3500 CC long box SRW weighs 7800 pounds and that is with several hundred pounds of chain, tools and misc. equipment loaded behind the far back seats.
I did sell a 1986 IIRC K35, dually and it was the HD version.
He came over from Rapid City and I helped Him load the front wheels onto a uhaul dolly, he lied to them. I did not like how the front tire hold downs looked and the front tires were 1/2 off the pans. He had some heavy duty ratchet straps and we did an extra tie down to the frame or A frames, dont quite remember the exact configuration. First corner he went around less than a block down the street, that cheezy web over one of the front tires popped off. He stopped and restrapped it but those heavy duty ratchet straps held. Got him home anyhow.
Do not do this. It looked mighty dangerous to Me.
Tow bars or trailer is best.
 
If its the truck we are all thinking its definitely a land yacht, no u-haul options. I remember seeing it will run and had a leak, is it easier to fix, temp. plate, and drive back?

I assume your truck has a goose neck option, even talking 16-foot that is short for the truck, you will be hanging over and chaining down will be a pain (I put my 69 IH 1300D on our work tilt deck thats 18'). Boy was that ugly.....

You need at least a 20-foot utility/equipment trailer. Goose or bumper. Some options to think of is deck overs are easier to not deal with fender wells, but its also that much tougher to drag a dud truck up that high. Tilt decks and fendered trailers are much lower but you need to make sure your narrow enough to fit through the fenders. Looking at the truck with stock tires and being 2wd, you will be narrow enough. That truck needs to run long enough to drive onto the trailer, that will save you tons of headache. Otherwise you need a winch on that trailer. Make sure you bring 4 good car tie down straps or sets of chains and binders.

Total gross weight will be around 8K for your truck, 3K for trailer, and 8K lbs for the other truck, still under the 26K by far so I wouldn't worry (that's the law here too, but I have a CDL so I can go to 80K with proper trucks)

3 options, fix leak, temp plate and drive back (this is what I normally do if I can). Get a sufficient trailer. Or pay a flatbed.
 
If You rent one of those trailers that has the partial tilt bed, be sure that the bed is tilted down and securely latched before the front tires go across that break in the bed. Even if You have to handyman jack that bed back into position.
Once those front tires crosses that break, that bed will tilt, then the truck is stuck into that position until the bed can be tilted back to tow position.
I had that happen on one of those trailers when unloading an old Dodge D100.
I unlatched the bed, as soon as the hind tires got to the position that it put some weight farther back, the bed tilted and came against the truck frame right behind the front tires.
What a ridiculous circus that was to get the bed back down so that the front tires could get to the back side of that break.
Never, ever, buy one of those styles of trailers, unless it is so rediculesly cheap that You cant resist, then, sell it and buy a full bed tilt or else a trailer with ramps.
 
Will L. said:
That crossing the chain thing- it’s the law here you have to do it.
Click to expand...
Completely agree that the trailer's safety chains need to criss-cross. But that is not the focus for securing the load.

Am talking about the tie-down straps (the ones from either the wheel or suspension to the trailer) which hold the load (in this case, the vehicle).

Here is an example of the correct way to run the tie-down straps (red / black stripe in photo) where they attach to the same side of the vehicle and trailer.

Flatbed.jpg

The incorrect way secure a load is to criss-cross the tie-down straps so that they are on opposite sides of the vehicle and trailer. While the criss-cross method is popular, it can add to the misery in the event that one of the straps fails from stress.


Oh, one more thought if the decision is to go with a flatbed trailer. Check the tire stance on the vehicle, and distance between fenders on the trailer. If it is the GMT400 SRW, best is to load rear-first as the rear axle is shorter than the front. Where this effects loading is that a trailer's fenders might not have enough room for the front axle, but will for the rear. As a real world example, I have a trailer similar to the above photo. When I bought the Burb, I had to drive over one of the fenders as the tires simply would not squeeze between the fenders. 4WD Lo came in handy that day. Had I known at the time about the axle length difference, I would have backed the Burb on to the trailer.
 
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