Some people don't make educated decisions and aren't educated by their dealer as to what they can safely tow. I don't know if it's just me, but I know better than to trust a salesman!
2006 Hornet 28BHDS-Bunk House, Dual Slides
2006 Dodge Ram 2500 HD
5.7L Hemi, Factory Towing Package
Reese Brake Controller, WD Hitch and Sway Bar
A Mercury towing a trailer in 1955 is irrelevant to towing today. Highway speeds are higher, the volume of traffic is higher, and safety standards in 1955 were far from good. I was 5 back then, and it was common for me to stand on the "hump" in the back seat and watch where we were going. It wasn't safe...but we didn't have seat belts either. But...if a front collision had occurred, the consequences would be much worse than what would happen today.
There are far too many folks that are ready to make excuses or rationalize their deliberate choice to tow in excess of the ratings for their TV. To do so, IMHO, is foolish and just one freak accident away from having terrible consequences. It's a moral responsibility to stay within tow limits and make every effort to have a safe and reliable tow package. If folks can't afford a larger TV and the costs that go with it, then stick with something such as a PUP that is safe to tow. We did it......a PUP is what we could afford, and could be towed with the family vehicle.
And, RV dealers need to be honest and realistic in their sales advice to customers. Yes...it is the buyer's responsibility, but I don't understand how anyone would want to knowingly advise someone to buy a trailer that is obviously too heavy/long for the TV to be used. I sure wouldn't want that potential for disaster on my conscious.
2001 Dodge 3500 DRW V10 Magnum
2002 Sunline T280SR
Arrow Hensley Hitch
10' Porta Bote My photo galleries.
Another thing that has or NEEDS to be taken into consideration when towing now, is that the roads are a lot busier, and speeds are much higher. More chances for mishaps and damage. I'm sure things that were done back then would have tramatic results now. And, yes I do tow with a large vehicle and use WD & sway control and I always encourage others to do the same. Being a school bus driver, I feel I can NEVER have TOO MUCH safety
2005 F350 PSD, 4x4, Lariat Crewcab, FX4, Camper pkg, Line-X, 2003 Sunline T-320 super slide, Onan CampPower 3600 LP Genny, Proud member of: Sunlineclub.com Single? check out MSN Groups Open Roads Singles,
BarneyS wrote: WD hitches and the Reese Dual Cam sway control have been around since at least 1966.
Our family had a Trailer sales business from 1958 to 1963. My dad's 1958 Ford Fairlane (6 auto) towed a 16' Shasta around 1960 and used an Equalizer brand WDH. At that time they also used axle supported WDH's but they were inferior as they put much stress on the axle, u bolts, spring shackles and their mounting rubbers and bolts.
My Dad used to tow our 31' Airstream with a Olds 98 four door. It had a 455 cubic inch engine and seemed to do okay. We had a WD hitch and friction sway control. However, it's not the 70's anymore.
I always see trailers that I know are overweight for the tow vehicle. There are a ton of toy haulers out here and I see this all the time.
What scares me even more are obvious overloads or bad hitch setup. This is see every day. Big trailers with no weight distribution, big trailers with no sway control, rear ends dragging and headlights pointed to the sky, etc.. A lot of the toy hauler guys have big lifed suspensions and giant tires on their tow vehicles which makes the situation even worse.
I just try not to be too close to these people on the road. There's nothing else I can do.
I'm less concerned about a guy who is towing slightly heavy but is towing level with all saftey gear and well within the legal speed limits and that has properly inflated tires and properly set mirrors.
I'm more concerned about the idiot driving a 70MPH with a diesel truck with the trailer nose high, under-inflated tires and a cell phone glued to his ear while eating a Big-Mac.
Call me crazy but I see a lot of example # 2 around these parts recently.
Michael 2 DD's and my DW 6 Acre's in Southern Maine 2009 Crossroads Cruiser CF31SB 2008 Chevy 2500HD LT 4X4 Camping Pictures
Am I just really paranoid about towing capacities and should I just keep my mouth shut or what. I upgraded to a Dodge Durango to make sure we would be safe. (our trailer maxes out at 5,500 lbs and our towing capacity is 6,850 lbs)
Any advice??
nothing wrong about being concerned about towing by the numbers. BUT I would recommed you contact your state DPS and find out what the REAL towing/hauling numbers are and how they are enforced. Stay under GAWR and tire caps and you will have fewer problems with the tow vehicle or with a weights LEO. As you know there are many weight numbers that the vehicle manufactors use for advertizing and towing/hauling brochures. After you've towed for a number of years you will realize what other folks are towing is just not worth worring about. According to NHTSA web Rvers have no history of overweight problems as a group. Your worring way to much. I'm much more concerned with vehicles speeding/stop sign running/tailgating/drunk drivers/etc than a overweight RVer. Even the folks that tow/haul using the same vehicles we use have a excellent safety record AND they tow/haul much bigger/heavier loads that a RVer will.
One big mis info saying that comes up on this web is all who tow over towing capacities are unsafe. Thats sort of saying driving 66 mph in a 65 mph zone is unsafe.
Towing/hauling over even the "legal" weight numbers doesn't mean you are unsafe. All it means is the tow vehicle may not last but 195000 miles instead of 200000 miles.
"good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" Will Rogers
'03 2500 QC Dodge/Cummins HO 3.73 6 speed manual Jacobs Westach Linex
'97 Park Avanue 28' 5er with two slides 16" BFG Commercial LTs
Quote: What scares me even more are obvious overloads or bad hitch setup.
Me too. On our trip this summer we noticed a young family with a fullsize van and smallish HTT, the trailer obviously brand-new. Shouldn't be a bad combo, but no one must have told them about WD hitches. They had one sway bar, I think, but were towing with a regular weight-carrying hitch. That van was sagging bigtime, and the HTT was riding noticeably tongue-low. I am not known for tact, so I hesitated to approach them. I wonder if they even knew that something was wrong. I hope their trip was uneventful and that they didn't have any real problems with this setup - but that some nice kind tactful person was able to educate them about their situation.
As far as towing with cars in the 70s and before - cars were made of steel then, not plastic. It's not the cost of steel that made the change, it was all the laws requiring higher mpgs on average (and gas prices/shortages in the 70s) that led to a change in mfg practices among the carmakers.
Fraser in YYZ wrote: I upgraded to a Dodge Durango to make sure we would be safe. (our trailer maxes out at 5,500 lbs and our towing capacity is 6,850 lbs)
Any advice??
I also tow with a similar TV as your Durango, and should point out that your Durango isn't necessarily as safe a TV as you might think. The tow capacities of our SUV's look decent, but their short wheelbase, high centre of gravity and mushy OEM P tires result in a less-than-ideal tow platform from a stablity viewpoint. That's one reason I tow using a Hensley.
I've recently been considering trading my Yukon for a Ford Freestar minivan. Ford lists its tow rating as the universal and highly suspect 3500 lbs (which virtually every minivan manufacturer has quoted since Chrysler built their very first 4-banger a couple of decades ago). Now before anyone gasps, the Freestar has beefy brakes, a low centre of gravity, longer wheelbase and believe it or not has essentially the same weight carrying capacity as my Yukon (calcuated as GVWR-curb weight). My calculations indicate I can tow under its GVWR and the lower HP/Torque of the Freestar (compared to my Yukon) will largely be made up by its superior aerodynamics at highway speeds.
Sometimes things are not always as obvious as they might seem...
Gary
2001 Airstream Safari 25SS tugged by 2001 GMC Yukon 5.3L 3.73
Hensley Arrow • Jordan Ultima • Barker 3000 • Mckesh
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