Towing Doubles Frame and Weight ?? - Montana Owners Club

Frankenstien · 09-22-2008, 03:40 PM

I have noticed there are a few of our MOC Members who tow a boat.. or small utility trailer behind their Monties, what I am wondering is.. how far under the unit did you have to go to mount your receiver hitch, and how much different does your unit handle with, and with out the added trailer. In my case I am looking at pulling my 20' pontoon boat behind our unit, 95% of which would be across open straight highway. Primarily Washington heading east and back, and a trip or two From here down to Lake Powell. FYI, Wa does stipulate you can tow doubles IF: you have a current CDL with tandems endorsement, and your vehicle length does not exceed 75' total. its a 100.00 a year permit fee, which is less than I would spend in gas to yank 2 vehicles across the state till I hit the Border.

Charlie · 09-22-2008, 04:11 PM

This has been discussed before and I think the general answer will be a hitch that is attached to the Montana will void the warranty on the frame. You are right, I've seen it done and in one instance a disaster.

mtheo · 09-22-2008, 04:16 PM

I tow a small trailer behind mine, I built my hitch and attached it at the very end of the frame, but also continued the hitch back in about 3' and attached it again to the frame.
I have seen some use a manufactured wide spread hitch for motorhomes.
I have not notice any difference in towing, but you need to be careful about the amount of wieght you carry on the rear od your trailer.

I use to tow a 20' ski boat behind my old 27' SOB and could not tell it was back there, But it had dual axles and I made sure that it had no more than about 300lbs of thong weight. I DW love not having to tow the boat.

Good Luck
PS it will probably void your warranty, but you do what you have to do.

bsmeaton · 09-22-2008, 04:35 PM

Ya - like there is any warranty on a 2003

. Cmon folks

As you can see from my signature at the bottom, we towed a 20' ski boat like MTHEO behind our 2003 2955RL. It actually towed like a dream. However, I would imagine my ski boat tows better than your pontoon boat and I would worry a little about whipping in the back, especially in any kind of crosswind. The whip really gets exagerrated by the time you get to that back hitch because of such a long distance between the 5er axle and the rear ball.

We had our hitch made at a hitch shop. They did a fantastic job and I trusted the work.

I finally decided to just quit doing it. In most states I was over the length limit, it added another 4-5K weight to an already heavy trailer, it overloaded my hitch, overloaded by CGVWR, and put one heck of a stress on those cheesy shackles and crossmembers in a turn. I'm not even sure if the Mountaineer has the 10" I beam frame like the Montana.

Either way, as soon as I decided to use two vehicles, we ran out and got the 3400 because we no longer had a length concern

.

ols1932 · 09-23-2008, 04:28 AM

I met one fellow with a Montana who had a hitch on the rear of his unit and carried three bicycles on a Hollywood Bicycle carrier. He was in a repair shop getting the hitch repaired. It had broken loose from the frame and three bicycles were strewn across the highway. People won't tell you not to put a hitch on your rig, and I have one on mine (not used and will not be used), but for me, if it voids my warranty, why do it? It isn't that important that we tow extra things behind us. I'm leery of that extra length. Not that I'm not capable and learned enough to tow it, but why tempt fate?

Orv

SlickWillie · 09-23-2008, 05:00 AM

I'm not a fan of towing a trailer behind the fiver, but Keystone now offers a "rear accessory hitch" on the Montana. BTW, looks to me like that is a Montana, not a Mountaineer. Not that it makes any difference. Not sure about the beams under the trailer, even on our unit.

Delaine and Lindy · 09-23-2008, 05:48 AM

We just returned from a trip to Texas. I do believe I seen more 5er's pulling a trailer or car, even seen one toy hauler towing a tandem axle trailer hauling 4 big ATV's. We had the option of having a rear hitch on our (SOB) from the factory. We had though we would have a hitch installed just for our bikes. However we have so much basement storage we can carry our bikes just by removing the front tires. I have a Class A lic and did have the doubles and triples indorsement so that wouldn't be a problem, but then you would have a length problem if your over 65'. Towing a pontoon boat could be a problem, unlike towing a boat the dirty air comming off the rear of the 5th wheel hitting the Pontoon boat would be a lot of difference. There are many people on the Escapee's forum towing double, Jeeps small cars and I'm sure a lot of the frames we made by Lippert. Good Luck with your choice. GBY...

Frankenstien · 09-23-2008, 09:57 AM

Thanks to all for the responses,

I understand about the trailer sway, I am fortunate in the fact the boat pulls very well, as in no sway, and it is fairly light, < 3000 lbs. we have a 75' limit here, and where my boat ends is 77' so I'll need to adjust where the boat hitches up. as I don't intend on doing any local twisty road trips I'm hoping to keep the shackle stress to a minimum. Brad did you have surge brakes on your boat?... that is the other thing I am concerned/considering is trailer brakes for the boat. I dont need them as a single truck/boat... however the added weight behind the 5-er it may be necessary.

bsmeaton · 09-23-2008, 10:19 AM

yep, I do have a surge brake with brakes on one axle. I believe 77-ft was about where I was at to the tip of the prop.

Waynem · 09-23-2008, 01:27 PM

I'm waiting for the picture of the 300 pounds of thong weight!!!

Couldn't resist gents

clutch · 09-23-2008, 08:57 PM

We tow an ATV trailer behind our Mountaineer and you don't even know it is back there. It is just wide enough that I can see it in the driver side mirror. The tongue weight is about 250# and it hasn't been a problem. We are only about 60ft.

mtheo · 09-24-2008, 04:45 PM

sorry about the typo, 300# thong, scary

maphillips · 09-24-2008, 05:20 PM

I'm thinking the only length limit you have to worry about is the one for your home state. I mean if you cross state lines you can't drop things off to meet their limit. I have towed up to 20' bass boats behind my previous SOB with no problems. I don't have a hitch on my '08 2955RL, don't know if i'll put one on it or not. If I do it will be after the 1 year warranty is up.

rames14 · 09-25-2008, 01:22 AM

Just a point on the new hitch on the Montanas. It is a 1 1/4" hitch, and is stated that it is "only" for bicycles. I'm sure someone will use it to pull a boat or something, but that is there as a response to customers looking for a safe way to take their bicyles.

bsmeaton · 09-25-2008, 06:01 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by maphillips

I'm thinking the only length limit you have to worry about is the one for your home state. I mean if you cross state lines you can't drop things off to meet their limit. I have towed up to 20' bass boats behind my previous SOB with no problems. I don't have a hitch on my '08 2955RL, don't know if i'll put one on it or not. If I do it will be after the 1 year warranty is up.

For the most part that is true, providing the visited State accepts reciprocity. Colorado is one of the few that does not per the following link, but is pretty liberal with their own laws anyway:

http://www.towingworld.com/articles/TowingLaws.htm

Reciprocity allowances are in the far right column.

Frankenstien · 09-28-2008, 02:06 PM

I should be safe in those regards, as the only 2 states I would be traveling through is ID, and UT. My own home state is the only PIA for traveling, as everything here is related to a fee of some sort or another.

Bill-N-Donna · 05-17-2009, 09:26 PM

I seen someone towing a trailer with a gulf cart yesterday. I didn’t catch the brand of fifth wheel they had.

RickW · 05-18-2009, 03:16 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by SlickWillie

I'm not a fan of towing a trailer behind the fiver, but Keystone now offers a "rear accessory hitch" on the Montana.

Our 2009 3400RL came with the rear accessory hitch. It is a Class I hitch that is only rated for 300#. We do have a bicycle carrier that holds 2 bicycles in the accessory hitch. We have made 2 trips with the bicycles for a total of 800 miles with out any problems.

Biggjb · 01-22-2010, 04:19 PM

I have a 2980RL with a rear accessory hitch and even though my 5er comes with the generator ready kit, I did not put a generator in the front. Living in a part of Canada in which the city grid occasionaly is offline, I am looking to buy a generator that can be used for both home and 5er. I am currently investigating putting a cargo rack on the back with a generator. That way I will only need to buy one generator. I am also thinking the added weight at the back will reduce my pin weight. My TV is a 2005 F250SD 6.0 Powerstroke. Any experience or suggestions are welcome.

Art-n-Marge · 01-22-2010, 08:20 PM

Just make sure the added weight at the rear for the heavy generator doesn't add too much weight at the rear axle AND not exceed the GTWR. You will need a substantial hitch setup welded pretty far up the frame to put a genny in the rear like that. "KathyandDave" did that this past summer but for a bike rack. The concern is that if you put a 150 lb genny at the rear, when traveling and hitting bumps it translates to a LOT more than 150 lbs at the bump. Ouch!

I agree with your reluctance to put the genny in front because of rear axle load on your 3/4 ton TV, but it would have been nice there since it's all ready to go.

Good luck with your project.

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