carrying my truck on a trailer behind bus

[David Anderson]

I'm thinking about carrying my 04 Nissan pathfinder pickup (curb wt 3800lbs) on my 16 ft utility trailer for about 250 miles.  I need the trailer on the way back for some stuff to bring home.  My wife will drive the truck with the trailer on the way home.  I'm just trying to save her having to drive it 250 miles empty.  The trailer's GVWR is 5500lbs.  Anyone see any problems here?

David

[JohnEd]

Not a single one.

Any way you could load all that you want to bring home in the pick-up truck by itself?  She doesn't drive then either way.  A bus with a trailer can be backed and maneuvered so why do you need a truck at all?  Eh, you probably hashed all that stuff out so I guess I will stick with "Nope, should work".

[rv_safetyman]

David, we have sister buses and I did find some significant rust in the down tubes.  Not horrible, but the tubing was compromised.  I would take an ice pick or punch to the frame tubing and see if you detect any critical rust.

I am assuming you have a good hitch that is well attached to the engine cradle.  

You will be putting about 500-700 pounds of tongue weight on the hitch.  Statically that is probably not a huge deal, but the dynamic loading caused by rough highways and street dips gives cause for concern.

Joe Laird always chimes in and tells of hauling a trailer back and forth to Alaska several times with his Eagle with no problems.  His was an enclosed trailer.  He had a neat matching Miata in the trailer and probably a bunch of other stuff.  

Sonnie Gray pulls a pretty heavy trailer and a full size Jeep, but he modified his structure quite a bit.

As a safety precaution, I would attach auxiliary chains (suggest a minimum 5/16 grade 70 chain) from the hitch safety chain mounting location to the engine cradle as far back as possible (close to the flywheel area if possible).  For a quick trip, you could loop the auxiliary chain around the rear engine mount and run it to the hitch.  That will keep everything together if the hitch/frame structure would fail.

You are going a short distance and will probably not have a problem.

I would double check the hitch a time or two on the trip paying particular attention to hitch sag.

You know that I am anal about towing safety, so my replies are always super conservative

Jim

[artvonne]

  The things none of us know are, how much weight is the hitch rated for, how well is it attached to the Bus, and can the Bus handle the tounge weight and overall weight in general. If you can answer all of those questions honestly, that will give you your answer.

 The weakest link or rating is your maximum capability. And the farther you stay below the maximum ratings, the safer everything is.

[bevans6]

If the trailer gvwr is 5500, and the truck is 3800, that leaves 1700 for the trailer itself.  Sounds reasonable.  Check the tire ratings on the trailer.  See if they add up to carry the load.  Aiming for 10% tongue weight is fine, I always load out to get there, so you will probably have around 550 lbs tongue weight.  If the trailer is a little wobbly, add a little tongue weight.  If you are anal, calculate the axle weights of the truck and where to put them on the bed to achieve the correct tongue weight.  Or just load and go, it will probably be close.  Should  have brakes working on both axles at that weight.

Up to you to decide if your hitch mount is up to the task.   

Brian

[usbusin]

For 10-15 gallons of gasoline, I'd tow the trailer with the P/U empty.  For forty bucks or so why chance it?

[David Anderson]

Thanks for the replies.

David

[kaptar]

I might be more concerned about towing the trailer with the nissan.

[white-eagle]

You know that I am anal about towing safety

Jim

and brakes, and fire equip, and alarms, and seat belts, and, and , and ......

Blathering on and on and on again.

Just joking jim, really.  happy april first.   

[chart1]

I am sure you will be OK. I have only seen 1 picture of a bus with engine cradle laying on the interstate. The odds are your bus will not be the 2nd picture.

[rv_safetyman]

Tom, as I read your post I started to crawl back in my shell and then I saw you were joking. 

chart1, I can triple the number quickly.  One of our Eagles International members had a hitch failure (caught it before it was a total failure) and a good friend had a FRAME crack on a pretty high level S&S.  The Eagle member hauled a big stacker trailer. The S&S had a full frame and factory hitch. He sold it to a good friend and he had a total transmission failure.  When they investigated they found the case badly cracked and then found the frame cracked and sagged.  I helped drive that unit to Watkins Glenn for a race and am sure glad it did not happen when I was driving.  He hauled a stacker trailer with two very light race cars and not a huge amount of tools.

So it happens.  Both of the above had a lot of towing miles and were pulling bigger trailers than David will be towing.

But it does happen and we all need to be aware.

More blather Tom?

Jim

[luvrbus]

Most of the hitch failures I seen are caused by the installer not attaching a point to pull the load tongue weight is just one step I ran a strap under my engine to the rear bulkhead.
So many of the buses just pull from the bolts and the hitch wrong way to do it IMO

GOOD LUCK

[Dreamscape]

Clifford, I'm going to add the straps when we get to Sonnie's in August. Better safe than sorry!

[trucktramp]

Here's one that will make you shudder.  The PO of my 5A bolted a piece of 2x2 angle iron to the bumper, drilled 3 holes for the 2 safety chain clevises and one for the ball.  No other attachment to the bus frame, bulkhead or anything else.  Just the bumper.  Kind of scarey huh?

[Chopper Scott]

I saw a fifth wheel ball mounted in a pickup that was basically a flat plate with the nut welded on top!!! Not a very pretty weld either!!