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Old 01-28-2012, 01:30 PM   #21
T and C
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IMHO, one of the things one should consider is whether or not a vehicle has a frame-mounted body or a unibody. P/U trucks and large SUV's are frame mounted. Personally, I do not wish to tow much weight on a unibody.

Tom
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Old 01-28-2012, 02:58 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill View Post
Cliff -

Again you make some good points, and I don't want to get into a passionate argument about 3500-pound vs 5000-pound vs 7000-pound rated vehicles. As ThePair pointed out, we have several members who use 3500-pound-rated vehicles, apparently with good results. At the same time, I will point out that we also have many members who tried 3500-pound vehicles and were scared enough by the experience to buy something else.....................snip.............

Bill
Bill your last sentence fits my wife and I to a T. I have had four times when I towed a camper and said never again. Three times I was near the the TV capicaty, the most recent was when I towed the 28 ft Outback home from MD. It was extremely nerve racking in the I-95 bumper to bumper traffic. The fourth time was a 2600# pop-up I pulled with the S-10 we owned at the time. The S-10 TC was 5200# and the seat of the pants feel was worse then towing the Outback, 6000# with the Dodge at a TC of 6700# or is it 7100#. Just can't pin the Dodge down I'll be glad when the new standards are in place. When I pulled the Outback home from MD DW refused to go.

I'm very comfortable with the TM behind the Dodge in the right hand lane at 60 to 62 MPH.




While looking for some other info came across this link on placard vs actual TM weights:

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...0&postcount=72
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Old 01-29-2012, 06:42 AM   #23
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I think everyone agrees that a 5000# rating would better than 3500#, and 10,000# would be even better than 8500#. If I was buying a new tow vehicle today, it would have a 5000# rating.

Ratings seem to be 3500 or 5000. Real vehicles don't actually fall into such discrete broad categories. I'm sure many 3500# rated vehicles are marginal for the task, given the way most vehicles are rated by their manufacturers (who tell you to first subtract the TV payload from the tow rating). You'd have to read their owner's manual to know who's who. My Toyota gives me a full 3500# in the GCWR on top of the GVWR, for example, and the 4700# between the GCWR and the empty weight provides enough room for the way I use a TrailManor. We have a few stories of people who have tried a lighter vehicle who have chosen to move up to a bigger TV (particularly in the mountains). But there's also a substantial amount of successful owner experience in this forum which ought to impress those of us who haven't been doing it.

In the old days people mounted trailer hitches with a welder or by drilling holes in frames. Since then, the frames have become lighter and unibody vehicles have become heavier, and these days we're all just using the mounting points the manufacturers gave us in the manner they were intended. There's nothing wrong with a hitch on a properly designed unibody, and there's no place in the any of the load calculations to tell it whether you have a truck frame. I've done Google searches looking for hitch mounting failures on unibody vehicles, and the only thing I ever found was one yo-yo who had made his own off-road conversion on a unibody Jeep vehicle, and then designed his own hitch receiver mountings so that he could use it for "recovery" (not much of that story sounded good to me).

I once had a 29ft TT that I towed with a full sized van. I'm happy to not own either these days, in that this was an extremely difficult vehicle on the road. But the issue wasn't the weight, it was the combo of the high center of gravity and the side sail area. There was a way to drive that vehicle combo safely, but too often it wasn't very easy. I'm pretty sure I'd see any of these 3500# vehicles with my TrailManor as a safety improvement over that rig.

Tow ratings are broad guidelines. You are not automatically safe by following them, and you are not automatically unsafe by not following them.

For example, a large number of us have tongue weights north of 500#. Most Class III hitches have a 500# max tongue weight limit, and most of us drive vehicles that have no available Class IV hitches. The last time we went into this I found places in the Ford and Chevy manuals that said the stock pickup hitches have a max tongue weight of 500# without a WDH. Therefore it's likely that a very large number of us have overloaded hitches, if one chooses to look at the ratings in black and white terms instead of the gray shades I believe to more accurately describe the real world.

Accidents are caused by drivers, not by their vehicles:

- No towing equipment is safe unless it is installed properly, diligently used correctly, and regularly checked by the operator.

- Speed, following distance, and driver care are much more important towing safety factors than deviations from the numbers on the placards.
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Old 01-29-2012, 07:57 AM   #24
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If I were using a 3500/5000 lbs rated TV I would invest in a Hensley Cub system.

http://hensleymfg.com/products/the-hensley-cub/

Koz
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Old 01-29-2012, 08:32 AM   #25
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Interesting.
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Old 01-29-2012, 11:42 AM   #26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitbull View Post
If I were using a 3500/5000 lbs rated TV I would invest in a Hensley Cub system.

http://hensleymfg.com/products/the-hensley-cub/

Koz
We have been using the Hensley Cub since we first started towing our 3326.

Our TV has more than enough capacity to tow the 3326 but I wanted the added safety margin that the Hensely Hitch System offers. We are very satisfied with the performance, especially in hard braking situations.

Jerry
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Old 01-29-2012, 12:58 PM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitbull View Post
If I were using a 3500/5000 lbs rated TV I would invest in a Hensley Cub system.

http://hensleymfg.com/products/the-hensley-cub/

Koz
Except that TM's don't have trouble with sway.
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Old 01-29-2012, 01:52 PM   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitbull View Post
What year and model had that rating?

I had a 98 that was rated at 5K lbs (tow) and 1650 payload.

Koz
2009 Tacoma Double Cab with Tow Package.
The double cab definitely reduces the payload, so we didn't go that route with our new TV.
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Old 01-29-2012, 02:22 PM   #29
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Again my main concern with all of my comments here is the safety of all of us. Trust me, I have done my homework on the safety of my TM/TV combination and I am very meticulous with the maintenance of all of my vehicles. That being said, the number one safety concern involved with all of this is the driver. So, slow down, keep to the right, double your following distances, use a lower gear going down hills, both hands of the wheel (3 o'clock-9 o'clock which is the new position), don't text or answer the phone, keep any other distractions down, anticipate what traffic ahead is doing and make the proper corrections to deal with it. Remember to share the road (play well with others!) and leave your aggressive driving habits at home with your Cobra 427. Sorry for the ranting.

Well said Yoda.....
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Old 01-29-2012, 03:41 PM   #30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZekenSpider View Post
We have been using the Hensley Cub since we first started towing our 3326.
How do you deal with the frame brackets and jacks when you open the slideout on the 3326? It looks like they would have to be dismounted.
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