FYI over weight can cost you

[wade]

People just worry to much about overweight. When you have a heavyduty truck with one of those swivel head 5th wheel hitches you can even feel what the trailer is doing behind you. You go around a curve real fast and you don't even feel the trailer laying up. Big cause of rollovers of rvs

[Theunz]

I suspect you mean doubles. Triples is tractor (truck) and three trailers which is illegal in most states and requires a triples endorsement and a special permit for those states which do allow it. Doubles is tractor and two trailers which also requires a special endorsement. Anyone pulling triples with a pickup is an accident waiting to happen!

[Theunz]

[QUOTE=mlh;1155225]Again I don’t see where RV owners are causing a problem.

I see trailers and motor homes quite often with dents in the rear or close to the rear and on the upper front cap. These dents didn't just happen due to a change in tempature, they backed into something, cut a corner to sharp or hit a low hanging obstacle. More likely than not they caused damage to someone else's property. I don't know what percent of the nations RV's you see in your travels, but I bet I see far less than 1% of them. Some small amount of training won't eliminate all of it, but it would certainly help.

[CaptnJohn]

Yep, tail swing. No amount of trading will stop that. You either know about it or learn the hard way. I once made stickers to put on dashboards that said-wife turns when pulling a trailer. Have them to all friends pulling a 5er. I’ve been pulling since 1976 and only one dent— tail swing 4 years ago.

[Theunz]

Wouldn't you rather be made aware of tail swing then learn about it the hard way? I don't want to be the uninformed drivers victim!

[Theunz]

In my home state of Oklahoma if you are under 30 years old and are not hunter education certified than you can only hunt with a licensed hunter no more than an arms length away. A good idea in my opinion. As far as alcohol, if we could get rid of the "good ole boy" politicians maybe we could enforce the laws already on the books and rid our hi ways of these irresponsible morons.
I don't want to be over regulated any more than anyone else does, but there are some activities in wich you should show that you are competent. You would like your airline pilot to be trained, wouldn't you? After all there are very few airplane crashes so I guess anyone can fly a plane.

[Last2Die]

this is getting good !!

[Rod Spohn]

Experience is key, and getting out there and doing it is how that is obtained. We all have driven a car or truck so know the basics. Not everyone is a natural when it comes to towing but can learn. New (young)drivers scare me but they have to learn somehow. I have pulled all sorts of trailers of all sizes and even drove commercial for a while. I dislike backing to this day and probably would fail a backing test. Each time I back in is an experience. For every time I have backed in like I'm a pro there are an equal amount of times I totally can't get it. getting frustrated and embarrassed just makes it worse. A test will not make you a good driver but then experience isn't a guarantee either. Lets keep the government out of it and be patient with those out there trying to get experience.

[BB_TX]

Originally Posted by Theunz

I suspect you mean doubles. Triples is tractor (truck) and three trailers which is illegal in most states and requires a triples endorsement and a special permit for those states which do allow it. Doubles is tractor and two trailers which also requires a special endorsement. Anyone pulling triples with a pickup is an accident waiting to happen!

Right or wrong, agree or not, triple towing is a common term used in RV circles for towing two trailers (triple in this case meaning a tow vehicle and two trailers). If you google RV triple tow you will find many pages of links to discussions about RV triple towing. Couple of examples.


https://www.glrv.com/blog/triple-towing-what-to-know/


https://roadslesstraveled.us/triple-...me-with-a-rzr/

[mlh]

Rod. The good thing about backing up. No body ever got killed backing up a camper. If you hit something your insurance will cover you so it just doesn’t matter.
Lynwood

[Theunz]

Originally Posted by BB_TX

Right or wrong, agree or not, triple towing is a common term used in RV circles for towing two trailers (triple in this case meaning a tow vehicle and two trailers). If you google RV triple tow you will find many pages of links to discussions about RV triple towing. Couple of examples.


https://www.glrv.com/blog/triple-towing-what-to-know/


https://roadslesstraveled.us/triple-...me-with-a-rzr/

Hey, if if on the Internet than it's got to be true right

[beeje]

Just now returned home from a 3 day trip to Cowans Gap SP in pa. We saw several fifth wheels being towed with 1/2 ton trucks along with several triple axle toy haulers being towed by 3/4 ton trucks.

Proof people are just don't care and are going to do what they want, be it right or wrong.

[mlh]

Originally Posted by beeje

Just now returned home from a 3 day trip to Cowans Gap SP in pa. We saw several fifth wheels being towed with 1/2 ton trucks along with several triple axle toy haulers being towed by 3/4 ton trucks.

Proof people are just don't care and are going to do what they want, be it right or wrong.

Some fifth wheel campers can be pulled with 1/2 ton trucks. When properly equipped a F150 Ford can tow 13,300 pounds. Would I feel safe NO.
Lynwood

[beeje]

I'm sure they were some VERY small fifth wheels from years past that a 1/2 ton could tow. IMHO your statement that a 1/2 ton can tow a 13,300# fifth wheel is just plain Wrong… To my knowledge, there has not even been a 3/4 ton truck manufactured with a payload capacity that should be towing a 13,300lbs fifth wheel.

Just camped with a buddy that has a 2014 ford f250 diesel crew cab short bed. Door sticker says 1950lbs payload.

13.300lbs x 20% = 2660 lbs of pin weight alone. And that's without counting hitch/fuel/passenger/and anything else in the truck cab or bed.

[elee3]

Years ago, I had to get a class A CDL for work. I maintained it for years despite no longer needing it for work. Once I started towing a fifth wheel, I relinquished the CDL so that I wouldn’t be held to a higher standard if stopped.

[richfaa]

Originally Posted by elee3

Years ago, I had to get a class A CDL for work. I maintained it for years despite no longer needing it for work. Once I started towing a fifth wheel, I relinquished the CDL so that I wouldn’t be held to a higher standard if stopped.

I held a CDL for many years,Rv,s are not commercial vehicles and not held to that standard. It would not have made any difference now you could get a ticket for safety violations if stopped.We have been checked in rest area stops for all vehicles Lights, turn signals,drivers license , insurance cards.Never checked for weights.

[mlh]

A 2019 F150 3.5 Ecoboost 4X2 Conventional tow is rated by Ford in the spec sheet is rated it tow 13,200 pounds with the maxtow package. This isn’t something I made up I comes right out of Ford’s spec sheet. I did make a mistake I thought it was 13,300 pounds and I think it was last year but I’m not sure of that.
Lynwood

[BiggarView]

Originally Posted by beeje

I'm sure they were some VERY small fifth wheels from years past that a 1/2 ton could tow. IMHO your statement that a 1/2 ton can tow a 13,300# fifth wheel is just plain Wrong… To my knowledge, there has not even been a 3/4 ton truck manufactured with a payload capacity that should be towing a 13,300lbs fifth wheel.

Just camped with a buddy that has a 2014 ford f250 diesel crew cab short bed. Door sticker says 1950lbs payload.

13,300lbs x 20% = 2660 lbs of pin weight alone. And that's without counting hitch/fuel/passenger/and anything else in the truck cab or bed.

Might be able to tow gooseneck at 13000 which would be ideal towing conditions. 13000 @15% for gooseneck weight would be 1950 lbs ...much closer to spec. except for any other weight like passengers cargo or extra fuel etc. You know, real world numbers. Fifth wheel RVs are not ideal towing situations when it comes to MFR bragging rights. They'll advertise anything to get you to buy but not explain the reality they are using to get those numbers.

[mtlakejim]

I guess like a lot of other discussions about weight this could go on forever. I guess the big question is how do you get people to do the right thing without some sort of consequences if they don't? And I suppose it has to be consequences they actually believe might happen (cause some folks would never believe that anything will happen to them if they are overweight).


I know being safe is laughed at by many. I laughed at it when I was young myself. It was only after many years of experiencing the consequences that I finally started to wise up a little. I won't try to tow a trailer load of plywood with a compact car anymore because I did that one too many times when I was a youngster.


So how do we get folks to do the right thing and not tow overweight if they can't see some sort of consequences from it?

[BB_TX]

Originally Posted by mlh

A 2019 F150 3.5 Ecoboost 4X2 Conventional tow is rated by Ford in the spec sheet is rated it tow 13,200 pounds with the maxtow package. This isn’t something I made up I comes right out of Ford’s spec sheet. I did make a mistake I thought it was 13,300 pounds and I think it was last year but I’m not sure of that.
Lynwood

In addition to certain F150 configurations being rated to tow 13,200, some also have rated payload capacities over 3,000 lbs.

https://www.ford.com/cmslibs/content...F150_Oct25.pdf